SolidWorks Instant3D

While running through a training class this week, the topic
of to use or not to use SolidWorks Instant3D came up during a discussion.  I thought this would be a good time to
discuss some of the more practical uses of this command for new or existing
customers.  Instant3D is a tool that allows
you to perform basic Extruded Boss or Extruded Cut commands without starting a
command at all.  Plus this feature can be
turned on or off at any moment’s notice and will have no ill effects on your
part modeling process.

First you will create a sketch and add dimensions and
relations.  Next with Instant3D running,
you can exit the sketch and simply single click on any edge of this sketch.

A small green arrow will show up on the edge of your sketch
that you selected, and you can drag this forwards or backwards to start a Boss
Extrude command.  Plus if you want to get
really tricky, you can hold down the letter “M” while dragging, and this will evoke
the mid-plane extrude condition.

Sometimes when dragging the sketch, you might not always
land on an exact value for your distance. 
If you click one time on the dimension value, you can simply type in the
exact size you are looking for.  You can
also double click on the blue ball icon located at the extension line and this
will bring up the typical modify dimension box. With this you can also set a
dimension to match a global value or equation.

You can also use Instant3D to create extruded bosses or cuts
by dragging away or into an existing solid body.

Plus while dragging inside to create a cut, you can also
access the pop up toolbar to add draft angle!

Finally while choosing to make a second extruded boss or
extruded cut, SolidWorks Feature Manager will update the icon to match the type
of feature you are making. 

If you haven’t
had a chance or reason to try Instant3D, give it a go and see what you
think.  

Brian Reel
Computer Aided Technology, Inc. 

Wired’s 400-Pound Comic-Con Robot has a 3D Printed Face

Aiming to steal the cosplay spotlight at this year’s Comic-Con, Wired magazine called on Hollywood big guns to build a pulse-quickening giant robot.

The team had just 24 days to build the 9.5-foot-tall, human-controlled
mechanized suit with cameras and speakers. To create its face, they chose Digital ABS material on
an Objet Connex500 mutli-material 3D Printer.

>Click here to read the full article found on the Stratasys Blog

Visit the CATI website to learn more about 3D Printing.

Tracy Golden
Marketing Assistant
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Jul 30, 2013

Engineers and pilots are looking to design a plane that can be built at home for under $15,000. They will offer their design for free, which will consist of a number of 3D-printed parts.

Here is the original article on wired.com:

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/07/open-source-airplane-design/

SolidWorks- Similar Weldment Profiles

What happens to your cut list when you add holes to your structural members? You can have structural members that are identical but if you add holes to these parts, SolidWorks will pull the component out that has the holes and make it a unique item. That's because it now is unique. Let's take a look.

Here we see a Weldment that has two different items. Side Rails and Front Rails.

The Side Rails are identical and the Front Rails are identical. Notice the Highlighted Cut List folder in the feature tree. SolidWorks is looking at the Weldment Profile as well as the member lengths to determine the folder structure (it's only looking at the Profile and length because there are no other features that separate the members at this time.)

Let's see what happens when we add a couple of holes to the Front Rails. I added a couple of hole wizard holes to only one of the Front Rails and then you right click on the Cut List folder and select update. You now see that it pulled out the member that had no holes and created a new folder for that item. So now I have exactly what I would expect, two rails are the same and then two different rails, one with holes and one without. Same length and profile the only differences are the holes.

Hopes this helps clear up what is happening to your members when you add features to them. It will affect your Cut List because they are now different.

Phil Whitaker
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Dimension Styles in a SolidWorks Drawing

For the most part, notes and other annotations added to
dimensions like the tolerance for instance are per standard.  This means that the general format is the
same.  While creating templates can
automate a lot of the repetition in drawings, it doesn’t handle the dimension
style for you.  Instead, SolidWorks gives
you another way to handle this.  In the
dimension property manager there is an option to select your style:

  First step is to create your
dimension style. Do what you need to do to the dimension then select ‘add or
update a style’.  

  The next step is save the dimension
style.   You can save it to any location.  After it has been saved, you can use the style
for any other future drawing since the location is saved external to the
drawing, simple as that.  See the video
below for illustration.

