Category: Part

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.

SolidWorks Assembly: Virtual Component Not Found?

Original article written by Nick Beattie, republished with permission of Symmetry Solutions.  Image added by Matthew Lorono. 

Having problems opening legacy assemblies that had parts saved internally? If you’re getting the “Unable to locate the file…” error referencing a temporary folder, your problem might be in the naming!

In SolidWorks 2009 and prior, you could rename the entire extension of the virtual component saved within the assembly.  For example a virtual part named “[vpart1^assembly1]” could be renamed to “[Vpart^Assy]” or simply “[vpart].” It was also possible that while doing a Pack and Go, the assembly would be renamed, but not the virtual component. Starting in 2010, this was changed so that only the “part” portion of the name could be changed. A virtual component named “[vpart1^assembly1]” can only have the “vpart1” portion renamed, while the “^assembly1” will always be the same as the assembly it is stored in.

If the legacy file you’re trying to open in SolidWorks 2010 or newer has had the assembly portion of the component renamed, it will not recognize it as a virtual component and will try to find the file. To get the file to open properly in 2010 and later, you will have to go back and open the part in 2009 and find the virtual part. Any parts shown with brackets such as [vpart] will need to be renamed to have the full current assembly name after the carrot. If you assembly is named “assy123” the virtual component needs to be named “[vpart^assy123].” Save the assembly with the renamed component. Now your assembly should open properly and recognize the virtual component!

Hidden SolidWorks Commands – compiled by Scott Baugh

SolidWorks Help file is notoriously unhelpful at times.  It has evolved over the years to improve its usefulness.  However, there are still many under-documented functions within the Help file or commands that are completely undocumented.  One day in January 2011, Scott Baugh asked a sincere and innocent question in the SolidWorks area on Eng-Tips.

Does anyone no (sic) where I can find a document with hidden SW commands. There are some key strokes and commands in SW that are not always listed in the help, or if they are they are overlooked very easy (sic).

From there, a long thread of comments grew.  Someone mentioned that users can print out a list of keystroke assignments.  This isn’t what Baugh was looking for. 

Then, the list of “hidden SolidWorks commands” began as people submitted commands they felt were obscure or impossible to find in the SolidWorks Help file.  It wasn’t long before Baugh offered to compile the list into a document.  At first, the idea was to build the list in a discrete document.  However, Deepak Gupta suggested GoogleDocs. 

From there, Baugh built the list of “hidden SolidWorks commands”.  There were three types of items added to the list:  commands that are truly undocumented, commands that are under-documented (full functionality isn’t described), and commands that were too hard to find within the documentation.

Baugh then brought the topic over to the SolidWorks Forums, where the discussion further exploded.  SolidWorks staff chimed in to address several points, but also to learn.  Jim Wilkinson provided several detailed responses to help bring clarity to the conversation.  Through his efforts, he also discovered several areas where improvement to the SolidWorks Help file is needed. 

The Hidden SolidWorks Commands list is now a treasure of numerous golden nuggets.  It’s not long, yet it can take awhile to fully explore.  Check it out.  If you have any further suggestions, feel free to leave a comment here, or in either the SolidWorks Forum thread or the Eng-Tips thread.

Hidden SolidWorks Commands

What’s New? for SolidWorks 2012 (a most tasty & complete list from SWW11 )

2012Some say the world will end in 2012.  There are a lot of books being rushed to market right now that make some amazing claims about what’s going to happen just 22 months from now (Dec 21, 2012).  SolidWorks Corp seems gleefully oblivious to all of this hoopla, as they have put a lot of effort to bring new capabilities to SolidWorks 2012.  Here  are some highlights.

There’s a few generic user interface capabilities to be added:

  • A pushpin function will be added to allow users to put choice drawings, models or assemblies in a quick access flyout menu.
  • Users can now switch between units of measure via a selection tool added to the status bar.
  • A new command filter search will be added to allow users to search for SolidWorks commands on-the-fly (has opposed to stumbling around the Help file).
  • Selecting an item in the graphics view will highlight it and zoom to it within the feature tree (finally!).

Sheet metal will see several improvements:

  • Users will be able to choose faces to ignore in flat patterns.
  • Swept flange feature will be available.  They will be flattenable.
  • Tangent Flange position function.
  • Users will be able to set flanges parallel to a sketch.

Improved equations dialog boxBig news about equations:

  • Improved equation editor, with solve order and sort.
  • Global variables are now editable via the equation editor window.
  • Auto-rebuild for immediate implementation of changes.

On drawings:

  • BOMs will be insertable without having a pre-selected view.
  • Exploded views will be an option in the View Pallet.
  • Balloon order sequencing will be available, with the ability to number around a view from any start location.
  • Magnet Lines!!! (someone at SolidWorks Corp. was listening)
  • Unused View Label letters will be automatically reused.
  • Ability to add center marks to entire view.

Assembly will have a new Design Review mode that allows users to open and explore large assemblies without all the overhead lag.  This function will include the ability to conduct walk-throughs.

In an apparent extension of functionality added with SustainabilityXpress, SolidWorks 2012 will give users the ability to conduct manufacturer part costing.

New motion sensors will be added for actuator forces, baring loads and travel limits.

And now, the much hyped changes to be made in SolidWorks 2012:

  • Feature Freeze (they are going to try implement it again).
  • Complete Uninstall, with new options that allows for more control.  Also, uninstall function will be available from Admin Image.
  • Files will be cleared from memory when they are closed.
  • Dual monitor support will allow SolidWorks to span across two displays in a logical manner.

SolidWorks question: why does opening a part cause others to open too?

Have you ever opened a particular SolidWorks file that caused other SolidWorks files to automatically open as well? This can be very frustrating if you want to open a signal part, but then 5 other parts load with it.  Most people who encounter this behavior figure out that there are external references that link the files together.

Over the years, I’ve seen people give several types of responses for this behavior in SolidWorks. Some people simply live with the undesired behavior. Others may say, “the file is corrupt,” or “there’s a bug in SolidWorks.” Some people spend hours trying to resolve the cause of the behavior without success (me being one of them, many, many, many years ago).

The answer?

SolidWorks is doing what it is supposed to do when you open one file, and then other external referenced files open automatically with it!  This is intended behavior.  It is also behavior that you can control at the system level.

There is a setting in System Options that allows you to tell SolidWorks how to handle external referenced files.  It’s at Tools pulldown>Options…>System Options tab>External References.  At that screen, the fourth line from the top says, “Load referenced documents:” followed by a drop-down field with the following choices:

  • Prompt – ask the user before opening referenced files
  • All – open all referenced files every time
  • None – never open referenced files
  • Changed Only – only open referenced files if there is a change

As far as I have seen, Changed Only appears to be the SolidWorks default choice for this setting.  To tell SolidWorks not to open external referenced files, change this setting to None. Save the setting by clicking OK button.

loadextrefs

That’s it!  I know, this seems like such a simple solution for something that may have been particularly frustrating.