Description value in FeatureManager Tree

While looking for a display option in my assembly FeatureManager tree one day, I discovered that you can actually show the custom property for Description in the FeatureManager tree. You can show the name of the file, the configuration name being displayed and of course the display state of this file as well. So to turn on this option for showing the file's description, you just need to first access the Tree Display options by right mouse clicking on the top level of your assembly FeatureManager Tree.


Then choose to select the Component Description option. Then make sure you actually have a value typed into this field for a description as a custom property and it will show up in this assembly's FeatureManager tree.

And there you have a quick way to show the Description Custom Property from any SolidWorks model referenced inside your assembly files.

Flow Simulation Webcast : April 3rd

SolidWorks Flow Simulation is fully integrated within Solidworks 3D CAD software so that every designer can get the benefits of flow simulation at any stage of product development, to design with better insight.
SolidWorks Flow Simulation can quickly and easily simulate fluid flow, heat transfer and fluid forces that are critical to the success of your design.

Register now, to ensure a spot. The following topics will be covered

- Examine flow in and around components to detect
turbulence and recirculation issues.

- Optimize thermal performance of electronic components

- Find best dimensions that satisfy design goals

Rajat Trehan

Product Manager

Computer Aided Technology Inc.

Testing the durability (stiffness and strength) of plastic 3D printing materials.

Have you ever wanted to know how rapid prototyping/3D printing materials stand up to each other? Well, the team at rapid prototyping service bureau VistaTek have and commissioned an independant study to test the durability of the most common materials on the market for rapid prototyping and 3D printing. An independant lab tested materials from a variety of technologies including; Objet, FDM, SLA, and SLS. Guess what? Objet came out on top. Thats right, the Objet RGD5160 DM (AKA Objet Krypton Green) performed best when compared to the following materials:SLS Duraform GF, SLA Accura60, SLA Accura Xtreme, Objet VeroWhite Plus, FDM ABS, SLS Duraform, FDM Polycarbonate. You can find the complete results of the test by visiting the THIS PAGE on the VistaTek website.

Watch this great video of each test being performed.

Enjoy the video. Use this link to view the complete test results - http://www.vistatek.com/Plastic_Prototype_Material_Test.html

Jim TeDesco
Marketing
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Make That Drawing View Right

So you have a drawing view of maybe an odd shaped object and you wish to set it horizontal or vertical to a known edge for better reference. Sure you can rotate the view, but entering 22.33871842 degrees may still not be exactly horizontal. So how do we do it?

Well ok then, select the line to be the horizontal reference and go to the Tools drop down menu.

Once you have picked the orientation SolidWorks will rotate the view so that is the horizontal edge.

Simple enough...

John Van Engen
CATI Tech Support

CATI SolidWorks World Presentations Now Available!

SolidWorks World 2012 has come and gone. I know the CATI team had a great time and learned a lot from the conference. However, it wasn't all fun and games. Members of the CATI technical team were responible for 9 of this year's presentations! That's right, 9 presentations.CATI's SolidWorks World 2012 presentations are now available for download on the CATI website.

>>Download SolidWorks World 2012 Presentations.

Would you like to see these presentations live? You're in luck. Several of our technical team's SolidWorks World Presenations have been added to our CATIpult Webcast Series.

What's a CATIpult Webcast? CATIpult Webcasts are unique educational opportunities designed for SolidWorks users of various experience levels.The CATIpult webcasts consist of live SolidWorks hands-on training, Power Point presentations, and product demonstrations. View upcoming topics, dates, and times.

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Specialist
Computer Aided Technology, Inc

Trouble resizing Excell sheet in a SolidWorks drawing?

Recently I ran into an issue where I was trying to insert an Excell sheet in a drawing but two really annoying things kept happening; 1. The sheet would come in with hundreds of unnecessary rows and 2. I could not resize the sheet at all to fit my drawing sheet. After trying to troubleshoot my SolidWorks for an hour, I realized the problem is not in SolidWorks but with Excell.  I was having problems brining in an Excell document created back in 2004.  Excell has since changed their format from .xls to .xlsx.  I copied and pasted the info from my old table into a new table and saved it (my new table was now in .xlsx format) and inserted it into SolidWorks again.  This time the table acted as expected and I could resize and move it around just fine. So if you run into a similar issue, switch to a .xlsx table and your troubles will be kissed goodbye.

 

Brian Adika

Technical Analyst

SolidWorks 2012 SP3.0 EV (Early Visibility)

SolidWorks 2012 SP3.0 EV (Early Visibility) is available for download This service pack is now available to Subscription Service customers. To download, log into the SolidWorks Customer Portal at https://customerportal.solidworks.com and click Download Software and Updates to access the update.

Why does SolidWorks install 32 bit and 64 bit Edrawings?

Have you noticed that there are 2 versions of edrawings installed for every 64 bit installation of Solidworks?  Why do both versions of edrawings get installed?  Do I really need both versions?

