Drawing Archives - Page 3 of 29

Osaka, Japan SOLIDWORKS 2016 Beta Rollout event

SOLIDWORKS 2016 Beta There are many SOLIDWORKS Beta rollout events throughout the world each year. Beta rollout events gives local companies and particular users an opportunity to preview SOLIDWORKS functionality for the upcoming release. They are able to test drive the new SOLIDWORKS release with their own SOLIDWORKS files from their projects. The rollout events allow them to help us find bugs and to preview functionality so they can get a heads up on what to expect in the next release. Rob Jost Presents SW2016 beta These also give customers a chance to directly interact with SOLIDWORKS team members from Development, Product Definition and User Experience. Japan, China, Germany, Brazil, US, Mexico, etc all host events during the summer leading up to the official product release in September. This year, I attended the Beta rollout event in Osaka, Japan and Shanghai, China.

The SOLIDWORKS 2016 Beta rollout in Osaka was a great two day event. We met with several large customers and user influencers. Rob Jost of the Product Definition team did most of the presentation, going into detail about what’s new in SOLIDWORKS 2016. I presented on the topics drawings, MBD, eDrawings and a couple of other areas.

After the What’s New presentation, the SOLIDWORKS Japan team conducted a technical session to talk about the functionality. Our customers had a lot of good comments about what they had seen so far.

I love rice and many Japanese dishes. Each day, lunch was a treat!

Box lunch in Osaka, Japan

On day one, the SOLIDWORKS team had a great opportunity to talk with our customers all day, and answer their questions, not just about new functionality, but also about existing tools too.

On the second day of the SOLIDWORKS Beta rollout, our customers were able to try the new functionality on their own in our lab. There were a lot of great discussions. Rob and I gave impromptu presentations about What’s New again for customers who were not able to attend day one of the event.

Impromptu What's New presentations

Testing SOLIDWORKS 2016 beta

At the end of the second day, we wrapped up by gathering everyone for a final discussion. Customers talked about what they liked about SOLIDWORKS 2016, and in some cases, what they felt needed further improvement.

For me, and I hope everyone else, this was a great event! Many thanks to our SOLIDWORKS Japan team for hosting this event and making it a success!

If you are interested, this event was covered real-time on Instagram. Check out current SOLIDWORKS related postings by following the official Instagram account. You’ll see more of my photos from this event, plus many more by the new Community Manager, Rachel York.

Not seeing sharp corners when using thick lines?

Thick line corner gap Have you ever noticed there is a gap on the corners of your lines when you have model edges or sketch lines? You will usually notice this when you try to use very thick lines on a SOLIDWORKS drawing. Why are you seeing this gap? Welp, as with most visual display characteristics in SOLIDWORKS, there is a setting for that. You actually have three options for corner appearance: Flat (default), Square and Round. This is found in your drawing’s document properties at Tools pulldown>Options…>Document Properties>Line Font on a setting called End cap style.

End cap style

Flat is the default option and normally works fine for most cases. However, if you are using much thicker lines, you can utilize one of the other two options to get the look you need. It is important to note that this setting applies individually to each of type of edges, so you can use a different end cap style for sketches than you use for visual edges.

Square:

Square end cap style

Round:

Round end cap style

New in SOLIDWORKS 2015: Spline Leaders

This entry is part 1 of 9 in the series New in SOLIDWORKS 2015

Spline leaders are fun. They’re not fun in the sort of playground, video game, action flick kinda way. They are fun because if you need them, you can now make them with the freedom to shape them in many ways. Contrast that with dimensions. The most fun you have with dimensions is deciding how far to offset them from the model edge. I’ve been doing that for years, and the word “fun” doesn’t really come to mind. With spline leaders, you can actually take a moment of your day to draw without strict conformity. It’s not a big moment, but it is a nice one.

Spline leaders are avaiable for notes and balloons. They work the same way for either.

To add spline leader to an existing balloon, select that annotation, then click on More Properties button in the PropertyManager. Find the swiggly lined icon and click it. Then, use the control points to manipulate the spline leader as desired.

To make spline leaders your default, goto Tools>Options…>Document Properties>Annotations>Balloons (or Notes) in the Leader display area, and choose Spline. Have fun!

Drawings Top Ten list from years past: SWW2013

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Past Years Drawings Top Ten

The top ten Drawings specific ideas submitted to SolidWorks World 2013 Top Ten list were heavily focused on dimensions and drawing views.

SolidWorks World 2013 Top Ten Drawings Ideas

Create auxiliary line for dimensioning angles – Implemented in SW2015
Perimeter Dimension or Total Length Dimension
Allow mirroring of drawing views in the drawing
Isometric view break
Ability to create half dimensions (Option to change any dimension line to foreshortened)
On drawings, zoom to fit should ignore view bounding boxes – Implemented in SW2015
Don’t re-size center marks with scale of drawing view or sheet
Ability to create Alternate position view on sectioned/broken-out section view
Make an easy interface to modify format of hole callouts (without having to edit calloutformat.txt)
Projected view of a break view should have option ‘align breaks with parent’ enabled by default

As of SOLIDWORKS 2015, the implementation for the SWW13 list is 20%. Create auxiliary line for dimensioning angles was the only Drawings idea to get onto the official SolidWorks World 2013 Top Ten list.

Voting is now open on the current SOLIDWORKS World 2015 Top Ten list. Vote on as many ideas as you wish! Just remember, you have to logon to see the ideas and vote for them.