 

 

Brian Adika
Applications Engineer
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Engineers in Demand - Yahoo Finance Article

If you're looking to recruit an engineer right now, be prepared for a dog-eat-dog world.

Experienced engineers are being offered sky-high salaries and are taking regular calls from headhunters as the booming shale gas industry fights for scarce talent, snapping up engineers from other sectors.

"It's an all out war for talent," said Houston-based Gladney Darroh, president of Piper-Morgan Associates Personnel Consultants, a specialist in recruiting oil and gas engineers.

via finance.yahoo.com

CATI has always loved engineers...but perhaps you can start taking US out to lunch...?

3D Printing Going To The Dogs

A veterinary practice in Australia is on the leading edge of veterinary medicine and technology.  They are using 3D printed models to make better medical decisions and prepare for surgery on dogs - and other animals as well.

>Click here to read the full article found on the Stratasys Blog

Visit the CATI website to learn more about 3D Printing.

Tracy Golden
Marketing Assistant
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Stay Connected with CATI

Would you like to stay up-to-date and connected 24/7 with Computer Aided Technology, Inc.?  Want to learn about SolidWorks, EPDM, Stratasys 3D Printers, Simulation, and more?  If so, follow CATI on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+!  You will be able to find CATI Tech Notes, webinars, videos, and much, much more.  Don't forget, you can also subscribe to our monthly CATI TechLink Newsletter!

CATI is the Midwest's leading provider of Stratasys 3D Printers and SolidWorks 3D CAD Solutions, serving clients in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, and Iowa.   

Tracy Golden
Marketing Assistant
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

        

Correctly Scaling Models for SolidWorks Simulation

In many instances, physical testing, especially in the field
of aerodynamics, must be done on a scale model instead of the full size, not
everyone can have NASA’s wind tunnel.

The “Scale” command in SolidWorks allows a body to be scaled
down(or up) to similarly recreate the physical scale model.  However, it is very important how you adjust
the forces in a Simulation to correctly pattern the actual forces experienced
by the scale model.  In my example I will
use a Space Shuttle Orbiter created to fit the basic size and shape of the
actual orbiters.

I have created one model to fit the actual size of the
Orbiter, and another that is approximately 1/70^th of the actual
size.  I then set up the sim to model
possible forces experienced during reentry on both configurations.

The following table shows the results of 5 studies.

	Von Mises Stress
Full Size Sim	1.9 MPa
Scale Model(Same Forces)	151,545.5 MPa
Scale Model(Forces Scaled by Length Change)	404.8 MPa
Scale Model(Forces Scaled by Surface Area Change)	.2 MPa
Scale Model(Forces Scaled by Mathmatical Relation)	2.5 MPa

These scaling issues are common mistakes when performing
tests.  It is important to scale around
the stress to achieve the correct forces. 
In this case, I used the basic equation  where

σ=stress

F=force

A=Surface Area

By using the above equation; and inserting the original stress,
force and area, as well as the new area, the correct force can be found(

Because I used the basic equation, the Full Size Sim and the
Scale Model correctly scaled by Mathmatical Relation are not exact, only close,
but they are close enough to see which method is correct.

Application Engineer
Chad Whitbeck
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

 

Decimal precision for custom properties in SolidWorks

Controlling the decimal precision for a custom property can be done independantly of document properties. To do this we need to create an equation. Take this example of mass. The first step is to create a custom property for mass.

The document units have been set to 8 decimal places so the custom property also has 8. I then have to create an equation that will round my custom property.

I have created a global variable to show I want the mass with 2 decimal places. The equation uses the existing custom property weight and with the round function rounds to 2 decimal places. ROUND("weight",2)

Finally I have created a second custom property that uses the global variable to display the rounded number.

Thanks,

Jordan Nardick, CSWE
Applications Engineer
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

How do you Simulate a welded structure with beams on top of beams?

It is easy to create a welded structure that has multiple
weldments stacked on top of each other then welded together, as seen in this
picture. 

