The American Heritage dictionary defines a utility as:

(yū-tĭl’ĭ-tē)
n., pl., -ties.

1. The quality or condition of being useful; usefulness:
2. A useful article or device.
3. A public utility.
1. A commodity or service, such as electricity, water, or public transportation, that is provided by a public utility.

In SolidWorks, the utilities add-in available with seats of SolidWorks Professional or Premium can be very useful indeed!

SolidWorks defines Utilities as “a set of tools that lets you examine in detail the geometry of a solid model, and make comparisons to other models”.

With everything from automated tools to simplify your models to geometry comparison between separate files; these tools can give you valuable insight into your designs and give you the information you need to be successful.

Take some time to get familiar with SolidWorks Utilities by checking out this link:  http://help.solidworks.com/2012/English/SolidWorks/swutilities/SolidWorks_Utilities.htm

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.

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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…

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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

Let’s discuss the difference between the linear solver and the dynamic solver with a case study. Take the example of an engineer slamming his head on his desk after getting poor simulation results from his linear solver.

In scenario #1, the engineer lightly places his head on his desk then proceeds to slowly press down with his body weight. The force value, F, represents the maximum amount of force he can transmit through his neck.

In scenario #2, the engineers head starts a distance of 2 feet from his desk. The engineer proceeds to accelerate his head towards his desk with the aforementioned force value, F. After he comes into contact with the desk, his neck continues to transmit the force until his head comes to a complete rest against the surface.

Now, in both scenarios, the engineer’s neck transmits the same amount of force, F. However, the second scenario will produce higher levels of cranial stress at specific instances in time. The higher stress is related to momentum. The engineer recognizes this and proceeds with scenario #2 until the desired level of masochistic indulgence is achieved.

If we were to simulate these events, design scenario #1 could be adequately achieved with either the static solver or the dynamic solver and the results would be the same. However, if we were to run scenario #2 with a static solver, we would get the same result as we would with scenario #1. Obviously, the static solver has limitations.

The linear solver only sees the last moment in time; when things are at rest. Thus, we have two data points, the beginning and the end.

On the other hand, the dynamic solver is aware of the time in-between the beginning and the end. As a result, we are left with a much more complete picture.

For a moment, let’s sidestep the slamming head on desk approach, as this practice is no longer necessary. Let’s use the example of a cantilever beam with a weight of one hundred pounds suspended from the end.

For the linear study, let’s consider the case of loading the end very slowly. The results of this simulation are shown below.
The maximum displacement is 58 mm.

For the dynamic study, let’s consider that the weight will take .05 seconds to reach its maximum value of 100 pounds and will then level out. The maximum displacement results of this simulation are shown below.
The maximum displacement is 93 mm. This is an enormous jump from 58mm. Obviously, we’d want to study the dynamic simulation results over the static.

Does SolidWorks sometime feel like it’s working at a turtle’s pace? The problem might stem from being connected to a network!

Working on a network is great, and in today’s age it’s basically required. Unplugging from the network could solve a lot of issues, but usually isn’t feasible. The problem is that so much stuff is looking to the network it can sometimes slow down SolidWorks. There can be a ton of reasons for this, some can be fixed! Here’ are a few tips to make your performance a better while working with SolidWorks.

• Don’t work over the network!!! One of the biggest slowdowns you can cause in SolidWorks is by trying to work with files that are located on the network. If the files aren’t on your local computer, every time you open them, temp version of them are made in the directory they’re opened in. Every change you make has to get written to those. Every time you save the main files get written to. All of that going over the network is going to slow down SolidWorks. Copy files locally to avoid those issues.
• Backup/Auto-Recover: You should not have these locations be on the network. If these locations aren’t local, SW will again be constantly working and writing over the network and slow down. The backup option to put the backups in the same place as the original file can double the issue if you’re working on files over the network as well.
• SolidWorks Search: The SW Search is useful, but if you don’t use it, turn it off. If you do use it, make sure to set the indexing to “only when the computer is idle.”
• News Feed: Turn off the option in the general area of the options to “Show latest news feeds…” It may be minor, but it’s one more thing to slow down SW.
• Stop Streaming: Turn off things like streaming audio, unneeded web pages, and any other non-essential programs. The less trying to fight for resources the better.
• Stop the CPU War: Everything you’re running on a computer is constantly fighting for you CPU. When you’re on the network, even more things are fighting for it. If possible, dedicate a CPU core to SolidWorks. Windows defaults everything to the first core, once that’s full, it’ll start using other cores. Most of SW can only use one core, so the more it’s trying to fight with the slower it will run. If you can dedicate a core, it will reduce the chances of a slow down.

We have been preaching to you forever about the importance of fully defining your SolidWorks sketches. Now that you have (hopefully) accepted the reasoning behind the recommendation, today’s tech tip will help you reduce the time it will take you to accomplish this task.

Introducing, the FULLY DEFINE SKETCH command. Well it was actually introduced several years ago but it may be new to you.

