Create the Best Design Through Optimization

Finding the best design is important for all engineers.  Whether by minimizing the amount of material or changing the material completely, cost can be saved.  While possible to create multiple simulation studies with minor differences to find the best design, separate studies take extra time, even when run at the same time.  One tool to help accomplish these tasks is Optimization through a design study. 

First a  static study must be done.

 

While this design appears to be good, is it good enough?  The stress does not pass the yield strength, thus staying in the plastic region.  It comes close, but can it come closer safely?

By right-clicking on the Simulation Study tabs, and choosing “Create New Design Study” we can begin the Optimization process.

 

Once created, three types of variables can be designated to guide this study.  This can be accomplished in either “Variable View” or “Table View.”

 

Variables are the changes that will be tested.  By clicking to add Variables, the Parameters box will open.  A variety of changes can be tested; Model Dimensions, Global Variables, Simulation, and Materials.

 

Once the parameter is set, the only other thing required is a goal.  This will be a sensor to govern the study.  Constraints can be added as well.  These are sensors as well.  In this example the model width is set to be the variable, ranging from 5 mm to 10 mm with a step size of 1mm.  The goal is set to minimize the mass.  The constraint of stress is set to be less than 27.6 MPa, which is the yield strength of the material chosen.  Once these have been set and the Optimization box has been checked, the Design Study can be run.

 

Once run the results are available to be compared.

 

As seen, Scenarios 1-3 are highlighted red because they have exceeded the yield strength entered as a constraint and Scenario 4 is found to be the Optimal Scenario.  Further testing can be done with the optimal scenario if needed, such as a fatigue test.

 

Chad Whitbeck, CSWP

Applications Engineer, CATI

Drawing Enhancements for SW2014

SolidWorks has made some awesome enhancements to Drawings in 2014. Some of the nagging workarounds from past versions have now been updated. Here are 5 enhancements to get us started!

View Pallet:

New for 2014, the View pallet now shows all the views, even views placed on a drawing sheet. In past releases, once views were added to the drawing, they were removed from the view pallet. An Icon
was added to show that view is on the drawing. Multiple instances of a view can be added to the drawing by dropping and dragging the view on a drawing sheet.

 

 

Replace Model:

The new Replace Model command will replace an existing model with a different model by picking individual or all drawing views. You can also change drawing views from a part to an assembly and reversed. The great benefit of this feature is that if you have done any dimensioning to a part in the drawing that is used in an assembly or a part that derived from another part, the dimensions will retain the connectivity.

Here is a drawing of a bottom case of a laptop.

Click on the Replace Model icon

 

The Replace Model PropertyManager will appear.

Select the views to replace with a different model or check All Views. In the New Model selction box, Browse for the replacement model. When the  model is picked, the PropertyManger is ready.

 Click OK (green checkmark). The model is replaced into the views. 

Since the original dimenioned part was part of the assembly used for the Replace Model, the dimensions stayed intact.

 

Set Annotations to Uppercase

We know in SolidWorks there are so many small checkboxes that do great things. The All Uppercase checkbox is no exception!  A note can be typed in all lower case letters, all you have to do is select the note, in the Property Manager and check the All Uppercase box. The note will change to all capital letters.

Check the All Uppercase check box.

 It's that simple. No deleting and retyping. 

Attach Existing Notes to Drawing Views

Attachment is another lifesaving feature. If a note is attached to a view that it shouldn’t be, in the past, the note had to be copied and pasted into the desired view and the original note was deleted. Now, with a right mouse click on a note, the new Attachment feature allows the user 1 click to reattach the note to a view or sheet.  Highlight the note. Right mouse click and go to Attachment. There are 2 options: Attach to view or Attach to sheet. Pick the desired location and done.

 

Fix View Label Behavior

Detail views are inserted with a detail label and scale (depending on the setup desired for company standards).  Now, these View Labels are now available in the PropertyManager for the note. 

For this example, a Detail was added to a drawing with View label for Detail, Scale and Deliminator of 1:1.

The View Label was selected and deleted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the label is deleted, it is restored by using the Label Tags portion of the View PropertyManager.

Select any of the desired tags.