 

The problem comes in when you need to simulate.  Since SolidWorks Simulation considers a beam as a two
node element, the interaction between the centers of the beams is
neglected.  If you have ever tried to do
simulate this it looks the like the beams pass through each other.  The other issue is that you cannot simulate a
weld joint in between them like you would a shell element to a solid
element.  For the best work around you
have mesh the weldment as a solid element and not a beam element.  Due to the accuracy of the solid element you
will get a better result.  The only drawback to this method is that your calculation and mesh time escalates
quickly. 

The second method you can use to simulate that same
structure is to take that weldment and combine all the structural members into
one member.  Then simulation will see
this as one beam member which will simulate them being welded together.  Just make sure the beam properties are
correct in the simulation tree.

Ted X ... What is TEDx?

I was looking through some amazing things the other night on Ted talks webs site and shall an area for TEDx. What is TEDx, according to TED's Website, "ideas worth spreading to organizations and individuals at a local level to stimulate dialogue through a TED-like experiences.

Here are couple of my favorites.

Making the Unmakeable - The 3rd Industrial Revolution: Joshua Harker At Bingamton Univ.

 

Beatbox Brilliance: Tom Thum at TEDxSydney

Cheers,

Bob McGaughey

How to Quickly Fully Define Your SolidWorks Sketch

There are many ways to build a SolidWorks part document. The strongest foundation in creating a good SolidWorks solid model is a sketch. SolidWorks World is always a great place to pick up some useful techniques that many users take for granted. A couple of SolidWorks tips that can be very helpful in creating a sketch are:

Copy and Paste SolidWorks Sketch Geometry

Use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste. In the example, I used Window select to select the circles on the left. Then I used Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste the circles.

Fully Define Sketch

You can use the Fully Define Sketch PropertyManager to apply dimensions and relations calculated by SolidWorks to automatically fully define the sketch. Click the Fully Define Sketch button from the Dimensions/Relations toolbar or pull down the Tools menu and pick Dimensions > Fully Define Sketch.

I just used All entities in sketch to fully define my sketch by applying combinations of relations and dimensions. You don’t have to dimension everything. SolidWorks allows you to use this command with just selected entities as well.

Note: Since I used Copy and Paste above, SolidWorks automatically knew to set the circles equal to each other. Another great little time saver!

All that is left is to adjust the dimensions to your liking. I added a few extra entities so that I could use the Selected Contours section of the Extruded Boss/Base command to create my part all from just my one sketch.

Neil Bucalo
Certified
SolidWorks Support Technician 2013

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Additive Manufacturing 101 Webinar Recording - Stratasys

This webinar explores how Stratasys 3D printers and production systems use additive manufacturing technology to change product development and manufacturing. 

Additive manufacturing technologies are also commonly known as "Rapid Prototyping" or "3D Printing" as well as other names. And, although they are still being used by design engineers for concept modeling and prototyping, that’s not all. Manufacturing engineers are now employing these technologies for various applications such as jigs, fixtures, check gauges, and even as a bridge-to-tooling and low-volume end-use parts.

What Your Will Learn:

- How additive manufacturing can help designers create better products.
- Why additive manufacturing gets products to market faster and cheaper.
- How companies like: BMW, GM and Boeing use additive manufacturing.
- What's in store for additive manufacturing in the future.

Who Should Watch:

- Design Engineers
- Product Designers
- Manufacturing Engineers
- Inventors/Entrepreneurs 
- Technology Educators

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Manager
Computer Aided Technology, Inc. 

SolidWorks opening multiple sessions

Every so
often we get support calls that SolidWorks is opening multiple sessions when
opening files directly from Windows explorer. This almost always is related to
Windows file extensions. In Windows XP it was pretty easy to remove the file extensions
and correct the issue. Now with Windows 7/8, Microsoft has removed this
functionality. This can still be done through the registry, but it takes time
to remove them from the various locations in the registry. I have found a nice
utility that can do this for you.

Creativelement
Power Tools.

http://www.creativelement.com/powertools/#download

 

After
installation, launch the File Type Doctor

Then locate
the .sldprt, .sldasm, and .slddrw and choose “Export” first so there is a
backup of each file type and then choose delete.

