SolidWorks Gauge Table Setup & K-Factor Reverse Calculation

In SolidWorks 2009 Gauge Tables were expanded to incorporate;

a list of your stocked materials by gauge,

a list of your radius bend tools, sized for each gauge,

and a table of your custom K-Factors for each gauge, tool and bend angles!

Wow! That sounds great! So, uh, now how do I use this? How do I get it set up for our shop? That’s what this document is all about! For SolidWorks to calculate the blank length from your folded part or vice-versa we need to provide a few parameters. In particular; material thickness, bend radius, bend angle, and K-Factor. K-Factor being the compensation for the stretching & compressing that happens in the bend region. The theory is that somewhere thru the thickness is a neutral point/sheet where the flat and folded lengths are the same. Where this is from the inside of the bend is the key for SolidWorks’ K-Factor.

First, it’s important to point out that SolidWorks ships with some default tables and it’s recommended that you copy one of these as a starting point for your data. This way the formatting is preserved for it to function properly and this aids in getting help from others should you need it. ;-)

From this default SolidWorks table we can see the following:    
  

Type:  Not sure where this shows up other than in this table. Process: Shows up in the Property Manger of the Sheet Metal Feature in the Sheet Metal Gauges Group Box, Under the Table Name. Bend Type: Shows up in the Property Manger of the Sheet Metal Feature in the Bend Allowance Group Box as bold text left of Gauge Table Values. Material: Doesn’t seem to show up anywhere other than in this table.

Gauge No.: This is free text corresponds to the pull down in the Property Manager under Sheet Metal Parameters. Thickness: Value is shown in the property manager and is applied to the part. Angle: This is a column of bend angles for use. This will be presented in a pull down in the bend property manager. Radius: There is a row of what will be in bend radii pull down. This is where you’d put the tool sizes you have on hand and don’t want to deviate from unless really necessary. In this default table we see bend radii tool sizes of 0.25, 0.50, & 0.75. Below each tool radius size we see the K-Factor values. The default table shown has the same values listed several times.

Note: Make sure your gauge sizes are listed in ascending order otherwise you may receive an error when using your table that says; “Bend table is invalid”. Ref. SolidWorks Knowledge Base Article: S-022611

So, where do I get the K-Factors for my table that matches my shop?

This takes a bit of experimentation if you don’t already have the numbers. You’ll want to take a sample, measure the overall length, thickness, your bend die radius, and then bend it. Then measure the overall lengths and plug the values into the attached spreadsheet. This spreadsheet will help you reverse calculate the K-Factor for your Gauge Table.

 

Note: There two tables, one for 90 Degree bends and on for bends less than 90 degrees.

 

Note:Gauge tables are “copied” into your part file when first selected for use with the part, not referenced. This copy goes with the part should you send it to someone. I have not found a way to view or extract the table “after” it’s copied into the part. A painful side effect of the table being copied rather than referenced is if/when you choose to update the table in some way. In order to test it out or see the effect in a part, the table needs to be “re-copied” into the part. If the name of your table changed, that’s pretty obvious, but if you just overwrote the table you might think the part will “just update”, nope! You will need to edit the Sheet-Metal feature and either uncheck Use gauge table or chose a different one and pick ok. Then repeat and this time set it to Use the gauge table you just updated. This is why I created the spreadsheet to reverse calculate the K-Factors, to minimize the trial and error and reloading of the Gauge Table for test & verification purposes. 

How can I test my Gauge Table after I get those numbers in it?

I’ve attached two sample models where you can load in your Gauge Table and test it out. What’s handy about these parts is that they have many dimensions and equations in them so you can test and compare to make sure you’re getting out what you put into your Gauge Table.

 

Note: You’ll want to make sure to do a forced rebuild (Ctrl-Q) after changing anything (Gauge, Bend Angle, etc.) to update the equations.

 

Steps:

1. Open Part File for Angle Type.


2. Right Click on Sheet-Metal1, Edit Feature.


3. Browse for your Gauge Table,


4. Select Gauge & Bend Radius of choice.


5. Pick the Green Check.


6. Right Click on Sketched Bend1, Edit Feature.


7. Select Bend Angle of choice from pull down.


8. Select Bend Radius of choice from pull down.


9. Pick the Green Check.


10. Press Ctrl-Q to force rebuild.


11. Expand the Equations Folder.


12. Review Equation Values

Repeat as desired. 