The Fully Define Sketch tool calculates which dimensions and relations are required to fully define under defined sketches or selected sketch entities. You can access Fully Define Sketch at any point and with any combination of dimensions and relations already added.

To fully define a sketch:
1. Edit a sketch.
2. Click Fully Define Sketch (Dimensions/Relations toolbar) or Tools, Dimensions, Fully Define Sketch.
3. Set the options for relations and dimensions in the Fully Define Sketch PropertyManager.
4. Click the green check mark.

That’s it. To simplify it even further, you can program a hotkey to invoke the command. Now that you know how simple it is to define your sketches, there is really no reason not to. Try it. You might like it. I know your sketches will be happy.

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In Part One, we discussed the parametric design of a solar thermal collector. In this part, we’ll take a look at the HVAC modules capabilities in handling advanced radiation. Before we begin, let’s discuss the physics of radiation.

On a simple level, radiation from a heat source (any heat source) travels in waves. These waves have different wave lengths depending on the temperature of the heat source. So, a computer screen will have a different radiation spectrum than a fire or a desk lamp.

When radiation strikes an object, some of the radiation will be absorbed, a fraction will be transmitted, and the remaining radiation will be reflected. Any radiation which is absorbed turns into heat. Any radiation which is transmitted passes through the object. And reflected radiation is reflected back to the environment.

For a particular material, the ratios of absorption, transmittance and reflection are different depending on the wavelength. So, graphs of these ratios against the wavelength spectrum are required in order to get accurate radiation properties for a particular material.

Let’s relate this information to the solar collector. Radiation transmits through the solar panel glass and is absorbed by the pipes and collector’s conducting walls. The heat is then transferred to the water passing through the system.

At this point you might be wondering why we have glass on the system. A portion of the sun’s radiation will be reflected back as a result of the glass. Wouldn’t we collect more radiation on the pipes if the glass wasn’t there? The answer is YES. We would collect more radiation on the pipes if the glass wasn’t there. However, the system is more complicated than that. Every heat source radiates at a particular wave length. And, the ratios of absorption, transmittance and reflection are different depending on the wavelength. So, as it turns out, the glass transmits most of the radiation from the sun and absorbs and reflects most of the radiation from the pipes. The glass traps the heat in the system. It’s the exact same reason your car gets hot in the sun.

Okay, let’s simplify our model for simulation.

Now, let’s create a flow study. For this project, we’ll specify an external analysis which will have an internal fluid sub-domain for water flowing through the pipes. For the first go around, we’ll keep the model simple and exclude cavities without flow conditions. This will eliminate any convective effects from air within the box. We’ll also introduce radiation, gravity and heat conduction in solids.

Okay, this is where we’ll need to take a closer look at our solar radiation options and make some decisions. Radiation is not simple. From the general settings, we can see that there are a lot of radiation options. However, SolidWorks does a good job of making it as easy as possible to get setup.

Environmental Radiation – By selecting this option, we are considering radiation effects from the environment which we define at a specified temperature.

Solar Radiation – By selecting this option, we are considering radiation effects from a single source.
With this option selected, we can specify a radiation source by its location and intensity.
We can also take the suns radiation into account, as specified by “Location and Time.”

Let’s take a closer look at “Location and Time.” For SolidWorks to calculate the suns effects on the panel, SolidWorks needs to understand the suns orientation relative to the collector. That’s why we specify the latitude, date, time, zenith direction, angle measured from north to, and angle. The first three values seem obvious, but zenith direction, angle measured from north to, and angle might not make sense to the layman.

Zenith direction – This option specifies the highest direction in the sky. Directly above you. Up. In this case, I’ve specified a custom coordinate system and chosen the y-axis.

Angle measured from north to – This option specifies the orientation within your system which you would like to relate to north. In this case, I’ve specified a custom coordinate system and chosen the z-axis.

Angle - This specifies which way north is relative to “angle measured from north to”. In my case, I’ve kept this value at 0 radians which means my “angle measured from north to” is north as well.

For this simulation, I’ll also specify absorption in solids.

Okay, this is getting long and I’m sure your head hurts. We’ll discuss further in part Trois.

When Toolbox parts are saved out as separate, unique files, they retain information about their parentage.  It’s called a Toolbox flag.  In the past it usually didn’t cause a problem but in SolidWorks 2011, a setting was added that could potentially cause your saved parts to be replaced with standard Toolbox components.  You can tell if a component has a Toolbox flag by the bolt icon showing in the Assembly tree.

The new setting tells SolidWorks to always look in the Toolbox location for Toolbox components.   Uncheck this setting and SolidWorks should find your parts correctly.

The best solution, though, is to turn off the Toolbox flag on your components and turn them into regular SolidWorks parts.  There is a program that is installed with SolidWorks that will do this.

