For those of you who use the Enterprise PDM add-in for SolidWorks, you know that the little preview on the Enterprise Task Pane is small and hard to see. So while looking around in the Knowledge Base the other day, I ran across how to remove the preview and leave more room for the other information you want to see in that area.

All you need to do is make a quick change to the Windows Registry.

IMPORTANT: Only make changes to the Windows Registry at your own risk. Create a backup before making any changes.

1. Close SolidWorks
2. Click on the Windows Start icon
3. Type regedit in the Search box and select it from the list.
4. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\Applications\PDMWorks Enterprise\ConisioCAD\SolidWorks
5. Right click on SolidWorks > New > DWORD
6. Name the new entry BitmapPreview
7. Right click and select Modify
8. Set the value to 0 (zero)
9. Reopen a file from the vault in SolidWorks and check the Task Pane.

You can resize to expand the horizontal column and you will have more room to view the properties.

Keep checking – I plan on adding more quick tips for EPDM.

When creating a sheet metal part in SolidWorks, one of the key features is the capability to “Flatten” the model into a sheet so it can be manufactured. This allows the manufacturing entity to have a flat pattern drawing derived from the created part.

There may come a time when the product needs to be produced from round bar stock. Being that this component is not sheet metal, it cannot be flattened. This would prompt the modeler to create two separate parts, one for the bent shape and one for the unbent shape.

What I am going to show you is a technique I developed that will allow you to one create a part that contains two configurations; one bend, one unbent. The goal is to create the two configurations of a horse shoe shape product made from bar stock.

1. Create a section of round bar stock. This is basically a round extrusion that has a .25in diameter and 10in length. You can use Extrusion, Sweep or any other method to create the base shape.
   
2. Locate and activate the Flex command. You can do this by using the Command Search function in Solidworks.  Simply type “Flex” in the search bar, this will populate results as you type. Then click the glasses to see the location of the Flextool.
     
3. Now the Flex Manageris open on the left side of the screen, for the first setting, select the outside of the round stock.
   
4. In order to create the horse shoe shape, we will need a 180deg bend in the bar stock. Set the angle to -180deg, this will place a 180deg bend in the part. (See above image)
5. Next, we need to define how long the straight legs will be.  Set Trim Plane1 and 2 to 3in each. This will move the trim planes to 3in from the two ends of the bar.
   
6. The last setting will be the Triad in the “X” axis, we want to set this to 3in so that the bar will remain oriented correctly to the plane. Click OK to save these settings.
          
7. The result is a horseshoe shaped section of round bar stock. Create another configuration called “unbend” and simply suppress the Flex1feature. Test the configurations.
   Challenge yourself by adding a feature that turns the bar stock to an extruded tube. If done correctly, the part can be converted to a tube that will bend and unbend just like the solid bar.
   

 

Text wrapping is a fairly simple tool to use within Solidworks part modeling when you are applying a wrap to a flat face or around a cylinder, but when you run into a part with a changing radius and a rounded face, the wrap feature becomes a little more complex.  For this example, we will wrap text onto a conical feature.

In order to create  this text wrap, we must first create some construction geometry that is relative to the dimensions of the cone.  By identifying the point where the axis of the cone and the plane of the cone intersect, we can use this point to further create a half circle on our sketch plane.  So lets go ahead and define this point.

Now create a plane tangent to the face of the cylinder; this plane will be used to add the text and text curvature.  You will see that the distance of where the text is placed is going to be the radius of the half circle we create in the next step.  In this example, the text is located 4.7 inches down from the top of the conical section, so go ahead and create a half circle arc with a radius equal to the distance you want the text to be relative to the tip of the cone.

Now all of our construction lines are in place, insert the sketched text and click the arc to create the correct geometry for the text to be wrapped.  Make sure that the text inserted is on the same plane you created but inserted as a different sketch than the construction lines you have created.

Click the wrap feature, choose the sketch of the text you are wrapping and the face of the cylinder and you are all done!

Call it an adventure! A journey! Or, what it really is – a quarter life crises. In any event, I’m moving to Melbourne, Australia! Today is my last day as a technical team member for Symmetry Solutions. I will miss this place and the people. This company has taught me a lot about life and business. For that, I feel indebted.

I will be leaving the company in good hands; Mike Sande will be taking my position. Since starting at Symmetry Solutions quite some time ago he has been immersed in all things Simulation. He’s very bright and I know you will enjoy working with him as much as I have.

I will be working for a reseller down under called InterCAD doing simulation support. If you want to follow my misadventures and perhaps live vicariously through me and my girlfriend, Kerry, you can follow our blog:
http://www.melbourneyoubetcha.com

No posts yet but that will soon change. I have a long list of things I would like to do and I will blog about it all. This is a partial list:

Learn to skateboard
Learn to swim (I can float and move around – it’s just that people stare)
Go spear fishing (notice that this is after learning to swim)
Hunt using a boomerang (I’m not really going to defend this one – I’ve just always wanted to do it)
Learn to surf (also after learning to swim)

All the best,

-Nick

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.