SolidWorks Legion

What’s new in SolidWorks 2012: Magnetic Lines

Just over a year ago, 3DVIA was showing off something called Magnetic Lines. In 3DVIA, Magnetic Lines are a documentation aid that allows you to quickly line up any type of objects with each other by attaching them to a common line. Most notibly, Magnetic Lines can be used to quickly align item balloons on assembly drawings. Many users asked the question, if it is in 3DVIA, why not have it in SolidWorks. Well, the SolidWorks team took the request seriously. Within one year, they introduced Magnetic Lines in SolidWorks.

Unlike 3DVIA, SolidWorks’ Magnetic Lines only control item balloons. (SolidWorks has other tools to align annotation notes and drawing views.) You can add a Magnetic Line to your drawing with the Magnetic Line command from Annotations toolbar or the Annotations tab in the CommandManager.

This will enable you to draw a line on your drawing with two points, thus forming a Magnetic Line. You can drag one end of the Magnetic Line through the center of an existing balloon to attach it to the line. You can also drag a balloon onto a Magnetic Line. Magnetic Lines are only visible when the command is active, or when a balloon is selected.

Once balloons are attached, they can quickly aligned in any direction by dragging one end of the Magnetic Line. They can also be moved in unison by dragging the Magnetic Line from the middle.

To detact a balloon from a Magnet Line, click on the balloon to drag it off of the line. In my opinion, just about everything with this new tool is intuitive and easy! It is a powerful new drawing aid that makes organizing balloons on assembly drawings much easier.

Ontario SolidWorks User Group meeting, mid Dec 2011

Some would say that travelling to Ontario in December is foolish. It is wet, snowy and very cold. Well, call me a fool. I visited Toronto to present at the December meeting of the Ontario SolidWorks User Group. It was cold, but not much different from Massachusetts. It was a little rainy, again no difference from where I live. No snow! This time of year should’ve been nothing but snow everywhere. Then again, Massachusetts also had not snow at that time. Maybe I’m not so foolish afterall.

I presented on Advanced SolidWorks Customization Techniques. This is a preview version of what I will be presenting at SolidWorks World 2012. This is a presentation similar to one given a few years before at a SWUGN Technical Summit, now updated for SolidWorks 2012.

Several discoveries were learned on this trip. I discovered the locals believe that Toronto has the “worst traffic in North America”. That’s an arguable yet still valid assessment. Rain, no matter how slight, makes the traffic unbearable. And, even with reduced crowds due to rain, a SolidWorks Employee can draw people from miles (er, kilometers) around to a SolidWorks User Group meeting. Oh, and one more thing.

This is Canadian Slice Pizza: bacon, pepporini, mushroom, and of course, cheeze. It’s apparently normal to serve it on a corrugated paperboard as a stand-in for a plate.

Yes, it’s called “Canadian” in Canada. Quite tasty, and it is a combination of toppings that I’m not quite so unfamilar with. Thank you to Chris White for organizing this event and to everyone who attended!

SolidWorks World 2012 is on Valentine’s Day (luvification letter included)

Heart

The following humorous article has been re-posted closer to SolidWorks World 2012 as requested by several individuals. Use in good health and good luck!

Yes, it is true. SolidWorks World 2012 will be from February 13-15, 2012. It’s on Valentine’s Day! Maybe SolidWorks Corp is trying to schedule the event around other major conferences in southern California? Maybe someone didn’t think about the fact that many of us not only have to get approval from our boss at work, but now we have to get special approval from our boss at home?

Well, SolidWorks Corp has decided to help out. They created a new justification, or luvification, letter to help potential SolidWorks World 2012 attendees get approval from their spouses to be away on Valentine’s Day.

From their new weblink:

DS SolidWorks Corporation understands that SolidWorks World 2012 will fall on Valentines Day in 2012. Unfortunately, scheduling around other major events in southern California, such as the MD&M show, requires us to push our conference into mid-February next year. We are sympathetic to the many spouses that may be away from their loved-ones on Valentines Day. This justification, or luvification, letter was written to aid in getting spousal approval for attending SolidWorks World 2012.

SolidWorks World Luvification Letter

Dear madam or sir,

I am writing to you [spouse’s name here], who I love, to request permission to attend the SolidWorks World 2012. It is highly important that I attend this significant event because I believe the conference’s opportunities for technical training and networking with SolidWorks users worldwide can help me accelerate my career. In turn, that will help me bring home more bacon (and other such required groceries).

