I cannot install 32 bit SolidWorks on my 64 bit computer!

Due to architecture changes in the 64 bit window 7 machines, you are no longer able to install 32 bit SolidWorks on a 64 bit machine.  The installation manager will not allow you to even attempt the install.

This is only possible with Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating system. The 32-bit version of SolidWorks cannot be installed on the 64-bit versions of Vista or Windows 7; the 32-bit Installation Manager blocks the ability to do so with these versions.

These rules apply to all SolidWorks releases.

CATI Recognized by Objet Ltd. as a World Leader in Providing 3D Printing Solutions

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.(CATI), took home top honors, receiving two awards at the recent Objet Dealer Meeting. In addition to the award for Outstanding Dealer Performance, CATI was recognized as the Top Worldwide Objet Desktop 3D Printer Dealer, selling more units of the Objet Desktop Family of 3D Printers than any Objet Dealer in the world.

Read the full press statement.

Learn more about Objet 3D Printing Solutions at cati.com.

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Reordering an Assembly Feature Tree

A new final design rarely is achieved in a first go. It often takes some jumping around, some changes to get to that final result. An assembly feature tree in SolidWorks may end up with items listed in a "random / as developed" order. Later one might prefer to have the items listed in a different logic sense.

It a part Feature Manager Tree we know we can reorder features by simply dragging and dropping them up or down the part feature tree. Now there are issues, some order changes can have dramic positive or negative results and some attempts to reorder just don't work at first because of parent child relationships between the features.

The assembly Feature Manager Tree is similar but also another "level" of control. You can actually restructure the hierarchy of you assembly with the same drag and drop. That's really nice if thats what you wanted. It's really not so nice when you don't want to change the assembly hierarchy.

So how then does this work? The best thing to do when reordering any item in an assembly Feature Manager Tree is to hold down the Alt key before-during and until the drag and drop has completed. The result will be a simple reorder rather than a restructure of the hierarchy.

Note: The Alt key isn't always required, but even when it's not it still works. Where it really is necessary is; if your asm only has sub assemblies. Without the Alt key being used, dragging and dropping will always try to change the hierarchy. Trying to put a part between two subassemblies, will also not work without the Alt key. Again, it'll just try to rearrange the part "into" the subassembly rather than reorder. Trying to put an item after a subassembly will again default to changing the hierarchy rather than reorder.

SolidWorks World 2012 Partner Profile: Objet Ltd.

Learn More about Objet's 3D printing solutions by stopping by booth #500 at SolidWorks World 2012.

Who is Objet?
Objet produces and markets high quality 3D printers and 3D printing materials, mainly for the rapid prototyping needs of design, engineering and manufacturing companies. As a company, Objet has its headquarters in Rechovot, Israel and has been operating worldwide for nearly 13 years. Objet offers 3 different lines of 3D printers and almost 70 different 3D printing materials.

Objet 3D printers fall into 3 families: Desktop line, Professional Eden line and Objet Connex line. In total there are 9 different printers, ranging from the smallest, Objet24, to the Objet Connex500, able to print 68 different materials, including two at the same time.

Click Here For More Info

Leverage Solidworks to win business

Have your products ever been delayed because the documentation wasn't ready? Or, have you ever lost out on a bid because your presentation materials weren't compelling enough? You're not alone.

Instead of waiting until a project is done to get started, 3DVIA Composer lets you start creating documents almost as soon as the design process begins. See how SolidWorks and 3DVIA Composer work together to help you be more productive and win more business

Rajat Trehan

Product Manager

Computer Aided Technology Inc. 

More SolidWorks Tips for Microsoft Excel

Last week I posted links to tips for using Microsoft^® Excel and SolidWorks.  Here is a link to an additional 6 videos to help you use Excel with SolidWorks.

Watch Videos - SolidWorks Tips for Microsoft Excel Part 2

Microsoft^® Office Excel helps designers and engineers organize their design data, manage design information, and communicate statistics and ideas. Excel can also help solve difficult design problems. It can accelerate calculations as well as control all aspects of a SolidWorks model.

Watch Videos - SolidWorks Tips for Microsoft Excel Part 2

Use SolidWorks to Build the Ultimate Igloo

I found this really great article on the SolidWorks blog about building an igloo using SolidWorks. So, In honor of the Chicagoland's first official snow fall of the year I thought it only appropriate to share it with you here on the CATI blog.  The article shows the use of SolidWorks Simulation tools to test the safety of the igloo. 

Read the Full Article Here

The full article can be found at: http://blogs.solidworks.com/solidworksblog/2012/01/ultimate-igloos-and-cool-engineering.html

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing
CATI

SolidWorks Engineering Tips for Microsoft Excel

One of the most popular, yet under-utilized, engineering tools is Microsoft^® Office Excel. Excel is far more robust than most people think. Are you missing a chance to improve your design productivity? Excel can accelerate calculations as well as control all aspects of a SolidWorks^® model. SolidWorks has put together a set of tips, in the form a few short videos, to help you use Excel to automate some of your daily engineering tasks.

Watch the Videos.

Video Highlights:

• input data more efficiently


• build easy-to-use interfaces


• utilize powerful functions for advanced calculations


• optimize how the data is displayed

Watch the Videos.

Watch these videos and be more productive today!

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing
CATI

DriveWorks Solo Headstart Webinar

Join the team at DriveWorks for one of two webinars on January 18, 2012.  This webinar takes you through the quick and easy steps involved in automating your design process with DriveWorks Solo.

You will learn...

