New Area on Lorono’s SolidWorks Resources

Recently, a new file area on the Lorono’s SolidWorks Resources has been created, called Engineering and Design.  The purpose of this new area is to provide some general engineering and design reference materials.  These materials are not necessarily related to SolidWorks itself, but useful to its users (and really anyone in the mechanical engineering field).  This new area will be expanded rapidly over the course of this month to include files that provide organized tables and functional calculations regarding on wire gages, positional tolerancing, sheet metal tolerance, thread sizes, metal coating and finishes, etc.

If there are tables, calculation spreadsheets or other data compilations you would like added to this area, please feel free to contact me with your files so that they may be included.  (I will not put up copyrighted material, like images of charts made by this or that publisher, without permission from the author.  However, data itself will be welcomed, preferably within an excel file.)

Also, comment here if you have any particular requests for this or any file area.

Getting Errors when using downloaded Macros?

Errors when running downloaded SolidWorks macros (Visual Basic 6) can be caused by many different issues, depending on the macro and which version of SolidWorks being used.  Here are some general points that may help.

Reference Libraries
Check reference libraries associated with the macro. These can be accessed by opening the macro through SolidWorks API editor (edit macro function), then going to pulldown Tools>Reference Libraries. If any of the listed libraries have the word MISSING in front of them, remove their check mark. You may need to replace it with a similarly named reference library that is included on your system. For example, if “SolidWorks 2008 Object Library” is missing and you are running SolidWorks 2007, then look for and activate the library named something like “SolidWorks 2007 Object Library”. SolidWorks may be able to do this automatically, but on many computer systems, you will need to manually make this edit, particularly if using a macro made on a version of SolidWorks newer than you are using.

Conversely, errors can be caused by having conflicting libraries loaded at the same time (i.e., having too many libraries).  No errors will appear in the reference library list.  If you are certain the correct library is loaded already, trying removing other SolidWorks related libraries one by one until the issue is resolved.

Also, the correct reference library may not be loaded at all. Research the line of code causing the error to make sure the correct reference library is loaded to support those instructions.

Additionally, if a macro was made on a newer version of SolidWorks than what you are currently using, its instructions may not be supported at all on the system running the older version of SolidWorks. In this case, you will need to find an equivalent API method for the older SolidWorks version, if one exists.

If the macro does not use Forms, a quick way to make sure you are using current reference libraries is to simply cut and paste the complete code from the existing macro file to a new one created fresh on your system. Often, this will fix any mismatched reference libraries, but it might still require research to make sure all the necessary reference libraries are loaded for that macro.

Sub-Modules
When executing the macro, make sure you specify the “Main” sub-module as the starting point. This is the section of code following the line “Sub Main ()”. Most macros are set up with Main as their starting sub-module. This is usually a fix if you are having issues associating your macro with an icon on a Toolbar, assigning a shortcut key, or trying to execute the macro from within another macro.

If the macro does not have a Main sub-module, then you may need to study the macro to discover which sub-module is meant as the starting point.

Copying code from online or plain text source
Sometimes when code appears in plain text, such as in a .txt file or from a forum online, it may not be formatted properly. Some of the lines may be too long for the plain text source, so they are line broken. This will disrupt the code, as SolidWorks API will misunderstand the instructions. When copy and pasting code from a plain text source, make sure to go over the code to insure all the lines are properly reconstructed by removing erroneous line breaks.

Sources for help
If issues are still occuring, contact the author(s), if available. Also, make sure to read over the material and examples provided in the SolidWorks API Help file included with SolidWorks. If those do not completely solve the issue, then search over various online forums dedicated to SolidWorks and SolidWorks API support. Many of these forums are listed under Forum Links.  If the search doesn’t resolve the issue, then post a question on those forums detailing the issue and requesting help from other SolidWorks users. You may also contact your VAR, as the issue you are having may actually be a bug or known issue in the SolidWorks API system itself.

SWW09: A Swan, a Dolphin and 3 Matts (fluff article)

Swan and DolphinFirst the Dolphin

The Swan and Dolphin Disney resort is a beautiful place. It is actually two hotels that are kinda sorta treated as one resort. They do have separate front desks and you cannot check-in one and check-out in the other, as the SW Geek found out when we arrived (he went to the Swan when his room was in the Dolphin). The walk between the two hotels isn’t too bad.

The Dolphin appears to be larger. It has a large ground floor lobby (which is confusingly called floor 3) with a lot of lounge areas. There’s a bar off to one side that was frequented by SolidWorks World attendees on a nightly basis, and daily too.  Unfortunately, the bar area wasn’t quite large enough to accommodate all the people looking to loosen up after a busy day.

The Swan

The Swan has a good bar. From what I understand, many upstanding citizens where debauched one evening by its karaoke night on Wednesday.

3 Matts

The 3 Matts

So, I’ve added the photo to the left here.  This is for clarity so that everyone may know which Matt is which. I hope this photo clears everything up.

I’m kinda used to be the only Matt wherever I go.  Its like, I’ve got a common name that usually allows me a certain degree of uniqueness. Well, not so in the SolidWorks online community.

Just for the record, I didn’t copy anyone with my name.  I’ve had it from birth.  Really.  You can ask my parents if you don’t believe me.  I’m not so sure about the other Matts though.  They will have to give you their own references regarding the issuance of their name. (Just kidding guys)

To tell us apart, note that Matt Lombard had his bags with him the whole time.  He was hocking his books from those bags throughout the convention in a true entrepreneurial fashion.  Also note that Matt West can be identified by his jacket and glasses.  As for me, is it odd that I really don’t recognize myself in that photo?  I don’t know who that blond guy is…oh, that’s me.  Dang, pictures really do add 10 pounds.

