Using Empty Views (Part 2: How to use them)

My articles on Empty Views in SolidWorks have been long in coming.  This is not due to the topic being complex or anything.  It’s just taken me that long to get around to this series.  (There’s been a lot of other stuff to talk about in the meantime, such as SolidWorks World 2009, something called a 3D mouse, and rants about this or that.) The Part 1 article in this series discussed how to make, place and size Empty Views.  Part 2 now discusses how to use them once they are created.

Use Empty Views as quick Zoom to selection locations

OK, let’s say that one empty view each represents the title block, revision block and drawing notes.  How does one quickly move about the drawing to view these areas?  There are several methods available in SolidWorks.  The following method is likely less common, but is perhaps quicker can more common methods.

First, assign a shortcut to Zoom to selection function.  Zoom to selection is found under View pulldown>Modify>Zoom to selection.

Zoom to selection location

To add the shortcut (for much quicker access to this function), goto Tools pulldown>Customize…>Keyboard tab> and then search for “zoom to selection”.  From there, simply add a keystroke as the shortcut for Zoom to selection and choose OK to save.

Now here is how to use this shortcut with Empty Views.  With the drawing open and with no views selected, look over in the FeatureManager.  Select any one of the Empty Views (or any view for that matter).

FeatureManager display of views

As this point, simply hit your shortcut keystroke for Zoom to selection.  The viewport will immediately zoom to the area identified by the Empty View.

Zoom to selection of empty view

Choose another view from the FeatureManager and hit your shortcut for Zoom to section again.  Each time, the viewport will immediately zoom to the area defined by the selected view.

Using Empty Views for PDF bookmarking

As an added bonus, any views created on the drawing (including Empty Views) will become bookmarks if you save that drawing as a PDF.  This adds greatly to the navigability of PDF files for everyone who uses them.  Within PDF Reader, the bookmarks will appear to the left (similar to the FeatureManager in SolidWorks).  Simply LMB click on the desired view, and PDF Reader will jump to that location.

There are some pitfalls with saving a drawing as PDF, so if your company is experiencing those, then it is not recommended that drawings be saved as PDF.  In those cases, print to PDF works better.  Unfortunately, bookmarks are not created when printing a drawing to PDF.

Conclusion

The one thing that frustrates me about SolidWorks Empty Views is that SolidWorks Corp reduced their functionality (as discussed in Part 2).  However, with a simple hack, they can be used as drawing bookmarks, to contain drawing notes,  and to add functionality to PDF files.  Additionally, they are always useful for containing sketches, as noted in Part 1 of this series.

The Answer to “Who is using 3D Mice?”

The results are in from my previously posted polls.  I have three results from two polls about who’s using 3D mice, and how they got them.  How did I get three results from 2 polls?

Well the first result of the polls is that I really dislike the polling site memedex.com.  I wish wp-polls would work, but it does not right now for my blog.  Oh well.

Ok, with regards to the second poll first, the question was “If you have a 3DConnexion 3D mouse, did you…?

  • …buy it yourself (55 votes)
  • …get it through your company (49 votes)
  • …win it in a contest (14 votes)
  • …receive it as a gift from 3DConnexion (8 votes)
  • …steal it (3 votes)

So, it looks like most users either buy own 3d mouse, or their company bought it for them to use.  I am surprized at the number of people who have bought these devices for themselves.  I guess that says something about the usefulness of such devices.

Something that isn’t really a surprize, but worthy of mention is that 3 people actually admitted to stealing or otherwise obtaining one through some nefarious means.  I added this option to the poll almost as a joke, but I knew someone would come forward, so it was a legit option.  You 3 thieves!  ::shakes fist::  😉

Do you use a 3D mouse with your 3D CAD application?”  The answers to this poll are skewed.  By a wide margin, responders stated they used 3d mice. This was kinda expected since the title of the article naturally drew in such users and likely precluded many of those not interested in 3D mice.  Regardless, here are the results.

  • Yes, everytime I use 3D CAD. (75 votes)
  • No, but I want to. (26 votes)
  • I have one, but I rarely use it, if at all. (21 votes)
  • No, and I don’t want to. (17 votes)
  • Yes, often or sometimes. (12 votes)
  • No, what’s a 3D mouse? (9 votes)

I think I know what the next poll will be.  I use my SpacePilot PRO with SolidWorks (and Google Earth).  With what applications are other people using their devices?

And the May Contest winner is…

The winner of the May Contest is Deepak Gupta! The contest was to see who could list the highest number of SolidWorks related forums not currently listed at Lorono’s SolidWorks Resources.  The contest itself generated over 70 comments, with about 65 or so submissions.  I am personally amazed by the total number of submissions. 

For his efforts, Deepak wins a CSWSP-FEA test.  From the SolidWorks website,

“The Certified SolidWorks Professional Simulation Specialist exam is designed to test an individual’s complete understanding of Simulation tools inside SolidWorks. Candidates who successfully pass this certification exam have demonstrated the ability to set up, run, and examine the results of various types of Simulation scenarios. They also have demonstrated the ability to interpret the various results available to them in SolidWorks Simulation.”

