The other day, I received a file from a customer that had an odd display issue. It appeared to have cosmetic threads showing as solid lines in one drawing, but not in the other. It turned out that one drawing’s annotations had been put on a layer that was using a solid line font. To change this, SolidWorks 2013 now allows you to right click on the cosmetic line in the drawing and select Change Layer in the menu that shows.

In previous versions, you had to turn on the Layer tool bar to make this change. Now, all you have to do is right click the annotation and select Change Layer.

You will get a floating layer tool bar to make the change to the layer applied to the selected annotation.

Nice little addition that was not shown in the “What’s New for SolidWorks 2013.”

In 2013 SolidWorks you can now automatically deploy an admin image from the option editor. There is now a link to do this in the editor and you can set this to deploy to any or all machines on the same MS Active Directory Domain.

In this image you can see that I have added machines on the domain and selected them to deploy. You also have options of when to do the install Now or at a specific time later.

Then in the client options you can set it to either install or uninstall and if it is to uninstall is it going to be a custom one. This will give you more options of what to remove from the machine during the uninstall like registry settings or data folders. You can also select to have the computer automatically reboot after the install/uninstall is complete.

Additionally there is a place to add the admin log in so the installs are performed using this. Once you have this all set to run you then get a status feed back on the install so you can see if any of them fail. This is also a silent deployment method so there is no indication on the client machine this is happening like in a manual admin image deployment.

This and more will be covered in an upcoming webinar about installing SolidWorks 2013.

From time to time things need to change that is also true for the support team here at Symmetry. Yes we have had some changes in staff but we also are now using a new software to help manage the support cases as well. As some of you may have noticed we have begun to use it and is from our friends at NetSuite.

When you email into support@symsolutions.com it now automatically opens a new case and sends an email back to you letting you know someone will contact you shortly. In the past we had managed this manually which did work but did not notify you that we received the message. The messages sent to you also include a link so you can view progress to the case on-line.

For the most part nothing has changed for you in submitting or updating cases. You can respond to the emails or call in with updates as you did before. The one thing different is you will not be emailing the support person directly. With the new process emailing them directly will slow things down as the content will either have to be resubmitted or copied into the case. Also once the case has been resolved you will receive an email with the resolution in it. If that is satisfactory you need to do nothing. If for some reason it is not resolved you can respond to this and it will reopen the case.

When you need to submit new issues please send a new message to support@symsolutions.com to open a new case. The previous messages are directly tied to that case and will try to reopen it. If you have any questions, comments or concerns on the new processes please contact us so we can address it.

I have always found that the routing tools to be an interesting part of SolidWorks but was never able to really learn all the ins and outs of it. So a while back I started looking a little closer at it. I am right now working from the Piping & Tubing portion of the training manuals.

I always thought the rules for creating the routes were very consistent and that you needed to have connector points (CPoints) and route points (RPoints) to be able create any route. Well I found a tool to be able to start a route without a connector.

This is very helpful if the component you are using is an imported model from a vendor and they supply the connector but you are not sure what it will be. They did let you know the size of pipe/tube/wire and a location for where it will be on the component. So know if it is not all ready on the model you will need to create a cylindrical cut to represent the start point.

The tool to use in this instance is Start at Point and is available on the all three routing tool bars Electrical, Piping, and Tubing. Once you select the appropriate tool you then select the cylindrical face from the hole for the starting point and it gives you a nub start so you can then continue the route in whatever manner you need to complete this.

So as I continue to dive into the routing tools I will add any interesting features that may be hidden or not really well known.

It is now 2012 and this release is a couple service packs in. So it may be time for you to start looking at upgrading.

There are many things that you need to consider before you deploy and making sure your models work is top priority. What else may need to be considered before you decide to upgrade? This is a question you should ask yourself before any upgrade be it a new version or even just a service pack.

1. First find out if your current files have any conflicts with the new version as somethings do change with the new release.
2. Make sure customer and vendors will be compatible with the new version.
3. See that you are still running a supported OS this will be important for the 2013 release as Windows XP will not be supported.
4. Then look at the graphics card and driver. Every year SolidWorks does test card and driver combinations but not all cards make the list for testing. So if you have an older card and do not find it on the testing website you may need to get a new one. But if it is still being tested you may just need to update the driver.
5. Other things to consider are peripherals and software to see if they are compatible with the new version. This could be CAM software, printing drivers and even partner products. These may need to be upgraded as well and may keep you at an older version longer.

Those are just a few things to keep in mind before doing any upgrade. It would be best to have a procedure in place with a check list so you know what has been finished.