Drawings Top Ten list from years past: SWW2012

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Past Years Drawings Top Ten

SolidWorks World 2012 Top Ten list actually included one drawing specific idea, and one more general idea that affected drawings within its scope. The odd thing about the Drawings ideas this particular year is that one of them is already addressed, and another is not clear about its intent. Given the variety of situations surrounding SWW2012’s submissions, I’ll add commentary to each idea for clarity.

SolidWorks World 2012 Top Ten Drawings Ideas

Address Shaded with Edges Bleed Thru issue – This idea made it on to the official Top Ten for SWW12. It was implemented in SW2014 for parts, assemblies and drawings.
Dimensions should stay where you place them – This idea also made it on to the official Top Ten for SWW12. However, this idea is an oddity since it is requesting behavior that is already supported by SOLIDWORKS from day one. Placement and organization of dimensions are controlled by two settings in SOLIDWORKS. The first setting for model item dimensions is called “Annotation view layout”, and is found at Tools>Options…>Document Properties>Dimensions in the Offset distances area. This setting places your model item dimensions on drawing views as they are organized in the model. A second setting was introduced in SolidWorks 2010, called Reduce spacing when dimensions are deleted or edited (add or change tolerances, text etc…). Yup, that’s the name! It’s found at Tools>Options…>System Options>Drawings near the bottom of the list. This setting forces dimensions to maintain assigned offsets. As you add and remove dimensions, the other dimensions automatically adjust to maintain offsets. If you don’t need SOLIDWORKS to apply your offsets automatically, then simply turn this setting off. Here’s an article about this setting when it was introduced.
Don’t show hidden lines in section views and broken-out sections – This idea was half implemented in SolidWorks 2013. Hidden lines are now automatically turned off for section views. No setting is available for broken-out sections yet.
Don’t re-size center marks with scale of drawing view or sheet – This idea has not been implemented as of SOLIDWORKS 2015.
Allow multiple exploded views per configuration – Sound familiar? It was on the SWW11 list as well. This idea was implemented in SolidWorks 2013.
Drawings: make intersection selectable when dimensioning drawings – This idea was imlemented in SOLIDWORKS 2014.
Ability to create a “purchased” component BOM and “manufactured” component BOM – This idea is very similar to “Ability to Filter BOMs” from the SWW11 list. This has not been implemented as of SOLIDWORKS 2015.
Drawings: Revision Cloud – This idea was implement in SolidWorks 2013
Dashes should not be allowed at the end of a line – This idea has not been implemented as of SOLIDWORKS 2015.
Parts as references in drawing views – This idea is a good example of a bad title. From the title alone, it is impossible to really know what this idea is actually talking about. You wouldn’t have a drawing view of a part unless the part was referenced. The lesson here being, when submitting your idea, please be sure to use a clear title that explains your idea well enough on its own.

The implementation rate for Drawings ideas from the SWW12 list is a bit harder to calcuate, given status of several of the ideas. However, I’m going to call it 61%: counting #2, counting half for #3 and not counting #10 at all.

Voting has been open on the current SOLIDWORKS World 2015 Top Ten list for a couple of days. Go there are vote for your favorites. Vote on as many ideas as you wish! Just remember, you have to logon to see the ideas and vote for them.

Drawings Top Ten list from years past: SWW2011

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Past Years Drawings Top Ten

Each year, SOLIDWORKS World has a top ten enhancement ideas countdown. For a couple of months before SOLIDWORKS World, ideas are submitted by users to the SOLIDWORKS World Top Ten idea forum (login required). Starting in mid-December, users have the opportunity to vote on the ideas they most want. This gives SOLIDWORKS a clear snapshot of what our customers need at that moment in time. The top ten vote-getters are shown on the big stage at that SOLIDWORKS World. The list varies from year to year as new enhancements are implemented or as customers’ needs change. Some ideas also reappear on the list over several years.

Dan Herzberg has compiled a list of these top ten lists, including when the ideas where implemented and how many times an idea appeared on the subsequent lists.

There is no focus on particular areas in the top ten list. The top ten highest vote-getting ideas are combined from parts, drawings, assemblies, and other areas. Since my main focus area on the SOLIDWORKS brand is “drawings”, it seemed like a nice idea to show the results for just the submissions for drawings.

We can show just the top ten Drawings ideas. Drawings includes topics such as BOMs, annotations, dimensions, etc. The first year we can look at is SolidWorks World 2011.

SolidWorks World 2011 Top Ten Drawings Ideas

Ability to Filter BOMs
Print Selection – make it more like cropping a picture
On drawings: add function to allow users to apply capitalization of text, implemented in SW2013
Assign watermark function to drawing sheets, implemented in SW2013
Allow Multiple Exploded Views per Configuration, implemented in SW2013
More control over angle dimensions, implemented in SW2015
On drawings: Allow option for resizing of drawing view outline
Directly editing notes with properties in Drawing, implemented before SW2013
Broken-out Section in Section, Detail and Alternate Positions Views
Better line selection in drawings, implemented in SW2014

The implementation rate for the SWW11 drawing list is 60% to date. None of these ideas had enough votes to get onto the official SolidWorks World 2011 Top Ten list, unfortunately.

There is still a couple of days to add new ideas on the current SOLIDWORKS World 2015 Top Ten list. Voting starts on the 15th, so go back and vote on as many ideas as you wish! Just remember, you have to logon to submit, see and vote for ideas.