I ran across this on the SolidWorks forums. Someone was needing to create a helical blade and then flatten it with sheet metal tools. I thought that this could not be done but they gave an example of how to do this. I will share their instructions and a sample of this as well.
First you need to open a sketch and create a circle of 5″. From this make a helix constant pitch and the pitch being 25″ and 1 revolution. Now create another sketch with a circle of 20″. From this create another helix with the same numbers as the first.
Now create two 3D sketches converting one helix per sketch.
Now you have two profiles that you can use for a Sheet Metal Loft Base. From the Sheet Metal tool bar Lofted Bends or the Insert>Sheet Metal>Lofted Bends. Select to start the feature then select the two 3D Sketches and what thickness you want to use. There you have the helical sheet metal part that will give you a flat pattern.
View a sample part here.
Recently, one of our SolidWorks Education customers was featured in a local news story. Steve Higley, engineering teacher at Maranatha Christian Academy (a close neighbor to Symmetry Solutions’ new facility in Brooklyn Park), facilitated a project with about a dozen engineering students. The project involved designing a bridge to replace a bridge in desperate need of repair on the Superior Hiking Trail, where the students from Maranatha take regular hiking trips. Before the manual labor began, the students designed the bridge using SolidWorks. Tom Denecke, a local engineer, volunteered to help the students. The new bridge they designed was 36 feet long and 10 feet high. Read more…
DWGEditor? 2D Editor? DraftSight? Are you confused?
Let’s start with the basics.
What is DWGeditor?
DWGeditor has been around for about 6 years. DWGeditor functionality enables you to edit and create native DWG files in a familiar user interface, so that you don’t have to maintain a seat of AutoCAD when choosing to use SolidWorks as your primary 3D design software tool.
DWGeditor uses native DWG files. It is compatible with AutoCAD file versions 2.5 to the latest release. DWGeditor has a familiar user interface for AutoCAD users. It is provided and maintained as part of SolidWorks design software. SolidWorks customers receive 3 licenses of DWGeditor for every license of SolidWorks on subscription support.
What is 2D Editor?
Starting with SolidWorks 2010 SP3, DWGeditor has been re-packaged and is now titled SolidWorks 2D Editor.
Read more…
When using the meta-properties in 3DVIA that are coming from the Custom Properties in SolidWorks files, be aware how 3DVIA deals with capitalization of the property names.
While SolidWorks and Windows Explorer don’t see the difference between DESCRIPTION, Description, and description (as long as they are all spelled the same), 3DVIA see these as three different properties. Therefore if your BOM only lists DESCRIPTION and some of the actors have one of the other two variations of the word, that cell in the BOM will be blank. So it is important to verify that the Custom Properties are consistent.
Read more…
One frequent request that comes across my desk, is how to perform a clean uninstallation of SolidWorks. SolidWorks installs too many locations on a user’s local disk drive. When a user uninstalls SolidWorks, a lot of these folders are retained on the system and you can end up with unnecessary or duplicate folders. Also, at times a SolidWorks installation can become corrupt and it may be necessary to completely wipe SolidWorks from the systems registry and start fresh.
Read more…
SolidWorks 2010 will be the last release to include PhotoWorks. PhotoView 360 will be its replacement and the photorealistic solution for SolidWorks software.
So what is PhotoView 360?
Product Description
PhotoView 360 makes the creation of stunning photorealistic images as simple as a single mouse click. It establishes SolidWorks as the leader in rendering technology. PhotoView 360 comes as part of SolidWorks Premium, SolidWorks Professional or SolidWorks Office.
Positioning
PhotoView 360 is a new photorealistic rendering application for users who need to quickly create stunning images with as little as a single mouse click.
Technology Overview
The PhotoView 360 renderer is a fast standalone ray‐tracer that uses High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI) for photorealistic lighting. It is highly scalable on multi‐core systems, delivering nearly linear speedups as more processors are added. It supports full associativity with SolidWorks in the areas of assembly instancing, and the accurate transfer of RealView appearances. PhotoView 360 was first released as part of SolidWorks 2009 SP1.
To view a gallery of rendered images, go to http://www.solidworksgallery.com/
Starting with 2010 SP3.0, SolidWorks is checking whether you are on subscription before you install the service pack. With SP3.0 you will just get a warning if you are not on subscription but starting with SP4.0 you will not be able to install.
For network licenses, the expiration date is saved on the license server and that is the date that is checked during installation. Depending on the date the SNL Manager was activated and the subscription expiration date, you may get the message that your subscription has expired even though it has been renewed. Read more…
The SolidWorks Flow Simulation can give you a message stating that authorization has failed. This is because on the client machine the License Manager was opened and the License Order tab was selected. This changes a registry setting that needs to be corrected. Below is the work around for this and it has been corrected in 2010 SP3 which should be released in the middle of April.
Here is the workaround – please be sure you are comfortable editing the registry prior to attempting this procedure. Consider making a backup of the registry beforehand, in case you make a mistake. Read more…
If you are experiencing slowness or sluggishness while working on SolidWorks models and you open your files over a network, it is worthwhile to check to see if the network is causing at least some of the problems.
To test whether performance issues are related to opening files over a network, place an assembly and its referenced files on your local hard drive and work on the assembly from there.
Procedure:
- If you have the assembly open, go to File>Pack and Go …
- Alternatively, in Windows Explorer, browse to the assembly, right click, click on SolidWorks, then Pack and Go …
- In the Pack and Go window, in Save to folder – browse to a folder on your C:\ drive and place in a temporary folder. In this example I created a new folder just to test this assembly.
- Add a prefix or a suffix to change the filenames of all of the models so these won’t be confused with your regular models.
- Click Save
Open this assembly and work with it for a while and see if you notice an improvement in performance.
One of the many advantages of any CAD system is the ability to reuse design data in new designs. Copying an existing design and then making changes has saved companies tremendous amounts of time and money. Here is an easy way to reuse a design including the drawings and save it with a new file name. Read more…
