Using the SolidWorks CAD Admin Dashboard to track, review and troubleshoot machines– Part 1

Welcome back to our second deep dive blog series. If you missed the first series, be sure to go back and check out "How to configure SolidWorks Toolbox and Hole Wizard". Today we are going to take a closer look at the CAD ADMIN DASHBOARD and how this can be used to track, review, and troubleshoot machines in your organization that have SolidWorks installed.

This series will breakdown:

• What is the CAD ADMIN DASHBOARD


• How do you organize this data and what is available from the system options


• How to use the Dashboard to view crash data


• How to run the SolidWorks benchmark and what does this tell us

What is the CAD ADMIN DASHBOARD?

The dashboard is a web based portal that allows a user that is currently on subscription services to monitor the performance, hardware status, and changes to SolidWorks System Options for each machine in their organization.

To access the CAD ADMIN DASHBOARD, log into the SolidWorks Customer Portal:

https://customerportal.solidworks.com

Once you are inside of the SolidWorks Customer Portal, you will find a link to the CAD ADMIN DASHBOARD in 2 locations. One is under the Quick Links on the left hand side of the page, and the other link is under References.

Here is what the Dashboard will look like:

How does the CAD ADMIN DASHBOARD get its data?

The dashboard gets its information from 2 sources. First, Hardware and System Options get loaded each time SolidWorks is launched. The data collecting and sending is a separate process from the startup process so there is NO impact on the startup time for SolidWorks. Second, information is pulled from the performance logs to provide per session data. There are 3 ways the performance logs are collected. These are uploaded once a week, sent once the file reaches 100kb, or when you crash.

***Note: Performance logging does not impact SolidWorks performance. The program is recording this data regardless if you send the data or not!

What can I do if the DASHBOARD is not showing my data?

The first thing you need to do is verify that you have enabled the Customer Experience Improvement option. This option is available at the end of every installation, in the SolidWorks Admin Options Editor, or inside the SolidWorks System Option.

If you are still not seeing the data:

The session data may take up to 48 hours to post.

Contact your VAR tech support to start an SR with customer center.

Please check back to the CATI Blog as the Dedicated Support Team will continue posting our series of articles that goes further into the details of each section of Using the SolidWorks CAD Admin Dashboard to track, review and troubleshoot machines. All of these articles will be stored in the category of Daily Dose.....of SolidWorks Support and links to each article with their release date are listed below:

• Using the SolidWorks CAD Admin Dashboard to track, review and troubleshoot machines - Part1 (Bryan Pawlak 1/21/14)


• Using the SolidWorks CAD Admin Dashboard to track, review and troubleshoot machines – Part2 (John Van Engen 1/22/14)


• Using the SolidWorks CAD Admin Dashboard to track, review and troubleshoot machines – Part3 (Blake Cokinis 1/23/14)


• Using the SolidWorks CAD Admin Dashboard to track, review and troubleshoot machines – Part4 (Neil Bucalo 1/27/14)

-Bryan Pawlak, CSWE
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

How to Change the Orientation of Imported and SolidWorks Parts

CATI's monthly contribution to the SolidWorks Blog was posted last week. This month I chose to dig up an older topic that still gets asked a lot on the support line and that is how to change the orientation of an imported or existing SolidWorks model. The article takes you through the different processes for correcting the orientation of your model.

To view the article use the link below.

http://blogs.solidworks.com/tech/2014/01/how-to-change-the-orientation-of-imported-and-existing-solidworks-parts.html

Josh Altergott

Support Manager

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

www.cati.com

Stratasys' New FDM Nylon 12 3D Printing Material Specs

Last month, Stratasys added the NEW FDM Nylon 12 material to its portfolio of available 3D printing materials. The FDM Nylon 12 is the same tough nylon material popular in traditional manufacturing. Nylon 12 parts built on a Fortus 3D Production System are the toughest in the industry, exhibiting 100-300 percent better elongation at break and superior fatigue resistance over other additive manufacturing(3D Printing) technologies. Nylon offers the best Z-axis lamination and highest impact strength of any FDM thermoplastic, as well as excellent chemical resistance.

FDM Nylon 12 is a great fit for applications requiring repetitive snap fits, high fatigue resistance, strong chemical resistance and press (friction) fit inserts - everything from tooling, jigs and fixtures to covers, panels, and vibration resistant components.

Nylon 12 is currently available for the Fortus 360mc, Fortus 400mc, and Fortus 900mc only.

Find out more about Stratasys 3D Printing on the CATI Website.

Fine Print

*Conditioned = Test specimends are conditioned according to procedure A of ASTM D618 (40 hours @ 23C and 50% relative humidity)
**Unconditioned (Dry) = As printed (No soluble support removal)

The information presented are typical values intended for reference and comparison purposes only. They should not be used for design specifications or quality control purposes. End-use material performance can be impacted (+/-) by, but not limited to, part design, end-use conditions, test conditions, etc. Actual values will vary with build conditions. Tested parts were built on Fortus 400mc @ 0.010” (0.254 mm) slice. Product specifications are subject to change without notice.

The performance characteristics of these materials may vary according to application, operating conditions, or end use. Each user is responsible for determining that the Stratasys material is safe, lawful, and technically suitable for the intended application, as well as for identifying the proper disposal (or recycling) method consistent with applicable environmental laws and regulations. Stratasys makes no warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular use, or warranty against patent infringement.

1Build orientation is on side long edge.

2Literature value unless otherwise noted. 

This information was originally published by Stratasys, Ltd. in the FDM Nylon 12 Spec Sheet. Download the full FDM Nylon 12 Material Spec Sheet here.

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Manger
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

SolidWorks / Internet Explorer 11

November 7th marked the start of the push of IE11 to those Windows 7 users with auto-update turned on. Those with the preview builds will get the final bits first. Others will get them over a matter of weeks.