Files:

K-Factor-90DegreeBends.sldprt-For testing parts with 90 degree bends. Download K-Factor-90DegreeBends

K-Factor-LessThan90DegreeBends.sldprt -For testing parts with angles less than 90 degree bends. Download K-Factor-LessThan90DegreeBends

Reverse-K-Factor-Calculations.xlsx -Spreadsheet to reverse calculate K-Factors from fabricated and measured samples. Download Reverse-K-Factor-Calculations

TESTING-K-Factor-In-Steel-90Bends.xls -Example Gauge Table I copied into the K-Factor-90DegreeBends.sldprt Download TESTING-K-Factor-In-Steel-90Bends

TESTING-K-Factor-In-Steel-LessThan90Bends.xls -Example Gauge Table I copied into the K-Factor-LessThan90DegreeBends.sldprt Download TESTING-K-Factor-In-Steel-LessThan90Bends

   

Why is it not possible to scale certain parts

Some typical reasons a part cannot be successfully scaled.
 

#1. The part contains a rebuild error. Ctrl+Q the part with 'Verification on rebuild' enabled. If a feature failure is presented, this could well be the cause of the scale failure.
 

 

#2. The part fails a geometry check. If the part can be regenerated with 'Verification on rebuild' enabled and no failures are presented, Goto a Tools > Check dialog. This will show you any geometric faults, ( bad geometry). If this is the case, the part should investigate the features that create those bad geometries.
 
 
3. Some edges or faces of the model may become to small in a scale down. As a part's size is changed during a scale operation, the size of some geometry may fall outside of acceptable limits when a part is scaled down. Short edges can be detected using Tools > Check.

Bob McGaughey, CSWE

CATI Tech Staff

Top 5 Reasons To Integrate 3D Printing Into Your Design Cycle

Why should you consider using 3D printing technology as part of your product development process?

Objet surveyed its’ base of users from various markets including consumer goods, consumer electronics, medical device, education, research, entertainment and others, why they made the investment, and based on their responses crafted these Top Five Reasons to Integrate 3D Printing into Your Product Development Lifecycle.

1. Designers can prototype more iterations without blowing the timeline or budget - 3D printing – particularly when done in-house – enables design teams to quickly produce a high-quality, realistic prototype with moving parts, at relatively low cost when compared to other methods such as machining or outsourcing.
 
2. Better collaboration resulting in improved design and manufacturability - The ability to quickly produce real working prototypes that teams can see and touch helps bridge the gap between the virtual CAD design and the final product.

3. >Download a white paper for the complete list...

 

Visit www.cati.com for more information on 3D Printing from Objet.

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Coordinator
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Files saved in the old version (MSWP#8)

This article continues our Maximizing SolidWorks Performance series.  If you would like a little background information please refer to the first article in the series Maximizing SolidWorks Performance (Results).

For many of our customers it is a yearly question.  "Should we upgrade all of our 20XX files to the new version?"  I am not going to answer that question for you.  I am, however, hoping to give you more information to make this decision appropriately for your situation.

In our test we ran our baseline with all files stored in the current version (SolidWorks 2011).  For this specific test we had a file set that was still in SW2010 and we ran the benchmark in SW2011. 

 
Results:

• Opens 9% slower costing ~4mins


• Saves 15% slower costing ~10mins

 Total:

• 3% slower costing ~14mins

There are several legitimate reasons that a company would need to leave their old files alone.  Mostly these revolve around a data management tool like Enterprise PDM.  However, if the ability to use the  SolidWorks Task scheduler to update your data it can save you a little time and every little bit can help.

Adrian Fanjoy

Technical Services Director

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

 

SWAP File (MSWP#7)

This article continues our Maximizing SolidWorks Performance series.  If you would like a little background information please refer to the first article in the series Maximizing SolidWorks Performance (Results).

We've all heard how important SWAP space is to high end CAD software.  This stuff pushes RAM hard thus Swap space is essential to the performance and stability of the system.  The rule of thumb I always heard "Growing up" was that your SWAP space (page file) should always be 1.5 times your RAM.  This is somewhat antiquated because that rule was put intoplace in a time when RAM and hard drive space were both fairly expensive and the limitations of the 32bit architecture were stifling.

