Uncommonly known types of related angles, and their SOLIDWORKS support. Some may surprise!
Geometry establishes a lot of imaginary objects and relationships between them in order to define models and the real world. Angles are an important set of those relationships. But, we often skip or forget types of relationships between angles. Let’s look at related angles. Related angles are pairs of angles that have some sort of relationship to each other. Several types of related angles are established by Geometry. Some may surprise, as they aren’t commonly known.
Types of related angles
Complementary angles – a pair of angles with a common vertex and a sum of a right angle (90°).
Supplementary angles – a pair of angles with a common vertex and a sum of a straight angle (180°).
Explementary angles – a pair of angles with a common vertex and a sum of a full circle (360°).
Vertically opposite angles – a pair of angles that equal to each other and are vertical-and-opposite of each other with a common vertex. These angles are formed by two intersecting lines.
Of course, a single complementary angle is one of the pair of complementary angles. A single supplementary angle is one of the pair of supplementary angles. A single explementary angle is one of a pair of explementary angles. And, a single vertically opposite angle is one of a pair of vertically opposite angles.
Conjugate?
The term conjugate angles is sometimes used as a synonym for explementary angles. Technically, conjugate angles is a set of angles with a sum of 360°. Despite the word conjugate meaning coupled/related/connected, it seems that the term conjugate angles is a set that need not be made up of only two angles, and so the angles within the set are not necessarily related angles, though they are connected by a common vertex. Additionally, the term conjugate angles does not apply directly to any angles within the set, but only to the set itself, so there’s no singular form of this term.
SOLIDWORKS support for angle dimensions
Though explementary and vertically opposite angles are not as common as supplementary and complementary angles, they are important from time to time when designing and defining mechanical components and assemblies. As such, SOLIDWORKS has supported both explementary and vertically opposite angles since release 2015. See Year of the Angle Dimension – Part 2 – Flipping out (and over) and Flipped Angle Dimension in SOLIDWORKS for information on how to use these types of angles in your dimension scheme.
April 2020. That’s 28 months ago. April 2020 was the time when I was scheduled to present at the St. Louis SOLIDWORKS User Group meeting. Hindsight would now tell most what’s wrong with that date. When Charles Culp and I planned the meeting, there was no COVID-19 in the public mind. The devastating fires of Australia were still yet to happen. Charles and I were just planning a routine user group meeting.
Needless to say, that meeting was cancelled, along with a great many other things. 28 months later, we were finally able to have that long awaited user group meeting. It appears to have been worth the wait.
For this trip to St. Louis, I was joined by Sara Berndt (UX Design Manager) and Chris Pagliarini (Product Manager).
My presentation covered the topic of xDrawing and the associated Manufacturing Definition Creator Role on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The benefits of xDrawing are numerous, not least of which is the flexibility to create drawings and MBD product definition from the same data set, so work is not duplicated when creating either, and so that data always matches between these different methods.
Sara’s presentation covered the topic of user experience and how SOLIDWORKS brand uses well-established methods to learn from our users to create and improve our products and tools.
We met a lot of awesome people at the meeting and learned quite a bit from our customers on this trip.
You may have noticed a substantial uptick in activity on Social Media around Dassault Systemes in the past year or so. This is not an accident.
You may have noticed a substantial uptick in activity on Social Media around Dassault Systemes in the past year or so. This is not an accident. There is a more concerted effort to improve Social Media presence. As an employee, we now have more resources to allow us to more easily participate in this process.
One example of this is the new Social Media templates that 3DEXPERIENCE World 2022 speakers can use to brag about their participation in the event. That said, I’m a speaker at #3DWX22. Of course, I have been since 2011, with the exception of 2021. Here’s my nifty template (already posted around my accounts):
Personal opinion is that it’s professional, and even makes me look like a Pro! My presentation will cover introductory information about Model-based Definition (MBD). This will include some brief history, types of MBD implementation and considerations when using SOLIDWORKS.
Of course, there’s plenty of material on this blog about past DS World Conferences.
Check out SOLIDWORKS’s Automatic Border tool and how it makes editing your Sheet Formats so much easier than old fashioned sketching!
SOLIDWORKS has the amazing Automatic Border tool for Sheet Formats. You don’t need to sketch your drawing borders from scratch. You also do not need to edit many sketch objects to update your borders.
The Automatic Border tool allows you to control all elements of your drawing border and associate those with drawing zones which are intrinsic to the drawing sheet. The tool has many functions to provide to you the ability to make and edit your borders to your exact needs.
