CATI Client Success Symposium

CATI and SolidWorks are hosting a Client Success Symposium to show you how companies are improving their product documentation with SolidWorks Composer.

>>Register Today<<

We have the privilege of working with some of the best and the brightest companies in the world. We get the rare opportunity to help companies with tools to bring innovative ideas to life; and more often than not communicating engineering ideas can be frustrating and inefficient.

Think this doesn’t apply to your business? We’ve found that most of our customers didn’t recognize these communication inefficiencies as bottlenecks, and just simply viewed them as “the cost of doing business” or “the way we’ve always done it”.

Join us for lunch and see for yourself as we will be sharing a selection of our customers success stories, along with our featured guest speakers.

Guest Speakers Include: Sean Morrison - Lead Technical Analyst, C.P. Gauger Company, Inc. and Matthew Kruszeski - Customer Support Engineer, Power Great Lakes

Thursday, November 14th, 2013
11:45am - 2:30pm
Hyatt Regency Schaumburg
1800 Golf Rd 
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Seating is limited. Please reserve your spot today.

>>Register Today<<

We hope to see you there.

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Manager
Computer Aided Technology, Inc. 

Reverse Engineering Scanner Technology

Last week, I attended the Wichita Industrial Trade Show
which is held every two years in Wichita, Kansas.  This show offers several hundred booths
offering machine services to consulting to cleaning products found in most
manufacturing shops today.  We ran across
one interesting company though that I wanted to share with you as I get a lot
of requests for this from customers.  The
company is called Modern Manufacturing Technologies International and they
offer 3D scanning for reverse engineering or inspection.  Here is their link (http://www.mmtinternational.net/).

Basically they use light patterns shown on objects which is
captured by a separate camera and then a point cloud is generated in their
software.  This file can then be opened
into any number of point cloud surface generating software.  In fact, if you own SolidWorks Premium, you
can even turn on the included Scan to 3D add-in and open these point cloud
files in SolidWorks!  We offer several
wizards to help with the clean-up of geometry and mesh prep wizards to refine
the scanned data.

The process of using light patterns yields greater success
when compared to traditional laser scanners especially when used on sheet metal
parts with edges.  This is one of their
major selling points.

Since we seem to get requests for scanning parts, I thought I
would pass on their contact info.  Please
contact them at the address above to seek more information.

Brian Reel

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Halloween Happiness with Mojo’s New Colors and Scarily Sparse Interior Fill

Scratching your head about how to make your Halloween eerily perfect? What if you could 3D print in a wider array of colors, using less material per build, to increase the spookiness of this fun holiday?

Well great news for ghouls and goblins: the Stratasys Mojo 3D Printer has just been enhanced with new functions and color options, making it easy to upgrade a costume, decorate with flair or even bake themed cookies. Halloween is going to be so terrific, even the Great Pumpkin wouldn’t miss it!

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

 

Tracy Golden
Marketing Assistant
Computer Aided Technology, Inc. 

Central Indiana SolidWorks User Group

Greeting all SolidWorks User Group Members and to all those who would like to participate in networking, learning, teaching and plain old having fun.

Register Now for the November meeting, and sign up for your friends.
Don't forget to bring your bright ideas and SW trouble spots to share with others.

Date: Wednesday, November 20th .

Location:   HURCO.
One Technology Way, Indianapolis IN 46268

Meeting Agenda:
Time: 4:30pm Registration and networking.  Meeting starts at 5:00pm

• Opening remarks and introductions- Peter
  
• General meeting: Presentation by our founder member Patrick Stewart: "For The Good of the Company".
  A "Knowledge Management" discussion on the value of "Internal Training" of SolidWorks within your organization.
  Attendees will gain the insight to some common internal training pitfalls and methods of how to harness and share your existing
  teams SolidWorks knowledge.
  
• Dinner: (Sponsored by SWUGN) 6:00ish.
  
• Technical Presentation: Phil Whitaker presenting "SolidWorks 2014 Roll Out"
  
• Tips & Tricks by all
  
• Door Prizes.
  
• HURCO Plant Tour – Peter Baechle, Engineering Director
  

 

 

Creating New Materials for Use in Simulation Studies

When running Simulation Studies, one important facet is
assigning the correct material.  While
the automatic database of materials within SolidWorks is extensive, it is by no
means complete.  There are many alloys,
tempers and especially plastics and ceramics that are not contained within the
database.  As they are, the materials
cannot be edited, their properties are grayed out.

While they cannot be edited, there is a very simple way to create
new materials in the database.  Here are
the steps involved.

1. Open the material list by right clicking on
   “Material <not specified>” and choose “Edit Material”

      1. Create a folder to save the new material to if
there is not already a folder ready.  Right
click on the “Custom Materials” folder and choose “New Category”

      3. Choose a similar material so that less changes
have to occur and copy and paste it to the new folder

     Once the copy has been made it can be renamed.

