CAD Forum

KSHansen

Thanks!

Can you set up a way for users to contact you if they're not logged in? I couldn't find anything! Not even on your own website. Even the FAQ, with helpful titles like "why can't I log in?" aren't visible unless you're logged in.

KSHansen

We went a very long time without hardware upgrades. We were on Creo, and we also went a long time between software upgrades. We'd usually skip a version, so three or four years.

KSHansen

The part is not managed in a BOM. It doesn't go to the shop floor since this is just for making pretty pictures for literature. The pin model isn't even connected to a real-world part. I don't want to create hundreds of configurations for the pin, or create a new config for the pin every time I crea...

KSHansen

You might be better off making the cut at your part level and using configurations to suppress or unsuppress the cut instead of patterning 2 things at the assembly level (the part and the cut). If it's a part that is standard, that could be a trouble-maker. The feature would need to be supressed on...

KSHansen

Is the pin a purchased part? Do you need a drawing to show the cut length of the pin? If it's a pin you buy in 8ft. lengths, I'd make a weldment profile of the pin, and put the description and part number in the profile. Then use weldments and make it whatever length you need. Or, Draw the pin at t...

KSHansen

You may have to edit the feature scope to include all components instead of "selected components" Ah, I got it, the feature scope in the extruded cut feature. I was looking for feature scope in the pattern. So yes, this worked - whenever I change the number of components in my pattern, I ...

KSHansen

You may have to edit the feature scope to include all components instead of "selected components" I'm not sure what that means. I've looked, but I can't find any videos on assembly feature patterns. At least not any that go into that kind of detail. Everything is about component patterns....

KSHansen

Right. I used Assembly Feature > Linear Pattern

Why are the subsequent patterned cuts almost nonexistent?

KSHansen

I have an assembly with patterned components. I put an extruded cut feature into the first component, and want to pattern it as well, but it won't pattern. The sketch lights up when I hover over it in the tree, but the cut doesn't appear. So first of all, you can't do a component-driven feature patt...

KSHansen

The model does have the different configurations in different colors. So assuming I want to keep it that way, how do I select a display state, to have it show up on the properties tab?

KSHansen

I'm working with someone else's model. I created twenty configurations before I realized there were two sketches that were not hidden, and they are visible in all my assembly configs. I have to find them in the feature tree and hide them, separately for each configuration. Is there a way to hide the...

KSHansen

SPerman wrote: ↑Thu Jun 30, 2022 4:38 pm Click on the configurations tab, and then right click on a given configuration.

Ah! It was hidden under an "Advanced" button. Thank you!

KSHansen

Going to the configuration properties before adding the planes and de-selecting this option would have fixed that. (I know it's too late, but it might help next time.) Yeah, that looks like it. Um... where do I find that? I did a search for configuration properties in Solidworks, and nothing come u...

KSHansen

SolidWorks has what's called a "Flexible Part". You build the rod length "in context". Then insert it into other assemblies and toggle it "Flexible" which prompts to select an assembly reference to control it length. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB_1AZIuhic&t=45...

KSHansen

... This is where you model the pin at 3", but want it to be 5" in one assembly and 6" in another without actually changing the part model. ... Correct On the other hand, since the pin model isn't used for anything else, I could have its length updated every time I open a new configu...

KSHansen

KSHansen You can also add an in-context relation by editing the part in the assembly, such as setting an extrude feature to end at the surface of some other part. Note that we never use in-context relations, as it screws us over in file management. You could also drive everything with a layout, tho...

KSHansen

Configure the dimension? Configure Dimension does not come up when I right-click the dimension. I'm not quite sure how this works, but I'm also trying to avoid having to create a huge list of configurations in the pin model, to go along with the huge list of configurations in my assembly. Fortunate...

KSHansen

In Creo, I can add a component to an assembly, and then control its size using rules (it's called "flexible components"). How is that done in Solidworks? I have a pin that is cut to length and put into the product. I don't want to put an eight-foot rod into the assembly and use an assembly...

KSHansen

Glenn Schroeder wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:59 pm but the model won't update until you do a manual rebuild.

That's something else that annoys me - when it updates as soon as I change something... and then fails because I have to change the other dimension too.

KSHansen

mike miller wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 4:33 pm AKA "What do your co-workers do with SWX that makes your blood boil?"

Referencing features to fillets, so I can't turn all the rounds off.

I'm making step files to use in large layouts, and trying to simplify them. I'd turn the draft off too, if I could.

KSHansen

That was it! I'd never heard of it, but when I clicked back to SW, there it was in the top-middle of the window.

Thank you!

KSHansen

I feel like this question is too basic to even ask... Sometimes when I try to edit a dimension in the model, I click on it, and it just puts the number in a box where i can change the number. But sometimes it brings up a dialog box with a slider wheel, and where I can tell it "this configuratio...

KSHansen

If you accidentally click the actual eyeball instead of the down arrow next to it, then you turn everything off. You need to either do what Glenn shows or click the actual eyeball again. I have done it hundreds of times. The distance between clicking the eyeball and clicking the down arrow is 1 pix...

KSHansen

Good to know about this option. The suppressed sketch is still showing, though, and I had already gotten rid of the center marks.

The greenish-grey color of the center marks, does that indicate they were dangling?

KSHansen

JSculley wrote: ↑Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:26 pm Click where the lines would intersect. This will allow you to delete the virtual sharp that was created by 'Find Intersection'.

Thank you!