To support ease of editing your Sheet Formats, a tab is available on the CommandManager called Sheet Format. This tab includes the tools Edit Sheet Format, Title Block Fields and Automatic Border. To find the Automatic Border tool:
Click on the Sheet Format tabChoose Edit Sheet Format to switch to Sheet Format mode. Then, select Automatic Border tool.
On a newer template created in SOLIDWORKS 2016 or later, your border will highlight as orange. (If you have an older Sheet Format or you are trying to incorporate your old Sheet Format from another CAD application, see SOLIDWORKS Help.) In the Automatic Border PropertyManager, select Next to edit your existing border.
The first page of the PropertyManager is for legacy (pre-SOLIDWORKS 2016) Sheet Formats. If you have a newer Sheet Format, just skip this first page by selecting Next.
On page two of the Automatic Border PropertyManager, you have many options to edit your border.
Zone size and Margins
Zone Size groupbox allows you to establish your zone distribution and region.
The 50mm from center option under Distribution allows you to use a common size and placement regardless to sheet size.
Evenly sized option allows you to automatically divide the sheet up into evenly sized zones, including a custom number of rows and columns.
Under Regions, you can set zones to fit within the sheet’s margins (Margins) or the sheet’s extents (Sheet).
Margin groupbox allows you to establish where your border appears on the sheet in terms of distance from the sheet extents. You can set the border’s line font and thickness. Also, there is an option to allows you to include double-line border called Double-line border.
Independent Border groupbox is a less commonly used option that allows you to place your borders separately from margins. This is only useful if you have unusual distribution of sheet zones that do not take the border into account, with the same Right, Left, Top and Bottom settings as Margins.
Zone Formatting
Zone Formatting groupbox provides several highly specific settings to control the display of zones within the border.
You have the option to show or hide zone dividers with the Show zone dividers option. With this option off, the lines that represent the divisions between zones do not appear on the border.
Show zone dividers is checked
Show zone dividers is unchecked
In Zone Formatting groupbox when Show zone dividers is checked, you can control the line font, line thickness, length for the dividers.
There are also settings under Center zone divider that allow you to control the center zone divider’s length in both directions from the border.
Use Center zone divider settings to control the length of the center zone divider in both directions from the border.If you do not want center zone divider to extend into the drafting area of your drawing, you can input 0 (zero) into the second field.
Under Zone labels, you will find several options and settings that allow you to control the visibility, placement and font of the letters and numbers which label your zone columns and rows.
Layer
Finally, you can even set a layer upon which your border should be placed within the Layer groupbox.
Ready?
Once you have made all your choices for options and settings on this page of the PropertyManager, you can choose OK button to accept, or you can continue on to the next page for one more advanced function.
Mask Area to Remove some Zone Formatting
Page 3 of the Automatic Border PropertyManager allows you to create one or more masks for your border. A mask is an area on your border where you wish to remove zone labels and dividers. Typically, you will use masks to create space outside your margins to add a company’s legal notice or (if you are still plotting your drawings) you can add part number, sheet number or other information to quickly index through a pile of drawings.
To create a mask, click on the plus sign button.
When you click on the plus sign button, a box will appear on the Sheet Format. You can modify the size and location of this box using the grips.
For example, if you wish to add your company’s copyright notice to the upper left, move and resize the box to cover the upper left corner of your border.
You can add more than one mask. Each mask that you create will appear in the PropertyManager.
All Done!
When you select OK, you accept all the changes that you’ve made to your border, including the masked area. You will still be in the Sheet Format mode. Add any additional details you wish for your Sheet Format.
Return to your drawing’s Sheet mode by selecting Edit Sheet Format one more time.
Your changes will now be the background to your drawing.
If you wish to reuse your newly edited Sheet Format, use the Save Sheet Format command. Find this command in the File pulldown menu, shown above.
Automatic Border tool simplifies a task that can be a tedious sketching exercise. Not only does the above functionality allow you quickly create the drawing border that you want, you can easily edit your drawing border as the need arises.
3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 is quickly approaching: February 8-12, 2021. So, the voting period for your favorite SOLIDWOKRS Top Ten ideas will end soon on February 1, 2021. Your vote may make a difference by helping your favorite idea reach Top Ten status! That is important because historically, Top Ten ideas have a very high rate of implementation within SOLIDWORKS products.
The SOLIDWORKS Top Ten 3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 Community (where you vote) is hosted on the 3DSwym Platform! To participate, navigate to the SOLIDWORKS Top Ten 3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 Community. Check out the pinned article near the top for a video on how to vote. Also, don’t forget to comment on ideas too, especially if you disagree with them.
There’s a lot of great ideas that need your support! Have fun and happy voting!