In the 64bit world Swap space can still be very important but how do we determine what we need and what difference does it make?

The answer to the first question can be found in the Microsoft Knowledge base article "How to determine the appropriate page file size for 64-bit versions of Windows".  There are some very interesting parts of this article and I do suggest that anyone who has wondered about sizing a page file to give it a read.

A few interesting points:

• "as more RAM is added to a computer, the need for a page file decreases. If you have enough RAM installed in your computer, you may not require a page file at all"


• There are three methods for determining required page file size.


• "If the page I/O (real disk I/O) rate is more than 10 pages per second, we recommend that you do not put the page file where the I/O activity occurs on the system disk. When the page I/O rate is 10 pages per second or more, we recommend that you dedicate a separate hard disk for paging."


• "If the page I/O rate to a particular disk that is used for paging is more than 60 disk I/O operations per second, use more than one dedicated page hard disk to obtain better performance. To do this, use multiple non-striped disks for paging, or use raid 0 striped disks for paging. Dedicate approximately one I/O hard disk to paging for every 60 pages per second of I/O activity."


• My favorite point of interest here is that nowhere in this article does it say anything like "Set your Virtual Memory settings to allow the OS to Automatically manage page file size.", which is the default.

To get to the Swap file settings:

Right Click My Computer and select Properties

 
Select Advanced system settings

 
Then select Settings from the Performance frame of the System properties window   

 
Select the Advanced tab and press the Change button in the Virtual memory frame:

 

The window that appears is the Virtual memory window and this is where all the changes to page files can be made.

 

For our tests I did not use any of the methods listed above to size the page file.  I took the lazy man's way out.  I set our page file to double the installed RAM to compare it to our baseline that was set to the default of letting the OS make the decision.

What we have done with this test is reinforce the Windows golden rule:

Never, ever let Microsoft make a decision for you!! 
 

Here's why.

 
Results:

• Rotations 18% faster saving ~6mins


• Modeling 23% faster saving ~16mins


• Saves 15% faster saving ~10mins


• Closes 29% faster saving ~16mins

 Total:

• 12% faster saving ~57mins

A few things come to mind:

• You need to give Swap space another look with the introduction of the 64bit OSs.


• More Swap space than you need won't slow you down (It'll cost you hard drive space)


• Apparently your can buy your way out of using a page file but why wouldn't you just have at least a  little one just in-case.


• When it's needed a page file can make a significant difference in performance for SolidWorks even in the 64bit environment.

Adrian Fanjoy

Technical Services Director

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

 

Display Error Messages

Have you ever wondered what happened to your error messages?   Nobody likes to receive an error message and if you are like me you like to get rid of them.  The way to get rid of them is to select the box at the bottom of the error message "don't prompt me again".  

This will remove the error message for good but how do you get it back?  To get the error message back go to Tools, Options, System Options and select Advanced.  You will see all of the error messages that have been turned off and all you have to do is select the message to turn it back on and it will prompt you.

 

Phil Whitaker

SolidWorks Webcast Series - Industrial Machinery and Mold Tool and Die With SolidWorks Solutions

Join the SolidWorks technical team for a complimentary Webcast series.  This month SolidWorks will show you how to become an “Expert” with SolidWorks for Industrial Machinery, and Mold Tool and Die.

Date: Tuesday April 19th, 2011

• SolidWorks - 11:00am-12:00pm


• Solidworks Simulation - 12:00pm-1:00pm


• SolidWorks Enterprise PDM - 1:00pm-2:00pm


• 3DVIA Composer - 2:00pm-3:00pm

Learn how to:

• Use automated tools to speed up time to market


• Start using Simulation (or FEA, CFD) in SolidWorks Simulation


• Manage SolidWorks as well as other CAD types


• Be more effective communicating complex product details, by leveraging existing 3D CAD data

Be sure to list CATI as your SolidWorks Reseller when registering.

>Click here to view more details and register.

Enjoy the webcast!

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Coordinator
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

 

Let's Make Solidworks Better Together!!!