KSHansen

Speaking of things I can't get rid of... When you use Find Intersection, and then you delete the dimensions, how do you remove the "intersection lines"? The ones that looks like extension lines, and show the point of intersection?

KSHansen

OK, now that's weird. I flipped the part in the drawing view 180 degrees. The suppressed feature with the centermarks used to be on the back of the part, but now it's on the front (the visible side). And now the centermarks have vanished. And when I switch it back, they're still invisible. So I gues...

KSHansen

No, I created the drawing after the model. And I'm pretty sure I haven't changed whether the features were suppressed. When I unsuppress the features, the centermarks turn from greenish-grey to black, but the sketch lines stay grey and in the wrong line font. I do want this sketch to show when its r...

KSHansen

Why do the centermarks for a circular feature show in the drawing, even when the feature is suppressed in the model? Also, I have a sketch that is suppressed, but it shows in the drawing as well. I can select and delete it in the drawing, which doesn't change it in the model, but when I unsuppress i...

KSHansen

Welcome to the "47 different people at different times coded different areas of the software without ever communicating with each other or checking what any of the others did" Solidworks. The next time someone tries to tell me how much easier Solidworks is than Creo, I'm going to get al W...

KSHansen

OMG I finally found it. Expand Sheet then Sheet Format in the drawing tree. Then right-click and delete Border. Sometimes commands are in the right-click menu when you select an item. Sometimes they're in the toolbars on top, and sometimes they're in the right-click menu on the tree. And in the case...

KSHansen

Now I can't get the zone letters to go away! Ack!

Edit: OK, now it's just messing with me. I can no longer copy/paste the title block entities.

PS, Edit: Nevermind, Ctrl+C works. When I start to get frustrated, nothing works.

KSHansen

OK, I get it. The answer is no. You cannot change the sheet size. You can only change the format, which is tied to a sheet size. But at least this is better than creating a new format from scratch, because even though I still have to copy-paste my format table, I don't have to recreate my properties...

KSHansen

It was a different document with the title block copied and pasted in. I couldn't figure out how to change the sheet size of an existing drawing.

KSHansen

I tried that way. It worked OK except I had to recreate all of the properties, so I was hoping there was a better way.

KSHansen

Thanks for the links, Dan. Glenn, yes, it doesn't have to be in the title block to be part of the drawing format. But, more specifically, it doesn't have to be inside the area of Title Block Table to be editable as part of the Title Block Table. *shrug* Now I have a real question... I've created thi...

KSHansen

Yes, that's it. Thanks! I think I was trying to choose the note and then look for how to specify is part of the table, rather then choosing the table and looking for a way to specify which notes are connected.

KSHansen

Have you tried the "edit sheet format" selection? Oh yeah, no problem there. If I do that I can edit the format in any way. If I'm in Edit Sheet mode, and I doubleclick in the area of the format, I can edit the text that I have specified to be editable. So that basically answers my questi...

KSHansen

OK, so... The purple thing... I switch the color display mode, and everything is black & white, and some of the lines change thickness. But that doesn't really explain anything. But either way, when I create a pdf, I do it in b&w, so I guess it doesn't really matter. I'll just ignore it. The...

KSHansen

These are not problems, they're just... making me wonder. I'm trying to create a format. One of my notes in the format is purple. This happens in my drawings in general too. Why? Why is some of the text blue, when I'm in "edit sheet format" mode? What does it mean? I thought it was for tex...

KSHansen

I first picked Llama farming (retirement), but then I decided I'd find a job that put my Creo skills to use. In reality, I'd probably just try to learn whatever my company picked.

KSHansen

I guess I'll have to copy the sketch a dozen times, and adjust the dimension.

This kind of pattern seemed like basic functionality. I would never have expected Solidworks couldn't do this. In Creo, it is literally seven clicks.

KSHansen

For some of the ones I've done in the past, there is a point in my sketch. When I pattern the sketch, that point moves around, and I can connect the points with a sketched spline. I will use this spline to create a track, or guiding surface. So no, I'm not making an extruded feature from the sketch....

KSHansen

Wait, is it not possible to pattern a sketch?

Please tell me there's something I'm doing wrong. There is not enough profanity for this.

KSHansen

Thanks Toby, but either I couldn't figure out how to make it work for my specific problem, or it just doesn't apply. Edited: Let's try a simplified example. I have sketch of a rectangle I want a bunch of them. So I pattern it, varying the width dimension. Is that possible? I keep trying the linear p...

KSHansen

I have a sketch. I want create multiple versions of this sketch on my part, where I incrementally change the length of one sketch element. Each new iteration of the sketch will show me the next location and orientation of the thing. I need to show all iterations on my model. How do I do this? In Cre...

KSHansen

I have a local project folder where I'm designing parts and making assemblies. Once I know what I've got, and everything is complete, I move them to their designated locations on the network. Parts go to their folders with subassemblies and top-level assemblies going to theirs. The first time I did ...

KSHansen

Frank_Oostendorp wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 6:35 am - do not move around SolidWorks files around in an incorrect way, do it in a way the references stay correct.

What do you recommend?

KSHansen

To those telling me I should only use unique file names, yes I know. But I have to... it's a long story. It involves making a copy of the assembly where I need to swap components without actually deleting them from the assembly because then I'd lose the configurations and design table. On a tangent,...

KSHansen

To tell where the files were opened from, in your assembly, select "File, find references". This will list the full path name for all the files in your assembly. image.png We work on network drives. I try to keep a flat folder structure for each project, but there have been times that was...

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