1. Go to C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp 2011\SolidWorks\Toolbox\data utilities and look for sldsetdocprop.exe
2. Double click on the executable file.
3. Make sure the Property State is set to No under Set Document Property.
   Check Part Files.
   Select either Add Files… to select individual files or Add Directories… to select an entire folder.
4. Click Update Status.
5. To verify the status of a file after running the program, select a file and click Show Selected property.

If you have any questions, please give Tech Support a call at 763-560-8600, Option 4.

The SolidWorks Customer Portal is one of your best resources for information and support for the SolidWorks family of software.  From the Portal you’ll have a quick link to:

• Downloads and Updates to update your SolidWorks, Enterprise, and 3DVIA software
• Knowledge Base where you can search for solutions to questions and problems
• Enhancement Requests where you can influence how the software will work in the future
• Fixed SPR list to see what issues have been fixed in the new versions and service packs.
• Forums where you can connect with other SolidWorks users and find solutions to your challenges or help others with theirs
• Certification to find out how to join an elite group of SolidWorks users by becoming certified
• Admin Guides to find the documentation for What’s New, Installation, Administration
• Learning Resources to have access to tutorial files, Administrative Guides, Tech Tips, & other resources

 This is not an exhaustive list of all of the resources but I hope it’s enough to pique your interest.

 Creating an Account

To access the Customer Portal, select the Login link on the top of the SolidWorks home page http://www.solidworks.com then select SolidWorks Customer Portal.

 Login using your existing account information.  If you do not have an account yet you will have to create one.

 To create a member account:

1. Select the Click here to create an account short cut beneath Not a member?
2. Select Customer and enter the serial number.
3. Enter a valid email address, click Next.  As with most forms the * fields are required, the rest are optional.
4. Fill in your first name and your last name, click Next.
5. Enter the account information, click Next.  The account name is the company name.
6. Enter a password and fill in some profile questions, click Next.
7. Then you will be required to accept the “Export Eligibility Requirements” agreement.
8. Once you accept the agreement you will be brought to the SolidWorks Customer Portal.

NOTE: Many of the links in the Self Service area are not available () unless you have entered a serial number that has an active subscription service contract.  You must Register My Products under the My Support section to unlock the links.

Once you’re in, take some time and explore all of the resources.  You’ll probably be surprised at all of the information available to you.

As always, if you have any questions, please give us a call.

Solidworks has many great shortcuts built into the program already, but you can customize it in a variety of ways to fit your specific needs as well.  If you’re not already familiar with the customize dialog where you can set up your own keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures, this is an easy way to modify your settings and make your modeling operations fly.  You can access the customize dialog by going to Tools>Customize, or right-clicking on any toolbar and choosing Customize from the toolbar list. 

But don’t forget about the Shortcut toolbar.  This is a custom toolbar that pops up right next to your mouse pointer when you hit the “s” key.  With all the fancy mice in use today, one tip is to program a mouse button to the “s” key so you can launch the shortcut bar right from your mouse.  You can customize the shortcut bar by right-clicking on it when it’s visible, selecting Customize…, and dragging and dropping commands from the customize dialog just like any other toolbar.

Also, how many times a day do you use the Ctrl key?  Try programming a mouse button to this key stroke and you simply hold down that button while picking entities that you want to add a relationship between or multi-select.  It will work in other Windows programs, too!

Once you get everything set up the way you like, save your settings with the Copy Settings Wizard.  That way you can automatically apply your settings to any other workstation or new installation.  The Copy Settings Wizard is a tool that is automatically installed with SolidWorks and can be accessed through the Windows Start menu, All Programs, SolidWorks 20XX, SolidWorks Tools.

For more tips on customizing you SolidWorks interface, check out the Customizing SolidWorks tutorial available by going to Help> SolidWorks Tutorials.

There’s a general mindset with most of us techie types out there that new is always better. People stand in lines to be the first get the next new smartphone. They brag about having some brand new 12 core super computer.  Your car still runs on gas? You need something NEW! Well, when it comes to SolidWorks, sometimes brand new is not the way to go.

The main example of too new is with your graphics card drivers. Sure, everyone knows that having really old graphics drivers can cause issue with SolidWorks. If you run into graphics problems, running an RX to check your drivers should be the first thing you do. But hopping onto the NVIDIA or ATI website and getting the newest driver can cause issues, too.

SolidWorks tests each new driver the companies put out and eventually certifies them for use. That can take time though. Your best bet for getting the correct, current certified driver is through RX. When it checks your drivers, if there are new ones it will usually provide a link to download the newest certified driver. If it doesn’t, you can find them at:
 http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/VideoCardTesting.html

The certified drivers are usually the way to go, but in rare occasions even those are “too new.” If your computer is having a problem hanging when trying to close files, you might want to try rolling back your drivers to one version previous. Occasionally the graphics card doesn’t release some of the graphics data and SolidWorks hangs. Rolling back sometimes fixes that.

Next time you’re having graphics issues, remember: cool new things are great, just make sure they’re certified!