With SP 3.0 live and people making the upgrade we need to help Solidworks out. Solidworks is looking for our help.(yes that includes you!) We are not helping. As a community we are not helping :(

Inside your system options is something that is not turned on. The sad part is that you actually turned it off when you installed the software in the first place.  The little thing that we are not doing is sending Solidworks very important information. Its called performance logging. Every time you crash there is a log file generated and cached on your machine. If you enable this option:   you are sending Solidworks an "Anonymous" log file that they can use to help track performace related situations. Here is what is included in the log file and for the record it goes out without any specific information about who and where it came from. Its just a number. i.e. 2348854

• Call stacks data for instability issues. This data is used to determine operations that cause quality related issues. Providing this data helps us identify these problems and have them fixed quickly.


• System, processor, memory (size and type), and OS version.


• SolidWorks version and serial number.


• Toolbars and add-ins active.


• Video card type and driver.


• Command usage (information is limited to which ones were used).

Currently only .1% of all Solidworks users have this box checked. That to me was a staggering statistic. The question was asked: "How can we make it better without the data and help from our users?" So Solidworks users need to bond together to help Solidworks developers make Solidworks better for you. I will now make it my mission to make sure to tell everyone I talk to to check that box. In the long run it will help all of us because we will be better equipped from Solidworks.

 

Todd Werginz

Technical Analyst

Computer Aided Technology

How to dimension to a virtual sharp?

Typically this is done when a sharp corner dimension is needed. If you have a radius corner that is shown on a drawing that is dimensioned to the invisible sharp you can create this as a point in a sketch or on a drawing. Using ctrl select both edges that would form the corner. While both edges are selected use the sketch point tool. To change the virtual sharp corner display, go to tools, options, document properties, virtual sharps.

John Van Engen
CATI Tech Support

SolidWorks not playing nice with Excel on your new HP?

Found an interesting group of programs associated with HP that will crash SolidWorks while inserting a design table.

HP has felt compelled to add a new security agent called "HP ProtectTools Security Manager" as an add-in for Microsoft Excel. This tool also uses Device Access Manager, Privacy Manager, and Drive Encriptor. There is no ability to disable the tools. They must be uninstalled from the control panel and that is all have to be removed to get the HP ProtectTools Security Manager uninstalled.

A few reboots later and you will be free from this problem.

Thank you,

John Van Engen

CATI Tech Support

Objet releases new revolutionary materials for 3D printing

Today, Objet Geometries announced the release of 3 new advanced materials: Objet ABS-like, Objet Clear, and Objet VeroWhitePlus.  With the addition of these new materials, the number of Objet 3D printing materials is brought to a total of 65 (including digital materials),  for a wide range of rapid prototyping purposes, from realistic product visualization all the way to advanced functional verification.

Objet ABS-like is a high-impact, high temperature resistant material made for simulating products made of ABS-grade engineering plastics ideal for snap fit parts or durable and movable parts.

>Watch the Video

Objet Clear provides clear optical and visual transparency combined with great dimensional stability enabling designers to simulate PMMA in glass-like applications such as lighting cases, lenses and cosmetics containers.

>Watch the Video
 
Objet VeroWhitePlus is an all-around general purpose material with a wide range of applications.

>Read the Full Press Release Here

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

 

*Press statement written and prepared by Objet Geometries.  Vist the Objet Blog for more information.

SolidWorks Simulation and Beer

With Spring in the air, I have a lot of people in my neighborhood cleaning their grills and getting ready for outdoors. There is nothing more enjoyable than throwing a few burgers, hotdogs on the grill and gulping down a few beers. Solidworks Simulation team must have had a similar thought when they popped this video out.

 

To get a better handle on this, I would look up the demo. It definitely helps understand the thermal aspect of cooking outdoors. Have you ever put so much thought into your grilled burger? Now where is that beer....

Rajat Trehan

Product Manager - Design Validation

Computer Aided Technology Inc.

 

Reason 845 Why you should have a “Clean” computer system.

When it comes to running SolidWorks, users quickly become familiar with the system requirements and the special attention to video card and driver combination test results.

-System Requirements: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html

-Video Card Drivers: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

 

Ok, so that’s the start. Now you’ve been working for weeks and months; What have you been doing to maintain that “clean” PC? Hopefully you’ve been running your SolidWorksRx program and its System Maintenance functions at least weekly if not daily depending on usage level. If not, you’re overdue!

 

So maybe you’ve done all the above, so why might your performance go up and down like a sine wave?

