SolidWorks Legion

Staying Connected to all things SWW10

There’s already a lot of buzz being built about SolidWorks World 2010 (SWW10), even with it being months away. To help readers keep track of the goings-on, SoildWorks website has a pipe that feeds articles from many of the SolidWorks related blogs. Not every article fed into the pipe is going to be about SolidWorks World 2010 right now, but a lot of them are about it already (such as the article you are reading right now).

Additionally, on that same webpage resides a Twitter fed pipe for all tweets labelled with the hatch #SWW10 or #SWW2010. Since the SolidWorks World 2010 hatch is used, it’s a sure bet that the tweets fed into the pipe are about SWW10 in some fashion or another. There aren’t many tweets just yet, but as we get closer to the conference, this will change drastically as more comments and planning are discussed.

In addition to this, I’ve set up the Twitter pipe on SolidWorks Legion, which will remain visible in the upper right menu until some time after SWW10 concludes in January 2010. *Update, I’ve removed the Twitter feed from my sidebar due to slow load times. Please see my Twitter feed page.*

Drawings represent final product

One comment I’ve seen about ASME suggests that it is geared towards fully detailing product definition. One trap that rookie designers and engineers will often fall into is over-specifying their parts by placing manufacturing process information on the drawing.

The new designer may do this because maybe a machine shop made the part wrong and was trying to work the rookie’s inexperience to weasel out of their responsibility. Maybe someone in Quality Control was confused by a drawing because they don’t have adequate blueprint reading skills, so they come to the new designer to ask that more information be spelled out on the drawing (when it is already fully specified). These are just a couple of examples. Often, new designers don’t know why manufacturing processes are not included on drawings, nor even that there exists standards that forbid it.

ASME Y14.5-2009 (and previous versions) states:

1.4(d)The drawing should define a part without specifying manufacturing methods. …However, in those instances where manufacturing, processing, quality assurance, or environmental information is essential to the definition of engineering requirements, it shall be specified on the drawing or in a document referenced on the drawing.

It is usually pretty obvious when manufacturing methods are necessary to the engineering requirements, even to the individuals new to the field. Unless one is in particular industries, manufacturing methods are almost never required. A drawing should fully detail the final product without over specification.

ASME Y14.5-2009 adds as an example:

Thus, only the diameter of a hole is given without indicating whether it is to be drilled, reamed, punched, or made by any other operation.

The manufacturer is responsible to provide a final product that complies with the drawing regardless to the processes they use. It is still important for designers to know the processes that will most likely be employed, so they know that the product is economically manufacturable. This does not mean that they should unnecessarily limit the manufacturer to particular processes.

SolidWorks 2010: Mouse Gestures

SolidWorks Corp has been working hard to improve the user experience. SolidWorks 2010 has examples have several innovative interface additions. The one addition that is sure to get a lot of attention is Mouse Gestures.

Mouse Gestures is a simple a menu scheme that is controlled by the RMB and a gesture (or short movement) of the mouse. When the RMB is clicked and held briefly in addition to a very slight movement of the mouse, a wheel menu appears around the cursor location.

Simply continue to hold the RMB down and move the cursor over the desired command. Without any further action, that command will execute and the menu wheel will disappear. If the RMB is released before a selection is made, the menu wheel is cancelled without any command executed.

If the traditional RMB is desired instead of the menu wheel, simply give the RMB a quick click (same as it ever was) without a mouse movement.

As with the “S” key shortcut menu scheme, Mouse Gestures menu wheel is customizable and context sensitive. The user is allowed 4 or 8 gestures with four different menus for each of the major modes: Part, Assembly, Drawing and Sketch. These are customized under a new tab in the good ol’ Tools>Customize… window.

Here are the eight gesture choices that can be assigned to particular commands:

Mouse Gestures is suprizingly easy to use. It’s intuitive when it is activated intentionally. However, I have found myself activating it unintentionally once in awhile. This may result in the surprize command being executed before I even know what hit me. So, for now and for me, Mouse Gesturing will be limited to View Modify functions. I certainly won’t be placing the Quit in my menu wheel. That said, the usual result of the accidental activation is just that the user will see the menu wheel briefly ghost in and out before any command is executed.

