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.

Unaligned break view

 

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.

Tuesday Two: saves lives, makes lives

Tuesday Two

Sipuleucel-T is new treatment from Dendreon that uses the body’s own immune system to fight prostate cancer.   Each dose is personalized by consisting of the patient’s own immune cells that have been trained to seek and attack prostate cancer cells.

Who knew this was even an issue.  Broken lobster traps sometimes break free from tethers and wash up on beaches and riverfront properties in Maine.  Too expensive and bulky to haul off, Kim Boehm created the Trapzilla as a convenient way to compact the traps to a manageable size.

 

Epoch fail

The Wedding Countdown Bra puts a clock on a bra to let….well, I’m not really sure what the countdown supposed to encourage.  It signifies the countdown to when the wedding ring is placed on the wearer’s finger.  Ironically, press vidoes and images all show the model with an engagement ring instead.  Nothing says “Marry me!” more than a countdown to wedding bells attached to a bra.

New in SolidWorks 2012: Unit of Measure

A common request from users has been to provide a quicker method to change a document’s unit of measure.  Previously, the only out-of-the-box method was through the Document Properties window, which involves a whole series of clicks and mouse movement.  In SolidWorks 2012, units of measure can now be changed via a pop up menu in the status bar (bottom right of the SolidWorks window). 

Of course, more refined control is still available in the Document Properties.  This area is now easy to access as one of the options in the unit of measure pop up menu.

(If your status bar is hidden, you can display it going to View pulldown menu>Status Bar (near the bottom of the list)

Blogroll links (mid-right-most menu)

When you have a chance, I recommend going through the SolidWorks blogroll in the  middle portion of the far right menu bar of SolidWorks Legion. 

I keep the links updated to make sure that it mostly contains relatively active blogs that apply to SolidWorks users in some way or another.   My general guideline for this list is blogs that haven’t been updated in about 18 months are removed.  I’ll leave up some sites longer if there’s good content that can still be useful.  For the most part, the links are actively (often very actively) updated.

Why am I inviting visitors to leave my site by clicking on links to other sites?  The same reason I do this blogging thing.  To provide a useful resource to SolidWorks users.  This applies to Lorono’s SolidWorks Resources site too, which I (and others) still update as well. 

I hope you enjoy the resources found on all these sites!

New in SolidWorks 2012: Equations

Equations is, by far, my favorite update in SolidWorks 2012.  The interface has been totally redesigned (and UI very very is important).   My favorite new function with Equations is that we now have the option to include extremely simple equations directly to driving dimensions.  It makes me happy that I can now type “1 + 1” into a dimension field and have it remain as 1 + 1 instead of collapsing to its evaluated value of 2.

 

To add equations directly to dimension text fields, just add an equal sign at the start the field.  The Equation “E” then shows up next to the dimension text field. 

One current drawback that I did notice is that once you enter equation mode, you can no longer specify units of measure within the dimension text field.  However, you can still use non-persistent equations; just leave off the equal sign.  These will continue to behave as they always have (including the usage of units of measure). 

OK, there’s a lot more going on with Equations.  I cannot do justice to the topic in a a brief overview.  I’ll cover a couple of basic items.  I sincerely suggest that everyone look up the What’s New for Equations to get a real taste for the improvements.  The new Equations capabilities are an important addition to SolidWorks in 2012.

Some other Equations enhancements of note

The updated Equations View supports new functionality.  Equations within this view can be sorted and filtered.  There is a new selection available called “Automatic solve order”.   In previous versions of SolidWorks, if equations broke due to references shifting around or any number of other reasons, you had to move the equations around in a very manual process.  “Automatic solve order” will automatically detect dependencies within all of the equations and reorder them accordingly! 

Equations and global variables can now be suppressed from all views for troubleshooting and other purposes.  Additionally, they can be applied to selected configurations, right from the Equations View dialog window by RMB clicking them and choosing Suppress and the Specify Configurations.

Oh, one more cool thing to squeeze in at the end: Equations dialog box now allows the selection of mutiple rows to perform the same task on all selected equations.  CTRL and SHIFT keys function normally to multi-section rows.