This feature has another awesome function. By clicking on the Deliminator in the Detail View, just by changing the scale, it will also change the scale of the Detail View. That's the beauty of SolidWorks Parametric capabilities.

Try out these functions and let me know what you think!!!

 

Judy Marlo

Application Engineer

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

SolidWorks Composer Custom BOM Table

A little know option when creating BOM lists in SolidWorks Composer is that you can add SolidWorks Custom Properties from the import as well as customize their column name in the BOM.  For example if you have created a standard BOM from within Composer, you will see something like this:

Now if you edit the BOM Pane in Composer, you can Configure the Columns.  This allows you to make several edits to the file specific metadata as well as custom properties imported from SolidWorks:

You can start by switching from Composer properties to Meta Properties.  These are the custom properties from SolidWorks:

You can add or remove columns:

You can also change the names of the Columns to show up in the BOM table by renaming them:

And once you have renamed to your liking, just press Apply or Okay and your BOM table will reflect those changes:

So keep this in mind the next time you need to add a BOM in SolidWorks Composer and be sure to always use Custom Properties in your SolidWorks designs.

Brian Reel

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

SolidWorks External References

I recently received a support call where a customer wanted to make a change to a part in his assembly. The part he wanted to change was built in-context. This means that the part was attached to the geometry of another part in the assembly with external references. What the customer wanted is when he changed the size or shape of one part in the assembly, the part that was attached to it would change automatically to match the new size or shape.

When the Gold Base is changed the jaw plate should also update to match the Gold Base. Notice how we change the dimension of the Gold Base from 90 to 70, the Jaw Plate also updates.

This happens automatically because of the external references. These are created with In-Place mates which are created automatically for in-context parts to prevent movement of the parts.

This is how this is supposed to work. However, the customer was making a change and his part was not updating and he could not figure out why. Take a look at the screen shot below to see an example of what was happening.

Notice how the Gold Base is now smaller than the Jaw Plate. They both should update together. There are a couple of explanations of why this is happening if you have in-context parts. The external references of the part are either broken or locked. Let's take a look to see if we can fix it. By right mouse clicking on the Jaw in the Feature Tree, we can look at the List of External References of that part.

Here we can see that the external references of this part have been locked. Luckily, the references have been locked and not broken. If they are locked, you can unlock them. If they are broken, they can NOT be unbroken. Just select unlock and now the part can be updated as expected.

Now the part can update the references.

A couple of key things to remember when working with external references. If you want to stop the updates from happening, lock the references. If you break the references from the List External References command, they cannot be unbroken.

 

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Did you know you can modify the SolidWorks Heads-up View Toolbar?

Did you know you can modify the Heads-up View Toolbar? Well you can. After loading and launching

SolidWorks for the first time, your Heads-up View Toolbar will look like this.

 
It is located at the top, in the middle of your graphics area.

To modify your Heads-up view. Expand your options button by clicking the arrow.

click Customize, then click Commands.

 

In the Categories field, scroll to standard view(for example). All the view standard icons will appear in the buttons box.

From here simply drag and drop the standard view icons on the Heads-up View Toolbar.

Does your Heads-up View Toolbar look similar to this?

The other thing to remember is, you can choose any category. You can also have Multiple categories.

Pick your favorite icons and place them on your Heads-up View.

 

Roger Ruffin

Application Engineer

Computer Aided Technology Inc.

Fender Musical Instruments Leverages Stratasys 3D Printers for Product Designs

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation designs and manufactures stringed instruments and amplifiers, such as solid-body electric guitars, including the Stratocaster and the Telecaster.

While engineers focus on how instruments should sound, a group of industrial designers at Fender work on how they will look. Design is an extremely important element of Fender’s business. The company maintains its own in-house design center, complete with a model shop to explore new concepts, create designs, prototype and test.

3D rapid prototyping has been a part of Fender’s design process for years, and until recently the company outsourced this work to service bureaus. It often took one to two weeks to get a “rapid” prototype back, a time lapse that really slowed down projects. Fender’s volume had grown to a point where the company needed to bring rapid prototyping technology in-house. After factoring in the cost of the equipment and materials as well as staff time, it was concluded that Fender could significantly reduce costs by creatign their prototypes in-house.

