Brian, CADFanatic

Making Intelligent Notes & Equations

When calling out holes on drawings, best engineering practices are to dimension holes in true profile views.  SolidWorks will only let you place place hole notes on arcs.  But sometimes on a complicated drawing, creating an extra auxiliary view just to show a hole callout is not desired and can really clutter the page.

You can just plop a note attached to a hole, but what if your hole diameter changes?  Are you sure that you will remember to go update that note?  I'm not.  This tip will show you how to create a semi-smart note that will update with changes to the hole size.

First, let's check our drawing specification.  Here we use ASME Y14.5M-1994, and section 1.4 (Fundamental Rules), paragraph (g) states:

"Dimensions should be arranged to provide required information for optimum readability.  Dimensions should be shown in true profile views and refer to visible outlines."

Note that the word "should" denotes that this is the preferred practice.  If instead "shall" was used, there could be no deviation.

So okay, we know what the best practice is.  But we also want to try to keep our drawing as simple as possible, eliminating unneeded views, especially on a busy drawing.

So say we have a part that looks like this.  Any type of cone, ogive, or irregular surface that has holes normal to the surface will usually give you this issue.

Because in a orthogonal view of this part the holes are essentially ellipses, SolidWorks will not let you place a hole note, but it is smart enough to know that there is a hole there to pull the information from.

So, you will have to create an auxiliary view to be able to call out the holes, as shown here.  In many cases, the only thing shown in this view is the hole callout.  Ofttimes it would be preferable to dimension the holes in the orthogonal view, as shown in the next image.

Here, we have attached an annotation to one of the hole edges in the orthogonal view.  To get the information to populate the note, we have to go back to the model to get the dimension name. The format is:

64X "Thru Hole Dia.@Sketch2@foo.SLDPRT" THRU

where "Thru Hole Dia." is the name of the dimension, "Sketch 2" is the name of the sketch defining the hole size, and "foo.SLDPRT" is the name of the part file.  This will allow the hole size to update if the hole is changed to say, a #10 hole.  You are somewhat limited, as I know of no way to capture the number of holes in this particular instance, as the hole was first linear patterned 8X, and then circular patterned 8X.  Note that you can capture one or the other by using "D1@LPattern1@foo.SLDPRT" or "D1@CirPattern1@foo.SLDPRT". Of course, if you create all the holes in the same hole feature, it is very easy to capture this information in your note.

Also, by using this variable format for referencing part and assembly dimensions in other files, you can also construct intelligent cross-file equations!

So try this technique yourself and see how comfortable you are with it.  Hopefully this tip will help you more easily document your designs and provide more flexibility when referencing external files.

SolidWorks & Design Simulation

Back on April 25, Dana Parrish, COSMOS Territory Technical Manager for SolidWorks, was in town to give a COSMOSWorks presentation to the Redstone Arsenal branch of the North Alabama SolidWorks User Group (NASWUG).  The presentation was titled The Who, What, When, Why, & How of Design Simulation.  (Dana and Ramesh Lakshmipathy, a SolidWorks AE, also gave this presentation at the Nashville, TN, SWUGN Summit, along with a COSMOSFloWorks demonstration during lunch.)

In the design simulation presentation, Dana spoke to each of those points about using the COSMOS line of products to simulate your design from the start, effectively creating digital prototypes.  Sound familiar?  I guess they had to use the terminology "design simulation" as some other company claims they invented the term "digital prototype", but I digress...

I'm sure most of you have heard all the hype about this recently, but all it really means is that you are simulating how your design will perform in the real world before you actually cut metal to create a real prototype.  This allows you to get a first-look at how functional your design is, and enables to you to make changes faster, easier,and cheaper than making real parts right off the bat.

This is really nothing new, but what is exciting is that SolidWorks is making this analytical functionality accessible to more users.  Now there are some who think this idea is not so hot, as FEA, fluid dynamics, and their ilk takes some expertise to do correctly.  And I agree for the most part that casual CAD users should not just start running FEA and not have their final design validated by an expert.  But by opening up this functionality to more users, you can zero in on your design goals more efficiently.

Traditionally, you would pass your design off to your analysis department (or farm it out) for analysis, or worse, just start cutting metal for testing.  This can get expensive quick!  By quickly testing and verifying your design using SolidWorks' design simulation and validation tools, you can speed time to market.  Of course, you should still have an expert analyst verify your final design and test real prototypes if your application demands it, but there will still be time and cost savings realized.