Mouse Gestures is a great new tool that looks to be a major time saver for frequently used commands. I’m looking forward to having a bit of fun playing with Mouse Gestures and customizing its functions until I find just the right combination of commands for each mode.

“Mommy, what’s a keyboard?”

Even with the explosion of the QWERTY keyboard being plastered on to almost every type of electronic device these days, I’m going to go out on a limb here-and-now to declare that the QWERTY keyboard will be obsolete within my lifetime. This prediction is not limited to the keyboard device I’m using to type this article. I’m referring to any type of letter based data input that takes the form of QWERTY. The beginning of the end for QWERTY is not the Dvorak keyboard. Nor is it speak [mis]recognition technology. In my view, the signal of the end is technology such as predictive text input, search assistant and other peripherals.

Predictive text input is where an author enters the first couple of letters and then is presented with a word or list of words that most likely match the author’s intent. The author keeps typing until the correct word appears, then accepts the entry. On a cell phone number pad, each number represents 3 or 4 letters. Predictive text input can quickly find the desired word, often with the push of only a couple of numbers. In addition, more sophisticated systems will learn which words are most commonly used by the author and present those as first choices to the author.

With predictive text input, a person can drastically increase their typing capabilities. I’ve seen individuals text with cell phone numeric pads faster than what is even possible on a smartphone QWERTY keyboard. In fact, I would suggest that average wpm speeds of numeric pad texters with predictive text input even exceeds that of experienced typists on traditional full size keyboard devices. That’s not hyperbole, and I’m not kidding.

Search assistant is similar to predictive text input, except a little more sophisticated and low key. Competing peripherals have a lot more buttons than they used to. Function keys are slowing being replaced by clicks on buttons on devices such as the mouse.

All combined, the QWERTY keyboard’s current Golden Age will be over soon enough.

SolidWorks 2010 Usability: Attach Annotations to Dimensions

There are a ton of subtle improvements in SolidWorks 2010 to improve its usability. Many of these improvements might seem small now, but once one is reliant on the new functionality, it will seem like we’ve always had it this way. Attaching annotations to dimensions is now easier with expanded capability. Here’s a couple of examples showing-off these new capabilities.

Drop Annotation Notes into Dimensions

It is now possible to drag an annotation note and drop it onto a dimension, to become apart of that dimension callout. First, LMB click and hold on the annotation note.

Select annotation text

Then, simply drag that annotation note on top of the dimension.

Selected text becomes apart of dimension

The result is that the text from the annotation note is now included within the text of the dimension. One limitation is that the dimension field still does not support borders around selected text.

Attach Annotations to Dimensions

Other types of annotation that can be attached to dimensions include GD&T feature control frames, datum feature symbols and surface finish symbols.

Annotations attach in more ways to dimensions

Annotations and their leaders may now be attached directly to extension lines.
GD&T annotations now may be dropped right into a dimension callout and then detached with the use of the handles in the upper left corner.
Annotations may now be moved around extension lines, and more easily moved from one attachment to another.

Plastic failure causes (brief overview)

There are many causes for failure in plastic parts. These can cause a variety of problems too. Here are some common root causes:

part was originally designed to be made from metal.
part may have design flaws due to stress concentrations and creep.
chemical interactions; in fact, even when a plastic may not be affected by a chemical under low stress, it may be susceptible in higher stress scenarios (environmental stress cracking or ESC).
poor decisions when utilizing material substitution and additives.
manufacturing process, or lack of control thereof.

With all of these common causes for the failure of plastic parts, one might wonder how does one maneuver the design and process mine field. It is important to traverse these issues since a failure in plastic parts can cause lose of valuable time, materials, customers, and can even lead to litigation. One important tool a company can use to combat and prevent such failure is making sure the engineering education of employees is up to the task for designing plastic parts and/or their molds. It is also important to seek out experienced processors who have the knowledge base required for successful part making. Of course, even when everything is done right, problems may still arise. This is where experience in process and design can be the difference between quickly correcting issues or getting stuck without any support.

Source: Fighting Failure in Plastics by Michael Tolinski – Plastics Engineering July/August 2009