Ultimately, Fender chose Objet’s Eden350V 3D Printer. Built on the Objet Eden platform, this machine delivers the market’s most productive, flexible and high quality way to compress the product design-to-manufacturing cycle. PolyJet Photopolymer jetting technology found in the Eden350V enables horizontal layers of just 16-microns (0.0006»), producing prototypes with exceptionally fine details and ultra-thin walls down to 0.1 to 0.3mm thick.

The Objet Eden350V is designed to provide high quality 3D models quickly and conveniently throughout the CAD/CAM process. With a full 350 x 350 x 200mm build size, it offers the flexibility to produce a single large model or multiple smaller models in one build.

Now, the Fender design team can prototype a part within hours versus weeks – so they are doing a lot more of it. Fender now uses its 3D printer to create parts, mockups and prototypes for almost every product.

The Objet Eden350V also has helped Fender avoid rework and retooling. One notable example was a light-up front panel for an amp.

You can view the entire Fender Case Study by downloading the PDF from the CATI website. 

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Manager
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

SolidWorks Flow Simulation Approach

Heat Transfer problems often crop up when designing consumer products, such as baking ovens, outdoor grills. So how does a deisgn engineer build the best most efficient design without breaking costly prototypes?  Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a great method to replicate the environment in a computer simulation. However, most CFD programs are complex, difficult to use, especially for designers who have not had a great deal of advanced education in physics of fluid flows. SolidWorks Flow Simulation offers intelligent, easy-to-use CFD to design engineers. 

Although spring alludes us, I miss grilling and will use the example of a grill to illustrate my point. The objective for SolidWorks Flow Simulation is to optimize surface temperature at the grill, and to study air flow (natural convection) within the grill. A design engineer uses wizard to set up external flow simulation, defining different materials such as granite, and steel casing. For heat source we rated define BTU/hr consumed, to capture high temperature effects radiative surfaces are defined at the granite, heat source and outer casing. SolidWorks Flow Simulation goals based approach ensures design parameters, temperature at the grill, air temperature is captured during simulation. 

Surface Temperature at the Grill

Air Velocity trajectories 

Air Velocity distribution in and around the grill

By studying temperature at the grill and air flow in and around the grill, a designer can determine how to size the vents, add deflectors and their effect on grill temperature. 

CFD Simulation tools can help design electronis products, medical devices, control vales, and SolidWorks Flow Simulation is an easy to use CFD software that enables designers to test multiple designs, to study heat transfer and fluid flow applications without spending excess time and money in the process.

Rajat Trehan

Product Manager

Computer Aided Technology Inc.

 

 

 

Imported Files – Turning Surfaces into Solids in SolidWorks

CATI's monthly contribution to the SolidWorks Blog will posted later this week. This month I to look at the challenges that we can run across when working with imported files in SolidWorks. The article starts off by taking about the problems we face in working with an imported model. It then takes you through the different processes for turning your imported surface model into a working solid model.

The file that I chose to work with was an assembly that when imported into SolidWorks opened as a part file by setting some of the import options and was 697 surfaces. The end solution we were able to reduce the overall number of surfaces in the model that is made up of a single or multiple Solid Bodies.

With the reward being the time it will save you later in the design process of not having to wait around for your drawing or assembly to open or rebuild a part made entirely of surfaces.

To view the article use the link below.

http://blogs.solidworks.com/tech

Josh Altergott

Support Manager

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

www.cati.com

How to make only your company’s drawing sizes available in Solidworks

There are many companies that make several drawing templates that have the file extention *.drwdot.  The other option can also be to create a bunch of different title blocks and let the user decide which sheet size he or she wants and Solidworks will choose the title block for you based on what is available.  Both options depend on how many templates you will have.  If you have a lot templates, then it is easier to make just the title blocks (sheet formats) and let SolidWorks assign a sheet size to them.  

Basically, when you open up a new drawing and Solidworks asks you for a sheet size, the number of sheet sizes will depend on what title blocks you have saved. Let me illustrate- the picture below shows the standard items available when you open a new drawing. 