John McEleney spoke to this very issue when he spoke to our user group on June 11 of last year:

"He brought up the issue of globalization, and how companies and engineers have to start reacting more quickly to adapt to changes in the world economy.  This includes focusing more on reliable up front analysis to enable faster time to market and looking at alternate materials when designing.

"He spoke of how the role of engineer has evolved from someone with a calculator and sketch pad working with a draftsman to one who models and details their own designs, and how the role was again growing to include detailed analysis as well."

It's easy to see the path they are on; they are evolving to accommodate the growing roles of engineers and designers.  Since SolidWorks purchased COSMOS, it has been integrating those tools more tightly into SolidWorks.  It is now virtually seamless to switch between the modeling and analysis environments, and more of your modeling constraints and design intent carries over easily.

Their goal hasn't changed; it is still to provide designers and engineers with the tools needed to help them design better, faster, and cheaper in an ever-changing world.  I can't wait to see what 2009 has in store!

Edited for grammer/spelling 4/23/2008 - bdm

Improve System Performance - Tweak Your Pagefile

This is not any new ground-breaking information, but when it was mentioned last week in the CAD Manager session at the SWUGN Summit in Nashville, there was quite a stir in the room and several follow-on questions about it.  I have also received a few calls and emails about this since, so I thought that I would write an article about it and maybe help a few others.

(Note that Matt over at SolidWorks Legion has recently published an article dealing with this same issue in his SolidWorks Performance Blitz! series while I was on travel and in the middle of writing this one.)

Windows uses a pagefile, which is just a temporary file that Windows writes information from memory into when it needs more room.  The performance issue is that by default, Windows manages the pagefile by growing or shrinking it as demand comes and goes.  After a while, the pagefile becomes fragmented as it grows due to other data being written on the adjacent tracks of the disk.

To keep the pagefile from becoming fragmented, you should set the pagefile initial and maximum sizes to the same values, so that the pagefile is in one contiguous space on the disk.  I have seen several different rules of thumb for what values to use, from 1.5X to 4X your system memory.  Personally, I use 2X, and that works fine for me, but YMMV.

You can follow the steps below to tweak your pagefile to your liking:

1. Right-click on "My Computer" and choose "Properties".
2. Go to the "Advanced" tab and click "Settings" under the "Performance" section.
3. Go to the "Advanced" tab and click "Change" under the "Virtual memory "section.
4. Select the radio button for "Custom size" and set both the Initial and Maximum sizes to the same value, as shown in the image below:

Note that the sizes are in MB, so if you have say, 4GB system RAM, you would enter 8192 MB for 2X system memory (2 X (4 X 1024)).

Another item of note is that if you have 2 or more separate physical disks (ideally on different channels), you can also help increase performance by splitting your pagefile across them.  This enables you to write to each disk channel at once, increasing file-swapping speed.

If you have been running Windows with the "System managed size" option selected, chances are very good that your pagefile is fragmented.  When I perform this tweak on a system that has been up for a while, I will choose the option "No paging file", reboot, defrag, and then set the custom sizes as shown above.  If you have a large enough disk with empty space, this step is probably not needed, but it doesn't hurt.

I hope this tip helps you tweak your system to improve your SolidWorks experience!

2008 SWUGN Summit - Nashville, TN

Well, the 2008 SolidWorks User Group Network (SWUGN) Summit has come and gone.  There was a great turnout again this year, although we didn't have quite as many attendees as we did last year at our record-breaking meeting.

We had several great presenters, from SolidWorks employees, reseller application engineer's, and users.  I picked up several great tips, not only from the presenters, but from attendees!  That's what makes events like the SWUGN Summits and SolidWorks World; you never know what kinds of interesting tidbits you are going to come across.

I'm sure that Ricky will have much more detailed info on his blog, so be sure to check it out!  Meanwhile, I have posted the pictures I took at the Summit below.  Enjoy!

www.flickr.com

Physics is Phun!

Here's another time-waster for all you folks!  Phun is a "2D physics sandbox" that lets you quickly design all sorts of things and simulate how they will react in the real world.

For support, there is a Wiki and a modest user community in the Phun Forum.  There is also a YouTube group where you can share all of your phun designs!

