Here’s a couple extra features that you might find useful for Sheet Metal in SolidWorks 2012…

If you build assembly models that contain thousands of parts, you have undoubtedly experienced instances where your computer’s performance suffered.  You are probably already aware of many of the tools that SolidWorks provides to optimize your files.  Using tools such as large assembly mode, lightweight, SpeedPak and Defeature, will dramatically speed up the process while you are working on such large files.

But what about when you just need to review the assembly with a customer or other members of your design team?  There may still be a large amount of overhead data in your file that is not required for this purpose. SolidWorks 2012 introduces a new feature call Large Design Review Mode.  Large Design Review Mode is primarily intended as an environment for quick design reviews.

Large Design Review lets you open very large assemblies quickly, while still retaining capabilities that are useful when conducting design reviews of assemblies.

When you open an assembly in Large Design Review mode, you can:
• Navigate the FeatureManager design tree
• Measure distances
• Create cross sections
• Hide and show components
• Create, edit, and play back walk-throughs
• Open part file to edit

To open an assembly in Large Design Review mode, click Open (Standard toolbar) or File > Open.  In the dialog box, select the assembly you want to open, and then, in Mode, select Large Design Review.

For more on how to use this great new enhancement, refer to your SolidWorks help file, “Large Design Review Mode.”

Also take a look at this video on YouTube.

So 2012  is now released, and they have finally fixed a couple of things that had changed if you upgraded to Windows 7 or Vista. If you never used XP with a Workgroup vault, you may not be aware of these functions. You used to be able to browse the vault from the “SolidWorks Open” dialog. There was a link on the left in the favorites along with Desktop and My Documents. In 2012, they have brought this back for users of Windows 7 and Vista. It is a little different then it is in XP as it is not added to favorites, but it still gets the files you want to open.

The button can be found at the bottom of the open dialog. When selected, it opens a “Select from Vault” dialog that allows you to browse the vault. By default, it is set to check out and if you just select “Check Out” it will go back to the SolidWorks Open and this will then point to the check out location called out in the Workgroup client options. There is also the “Check Out Advanced.” This will open the standard check out dialog for Workgroup and populate with the selected files from the Select from Vault. This makes it easier to open a file to a specific configuration even if it was not last saved to that one.

There is also one thing that is not listed in the “Whats New for 2012″  but I have had a few customers bring this up as being an annoyance.This is also primarily seen in Windows 7 & Vista. This has to do with searching in the vault from inside SolidWorks. So you set up the search criteria and tell it to “Find” and it searches down the Vault View Tree. When it finds the first to meet the criteria it stops and highlights the file in the tree. Really it does, but it is very light and not always easy to see. Recently, I received a fixed SPR notification for this issue and you can now actually see the highlighted file. Once again, this is not an issue if you are still using Windows XP as you could adjust the brightness of the monitor if this was not visible enough.

Before SolidWorks 2011 borrowing a license was a little cumbersome as you had to make sure to borrow a Standard seat as well as a Professional or Premium if you wanted extra add-ins. Also the list of possible products was extremely long and had nothing to do with what licenses you purchased.

In SolidWorks 2011 there were changes made to the borrow function to clean up the user interface. It now shows only what  licenses you purchased and you no longer need to select a Standard license to be able to use the software.

For example on my license manager I do not own a seat of Standard so it shows zero available but I have plenty of Premium. This is working as designed and if yours looks this way not to worry. Going forward you do not need to borrow the Standard. It will do this for you as the License Manager knows you need this.

That doesn’t mean you cannot borrow a Standard license if you want it takes a second step to do so. The process involves selecting, for example, the Premium that is available and click “Borrow”. Then the Select Product dialog comes up and this has a pull down that allows you to take either the Premium or just the Standard.

Once the product is selected I can then click OK and it will show me what I have borrowed and until when. Now at this time you need to disconnect from the server to be able to use the borrowed license. If you do not disconnect you will just take another license from the pool.

In a previous Tech Tip, Network Slowdown, we discussed some options to help your SolidWorks performance when operating over a network. One of the options garnered some interest: How to dedicate a processor/core solely to SolidWorks to help keep it from fighting or the processor. Well, here’s how
you do it!

First, Open the Task Manager and go to the Processes Tab:

Right Click on SldWorks.exe and click Set Affinity:

Then, select the CPU/Core you wish SolidWorks to use.

If you want to make that processor completely reserved for SolidWorks, it will take a bit of manual effort. You’ll have to go down the list of other processes and turn off their affinity for the processor you want
SolidWorks on. If you’re not running many other things that are eating CPU time that might not be as critical.

There are also Third Party programs out there you can download to help manage this as well.

This alone is definitely no fix all in the world of SolidWorks performance. However, if you’re looking for every ounce of extra performance, this can help a little!

You may have heard about this great ability to use a clean uninstall feature now in SolidWorks.  Well, we Composer users aren’t quite as lucky.  If you want a complete uninstall of 3DVIA composer, it is still a manual process.  Fortunately, it is relatively simple.

From the Windows Control Panel, choose Programs, then Programs and Features. Find and uninstall all 3DVIA listings.

