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 Hawk Ridge Systems Blog
Ryan Navarro
Ryan Navarro
Ryan Navarro is an Applications Engineer in our Bothell, WA office and specializes in CAMWorks and SOLIDWORKS Simulation. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Daniel Webster College. In his free time you'll find him exploring the Pacific Northwest.

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Mesh Modeling Workflow

 
November 10th, 2017 by Ryan Navarro

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SOLIDWORKS 2018 introduces a number of enhancements for working with imported mesh designs such as .STL and .OBJ files.  These files are most commonly imported into SOLIDWORKS as Graphics bodies, which have seen a variety of new enhancements this year as well – please see our existing blog article and video for a detailed look into these new capabilities.

This article and companion video focuses on a new workflow for working with mesh files in SOLIDWORKS 2018, which is the ability to natively modify mesh models. This is accomplished via a new body type called a “Mesh body”.

Graphics bodies, as well as native Solid and Surface bodies, can be converted to this new Mesh body type. To convert a body, simply select it from the appropriate Bodies folder and choose the Convert to Mesh Body command.

What's New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Mesh Modeling WorkflowThis enables an exciting new workflow. Converting Solid bodies to Mesh bodies allows traditional SOLIDWORKS features to be used to modify mesh files. This can be seen in the image below, where SOLIDWORKS features are used to make the threads for the imported bottle scan. The thread body is then converted to a Mesh body, so that it can be merged together with a Combine feature.

What's New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Mesh Modeling WorkflowPreviously, any modifications to a mesh file would have required a time-consuming process to convert it to a solid or surface body first. The new Mesh body type and supported features allows direct manipulation of the mesh files, and they can be re-exported in the native mesh format such as .STL or .OBJ.

Aside from basic Boolean style operations like Combine/Subtract, there are a number of additional commands supported. The full list of features currently available for use with Mesh bodies is visible below:

What's New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Mesh Modeling WorkflowUsing these features allowed me to take an imported 3D Scan .STL, such as the bottle scan below, and add manufacturing details to prepare a functional 3D printed prototype without ever having to convert the mesh file! This example was printed on one of Hawk Ridge Systems’ HP 3D printers, and had enough strength and flexibility to be dropped or squeezed without fear of damage.

What's New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Mesh Modeling WorkflowIf you are using 3D scanning or 3D printing technology, this new Mesh body type and workflow should be an exciting new functionality.

It’s worth noting, however, that Mesh bodies are not exportable as neutral CAD file formats such as .STEP or .IGES – so if that is the end goal, a conversion process will be necessary. Tools like the ScanTo3D add-in or the partner product Geomagic for SOLIDWORKS can greatly speed up the conversion process of imported mesh data, if this is required.

For more information, check out our YouTube channel, get a SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD quote or contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading!



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What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Measure Tool Enhancements

 
November 6th, 2017 by Ricky Huynh

With each annual release, SOLIDWORKS looks to streamline their tools to make the designer more productive. One of the most commonly used tools is the Measure Tool! We can use it to measure the lengths of edges, determine the distance between planes and surfaces, and even calculate the surface area, among many other applications. In 2018, SOLIDWORKS made it even better. Now in SOLIDWORKS 2018, the Measure Tool has been enhanced to include a larger selection window, the ability to quickly copy and paste measurements, adjust the font size for easier reading, and allows the Measure Tool to be pinned!

Larger Selection Window

When selecting items to measure, we’ve never had a limit on how many items we could select. We did, however, have a limit on how many selected entities appear in the selection window. For example, in the image of SOLIDWORKS 2017 below, we can see there are 8 edges selected, but only 3 items are visible in the selection window.

What's New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Measure Tool Enhancements

Now, in 2018, the selection window has been enlarged so we can see up to 6 items at a time! This makes it much easier to see what we’ve already selected and de-select anything we didn’t mean to include in the measurement.

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SOLIDWORKS: Embed A SOLIDWORKS Model on Your Website

 
November 3rd, 2017 by Rony Godoy

Have you ever wanted to post your 3D models on a website for your customers to view? Or better yet – have an interactive 3D model where your customers can fully grasp your design? SOLIDWORKS allows this capability through 3DContentCentral via eDrawings.