Don’t worry about me enjoying myself. I’ll be too busy with more than 150 technical training sessions and three long General Sessions. Then there’s the Special Event where I will congregate with other individuals who are missing their spouses. Yes, dear, I will miss you something fierce. The pain and agony of being away from you on Valentines Day will not be bareable. Therefore, the very next weekend, I’m taking you on a very special trip to [insert appropriate location and activities here] without the kids.

Thank you in advance for your consideration, and please let me know if you need additional information on specific conference opportunities and activities. I look forward to your positive response to my request.

With great love,

[insert your pitiful name here]

I originally posted this “luvification letter” in the SolidWorks Forum. And in case someone missed it, this is a joke. 🙂

New inspection symbols added to SolidWorks 2012 symbol library

An unofficial standard has crept into the Drafting field for mechanical drawings. In an effort to leverage drawings for functions other than defining the specifications for product, many companies are placing Quality Inspection (also known by other names such as Incoming Inspection) instructions on their drawings. One common method to identify inspection dimensions is to place a “race track” symbol around them. This is essentially a border with rounded ends.

When I last checked, neither ASME or ISO standards currently support the race track inspection symbol. This means use of the symbol technically has no meaning unless the drawing has the definition somehow included within it. This can either be in the form of a reference to a company’s drafting standard or a note within each drawing’s general notes.

If a company chooses to define the symbol in the general notes, they are left with an interesting problem. How do they describe the symbol so that they can define it. Although the race track may be easily placed on a dimension in most CAD applications, it is not so easily placed in annotation notes. They could use a verbose method.

The problem with this? It doesn’t necessarily get the message across. What’s a race track border? Maybe they could say “…DENOTED BY ROUNDED OUTLINE” or “…DENOTED BY OVAL.” The general problem is the same with any of these options. The description doesn’t fully communicate what is being defined.

SolidWorks does have a few methods to include a faked symbol in general notes (such as a border around empty spaces, or a sketch block placed under the note). Now, here’s something you won’t see in the SolidWorks 2012 What’s New document. With SolidWorks 2012, there is a new heading in Symbol Library called Inspection Symbols. Depending on company preferences, there are two new symbols that may be included with an annotation note.

Also included in the Inspection Symbol library is a new symbol that may be used for non-dimensional inspection points.

Auxiliary views for those strange angles

I rarely used auxiliary views. Every once in awhile, parts defy orthogonal projection. These are when auxiliary views are useful. In those cases, auxiliary views are generally projected from some perpendicular surface. But once in awhile, there’s a part that defies even this, having no flat surfaces from which to project.

In the example below, there is a feature that cuts through a part at an odd angle. There is no flat surface into which it cuts. Normally, in SolidWorks, the direct view of this cut could be shown by using the Auxiliary View tool and selecting a perpendicular surface from which a view may be projected. Here, there is no such flat surface. SolidWorks does support these kind of oddball scenarios.

In this example, we are still going to make use of the Auxiliary View tool.

1. Add a side view of the part.

2. Sketch a line onto the view.

3. Add relations to the sketch line to make it perpendicular to the feature that is to be detailed.

4. Pre-select the line and then chose the Auxiliary View tool from the Drawing toolbar or at Insert pulldown menu>Drawing View>Auxiliary.

5. A preview will appear attached to the mouse cursor. Move the cursor in the direction that will be projected and click to place the view. Depending on the version of SolidWorks, some further adjustment may be necessary to show the view arrow and other details with certain perferences.

Match up projected Break View with its parent view

Break views are common practice for some industries where long components do not fit well on standard sheet sizes at a useful scale. SOLIDWORKS has a function to break views in the Break tool in the Drawing toolbar. However, what if there is a projected view of that component that must also have a break? Do the breaks in each view automatically track with each other (match up)?

Yup, but as with many abilities in SOLIDWORKS, there’s a setting. This setting allows the user to determine if they want the projected view to always match up with the breaks in the parent view. This choice is important, as there may be very real purpose to not have breaks in views line up. For example, the parent and projected views may show details at different locations along the length of the component.

However, if the user wishes the parent and projected views to break at the same locations, the setting is located for the projected view in its PropertyManager>More Properties… button>Align Breaks with Parent check box.

End result in this example after a quick rebuilt (CTRL-B):

Break View UPDATE!

Newer versions of SOLIDWORKS automatically set Align breaks with parent property as checked. If you wish to have a projected view with different break alignment from its parent, you’ll have to uncheck this setting.