Quantity and Balloons in SolidWorks 2010

Adding quantities to balloons is something that many of us do when making assembly drawings in SolidWorks.  This is a very manual and sloppy process which involves adding carefully placed text next to each balloon that points to a part with multiple instances.  Some people use split balloons, but still manually edit each one for the desired affected.

Tobin Sparks and BalloonNote

Along came Tobin Sparks.  Tobin was just starting out in the world of macro and API within SolidWorks.  Tobin was a quick study, learning from the likes of handleman (expert API guy) on Eng-Tips and myself (macro hack).  Tobin saw a need and filled it by creating the BalloonNote macro.  This macro simplified the process of adding quantities to balloons.  The macro does have its quirks, but overall it is very well conceived and executed.

BalloonNote screen shot

For the past eight months, BalloonNote has really been the state of the art when it comes to adding quantities to balloons.  OK, that’s a slight overstatement, but the macro is very cool.

What’s New Announcment at SWW09

Either way, SolidWorks has stepped up.  At SolidWorks World 2009, the What’s New presentation showed off many new abilities planned for SolidWorks 2010.  One of those new functions is the adding of quantities to balloons.  Strangely, there are some eerie similarities between the SW2010 function and Tobin’s macro.  I cannot get into too much detail beyond the announcement itself.  I will say that it will be nice to have the functionality built into SolidWorks.

SWW09: Focus Groups (Drawings and Sheet Metal)

As previously mentioned, I attended two focus groups (also called roundtable discussions) this year.  These are generally held on Sunday before all the major SolidWorks World activities begin on Monday.

Sheet Metal

The first group I attended was for sheet metal functionality.  Though attendence was very light, the number of different methodologies and opinions was high.  My own interest in the topic is the problem with being forced to use assemblies to fully document sheet metail parts with inserts.  This is an issue because if you start a drawing of a part, you cannot later replace that part with an assembly.  So, if you create a sheet metal part with no inserts and then you need to add inserts on some later revision, you are forced to recreate the drawing practically from scratch.  This is a horid time and resource sink.

Others in the group talked about using K-factors to determine the material used by the sheet metal part (for flat patterning), while others disregarded K-factors in favor of bend reduction techniques.

One request that seemed to get common acceptance is the idea of creating a table of all the bends of a part with their full characteristics, with the ability to highlight each bend by clicking on it within the table.  When this table is on a drawing, it was suggested that details be added to a specific layer.

The session  also revealed that some used work arounds to use the SolidWorks model to instruct sheet metal tooling to perform certain actions (either via direct or translated input).  Some use alternative features which do not match the final design in order to instruct a tool to produce the feature desired in the final design.

One work around solution did come out of this session.  Right now, the material mass number changes from bent state to flattened state.  Although this difference is minor, over a large quality of parts, the error multiples and can create issues in part handling.  Use a non-configuration custom property to link to the the material property (of a specific configuration?).  Use this custom property as the source for the mass regardless of the configuration or part state.

Drawings

A large portion of the drawings discussion revolved around printing and saving issues with Drawings.  It seems many people are experiencing similar problems.  When saving as a PDF, views randomly disappear.  When printing as a PDF, text locations get shifted.  Also, changes to parts at lower levels of an assembly may cause errors and view changes in higher level assembly drawings; meaning the the company has to open up all levels of a product’s assemblies to make sure that any change did not affect the drawings in unexpected ways.  It seems more people are having these kind of issues that I originally thought.  Many of the problems are magnified by use of PDM’s.

The meeting also focused on DimXpert and how to handle its dimensions.  One comment is that it should place dimensions per current standards within the model.  Another comment noted that datums and feature frames should drive the model.

I voiced my other major concern as well.  Symbols from the Gtol.sym library file should be stored within a drawing.  Right now, I cannot give native drawings to others outside of my organization because they will not be able to see symbols that we employ.  When a symbol is used within a drawing, it should be included in that drawing’s file and not require editing of any other user’s Gtol.sym file.

SWW09: Wednesday General Session (Part 2: SWUGN, More Customer stories)

I didn’t realize that I missed writing about this portion of the Wednesday General Session.  Sorry for any confusion about there being a Part 1 and a Part 3 with no Part 2 in the middle.

Here are the SWUGN award winners announced during the General Session

User Group Leader of the Year

Rob Jensen, Southern Minnesota SWUG

User Group of the Year

Central MA/Northern CT SWUG, lead by Tom Cote

Lifetime Achievement Award (2 winners)

 Gerald Davis, Colorado SUG

 Dan Bertscki, Northeast Ohio SWUG

More Customer Stories

Two companies to keep an eye on in the near future are Terrafugia and Magenn Power.  Both are taking to the skies, but for completely different reasons.

Terrafugia used SolidWorks to develop the Transition.  Transition is both a car and an airplane.  It transitions (dare I say “Transforms”) from one to the other quickly.  This allows the driver/pilot to choose their mode of transportation.  If they are on a business trip, and the weather is fine, they can fly via small local airports to and from the destination.   If the weather turns, they can convert their Transition to car mode and simply drive home.   In fact, they can convert it to drive to and from the airport as well.  It is street legal.

Magenn Power is using SolidWorks to develop balloon based wind power turbines, called Mageen Air Rotor System (MARS for short).   The goal is to be able to place these balloons in areas where windmills are not practical.  As stated on their site, “MARS captures the energy available in the 600 to 1000-foot low level and nocturnal jet streams that exist almost everywhere.”