SolidWorks 2013 adds new functionality when it comes to processing those renders you always dreamed of. New for 2013 is the capability to network render. In short, this give you the capability to utilize the processing power of up to ten computers from your network to complete a render job. This exciting new feature cuts your rendering time down to an efficient and manageable level. So say good bye to waiting for your machines core to do the job on their own.  I’m going to walk you through how to set it up and before you know it, you will own your very own “render farm”!

In order to get this to work you need accomplish two simple tasks. First, ensure that you have SolidWorks 2013 Professional or Premium with the PhotoView 360 add-in turned on. Second, for all of your machine that will be used in the farm, they will need to be branded with the PhotoView 360 Network Render Client. This utility will allow your machine to access their processing power during the render stage. This will effect their performance but chances are, they aren’t using those extra cores anyway.

To install the render client on the farm machines, simply insert your 2013 SolidWorks DVD or use the downloaded SolidWorks install files from the customer portal and start the installation manager.

When you start the install process you will NOT be installing SolidWorks on the farm machines, just the client. You will click through to the product selection window and only select the PhotoView 360 Network Render Client to install.

 

Continue the install process until complete then repeat on all machines that you wish to add to your farm. Once complete, the farm machines will have a program called PhotoView 360 Network Render Client in the start menu. It will look like this:

This client will have to be up and running on the desired farm machines in order to be used by the machine running SolidWorks 2013. Once you start the client on the farm machines, an interface will open. You have to “enter client mode” for the machine to be active in your farm. This is done by selecting “Enter Client Mode Now” as indicated below. You can also set up a schedule as to when the farm machines are available and when they are not.

Once you enter client mode, you will see a dialog box in front of the client letting you know that it is waiting for a job. This will remain up until you exit client mode. It will also change once the machine receives the task of rendering.

 

Now that have your render farm awaiting your command, all you have left is to set up your machine to call out for help from the farm. Navigate to your PhotoView 360 menu and select options. From here, you can adjust your PhotoView Network Render options.

 

 

Now you are ready to render your heart out. Activate your final render inside of SolidWorks. You will see the normal render window with orange colored squares for each of your cores and blue squares for each of the farms cores.  Check out this screen capture from a our small render farm. The 8 orange are my cores while the blue ones are the farms cores. Meanwhile the farm machines will show rendering data in the client.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a PhotoView 360 render farm. Happy Rendering!

SolidWorks Motion – Trace path and convert to SolidWorks Curve, a hidden gem.

The other week I took my daughter to the science museum, my favorite educational distraction.  While we were exploring the exhibits we came across a pendulum drawing machine (Harmonograph) that makes cool pictures.  We whipped out a few before moving onto the Bernouli Ball (I’ll have to get back to that as that’s something SolidWorks Flow Simulation can do).  Here’s a picture just like the drawings we made now hanging on my refrigerator.

The next week I was discussing SolidWorks motion with a prospect and how it allows you to simulate complex motions and the Harmonograph came into my head (can you imagine a more complex motion than the above image?).  So I made a first example, really simple, two pendulums, probably took all of 5 mins to create.

 

In motion I added gravity and clicked run, although I left out the details that connect the pendulums to the drawing pen I was able to see the drawing was working by tracing a point on one pendulum with respect to the other pendulum.  See how the curve moves with the pendulum on the left while tracing the path of the pendulum on the right.

After determining the system was working as expected (crawl, walk, run) I added a simple drawing mechanism.  To reduce the modeling effort I replaced the wires linking the pendulum to the drawing mechanism with 2 simple equations.  Now the system was quite recognizable, even to my 3 year old.

From there I had to try another version of the drawing machine I’ve seen with rotation (loved my spiralgraph so much I wore the teeth off). 

Of course there’s a point beyond Motion’s ability to simulate these really cool drawing machines.  I’ve created a few cams over the years using this functionality.  Basically what we do is simulate the desired linear motion, then trace that with respect to some rotating object and SolidWorks motion with automatically draw out the required cam for your system.  From there you can make that trace become a curve in SolidWorks, simply extrude, rinse and repeat.  So if you’ve ever needed a complex path created by the motion of objects in your design SolidWorks Motion is the tool for you.

Tim Newton

Symmetry Solutions Inc

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.

 

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.

In the words of SolidWorks, “Sensors monitor selected properties of parts and assemblies and alert you when values deviate from the limits you specify.”  They come in handy when creating optimization studies.  (Check out this week’s blog.)

To create a sensor, right click the “Sensors” folder in the feature manager tree.  Then, select “Add Sensor”

Next, select your sensor type.

Simulation Data: Monitors simulation results like stress and displacement

Mass Properties: Monitors things like mass, volume and surface area

Dimension: Monitors any dimension you select

Interference Detection: This option is only available for assemblies.  It will warn you if any parts (of your choosing) interfere with one another.

Proximity: This option is also only available for assemblies.  It is similar to interference detection.  It will warn you if your parts cross a line.

Motion Data: This option is only available with the motion add in turned on.  It will monitor existing result information from a motion study.

Within these options there is much to explore.  Happy hunting!