Well, sometimes it what we can’t see. We recently heard from a custom who found that the reason for the performance swings was because of a video card overheating on the laptop because too much dust collected on the inside. Note: The overheating only happened when running SolidWorks!

 

Things that make you smile,

 

Jim Krivoshein, CSWP

Technical Analyst

Computer Aided Technology

SolidWorks won’t Save!?!

There has been a hand full of cases where SolidWorks will not save files.  No hourglass.  No spinning circle.  No crashing.  No warning.  No nothing.  It just flat out will not save.  Most of the time, you will see these symptoms soon after an upgrade to a newer version.  And most of the time, the problem occurs trying to save an older version file to the current version.  Your first clue should be the save icon itself. 

Should look like this:

When you go to modify and older version file, you will get the following message…

 

Most people go ahead and check the “Don’t ask me again” checkbox.  That is fine.  BUT… You need to make sure that you actually save the part after checking that option.  If you close it without saving and/or say no to the save, SolidWorks will keep that setting for every older version file that you open.  The result is SolidWorks will not save the files at all. 

The fix is quite simple... 

Open up your system options.  Look under the advanced options.  This is a running tab of all the “Don’t ask me again” dialog boxes that pop up throughout SolidWorks.  Look for the “You are about to make changes to an older version… Saving will convert…” message.  Check that so that the dialog box will pop up again.

 

Open up an older version part and attempt to modify it.  Again, you will see the same message as before. 

 

Go ahead and check the “Don’t ask me again” option.  Just make sure that you save the file this time.  That box should never popup again AND you should be able to save the files.  That is a good thing.

 

Nathan Brunner, CSWP

Technical Analyst

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Create functional living hinges with Objet's Connex Family 3D Printers

A living hinge is a thin, flexible plastic hinge joining 2 or more rigid plastic parts. The hinge allows the plastic parts to bend on the line of the hinge. When designed correctly living hinges can remain functional through the life of the product.

                    

                                       
>Learn More

The Digital Materials capabilities with the Connex Family of 3D Printers make it an ideal choice for living hinges. Parts printed with Digital Materials have great tear resistance and elongation properties that allow the printed part to withstand repeated bending and flexing.

>Click here to visit the Objet Blog and learn more about this and other 3D printing related topics.

Jim TeDesco
Marketing
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

 

Design Heat Exchangers using Flow Simulation

Flow Simulation can be used to study the fluid flow and heat transfer for a wide variety of engineering equipment e.g. heat exchangers. A convenient measure of performance is efficiency in transferring a given amount of heat from one fluid to another.

 

Flow Simulation has a simple wizard that walks the user through the set up. By walking through each step, the wizard ensures all necessary steps are covered. Efficiency can be set as one of the standard outputs. Since SolidWorks is parameteric tool, user can then use efficiency as criteria to come up with best possible design.

 
With Flow Simulation determination of heat exchanger efficiency is straightforward and by investigating the flow and temperature patterns, the design engineer can gain insight into the physical processes involved thus giving guidance for improvements to design.

Rajat Trehan

Product Manager - Design Validation

Computer Aided Technology Inc.

Pack and Go: How do you strip out the prefix for a new job number?

 

Use Pack and Go to Copy your standard design to a Job number folder and rename the files specifically to that job number for accurate tracking. Use the “Add suffix” option.

 

Use Pack and Go to copy your previous job to another job that is more similar to this job than the standard. – Opps! This is messing up the file names – we can’t have this! DON’T use the “Add suffix” option this time!

 
 

Instead: Browse to your Save to Folder, Pick “Select / Replace…”, Search Save To Name for your old job number, Replace text with your new job number and pick “Replace All”. Now all the files have just the new project number. – That’s more like it!

 

Well, what if this last job is really becoming a new standard, then what?

Same thing, use Pack and Go, Browse to your Save to Folder, Pick “Select / Replace…”, Search Save To Name for your old job number, Replace text with and leave it blank, pick “Replace All”. Now all the old job numbers are stripped out. – Alright!

 

Pack and Go, it’s small, it’s simple, but it’s powerful!

Note: Pack and Go “is” changing the file reference information in the file headers so all the new assembly files in this case will now reference the new file names. – Oh yea!