Thanks for your efforts Microsoft, but now my SolidWorks will not run!

If you have installed I.E. 11 and it has not affected your SolidWorks, you are one of the few lucky ones.

Currently I.E. 11 is not supported by SolidWorks. If you have run into this problem, you will know. You will not be able to launch Solidworks. You may receive an error  "The value of the property 'getVertical' is null or undefined, not a Function object"'?

To resolve this issue, you will need to roll back the I.E. 11 install:

1. Go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features
2. In the left pane, click "View installed updates"
3. Find IE11 in the list (search for Internet Explorer to expedite this)
4. Right click and choose "Uninstall" (or single left click and choose "Uninstall" from the button above)
5. After the uninstall, restart the machine

After restarting the machine, your previous version of Internet Explorer will be restored.

It's suggested to modify your Windows Update settings (Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update) to install updates manually in order to avoid a recurrence of this issue.

Access To More SolidWorks Materials Than Ever

SolidWorks users know that the material database is by no means complete.  One of the enhancements of 2014 is access to the SolidWorks Materials Web Portal at www.matereality.com.  To access this, the material database needs to be opened as shown below.

Once this link has been opened a message will pop up as shown.

By hitting “OK,” matereality.com will open which appears as shown below.

In this example we will be looking for a steel alloy to be used in a static study.  The following drop-downs allow this selection.  Once that has been done, a database must be selected.

   

The database will then be searched.  Many materials have different variations or “matches” depending on how they were processed; whether they are annealed, cold-rolled, etc.  These are represented as well.  Below is an example of results based on the search parameters in the pictures above.

By hovering over a hexagon some of the basic information is shown to differentiate between matches.  For example when looking at Al 2014, T1 and T6 have different properties and are not interchangeable.  Once the correct version has been found, the full material properties can be accessed by clicking on the hexagon.  The following will then be shown.

By then selecting “Download,” the following message will appear.

After the folder location has been confirmed, the material data can be downloaded and added to the existing data in the SolidWorks Material Database.  As with the existing database, these are not complete with every material used by industry. 

For instructions on creating custom materials from scratch, go to

http://blog.cati.com/2013/10/creating-new-materials-for-use-in-simulation-studies.html

 For instructions on how to open/edit/modify the material database, go to

http://blog.cati.com/2013/10/how-to-openeditmodify-the-custom-materials-data-base-in-solidworks.html

Chad Whitbeck, CSWP

Application Engineer

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Creating a 'New View' and 'Saved View' in SolidWorks

When creating drawings from part or assembly files, often users need alternative view other than the standard views: Front, Right, Left, Back, Top, Bottom, Isometric and More Views: Dimetric, Trimetric. When creating a drawing with a file already open, the Current Model View checkbox is an available option.

          

One option is to position the model in the part file and use Current Model View for a drawing view. This is a snapshot of the graphic view of the part file used at the time of the drawing view creation. Another option is to create a Saved View.

Here’s how it works…Open the part or assembly file.  Here is a bracket shown in an ISO view. 

Create a view you would like to use for the detailed drawing.  For this example, I will pick the angled face and made the plane Normal To  .

 

 

To save this view, display the Orientation Dialog Box by doing one of the following:   

• Click View Orientation  (View toolbar).


• Click View > Modify > Orientation.


• Press the Space Bar.


• Right-click in a drawing sheet and select Zoom/Pan/Rotate > View Orientation.

The view will temporarily revert to the ISO view and display the Orientation window.

Pick the New View icon  .  The Named View dialog box will appear (note: the model will revert to the view to be saved.)  Enter the name for the new view in the View Name box.  Hit OK.

 

We have successfully created a Named View.  

Let’s take this one step further!

What if you want to use that same named view for other SolidWorks files?  When a custom view is created and saved, the view will be available within SolidWorks and available for every part or assembly model opened by the SolidWorks user.

To make a custom view available in all SolidWorks documents:

• In a SolidWorks document that contains a custom view, press the spacebar or click Orientation   (View toolbar). The Orientation dialog box appears.


• Hover over the custome view you want to make available in all SolidWorks documents. Options to save or delete the view appear.

• Click Save View to SolidWorks  .

 appears next to the view, indicating that it is available in all SolidWorks documents.

To access the saved view from another document, in the Orientation Dialog Box, mouse over Saved Views and select the view you want to add to the document.

 

To remove a saved view from a document, hover over the view name and click Remove View from Document .

 

To delete a saved view, in any SolidWorks document, in the Orientation Dialog Box, hover over Saved Views and click Delete View from SolidWorks.

To add the saved view to a drawing, add a drawing view and select the saved view that appears in the More Views area of the Orientation Dialog Box.

I hope you found this useful.

Thanks!

Judy Marlo

Application Engineer

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

SolidWorks Make It Shell Webcast

Joins CATI and our guest presenter, Ed Eaton, Sr. Industrial Designer, Dimonte Group, for the January installment of our CATIpult Webcast Series.

When:
January 16, 2014
12pm-1:30pm Central Time
Register

Presentation Topic: Make It Shell
When the Shell command works, it is amazing.  When it doesn’t work – that is when you need this session!  We will cover why Shells fail, how to diagnose the source of the problem, and some simple (and sometimes devious) tricks to always make your part Shell. Participants will walk away with a new perspective on and respect for how the Shell command works, and an arsenal of tricks to make their parts Shell.

About the presenter:
Ed Eaton - Sr. Industrial Designer - Dimonte Group
Ed has been a user of SolidWorks since 1998, and has presented popular session at 8 previous SolidWorks World Conferences. 

This session will be presented in San Diego at the upcoming SolidWorks World 2014.

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Manager
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.