Check out the video below:

Phun was created by Emil Ernerfeldt for a Master of Science Thesis at VRLab, Umeå University.  "Phun is meant to be a playground where people can be creative.  It can also be used as an educational tool to learn about physics concepts such as restitution and friction."

So go ahead, take a break and have some Phun!

Via Dvorak Uncensored

SolidWorks 2008 Service Pack 3.1 - Is It For You?

Not unless you are running Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit!

"Please note that the only difference between SolidWorks 2008 SP3.0 and SP3.1 is production support for Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit, so it is not necessary for customers on other operating systems to download this Service Pack."

How many folks out there are actually running Vista and SolidWorks?  At my company, the IT department has chosen to stick with XP for the foreseeable future...

Free SolidWorks Certification - Offer Extended!

The special promotional offer for certification that SolidWorks was running has been extended thru June 31, 2008.  This offer lets subscription service customers redeem 1 free exam (CSWA or CSWP - a $99 value!) using a coupon code.

See the SolidWorks Certification Center page for more details.

SolidWorks World 2008 Pictures

Well, I finally got all the pictures I took at SolidWorks World 2008 in San Diego online! I will be the first to admit that I am not a great photog, but I think I got a few really good shots.

Check out my photostream below:

www.flickr.com

SolidWorks Technical Summit Dates Released!

The dates for the 10 SolidWorks Technical Summits in 2008 have been posted!  Be sure to check for the city nearest you.  There is even going to be one in India this year!

Of course, the one I will be attending is again in Nashville, TN this year on April 8th.  We broke the record for attendance last year, and we are going to try to set a new one this year.  So if you are within driving distance of Nashville, please plan on attending!

The cost is only $40, and you get several training sessions to chose from throughout the day, plus a continental breakfast and lunch is provided.  It's like one day at SolidWorks World, with the opportunity for learning new tips and tricks as well as networking with some of your local peers.

Be sure to check this page for more details and to sign up!

The Buzzwords of SWW 2008: Performance, Scalabilty, and Reliability

What a week!  I finally got to meet a lot of familiar people face to face for the first time, catch up with friends, and meet many new and interesting people.  SolidWorks World is so exciting, but so draining at the same time.  It seemed almost non-stop!

So after returning home, resting for a few days, and catching up at work, I am finally able to gather some of my thoughts on SolidWorks World 2008.  I hope to have pictures up soon.  If you haven't already, you may want to check out a few of the other blog's posts to catch up:

Mike Puckett
Matt Lombard
Ricky Jordan
Josh Mings
Rob Rodriguez
Jason Raak
Richard Doyle
Devon Sowell
Lenny Kikstra
Anna Wood

The buzzwords floating around the conference this year were performance, scalability, and reliability.  SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray announced in the press conference [courtesy Matt Lombard] Sunday and in the General Session on Monday that the company was going to have a paradigm shift and focus more on fixing some of the outstanding bugs in the software, making it more stable and reliable, and increasing performance.

The reasoning behind this is that users have been asking for years for SolidWorks to stop or slow down the implementation of new features and fix what is already there.

This is nothing new; I have heard the same complaints about other software, such as Autodesk Inventor and even Windows itself.  All software has bugs and problems that seem to hang around release after release.  But I have to say that it is very refreshing to hear the CEO come out publicly and make this commitment to address this issue.

Of course, they cannot totally stop implementing new features - you really can't expect them to do that.  They have too much competition and it would also stifle innovation.

So, will SolidWorks hold to this commitment?  I trully hope so.  From what I have seen at SolidWorks World this year, I think they are on the right track.  They always make the claim that they listen to their users, that the users drive the software.  You could see that happening with the enhancement requests - sometimes. But it feels as if it has taken on a deeper meaning now, like they are really listening.

I got the opportunity to spend some time with many of the SolidWorks managers and employees, and every one of those I spoke to had the same message - they have heard the customer, they have sat and watched the customer use the software (Jeff Ray told a story of sitting in with a user for a day and seeing some of the voodoo he had to do to get his job done), and they want to make it easier, faster, and even more fun for people to do their job.

Only time can tell how sucessful they will be.  The previews and demos of SolidWorks 2009 they showed on Wednesday definitely showed that they have been working towards this goal for a while now.  We are dealing with some fairly large assemblies here now, so I was really excited with what I saw.  I am definately looking forward to the next release!