Best of luck to you, Deepak.  I’ll send you the info for taking your test by the end of the week.  I hope you pass with flying colors! 

Honorable mention goes to Frank Dijkstra.

The June Contest will be announced next week. Best of luck to everyone!

Inch or Metric?

A recent discussion on eng-tips.com has prompted some interesting replies.  The discussion revolves around one individual asking for advice to help in the battle to promote metric at his company, despite push-back from their machine shop, and a lack of concern about the issue from higher-ups who have taken a pragmatic cost related approach. I believe that the responses received may have surprized this individual.

There are some who point out that the cost of switching to metric must be justified and explained to management.  The problem here is that there IS a cost associated with switching from a shop based on inch tooling to a shop based on metric tooling.  Is there savings associated with the switch?  The benefits of switching units of measure are likely limited, unless they are dealing with much more complex issues.  Once a company has a system in place, it is generally not economical to switch it midstream.

Several made the point that if the company is already standardized to inch, then any individuals at that company should adjust their methods accordingly.  This is the same if a person accustomed to inch joins a company that has standardized to metric.

What I personally questioned was the rather strange idea that metric is somehow some sort of default when it comes to making the choice.   The universe doesn’t know the difference between an inch and a millimeter.  For us in the engineering field, it is easier to think in metric than in inch, but what are the real world advantages of one system or another?  Unit of measure is completely arbitrary.  One person who responded to the posting even pointed out the advantages of using hardware from both systems at the same time.

“But the rest of the world is using metric!”  Umm, really? That, by itself, is an arbitrary point.

A counter arbitrary point, the United States of America has the largest economy on the planet by almost 2-fold.  It doesn’t really matter what rest of world does because the U.S. is so big. It’s like saying that the 800lb gorilla in the room should wear jeans just because all the chimps in the room are wearing them.  Maybe the gorilla is happy with his corduroys instead.

To this, there was a response about how the world combined outweighed the U.S. economy, and that the US is not 100% inch.  My point at that time was simple, “…Americans might be surprized by the number of countries that ARE NOT 100% metric, many of which are in Europe. ”

I was surprized by the responses that comment provoked.  There is apparently much less standardization going on around that planet that we’ve been lead to believe by hardcore metric proponents here in the U.S.  I know about the imperial gallon, the pint, and oddities like the metric ton.  However, I didn’t expect responses from the international community stating that there are significant fields and regions where standardization is in the old traditional imperial system and not metric.

The more I explore this topic, the more I’m convinced that it really just doesn’t matter.  Once a choice for a company is made, then they should stick to it.  I’m also learning that some strong proponents of metric here in the U.S. have a tendency to assume metric has greater adoption than what is true in reality.

New type of SaveAsPDF macro

SolidWorks is able to save drawings and current model views as a PDF format file.  SaveAsPDF with Folder SelectionThere’s been a lot of macros written over the years that cut the process of saving as PDF down to as few steps as possible. One of the long standing requests for this type of macro (and many similar types of macros) is to allow the user to pick the save location. Just uploaded is a macro (SaveAsPDF with Folder Selection) that does just this, and simplifies the location selection process for default folders. This new macro also uses more modern API techniques to save the file (using modelext::saveas instead of model::saveas4).

This macro does many things that previous macros haven’t.  While allowing the user to establish a default save location folder, it also provides automatic alternative choices when the default is not available.  Yet, even with all of these, the user can still override automated selection and pick a new location.  It does all of this without the use of VB6 forms.

As with other macros that do similar tasks, this will work best when assigned to a keyboard shortcut or a toolbar icon.   Also, as with all SolidWorks macros, there is a chance it will not work “out-of-the-box”.  This is normally due to the fact that SolidWorks updates core reference libraries with each release.  If errors are encountered, simply re-reference to the libraries that are available to allow the macro to function.  More information about that is available in this previous article.

3D Mice, who uses them?

[memedex:pollid#489615] So, I really don’t know when to stop beating a dead horse.  I’m going to talk about 3D mice again.  However, this time, I’ve created a poll to see how many people are even using them with their 3D CAD application.  The reason for this is two-fold.  First, I’m experimenting with the use of polls here at SolidWorks Legion.  Second, I’m curious to see the kind of response this poll will get.  (Note to fellow bloggers, if you have recommendations for WordPress polling plug-ins, please let me know.  For now, I’m using memedex.)

[memedex:pollid#489616] Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  This poll is open to anyone that uses 3D CAD software.  It is not limited to SolidWorks users.  Please respond to this poll.  Also, post any comments you might have about 3d mice or any other peripherals you use frequently.

Also, I have a second poll for those of us who have a 3D Connexion 3D mouse regarding how we obtained said 3D mouse.  For this poll, I’m interested in see the ratio of people who’ve purchased one (for themself or via their company) versus those who have received one through various other means.  Have fun with the polls!