Then you will want to delete any folders relating to 3DVIA on your hard drive. You might find 3DVIA folders in the following locations:

Make sure you do not have any custom styles or profiles existing in these folders that you’d want to keep.

Depending on your installation, there may be additional folders from previous installs or folders may not be named exactly the same.

Install directory:
“%Program Files%\Dassault Systemes\3DVIA Composer”

User data:
For XP, “Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\3DVIA Composer”
For Vista® and Windows® 7, “Users\<username>\Documents\3DVIAComposer”

After deleting folders, edit the Windows registry to remove the following keys (some keys may not be present of your system). To access the Windows Registry Editor select

Run…… in the Windows Start Menu, type regedit, and hit OK.

IMPORTANT:

Edit the Windows Registry at your own risk. Before editing the registry, it’’s recommended to create a backup.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Dassault Systemes\3DVIA Composer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Dassault Systemes\3DVIA Composer

Note: If you would like assistance in completing any of these steps
Contact Symmetry Solutions Technical Support

It’s that time of year again.  Many of us are in the process of migrating to the latest release of SolidWorks.  Along with that comes the usual questions.  Today we will answer one of those for you, updating your license server.

• The previous version of the SolidWorks SolidNetwork License (SNL) Manager will need to be uninstalled before installing the new version.
• First, transfer the activation for the program by launching the SolidNetwork License Manager on the server, choosing the Server Administration tab, clicking the Modify button, and transfer license.
• Next, uninstall though the Windows Control Panel, Add or remove programs for Windows XP, or Programs and Features for Windows Vista and 7

NOTE:  As of SolidWorks 2010, the SolidWorks SolidNetwork License Manager is activation based and no longer requires a dongle plugged into the server machine.  If you are currently using a version that required a dongle, remove it and mail it back to Symmetry Solutions, 8755 Brooklyn Blvd, Brooklyn Park, MN 55445

• Now you will need to install the new version of the license manager from the DVD or a download you have for the new SolidWorks version
  • For the installation type, Select the Server Products radio button then check the option to Install SolidNetwork License Manager on this computer
  • Follow the prompts in the installation manager to complete the installation

• When the install is done, you’ll need to activate the product. This will generate the license file used to determine what licenses you have available.  Launching the SolidWorks SolidNetwork License Manager software from the Windows Start menu should automatically bring up the activation Wizard
  • If you need to access the activation options at anytime to transfer the license or activate/reactivate the software, go to the server administration tab and select Modify…

• On the first window, take note of the computer name and port number.  If you are updating the SNL Manager on the same server computer, this information will not change, but if you are installing on a new or different server, this information will be needed for the client install.
  • At this time, you can point to an option file if you have created one.

• Select the Next to bring up the next dialog asking how you would like to activate:  Automatically over the internet or Manually via email.
  • You can do it in either way but it is recommended to do it automatically if you have internet connection. The recommended way will be quicker and only take a few seconds while the manual way will take a few minutes to complete.

• After completing the activation, a dialog will appear letting you know it was successful and will show what licenses you have available

Do you ever find yourself using the same feature over and over again?  Or maybe your new designs share many similar features.  Hopefully you already know you can copy features from one part to another (Ctrl+Drag between tiled document windows), but a better solution for a feature that you want to re-use over and over again is to add it to your Design Library. Here’s a couple quick tips:

Pick the feature(s) you want to re-use from your Feature Manager Tree (you can pick multiple features with your Ctrl key).  Then from the Design Library Tab, pick the Add to Library command  .

In the Property manager you can give your library feature a file name and description which will appear in a tool tip if you were to hover over the file in your library.  Hit the green check.

Click for Hi Res Image

You can further customized the Library feature part to make it more customizable by opening it up from the library folder.  You may want to consider simplifying the original model to remove features you are not re-using.

And you can use the Folders at the top of the Feature Tree in your library part to control how the features behave when inserted into a new part.

The Reference folder shows the references that you’ll be prompted for when bringing in the features.  You can Rename them hereto be more descriptive.  And the Dimension folder allows you to rename the dimensions that will be copied into your new design and you can also move them into the Location Dimensions folder if you want them to be editable on inserting the feature, or in the Internal Dimensions folder if you do not want users to be able to access them.

Always remember to test!  You can drag and drop you library feature part into a new part to test it out and make sure you get the behavior you expect…

Click for Hi Res Image

For more information on this topic, our subscription service customers can check out my recorded webinar on our Events Page.  Here’s a link:  http://symsolutions.com/events-and-webinars.html

SolidWorks has had the complete uninstall functionality for the last couple major releases. If you are not aware it is no surprise as it is not very easy to find.

To use it you start the uninstall and the installation manager will open with a list of products to remove. You then need to right mouse click on the header and select “Total Uninstall”. This would remove all settings with no options to not remove specific items.

New in SolidWorks 2012 you can choose what to remove from the install

As you can see above you can select to remove almost everything SolidWorks. Program files is selected by default and cannot be unselected. You may also select registry entries, data file locations and also download files.

Once you have the appropriate items selected and you continue with the uninstall a dialog opens warning that you are removing more than just the standard uninstall does. Proceed with your selective uninstall if desired.

Click the link below to check out a step by step tutorial on creating a curved helix in SolidWorks: