CAD Forum

CarrieIves

Haven't done it yet, but what if you don't merge the standoff extrusion and then pattern the body, then use a combine? There is something about how the sketch pattern is being created. It's basically creating an additional 4 instances. "Draft-screw-hole1" is the original body. You can see...

CarrieIves

I am starting a housing model and trying to set it up for easy changes. Currently, the top and bottom housing are both in this one multi-body part. I have a sketch that contains points that locates where my mounting bosses and holes will need to be. image.png I would like to use that sketch to drive...

CarrieIves

I actually did a few renderings last week. I'd say I typically just do them a few times a year, so my skill level with them is low. Usually, we only do them near the start of a project when we are trying to make some industrial design decisions. The ones last week were to help us see how a texture c...

CarrieIves

We have a couple of notes that are typically used that are part of our drawing templates. For other common notes, we have them saved in our design library as notes. We can then just drag them into the drawing. In the image below, I have dragged the rohs note onto the drawing.

CarrieIves

While it may be somewhat double the work, you could create the controlling sketches at the top of your tree, and then for each feature, make a new sketch that uses edges from the controlling sketches.

CarrieIves

@AlexB Are you leaving anything outside PDM? Macros? SolidWorks settings files?

Do you still use the properties tab builder since there is also the data card?

CarrieIves

For those of you that are refreshing cache on login, are you refreshing for just template folders? I was thinking that I would set up the folder structure as "Library" and "Projects". Should I refine that to be "Library", "Templates", and "Projects" ...

CarrieIves

We are slowly inching closer to actually implementing SolidWorks PDM Standard (we have SW Professional). Today, I am thinking about our folder structure in PDM which lead to me wondering about where I should store templates and such. Currently, we work off network drives. We have each customer's pro...

CarrieIves

I really like having my pre-defined views in my template. I have removed the identifying information from one of our templates. It's attached. Do note that it's 3rd angle projection. I use a predfined view for my front and iso views. The other two are projected from the front view. image.png The &qu...

CarrieIves

It can be done. I have a drawing where I am using component references. The drawing was initially created in SW2019. It is now in SW2020 SP 5.0.

I don't have a BOM on this drawing nor do I have these components excluded from the BOM.

CarrieIves

I am most likely to use it on imported geometry. The other place I may use it is on a complex plastic part that has already been tooled. If the features are too interconnected, changing the sketch that drives where you want a change may make a lot of changes in places you don't expect. It's not grea...

CarrieIves

We are going this route in Windchill. How do you reconcile assembly drawings. The EBOM on the drawing and in Windchill match the balloons/find numbers. When you restructure the EBOM to MBOM in WC, those line items change. Now the drawing no longer matches the MBOM. Do you create a new assembly and ...

CarrieIves

The most important part is knowing which type of views you have. I find an iso view can help me notice that more quickly. One of the most expensive mistakes in our company's history was because the engineers didn't realize that a component drawing was in 1st angle. It resulted in the pads for a ball...

CarrieIves

It depends on the size of my assembly and logical breaks. I usually have subassemblies lined up with manufacturing steps. The fewer subassemblies, the fewer drawings I have to create. BUT, sometimes it is a lot easier to make a drawing of a subassembly than to create the display state and explode st...

CarrieIves

I use multiple display states and multiple explodes. The image below shows one of my current assemblies. I try to have a similar name between the explode and the display state. image.png Zhen-Wei Tee , in CREO, you can do something similar. I don't remember the name of it, but it is a view state or ...

CarrieIves

Y'all seem to like the hole wizard a lot, so maybe I am using it wrong or didn't get things set up right. Can you let me know what I need to change to make this actually useful? Mostly, I am putting in thru, untapped holes. If I need a tapped hole, then I am likely to use the hole wizard, but otherw...

CarrieIves

We have a variety of customers, so each customer gets their own sheet formats and templates. When I set up the drawing template, I only make it for the first sheet. I then make sure to set the "Sheet format for new sheets" in the document properties (Drawing Sheets), to be the format for t...

CarrieIves

This is where SolidWorks shines to me compared to other CAD tools. It's the native way it used to work, you always preselected geometry then commands, later they added the post selection. Preselection is not as intuitive for new users but the workflow is faster. Mirror sketch is a great example, on...

CarrieIves

I opened the file in SW 2019. It has the "1" by all the holes when I open. If I do a rebuilt I get this: image.png Selecting File/Properties and hitting OK, then doing a rebuilt gets this: image.png The odd part is it rebuilds on opening, so why it changes between the opening rebuild and t...

CarrieIves

After being the person that would usually show others how to do things, I decided to not customize much since I got tired of their computers not having my customization. I use the command manager. I use the s key a lot in sketches. I sometimes remember it elsewhere. I haven't trained myself in mouse...

CarrieIves

This is related to the asymmetric tolerances discussions. I have been designing a lot of plastic parts lately. They build the tool off the model, so it should be modeled to what you want. Reality, is that sometimes the part off the tool ends up outside the tolerances but it can still work. (Sometime...

CarrieIves

Maybe it isn't agnostic enough, or maybe it is more about design than CAD. As you start, spend time thinking about how things will be changed and how those changes will be controlled. Also, how are you going to communicate to others (or even just future you who hasn't looked at this things for a cou...

CarrieIves

Based on the number of replies, should I conclude that no one is using this? Or that no one has best practices for it?

CarrieIves

I currently have some time at work to try learning parts of SolidWorks I am not as familiar with. I have looked at a couple of videos that some VARs have posted, and was able to stumble through my first couple of tolerance studies. I am struggling with adding the DimXpert dimensions. I am also not s...

CarrieIves

You can change the display of a particular component. You can do this by highlighting the component and changing its display from the right mouse button. In the image below you can see that most of my parts are using the default display state (with the check on the box). The one at the top is using ...

CarrieIves

To fix the orientation, you may want to create a coordinate system in the orientation you want then export it based on that coordinate system and then re-import it.

CarrieIves

I've worked at a variety of companies with a variety of part numbering systems over the years. I think it works well if part numbers have general categories rather than just being sequential. Most of the places I have worked send parts out to be made. They are inventoried by part number. (and if you...

CarrieIves

There are calculators you can use to make sure your design is adequate. I will use simulation express (because that's what we have) to check that what I have is reasonable. I'd model it undeflected and then use a sketch or copied surfaces for the deflected version.

CarrieIves

This may be more detailed than what you are looking for. I have worked at a couple of companies that used Windchill to control SolidWorks files. Windchill is a very cantankerous behemoth. Plan to delete workspaces and cache regularly. There is almost nothing intuitive about using Windchill. USERS WI...

CarrieIves

I'm trying to model a stamping where the part is folded over on itself. It looks to me like the surfaces are touching. I have not found anything that changes the hem to make the inside radius any smaller. I'm going to walk away from it because I don't need that level of accuracy in my model.

CarrieIves

I'm trying to create a closed hem using SolidWorks. I am on SolidWorks 2020, SP 5.0. This is a part that doesn't have to be 100% accurate since I'm just modeling something we will buy. Here's my hem creation: image.png The hem is spaced out by the radius. image.png I am considering just making this ...

CarrieIves

We currently are storing everything on our network drives by project. We have been bringing any anything we need for a specific project and saving it in that project's folder. If I have used it somewhere else, I will copy it to the new project. We do work for a variety of customers so each project i...

CarrieIves

I don't have PDM running. I have SolidWorks 2019 SP 5.0 and 2020 SP 5.0. I also use File Open (or control O) and then often start typing what I am wanting to open. I am able to switch directories, and it is looking at the new one as I type.

CarrieIves

This is probably a different issue, but I had a view that somehow was created with perspective on. The balloons were not attaching where it looked like they were and the numbers were all wrong. I recreated that saved view and then everything worked as expected. This is was SolidWorks 2019.

CarrieIves

I was reminded today of "advanced delete".

I use this when SolidWorks wants to delete dependent features (especially some of which aren't truly dependent).

image.png

CarrieIves

Especially on parts that have surfaces that are used to create things and are then no longer needed, I like to use delete body to get rid of the extra bodies that I don't need anymore. I try to use the command right after I no longer need that body. For example, I may create a surface to make some k...

Search found 136 matches

Re: Patterning boss with sketch driven pattern fills in hole

Patterning boss with sketch driven pattern fills in hole

Re: How often do you do renderings?

Re: Block Scale

Re: How do I keep my sketches out of the features in the Feature Manager?

Re: SolidWorks PDM, templates, library features, standard notes

Re: SolidWorks PDM, templates, library features, standard notes

SolidWorks PDM, templates, library features, standard notes

Re: Creating the Standard 3 View by the Drag and Drop Method

Re: Lost Component References after Rebuild

Re: MoveFace -- To Move or Not to Move

Re: assembly structure

Re: 1st Angle versus 3rd Angle projection

Re: assembly structure

Re: Exploded View Discussion

Re: Using Hole Wizard/Threads

Re: Favorite template settings

Re: What are your most impressive tricks of Solidworks

Re: Issue Check please

Re: How do you interface?

Re: It would be lovely...

Re: Biblus Agnostica – The CAD Agnostic Bible

Re: Is anyone using TolAnalyst? If so, do you have best practice suggestions?

Is anyone using TolAnalyst? If so, do you have best practice suggestions?

Re: Display Style sometimes does not work in assembly

Re: Importing Solid Edge step file into Solidworks

Re: A sensible part numbering system - before it’s too late!

Re: Ring Segment Snap Features

Re: Is anyone using Windchill to control SOLIDWORKS files?

Re: Is it possible to get SolidWorks to actually create a closed hem?

Is it possible to get SolidWorks to actually create a closed hem?

Re: Commercial parts best practices?

Re: Part Search Directory change?

Re: Balloons Don't attach to Part?

Re: What are your most impressive tricks of Solidworks

Re: What are your most impressive tricks of Solidworks