The real issue here is that Solidworks explorer is a 32 bit process.  Solidworks edrawings is used in solidworks explorer to generate previews of your models and drawings.  64 bit applications cannot be embeded into a 32 bit application, therefore both applications are installeded.

Another difference between the versions is that the EXE option has been removed from the 64 bit version of Edrawings.  The technical reasons for this include: 1. If this functionality was enabled, the resulting EXE would only run on another 64 bit system. 2. To avoid the problem described in point 1, it would be necessary to include the 32-bit installation of eDrawings in the 64-bit version. This would double the download and installation size for all users of the 64-bit version, and result in two eDrawings installations on the computer. The solution for this is to install the 32 bit version of eDrawings on specific machines where the save as EXE functionality is required. The resulting EXE files can be run on both 32 bit and 64 bit systems.

Now you know!

Register for CATI's Product Development Forum

Join us this spring for our annual Product Development Forum series! This unique event will show you how to take your product from concept to reallity and improve your product development process with the help of solutions from CATI.

Presentation highlights:

• Set Up Virtual Real World Environments to Test Your Designs


• Top 5 Reasons to Integrate 3D Printing Into Your Product Development Process


• Optimize the Design of Plastic Parts


• SolidWorks Enterprise PDM Integration With SolidWorks Best Practices 


• 30+ Things You Definitely Missed From Essentials 


• View the full agenda

Seating is limited, cost is free. Register today!

Where and When:

Date	Location	Time
April 17, 2012	CATI Kansas City, MO 7880 NW 100th Street Kansas City, MO 64153	8:30am-3:00pm	Register
April 24, 2012	CATI St. Charles, MO 820 Westwood Industrial Park Drive St. Charles, MO 63304	8:30am-3:00pm	Register
May 3, 2012	CATI Brookfield, WI 400 N Executive Drive Suite 104 Brookfield, WI 53005	8:30am-3:00pm	Register
May 8, 2012	CATI Headquarters - Buffalo Grove, IL 165 N. Arlington Heights Road Suite 101 Buffalo Grove, IL  60089	8:30am-3:00pm	Register
May 15, 2012	CATI Indianapolis, IN 9225 Priority Way West Dr Suite 320 Indianapolis, IN 46240	8:30am-3:00pm	Register

When creating a SolidWorks sheet metal flat pattern drawing view, why is the view not flattened?

Even though SolidWorks has greatly enhanced the sheet metal tools, we still get the question asked: When creating a flat pattern drawing view, why is the view is not flattened? To understand this better, let's go through the steps of what is suppose to happen when you create a new SolidWorks sheet metal flattened view.

1. Create a drawing from a SolidWorks sheet metal part document.
2. Insert the flat pattern view.

3. Right Click on the new drawing view and pick Properties. As you can see in the Drawing View Properties dialog box, SolidWorks automatically creates a configuration name DefaultSM-FLAT-PATTERN and sets the drawing view to use this named configuration.

This is what may be confusing to some. Since SolidWorks automatically creates this new configruation in the part document, whatever is shown in the DefaultSM-FLAT-PATTERN configuration is what will be shown in the drawing. Just because the name of the configuration says FLAT-PATTERN does not mean that SolidWorks knows to stay that way. A lot of the times, the DefaultSM-FLAT-PATTERN configuration is not in the flattened state. This can easily be done if the user does not realize what configuration is active. A quick example:

1. Switch over to the part document.
2. Set the active configuration to DefaultSM-FLAT-PATTERN.
3. Click the Flatten button in the Sheet Metal toolbar so that the part bends back up.
4. Switch back to the drawing. As you can see, the view is still set to the Flat pattern Orientation in the Drawing View PropertyManager, but the drawing view is no longer flattened.

So far, this has resolved the issue most of time by making sure that the DefaultSM-FLAT-PATTERN configuration of the part document is in the flattened state. I did have one other issue where the user's document template already had the DefaultSM-FLAT-PATTERN configuration. So, when the drawing view was inserted, SolidWorks could not automatically create the configuration and set the sheet metal state to flattened. The solution was to open a new part document, delete the DefaultSM-FLAT-PATTERN configuration, and resave the document template. The next time the user created a sheet metal part and then created the flattened drawing view, it worked correctly.

Neil Bucalo
Technical Analyst
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Register For a SolidWorks Simulation Webcast

Join us March 12th from 2pm-3pm Central Time for our SolidWorks Simulation Webcast. In this web presentation you will learn how to leverage 3D cad data to simulate real life behavior.  We will discuss how neglecting non-linear effects can lead to serious design errors. After reviewing examples from everyday design practice, you will see how non-linear analysis can help you avoid over design and build better products.  We will also study factors that influence component response to a vibration load, thus enabling mechanical designers to see a cost effective alternative to traditional approach of building, testing, modifying and retesting their designs.

