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!

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.

The wind was heavy that day my friends, as I remember it, the date was April 12^th, 2012.   It seemed like just another day until over 100 customers and prospects attended Symmetry Solutions: Hook, Line, and SolidWorks Spring Conference event.

Many were baited to come see the likes of Dave Genz, Ice Fishing enthusiast, and Walleye Dan, professional fishing guide.   There weren’t many bobbers in the audience during Mark Pallansch’s discussion of Clam Corporations manual documentation process, as he shared how they utilized 3DVIA Composer to provide parametric-based set up and tear down animations of Ice Houses.  Dave Schluter from St. Croix Rods had his hooks into the audience during his discussion on their implementation of Enterprise Product Data Management.   St. Croix Rods was able to string up their workflows and provide a much more efficient product release process.

The biggest catch of the day was during the technical breakout sessions, as the new SolidWorks Plastics Product offering reeled in the largest audience of the technical breakout.   Other technical varieties included Application Programming Interface (program customization), Simulation (FEA, CFD analysis), Enterprise Product Data Management, and 3DVIA Composer for technical communications.

To close out the day, two lucky winners, Jesse Hahn from SportTech and Mark Bossart from Apnex Medical, bagged themselves a big fishing tale by each taking home a brand new ice fishing house from Clam Corporations. Congratulations!

I very well could have had this conversation while doing tech support…
Dude: Well, I can see that this is some powerful software, but it’s taking a long time to solve and things shouldn’t be this complicated.

Me: Yeah… that’s a pretty… pretty big mesh. I can’t even see the part.

Me: What are you trying to study here?
Dude: The assembly. (Duhhh!)
Me: Yeah, but what about the assembly? Is there a particular part you’re worried about?
Dude: Well, now that you’ve mentioned it, I am pretty concerned about this part.

Me: Okay, we can eliminate these parts and apply equivalent forces on the faces.

Me: Alright, let’s get started! We can use a rough mesh to find the contact forces.

Me: Now, we can eliminate the top pieces from the assembly and create split lines where we would like to apply the equivalent forces.

Me: This is a perfect opportunity to use 2D simplification. Let’s create a new study.

Me: Now, we can afford a pretty heavy mesh control on the component of interest.

Me: If we go into properties and select the option for “Improve accuracy for no penetration contacting surfaces” we’ll get the same results as before with a fraction of the run time.
Dude: Thanks Nick! You’re the best!
Me: I know… I know.

 

As a member of the Technical Support Team at Symmetry Solutions, each year we are required to be recertified by SolidWorks.  Part of the recertification test is focused on new functionality and features for the latest release of SolidWorks.  As you may or may not know, there is a “What’s New” file for every new release of the software that documents these changes.  You can access this file from your help menu in SolidWorks.  Like many, I am one of those people that scan the document for some highlights when I install each new release.  However, since my recertification test was approaching, I thought I would give it a more thorough read.  You know what I discovered (again)?  There is a lot of good information in that document.  I won’t try and summarize the entire thing, but here is one tip that I think may be useful if you are in the process of updating hardware:

“You can transfer a license from a computer even if SolidWorks is no longer installed on that computer. You can download and run SolidWorks Activation Wizard from the SolidWorks customer portal to transfer the license.”

So now when you get that annoying message about “Activation Count Exceeded” because you forgot to transfer the license off of your old computer, you no longer need to call technical support to resolve the problem.

Note, the tool is new and currently only applies to SW2011 installations.

Take some time and read through the “What’s New” document (again).  It may not be the most fun reading material available, but I recommend it for all SolidWorks users, as it can help you get the most from your software.

P.S.  You will be happy to know that all the members of your SolidWorks Technical Support Team here at Symmetry Solutions passed their recertification test.