 

Then I will just take any of the sheet formats (*.slddrt) and save it to a folder on the desktop.  It can be any folder in any server.  You will have to go into the Options>System Option>File Locations and change the location of the “sheet formats”.

 

Once that is done just go to file open and open a new drawing.  The window should look like this (if you only have one sheet format saved out).

 

Ketul

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Creating BOM/Part Lists inside of SolidWorks Composer.

The other day I had a support call about controlling your BOM ID numbers inside of SolidWorks Composer. This video, I hope you agree, will give you some insight into working with parts and assemblies.

Cheers,

Bob McGaughey, CSWE

Technical Applications Manager

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

In-house vs. Outsource - 6 Advantages of Owning a 3D Printer

The benefits of 3D printing and rapid prototyping are numerous and well recognized. Whether it’s design validation,functional testing or faster launch of new products, executives seldom need to be to be convinced of the benefits. Still, many businesses continue to outsource 3D printing because they believe ownership is cost prohibitive.

What many companies don’t realize is that 3D printing has advanced dramatically; the availability of a new breed of high-quality 3D printers at affordable prices now discredits the argument that they are too costly. What’s more, the lower upfront costs of 3D printers represents just the tip of the tangible benefits: Even with relatively few modeling builds, having in-house 3D printing capabilities provides a range of operational and business benefits that provide real bottom-line advantages. The six key advantages an in-house 3D printer offers discussed in this white paper are lower costs; accelerated time to market; competitive advantage; fewer manufacturing errors; greater confidentiality; and improved model accuracy and quality.

Top 6 Reasons to Bring 3D Printing In-House:

1. Lower Costs        

An outsourced prototype can cost from several hundred dollars for a simple design to thousands of dollars for a more complex model – as much as three to five times that of a part printed in-house.
Creating the same prototype on an in-house 3D printer brings a significant cost saving, even if your company prints only two models per month on average.

2. Accelerated Time To Market

Turnaround time with outsourcing rarely takes the perceived two to three days to get models back. In fact, it normally takes around a week or longer. An in-house 3D printer produces a prototype within hours, rather than days. Additional time can be saved by printing during the night or over the weekend. This can shave weeks off the development cycle and dramatically accelerate time to market for new products and new features for existing products.

3. Frequent Prototyping = Competitive Advantage

Many factors can slow down the introduction of new products during the product development lifecycle – everything from choice of tools to time spent waiting for prototypes to arrive from an outsource vendor. Sidestep this problem with an in-house 3D printing system: Early-stage and frequent prototyping leads to more effective product launches, enabling a company to introduce new innovations to market ahead f their competitors.

4. Fewer Manufacturing Errors

Prototyping reduces manufacturing costs by fine-tuning designs before molds and die casts are made.
When prototyping is readily available and can be done inexpensively in multiple iterations, the potential for design errors is significantly reduced. Designers can test out different ideas to find the optimal design, using small variations on the model to check for functionality.

5. Greater Confidentiality

In today’s competitive market, a leaked design may spell disaster, making it imperative to ensure confidentiality. Keeping rapid prototyping in-house with a 3D printer eliminates the need to transmit design files to any external network. It ensures that designs never leave the company premises, safeguarding intellectual property.

6. Improved Model Accuracy and Quality

Regardless of how a prototype is produced, the goal is to accurately simulate the real-life product. In every field, high-quality, precise models are vital for form, fit and function testing. Quality 3D printers provide functional and visual accuracy. They can print the smallest features and finest details, smooth surfaces, and even moving parts, in a single build. And, with a choice of model materials and varied post-processing options, it is possible to create models that closely resemble the end product.

Having in-house, quality 3D printing capabilities offers significant benefits for the entire product development cycle. Return on investment with an in-house 3D printer is typically fast, even when outsourced modeling is low-volume. The short-term economic return becomes long-term advantage through enhanced innovation, increased confidentiality, more productive design cycles, higher-quality designs and faster time to market.

Information in this article appears in the whitepaper In-house or Outsource: Six Business Advantages of Owning an In-House 3D Printer. Click here to download the original paper.

 

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Manager
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.