      4. Once this new material has been created, the
properties can then be changed

Using this technique, the material properties of Unobtainium
was created and can now be used in Simulation Studies.  Similarly any material can be added to the
library, whether it be used industry wide or specific to an individual company.

Once all changes have been finished, be sure to save the
changes and begin running studies!

For information on how to open/edit/modify the custom
materials 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.

 

Revision comparison

When working in an environment with multiple engineers it isn't always easy to communicate design changes. You might want to know how a part has changed from one revision to another and there are some tools built in to SolidWorks that can help.

DrawCompare is a tool that will open up two drawings and give you a detailed look at how they are different. You browse for the drawings and choose to see additions or removals between drawings. This is found under the tools dropdown menu, then compare, then DrawCompare.

Alternatively if you want to look at a change between two files there is a document, geometry, and a feature compare. Also located under tools -> compare. These three features are combined together when you look at two files. This works with SolidWorks parts, assemblies, and drawings. It will also work with files from other cad software such as Parasolid, IGES, and STEP files.

Document compare will show you differences between document properties.

Feature compare will let you select a feature that belongs to both parts and show you when there is a dimensional change is as well as the value on each part.

And finally geometry compare allows you to see volume changes or face changes. A useful tool when you don't have a feature history for your part file.

Thanks,

Jordan Nardick, Elite AE
Applications Engineer
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

 

SolidWorks Lofted Bends for Complex Sheet Metal Parts

CATI's monthly contribution to the SolidWorks Blog was posted this week. This month I chose to write about how to flatten complex sheet metal parts with SolidWorks Lofted Bends. The article is based upon a some common questions that we get from customers. The article has two detailed examples of how we can build a model and then use the edges of that part to create the profiles needed to create a Lofted Bend in sheet metal and ultimately be able to flatten the part for manufacturing.

Example 1 is a helix shaped part.

Example 2 is how to create a part generated with the SolidWorks Wrap tool.

To view the article use the link below.

http://blogs.solidworks.com/tech/2013/10/solidworks-lofted-bends-for-complex-sheet-metal-parts.html

Josh Altergott

Support Manager

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

www.cati.com

How to open/edit/modify the custom materials data base in SolidWorks

For those of you that need to document the custom materials
for certification reasons it may be easy to export your materials information
from Solidworks.  The data base can be
directly opened by Excel. 

Depending on where you store the “.sldmat” file type you
will be have to search for it.  I
recommend just doing a simple search from windows explorer for “materials.sldmat”.  This search will show you all the different
locations that file is used or stored in. 
Please ignore the roaming folder and the Users directory.  The only place you should it should be in is
the programs data directory.  Otherwise
where ever you point the custom materials data base in the Options>File
Locations.

 

Windows won’t have an idea of what program to open this file
type from so you will have to dig in and find the “excel.exe” file.  Once you opt for that program, excel will
open up and will ask you the following question:

 

Just use the second option “As a read-only workbook”.  This should open up the full excel sheet that
you can modify and do a save as into a separate location.  DO NOT MOVE OR ALTER THE EXISTING DOCUMENT. 

 

Thanks

Ketul

How and Where Do I Download SolidNetWork License Manager 2014 For My SolidWorks Server?

Now that SolidWorks 2014 SP0.0 is released, customers are beginning to upgrade their SolidWorks.

If you are planning on upgrading to SolidWorks 2014, please read this blog article first: SolidWorks 2014 IS HERE!!

For customers with a network installation of SolidWorks, one of the first steps is to upgrade the SolidNetWork License Manager on the server. Where can you download version 22 (2014) of the SolidNetWork License Manager? From the SolidWorks website. Do you have to download all of the SolidWorks 2014 SP0.0 installation files? No. 

Here are the steps to download the SolidNetWork License Manager 2014 installation file from SolidWorks.com:

1. Log into the SolidWorks Customer Portal.

2. Click on the link Downloads and Updates

3. Select the required SolidWorks Version.

4. Read and accept the SolidWorks Download EULA.

5. Click on the link at the bottom of the page under Step 3: If the Installation Manager Assisted Manual downloads fail, you can individually download, unzip and install all the files (not recommended).

6. Select the Language and SolidWorks Product and click Continue.

7. This brings you to the Manual Download Packages page. Scroll down to Step 5 - Optional Updates. Click on SolidNetWork License Manager.

8. Download and save this file (swlicmgr.exe).

That’s it! Use this downloaded file to upgrade your server. 

Neil Bucalo, CSWP
Certified SolidWorks Support Technician 2013
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Repairing an Admin Image Installation

How to repair an Admin Image
installation

 

Every once
in a while it may be required to run a repair on your Solidworks installation
for many reasons.