After the extensions
have been removed, run a repair of the SolidWorks install which should re-add
the SolidWorks extensions and restore the expected\normal behavior.

SolidWorks 2014 will be the last release to support 32 bit Operating Systems

In line with our customer’s large scale adoption of the faster and more reliable 64 bit environment, SolidWorks 2014 will be the last release to support 32 bit Operating Systems. SolidWorks 2015 will not install on a 32 bit Operating System.

Using SolidWorks on 64 bit Windows 7 or Windows 8 operating systems provides many significant advantages over 32-bit Windows 7 or Vista including:

• Supports more memory (over 4 GB RAM) which allows the creation of larger and more complex models

• Improved stability

• Better performance to increase overall design and modeling speed

In the coming weeks, we will be making the announcement for discontinued 32 bit OS support to the rest of the SolidWorks Community.

For SolidWorks 2013 SP4 and SolidWorks 2014 Beta 1, 32 bit users will be notified about the 32 bit end of life plan in the Installation Manager and during SolidWorks launch.

We will be sending subsequent updates to partners and the customer base via email, and on the SolidWorks website.

Large Design Review Mode. What is it?

Have you ever noticed the Large Design Review Mode option when opening an assembly?  Unless you are looking for it, you might have missed it. Let me tell you what it's all about.

The big question is WHY
would I want to use this feature and HOW will it benefit me.  Large Assembly Review Mode allows you to open
very large assemblies very quickly while still allowing the user the
capabilities of conducting a review of the assembly.  This mode was primarily intended as an
environment for quick design review of assemblies.  If you want to ensure that all items are
updated properly, you must open your assembly as lightweight or fully resolved.

Let’s get started!

Open SolidWorks. Go to Open file and select an
assembly. Select the Large Design Review
in the Mode selection box and Click Open.

When the file opens, you will see the following dialog
box.  The dialog box below first appears.
It explains the capabilities the model has in Large Assembly Review Mode.

When the model opens, you will notice that assemblies and parts in the Feature
Tree have new icons sporting an eyeball. 
The feature tree does not include many details other than a structure of
the assembly.  You cannot edit components
or mates while in this mode.

The Command Manager
Assembly tab is replaced with a Command
Manager Large Design Review tab.  

The Selective Open selection dropdown arrow
has 2 options:  Selective Open and Selective
Open in Lightweight. 

The Set All to
Resolved selection dropdown arrow has 2 options:  Set All to Resolved and Set
All to Lightweight.

Here
is a comprehensive guide from the Dassault Systems SolidWorks Help section
explaining all Command Manager functionality: 

Explore the Large Design Review functionality the next time
you work on a large assembly!

 

Thanks!

Judy Marlo

Application Engineer

CATI St. Louis

 

 

 

Goodbye Google Reader

Have you logged into your Google Reader account in the last few months?  If so, then you have received the message that on July 1, 2013 Google Reader will be no more.  

So what are your options to replace Google Reader?

I've been looking for a replacement since I first received word that Google was discontinuing the service. I've found a few good alternatives, but a direct apples to apples replacement does not exist. However, Feedly does stand out as the next best thing.

Feedly - Feedly gets my vote for being the closest thing to Google Reader without being Google Reader.  It looks and feels much like Google Reader. Most importantly it allows you to easily scan headlines for stories you might want to read. That's one thing I really loved about Google Reader. Also, there is a convenient Google Chrome App for Feedly that allows you to import all of your feeds from Google Reader to Feedly. http://cloud.feedly.com 

Here are a few other options:

• Flipboard


• Digg Reader


• Newsblur


• AOL Reader

I'm no expert on the subject, so here are links to what others are saying about this topic.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/06/why-google-reader-got-the-ax/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/17/feedly-picks-up-over-500000-google-reader-defectors/

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/24/there-is-no-google-reader-replacement-only-alternatives/

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-06-17/business/40023260_1_android-app-instagram-post

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/14/the-outrage-and-sadness-of-google-readers-demise/

http://gizmodo.com/5993163/feedly-reborn-the-best-google-reader-replacement-just-got-better

http://www.techspot.com/news/53005-aol-launches-their-own-google-reader-replacement.html

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Manager
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.