 

Jim Krivoshein, CSWP

Technical Analyst

Computer Aided Technology

 

Killing the Solidworks Task Scheduler!

    I have had a couple of panic calls on the support lines in the last couple of months with people trying to figure out how to kill or stop the Solidworks task scheduler once you pull the trigger. Its like a self replicating virus. You kill all of the processes that you think should do it. Nope. You restart the computer. Yeah this will work! Only to find out that as soon as you log-on she starts right back up.

Now what??????

    Here are the steps to shut it down peacefully.

    All task scheduler completed and scheduled jobs are stored in the Microsoft® Access database file "C:\Program Files\SolidWorks\swscheduler\swbo1.mdb".

Windows XP USERS- You need to find and kill (delete) With Windows® Explorer navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\<USER NAME>\Application Data\SolidWorks 20xx\Scheduler_2\swbo1.mdb and rename (or delete) the file to swbo1.mdb.bak for XP

Windows 7 USERS-Find and kill (delete). With Windows® Explorer navigate to C:\Users\<USER NAME>\AppData\Roaming\SolidWorks 20XX\Scheduler_16 and rename the file (or delete) to swbo1.mdb.bak for WIN 7 (HIDDEN OS FILES)

    This should kill the process and you should be able to work without the task scheduler working in the background.

 

Todd Werginz

Applications Engineer

Computer Aided Technology

How To Remove the Toolbox Flag From a SolidWorks File

One of the questions that I ran across while going through the support  log the other day was the question of “How to remove the Toolbox flag from a SolidWorks file?” and the reason the customer was looking to do this is they took a standard Toolbox part and wanted to make a custom part file of it.

So in looking this up on the SolidWorks Knowledge Base we found Solution Id: S-03798  

Question:

Is there a way to disable the Toolbox flag in a Toolbox part file in order to fully disassociate it from Toolbox?  

 Answer:

Yes.  Go into the SolidWorks installation folder and then go inside the Toolbox/Data Utilities folder. Run "sldsetdocprop.exe", add any Toolbox files the user wishes to disable the flag in, set the Property State to "No", and click Apply.

 
Be careful as you make these changes and make sure you select only the files/folders that you are sure you want to change the properties on.

Josh Altergott

CATI Support Team Leader

See 3D printing in action at CATI's Product Development Forum event

Join CATI at one of our Product Development Forum Events in May and see 3D Printing in action!  This open house style event will showcase 3D Printing Solutions from Objet Geometries.

In addition to having our 3D printing experts on hand, our award winning SolidWorks Technical Team will be discussing the various ways to utilize SolidWorks tools in your product development process.

This is a FREE event.

Event Details:

• Complimentary lunch


• Onsite demo of 3D printing technology from Objet Geometries


• CATI SolidWorks World 2011 Presentations - "Red Neck Workarounds" and "How to Prepare For Your PDM Implementation"


• All attendees will receive a complimentary SolidWorks 3D Skills Lesson from SolidProfessor as well as a copy of DraftSight, the no-cost 2D CAD Program from Dassault Systemes


• Speak one-on-one with a member of the CATI Team 


• and more...

Date	Time	Location
May 5, 2011	9am-3:30pm	Buffalo Grove, IL - CATI Headquarters	Register
May 12, 2011	9am-3:30pm	Indianapolis, IN - CATI Indianapolis Office	Register
May 18, 2011	9am-3:30pm	St. Charles, MO - CATI St. Charles Office	Register
May 25, 2011	9am-3:30pm	Brookfield, WI - CATI Brookfield Office	Register

We hope to see you there!

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Coordinator
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Hiding bodies in a drawing view.

I ran into a call today that I haven’t seen in a while.  So, I’d thought I’d share…

Most people know how to hide a body in a multi-bodied part to focus or work on certain aspects of their design.  But, what about a drawing?  How do you hide a body in a drawing view?  The answer is quite simple:  Right-click on the drawing view and select properties.  A dialog box will open up like you see below.  Select the “Hide/Show Bodies” tab and select what bodies you want to hide out of the view.  Select “Apply” and “OK” to accept the changes.  And you’re done.  This same process can be used to hide components in an assembly.

 

 

Nathan Brunner, CSWP

Technical Analyst

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

 

OS Users Settings to Optimal (MSWP#6)

This article continues our Maximizing SolidWorks Performance series.  If you would like a little background information please refer to the first article in the series Maximizing SolidWorks Performance (Results).