This can
simply be done through “programs and features” in you windows control panel.

However, if
you have ever tried this from an Administrative image installation, you will
notice that you will not get a “change” option for Solidworks. This is the way
it is designed, one of the reasons for this way of deployment.

So what do
you do if you need to run a repair? Uninstall/re-install usually.

Well, there
is a backdoor to actually run a repair, or even a modify.

Start by
navigating to the windows directory. Under folder options, turn on “show hidden
files and folders”

Once this is
done, you will see a “Installers” directory. This is where the windows
installer files are kept for installed software.

Unfortunately,
these are pretty cryptic names…not meaning much, so you will have to do a
little modification to find the Soldiworks installer.

Right click
on the header bar showing the columns.

Add “
Authors”

Then select
the column header to sort by that column.

Scroll down
to the Solidworks section. You will see a few from Solidworks in here.

Here, we
will need find the Solidwork install itself.

Hover over
the .msi files and it will show the description on them.

Here we show
“Solidworks 2012 X64 SP2”

Simply
launch the .msi and Bingo!

You now have
a “Modify” & “Repair” option

SolidWorks 2014 IS HERE!!

OK OK OK WAIT!!!

Like always let's not all rush out and grab the first copy hot off the press, there are things to keep in mind.

1. Is your OS supported? Win7 32bit, Win7 64 bit, and Win8 64bit ONLY!!!

2. Have you updated your graphics card driver yet? If not here is a quick link

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

Or you can go to Start, All Programs, SolidWorks 2014, SolidWorks tools, SolidWorks Rx, and choose diagnostics, then view the system information and see if it is currently supported.

3. Are you on a network license? Has your network server been upgraded to 2014 yet? Is your server OS supported? Check all system requirements here:

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html

4. Is your company and are your clients ready for 2014? Don't upgrade your machine and expect everybody else will be ready to as well. Plan it out.

5. Are you doing a clean wipe and a new single version install or installing side by side with your old version?

6. Are you creating an admin image or has your company installed your current version with an admin image?

7. Are you sharing a toolbox or are you creating a new local version? If it is shared you may have issues with your update as other users inside the toolbox can cause install updates to fail.

8. Are you backed up? Do you have backups of your system settings using Copy settings Wizard? Are your toolboxes and or vaults backed up?

9. Do you have admin rights? Is your anti-virus shut off? Is UAC turned off? If you don't know the answers maybe you should consult with your IT.

10. This may sound silly but... TEST IT before you install everywhere else. Make sure you can use all of your basic daily functions and programs along with SolidWorks. IF you can't then don't move all the machines forward. Again plan it.

11. Make sure there are available versions of Composer, EPDM, and or CAM packages to work with the new version. Don't get stuck not being able to work.

 

Here are the download images:

Go to www.solidworks.com

 

If you have lock showing up click the register my products option, otherwise continue.

 

Read some really (yawn) interesting legal stuff then click agree to continue.

 

Go to your downloads folder or click your downloads link from your browser and run the SolidWorksSetup.exe file and unzip it when prompted. This will launch the installation manager.

If you have had SW installed before your serial number will already be inserted, if not type it in now. Notice there are a few more options here. Also if your serial number starts 0010 or 9010 you have a network serial number and should upgrade the license server or have your IT do so prior to launching 2014. For more info on SNL click the link on the installere.

 

In the following images we will proceed as if we are installing next to a previous install, if it is a brand new machine you can just use the defaults and roll with it. You can for existing installs as well but the defualt action from SW is to name the new folders as (2) or (3) etc. that can be confusing to keep track of everything so I will name things per version as seen in the following images.

 

You can choose to download and install in the same operation or download separately then install, which I prefer to do the download alone.

 

Returning to summary I am going to change my install locations

 

Click Browse to add your folder path I will use SolidWorks 2014.

You will see this because the folder isn't there yet, no problem.

 

I will also modify the toolbox location for a new toolbox install. If you are sharing a toolbox or upgrading an existing toolbox you should choose existing to upgrade the database and not loose your custom part numbers or settings. WARNING make sure all users are out of the toolbox when this is being done. EPDM users will have to check out the entire toolbox. Upgraded toolbox will not work for previous versions, prior to updating a toolbox I strongly suggest making a copy of the toolbox somewhere safe incase we need to go back for any reason.

 

Ok you should be ready to download/install. If you only choose download and install it should be a smaller download thanks to some modifications to the installer for this version. If you choose download only the install size will be much larger, be prepared for about 7.2GB.

If you did a download only then you will have to launch the setup.exe from this location:

C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\Documents\SolidWorks Downloads\SolidWorks 2014 x64 SP0

Please remember that the CAD Admin dashboard and SW tracking only works if you join the Customer Experience. Please make sure to opt in!!

Enjoy!!
John Van Engen
CATI Tech Support