  1. First thing needed is to create an account on 3DContentCentral or log in to an existing account (3D ContentCentral)

SOLIDWORKS: Embed A SOLIDWORKS Model on Your Website

  1. Within the 3DContentCentral website, click on the Upload tab and accept the EULA to being the upload process

SOLIDWORKS: Embed A SOLIDWORKS Model on Your Website

  1. Once your model is uploaded, you will be able to see it on your profile by clicking on the MY 3DCC tab and scrolling down to the Portfolio section

SOLIDWORKS: Embed A SOLIDWORKS Model on Your Website

  1. If you click on your model, there will be a section labeled “Embed this 3D model in your Blog”
  2. Select and copy the iframe code from the box below the eDrawings viewer to embed the model on your website

SOLIDWORKS: Embed A SOLIDWORKS Model on Your Website

  1. Paste this code onto your website and you’re all set!

The size of the viewer can be controlled using the width and height values within the code. Your model can now be viewed through the interactive eDrawings viewer, which also allows features like exploded and section views.

<iframe scrolling=’no’ frameborder=’0′ allowfullscreen=’true’ src=’http://www.3dcontentcentral.com/external-site-embed.aspx?format=3D&catalogid=171&modelid=815212&width=250&height=250&edraw=true’ name=’PreviewFrame3D’ id=’PreviewFrame3D’ width=’400′ height=’355′></iframe><br/><a href=’http://www.3dcontentcentral.com/download-model.aspx?catalogid=171&id=815212′>Download</a>

Now you can not only share your models with customers, but also allow them to fully interact with them!

For more information, check out our YouTube channel, get a SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD quote or contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading!

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Color-Coded Folders in FeatureManager Design Tree

 
November 1st, 2017 by Gabe Crisologo

We’ve had the ability to add folders to the FeatureManager Design Tree for quite some time now. If you’re not familiar with this practice, folders can be added to your FeatureManager Design Tree to help you organize features or components in part and assembly documents. In a part, you can create folders to group a set of sequential features that are used for a specific part of your design. For example, creating a folder to group machined features. In an assembly, you can group components, hardware, mates, etc.

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Color-Coded Folders in FeatureManager Design Tree

Since these features or components are nested in the folders, you would have to expand the folder to access its contents. If you just wanted to see the state of features or components (i.e. hidden, suppressed, resolved), the added steps of expanding these folders can be annoying and time-consuming. Luckily, this is not the case thanks to the new enhancements in SOLIDWORKS 2018.

In SOLIDWORKS 2018, the folder icons in the FeatureManager Design Tree are color coded to indicate whether they contain features or components that are hidden or suppressed, resolved/lightweight, or any combination of the three. The image below is a screenshot of the same assembly folders shown above. Some components have been suppressed/hidden to showcase the new color-coded icons. The folders have also been renamed to describe the icon.

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Color-Coded Folders in FeatureManager Design Tree

The color scheme for the folder icons is shown in the table below as well.

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Color-Coded Folders in FeatureManager Design Tree

The new color-coded folder icons in SOLIDWORKS 2018 gives you a quick visual indicator so you can know the status of your features/components in your designs at a glance. For more information, check out our YouTube channel, get a SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD quote or contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading!

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Temporarily Hiding Faces When Selecting Mates

 
October 30th, 2017 by Rony Godoy

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Ahoy matey! Hop on board and take a look at one of the new mate enhancements this year.

Adding mates in SOLIDWORKS has always been, dare I say it, fun! And now with one of the new SOLIDWORKS 2018 enhancements, adding mates has become easier than ever. With this enhancement, we are now capable of hiding faces while adding mates.

There are different ways for us to take advantage of this feature:

  1. While using the Insert Mates tool
  2. While editing our mates
  3. While using the Copy with Mates tool
  4. While using the Replace Mate Entities tool

For this example, I’m going to use the ALT key while using the Insert Mates tool to show this new feature. While adding mates, simply move your cursor over the face you want to temporarily hide and press the ALT key to hide it. This allows you to select obscured faces without having to rotate your model around or manually hiding components before using your mate tool. As seen in the images below, we were able to hide different faces of our model in order to select faces behind them. This allows us to create mates such as the Width mate quickly and easily.

What's New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Temporarily Hiding Faces When Selecting MatesWhat's New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Temporarily Hiding Faces When Selecting MatesWith this new functionality, your productivity will increase and save you time from moving components around. Previously, you would have to rotate or move components around in order to select obscured faces. Or use the Select Other tool, but there was no way to toggle those hidden faces to show. If you accidentally hide a face you didn’t want to hide, you can unhide it by pressing the Shift+ALT keys. And to restore all the hidden faces back onto your model, you simply press the ESC key. This functionality works the same whenever you go back and edit a mate, use the Copy with Mates command, and use the Replace Mated Entities tool.

With the ALT key, it makes it very fast and easy to temporarily hide and show faces while adding mates in your assembly. So the next time you’re creating an assembly, play around with the ALT key while adding mates to see how much more control you have.

For more information, check out our YouTube channel, get a SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD quote or contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading!