>>Registration Link

Topics covered:

• Difference between linear and non linear test


• Simulate Plastic, rubber , foam components


• Simulate forced vibration


• Contact analysis

>>Registration Link

I hope you can make it to this presentation.  There is no cost to attend.

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Cavity Removal & Replacement

There are times when one would like to remove the cavity from the model and maybe replace it with some other geometry. So how can we do this easily, especially if there is imported geometry in the model?

Lets use a box as a very simple example. (Note: Real world parts are more work, but the basic idea holds true.)

So, above is a part with a cavity (pretend it's imported so simply deleting the shell and fillets wouldn't be possible). The goal is to remove the cavity and have a solid cube again...

First, we'll create an offset surface with an offset value of 0. (I've changed the color to red for clarity.) The surface above in red needs to be the surface(s) that tie the outside of the box to the inside of the box.

Once it's created, hide it (the red surface body) we'll come back to it in a bit.

Next we delete the face that we just created the offset surface "from". The result of deleting the face is the loss of a solid body and it is replaced with 2 surface bodies (Delete-Face1[1] & Delete-Face1[2]). We've effectivly disconnected the inside from the outside.

Next we can delete the surface body that was the inside or cavity of the part.

Here we've turned on the surface we offset with the value of 0. We'll use it to make this model a solid again.

Here is the Untrim command in action. We'll use it to fill in the opening in the surface. We could've also just reconstructed the surface manually and in real world parts, untrim and surface construction will likely be necessary to "seal up" the model to make it a solid again.

Here is the result of the Untrim surface command.

Next is the Knit Surface command. I'm using it to turn all the surfaces/surface bodies into a single surface. Note: This also has the option to "Try to form solid". One could also make a second step of this using the Thicken command.

Here is the final result, a single solid without the cavity. Now you could either construct a new cavity or consider inserting other geometry via copy and paste or insert part. Then either "Cut with surface" or "Combine" using the subtract option depending on your geometry.

Enjoy!

Here is the example model for review (2012 Model).Download Part1

How to Expand the Right Click Menu in SolidWorks

Have you ever noticed the small downward arrows at the bottom of a right click menu?

Is it possible to view the entire context (right mouse button menu) without pressing the downward arrow?

Yes! With a document open, pull down the Tool Menu and pick Customize.  In the Customize dialog box, click the Options tab. Under Shortcut customization, click the Show All button.

Now, all the menu items will be displayed.

Neil Bucalo
Technical Analyst
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Borrowing a SolidWorks License from a SolidNetWork License

While working on support the other day I had a question that has been asked of me many time before but when I tried to walk the customer thru the process I realized that something had changed in that process. Upon doing some research I found out what those changes were.

Pre SolidWorks 2011 – If you wanted to check out a license to take offsite you needed to:

1. Start the SolidNetwork License Manage on the client machine you want to take out of the office/off of the network.


2. From the License Borrowing Tab select the Product you wish to borrow, and this is where it gets tricky.
   
   
   1. To take a Standard License (no Add-ins) select the Standard and away you go.
   
   
   2. To take a SolidWorks Office, Professional or Premium license you need to select not only the SolidWorks Office, Professional or Premium seat you also need to select a SolidWorks Standard seat.
   
   

In option b. it will look like you are taking 2 seats of software but you are really only taking one and the reason for that is if you look at you overall license count in the SNL Manager (see below) you will see that they have 1 Standard seat for every 1 Office, Professional or Premium seat. The reason for this is Add-Ins if you have none turned on then you only take a Standard seat, as soon as you select an Add-In it will pull the appropriate higher level seat as well out of the pool.

 

SolidWorks 2011 and Forward – The process of borrowing a Standard license when a Office, Premium, or Professional license is requested is automated. It is no longer necessary to have to borrow a standard license first.  If you want to check out a license to take offsite you need to:

1. Start the SolidNetwork License Manage on the client machine you want to take out of the office/off of the network.


2. From the License Borrowing Tab select the Product you wish to borrow. Notice in the screen shot below that that no Standard seats are Free yet there are 6 Total. This is because on this license the Customer only owns 6 seats of SolidWorks Premium so when they go to Borrow a seat it will take both automatically.

 

When you go to return a license before it expires if you select to return the Standard and not the Premium you will get the following message. This message confirms the new automation process of the SNL Manager.

Josh Altergott

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Register for a DriveWorks Design Automation Webinar:

Join the DriveWorks team for a Free Webinar.  When registering, be sure to indicate CATI as your SolidWorks reseller.

DriveWorksXpress Headstart Webinar  - This webinar takes you through the quick and easy steps involved in automating your design process with DriveWorksXpress in SolidWork
When: Tuesday March 6th from 10am-11am CST - Register

DriveWorks Solo Headstart Webinar: This webinar takes you through the quick and easy steps involved in automating your design process with DriveWorks Solo.
When: Wednesday March March 7th from 10am-11am CST - Register
           Wednesday March 21st from 11am-12am CDT - Register

Jim TeDesco
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.