• How to capture the parameters you want to control
• How to create a good looking and intelligent user interface to specify your products
• How to build rules that link the form inputs to the captured parameters that control your designs

You will see how you can start automating YOUR designs straight away. 30 minutes of your time now could save you hours every single day!!

Use this Link to register: http://www.driveworkssolo.com/index.php/training/free-webinar

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing
CATI

Sheetmetal/Wood Products DXF Workaround

I had a customer looking to streamline the process of outputting DXF files to the shop floor with minimal work. This is what we came up with..

 

 

Hope you can use something like this....

 

See you at Solidworks World!

 

Todd Werginz

Technical Analyst

Computer Aided Technology

Leverage your 3D CAD data to create technical documentation

Now you can leverage your 3D CAD data directly to your product documentation. Create dynamic technical materials like interactive assembly instructions and powerful marketing tools that win new busines.

3DVIA Composer’s simple, intuitive interface gets you up and running quickly–no CAD experience required–and works seamlessly with Microsoft®, Adobe®, and other popular software. When design changes occur, you can update graphics automatically, keeping documentation and engineering on the same page.

Watch this short video to learn more.

SolidWorks Tricks For Modeling and Editing Webcast

Join us on January 19th, 2012 from 12pm-1:30pm Central Time for our first CATIpult webcast of the new year.  This month's presentation, Gaming the System - Tricky Tricks for Modeling and Editing- presented by Ed Eaton, is an exploration of unexpected and devious tricks for editing SolidWorks models, reorganizing history, and reverse Engineering from scans/imported models. You will learn useful techniques employing things like deliberately sabotaging features and creating place-holding geometry as work-arounds for vexing every-day problems.

Register For This Webcast.

We are greatful to have our special guest Ed Eaton giving this presentation.  Ed is the Sr. Industrial Designer for DiMonte Group Inc. He has been a user of SolidWorks since 1998, and has presented popular session at 8 SolidWorks Worlds.  Ed was also a presenter at last year's first annual CATI Design Innovation Summit.

Date and Time Info:
Thursday January, 19, 2012
12pm-1:30pm Central Time
Register

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing
Computer AIded Technology, Inc.

3D Printed Angelina Jolie

Before anyone gets their hopes up, the 3D printer is not printing a perfect Angelina Jolie clone.  As great as that would be, unfortunately the technology doesn't exist yet. However, it is a really great video demonstrating the application of taking a 2D image and creating a 3D model that looks picture perfect.

 

 

Unfortunately this video has been removed.

 

 

 

This video is courtesy of Objet and can be found on the Objet Blog along with the original article.

Unable to create and use a design table in SW?

Ever tried inserting a design table and after clicking ok nothing happens? If not, carry on, everything is obviously working fine.  On the other hand, if you have, your problem might have a simple fix if you are using Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student Click-to-Run versions.  Turns out with the click-to-run versions, OLE objects will not be correctly registered on the machine and it will thus be impossible to insert design tables into SolidWorks which is why nothing happens when you try this.  To resolve this, simply switch from the click-to-run to an MSI based installation and you will be good to go.  Performing the switch is relatively simple and the details can be found on microsoft office's support site.  See the link below.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/click-to-run-switch-to-using-an-msi-based-office-edition-HA101850538.aspx

Hopefully this will do the trick for you if this is an issue you are having. 

 

Brian Adika

Technical Analyst

Don't Mind the Noise

The CATI headquarters in Buffalo Grove, IL is currently under construction.  Our commitment to our clients includes growing the CATI team to ensure the highest level of customer service.  To make room for new team members, we needed to expand our office space. Luckily, there was an available section of the building adjacent to our current office.  The construction crew began working last week, knocking down walls and hanging drywall.  During construction CATI offices remain open and no interruptions in service will be seen. We promise to keep the drilling, hammering, and sawing to a minimum.

Common area.	Another shot of the common area.
The largest closet ever.	A member of the construction crew hard at work in the background.
A new office.	The future entryway that will join the current office space with the expansion.

I will be posting updates as the construction continues.


Jim TeDesco
Marketing
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

SolidWorks Sustainability 2012

Solidworks has built Life Cycle Assessment tools to measure environmental impact of your 3D model. Every license of SolidWorks comes equipped with SolidWorks Sustainability, try it. click on evaluate and then pick SolidWorks Sustability.

Check out this short video showcasing Sustainability.

 

Rajat Trehan

Product Manager - Design Validation

Computer Aided Technology Inc.

Streamline Product Documentation With 3DVIA Composer - Part 7

Part 7. Conclusion

As manufacturing organizations strive to identify ways to save time, cut costs, and improve their competitiveness in global markets, mining the value contained in their product design and 3D CAD digital assets holds great potential for substantially improving productivity. By automating downstream product information publishing functions—ranging from assembly, manufacturing, and field-service instructions to product documentation, training, and marketing materials—your company can realize shorter times-to-market, improved operational efficiencies, and better quality documentation.

Manufacturers that use an integrated documentation authoring package not only enjoy greater accuracy, increased productivity, and more cost savings, but also realize significant ROI within the first year.

By automating the creation of product documentation and related content—and linking it directly to 3D CAD models—manufacturers can improve profit margins, achieve faster times-to-market, and increase sales related to better customer education. A 3D authoring tool empowers you to produce documentation faster and at lower cost, while reducing levels of rework and lowering production overhead. With more effective training and service, your company not only will enhance customer satisfaction, but also will realize shorter maintenance down times and greater profit margins.

To learn more about 3DVIA Composer, visit cati.com or email us at cati@cati.com.

 

*This article provides excerpts from the "Streamlining Product Documentation across the Manufacturing Enterprise with 3DVIA Composer White paper, published by  DS SolidWorks Corp.