To be honest; the Microsoft Operating Systems have always been pretty.  Well they have once they got past MSDOS.  The most current OS, WIN7, takes this eye pleasing initiative to another level yet again.  Showing shadows under the mouse, smoothing screen fonts, Animating Controls in Windows, and many other "cool" visual effects can make your Windows experience more interesting.  Unfortunately, these options do nothing for performance.

To be honest again; we are designers and engineers.  We shouldn't care if our OS environment is pretty.  We care that we can get our job done.  Anything that gets in the way of that is a negative.  The Windows operating systems have always given us opportunities to improve performance over the defaults.  The users Visual effects, found in the Performance options window, are an excellent example of this.

To get to these settings:

Right Click My Computer and select Properties

 
Select Advanced system settings

 
Then select Settings from the Performance frame of the System properties window   

 
What you will normally find after doing this is a screen that looks like this:

 
This is the state of these settings by default.  Generally, users don't mess with them.  Notice, however, that the selection at the top of the window is set at "let Windows choose what's best for my computer".  This begs the question; "How does Windows know what's best for my computer?"  The simple answer is that they don't.  What Windows chooses is the settings that make the system pretty (minus one).  Checkout what the settings look like when we select Adjust for best appearance.

 
Almost identical!  I have been looking for a situation that will cause the setting in "Let Windows choose" be different than what we have seen here and have not been successful.  I'm sure there is a circumstance that will do that and if someone knows it, I would appreciate some feedback.

Now, since we are engineers and designers, lets select "Adjust for best performance".

 
Startling isn't it.  What we have found here is that, if given the opportunity, Windows will ignore performance for the sake of pretty.  They don't seem to know what's best for a designer or engineer.  Or, they don't care.  That's a individual determination.

What we have learned is the Windows golden rule:

Never, ever let Microsoft make a decision for you!! 
 

Here's why.

 
Results:

• Opens 10% faster saving ~4mins


• Rebuilds 34% faster saving ~10 ½ mins


• Modeling 37% faster saving ~27mins


• Saves 9% slower costing ~6mins


•  Closes 13% faster saving ~7mins

 

 Total:

• 11% faster saving ~51 ½ mins

 I can't really explain the Saves being faster in this scenario but they were.  I suspect an anomaly of some sort in the testing but I have not been able to track it down.  Any way you slice it though; an 11% improvement in performance is nothing to disappointed in.  This entire performance was realized simply by sacrificing the aesthetics of the OS.  We simply made it less pretty.

You need to decide what's important to you and make adjustments accordingly.

Adrian Fanjoy

Technical Services Director

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

 

Assembly Stored on the Network (MSWP#5)

This article continues our Maximizing SolidWorks Performance series.  If you would like a little background information please refer to the first article in the series Maximizing SolidWorks Performance (Results).

We have all seen that it takes longer to copy files from a network location to your local hard drive than it does to copy files from one place on your hard drive to another place on the same hard drive.  There is a more significant difference when we look at opening files from the local machine vs a network location.  In our test comparing operation of SolidWorks with files stored locally (baseline) vs files stored on the network we saw these differences vividly.

 
The chart shows that Opens and Saves take significantly longer when files are stored on the network.  Closes also take longer but the difference is a little less prominent.  Every other category shows flat meaning that once the data is in RAM it doesn't matter where it came from.

Results:

• Opens 51% slower costing ~20 ½ mins


• Saves 29% slower costing ~19mins


• Closes 13% slower costing ~7mins

Total:

• 10% slower costing ~47 mins

It all depends on how often you save and how big your assemblies are when you save.  In our case we only opened, saved, and closed twice each.  They were, however, significant operations due to the size of the assembly.  This sort of cost in time makes it very difficult to adhere to the old adage "Save Often".  The message of this test is "Use a Data Management System".  Enterprise PDM would be the best choice but you need to use something that at the very least lets you check your files out and work locally until checking them back in.

While being 10% slower overall is fairly significant; I believe the real issue in this case lies in the specifics.  When users have to wait too long for their files to save they will begin to save less frequently to avoid the time drain.  Crashes become even more costly.

Adrian Fanjoy

Technical Services Director

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.