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What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Mirroring 3D Sketch Entities

 
October 25th, 2017 by Mark Dolinar

Today we will be looking at a great new enhancement that has been rolled out with the new release of SOLIDWORKS 2018; the ability to mirror 3D Sketch entities. While mirroring 2D sketch entities has been possible for well over a decade, it can be invaluable in the way a designer goes about creating a model. 3D sketch entities, on the other hand, have remained impossible to mirror – until now. New in SOLIDWORKS 2018, 3D sketch entities can be mirrored, drastically improving the way parts are created using 3D sketches.

To show this feature, a set of handlebars will be designed for this chopper. Utilizing the mirror entities tool in a 3D sketch will assist in accomplishing this task with far fewer steps than before.

What's New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Mirroring 3D Sketch Entities

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What’s New SOLIDWORKS PDM 2018: Revision Table Integration

 
October 24th, 2017 by Amy Surprenant

The new SOLIDWORKS PDM 2018 is packed with enhancements, but one of the most interesting is the revision table integration. Gone are the days of workarounds to both update the revision table in SolidWorks and to limit the amount of rows on that Revision table.

This exciting new feature will let you:

  • Read and write values from or to a SOLIDWORKS revision table.
  • Configure SOLIDWORKS PDM variables to automatically add information such as revision date, description, and approver to a new row in the table or to update the last row.
  • Change the mapped variable values in the file’s data card, the values in the table are updated and vice versa.
  • Updated automatically the revision table row by using 2 methods:
    1. Set variable transition actions, and
    2. Set Revision command.

Let’s take a look at this new feature and how we can make it work.

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What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Graphics Body Enhancements

 
October 23rd, 2017 by Ryan Navarro

SOLIDWORKS 2018 brings a number of enhancements to working with graphics bodies in SOLIDWORKS, which are documented in this blog and companion video. Graphics bodies result from importing a mesh file type into SOLIDWORKS. Mesh file types such as .OBJ or .STL are most commonly associated with 3D printing and 3D scanning, but may also come from other modelling software.

As graphics bodies represent tessellated geometry (a simplified representation made up of a mesh of triangles), historically they could only be used for limited visual reference. If even basic reverse engineering from the graphics body was desired, it typically required the use of an add-in such as ScanTo3D.

Now in SOLIDWORKS 2018 sketch entities can reference the mesh directly, allowing the ability to “sketch over” the mesh for manual remodeling or taking key measurements.

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What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Layers and Colors for Hatches

 
October 20th, 2017 by Jacob Ames

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Layers have been available for many years in SOLIDWORKS, allowing users to assign drawings entities to them and control many visual aspects including visibility as well as line color, thickness, and style. New in SOLIDWORKS 2018, hatches can be added to layers, providing even greater flexibility when working with cross sections or adding hatches manually. In this article, we’ll cover how to create layers, assign hatches to them, and control hatch color. For added flair, we’ll be working with the deadly, motorized fidget spinner shown below.

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Layers and Colors for Hatches Figure 1 – Hawk Ridge Shuriken Fidget Spinner Assembly

Hatches are only available in drawings, and can be manually applied to closed contours/regions or automatically generated by cross section views. A quick cross section of the model shown in Figure 1 results in the drawing view shown below.

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Layers and Colors for Hatches Figure 2 – Cross Section of Fidget Spinner Assembly

Before assigning the hatches to layers, the layers must first be created. Click Layer Properties to access the Layers dialog (as this command is not available in the menus or CommandManager by default, use the Search Commands option or enable the Layer toolbar in order to access it). If using a default template, a single FORMAT layer will be shown. Click New to add a new layer, optionally changing the name or adding a description. The remaining column icons can be used to toggle the layer visibility, printing, color, line style, and line thickness, respectively. In this example, 5 additional layers have been created with adjusted colors.

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Layers and Colors for Hatches Figure 3 – Layers Dialog with 5 Added Layers (Colors Adjusted)

At this point, the hatches can be assigned to the created layers, and will inherit their visibility, print, and color properties (line style/thickness settings do not apply to hatches). Click a hatched region to reveal the Area Hatch/Fill PropertyManager, then (if necessary) click the Apply To dropdown to specify which portion of the view will be assigned to the new layer. Selections include the whole component, the selected region, the entire view, or a single body. Finally, click the Layer dropdown to select a new layer for the hatch. A checkbox under the Options group box can be selected to apply the changes immediately, or cleared to defer the changes until the Apply button is clicked.

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Layers and Colors for Hatches Figure 4 – Area Hatch/Fill PropertyManager

If desired, the Material Crosshatch checkbox can be cleared to override the default material hatch pattern and make adjustments as needed. Simply click OK to save all changes. At this point, any further changes to layer properties will be reflected by the hatches assigned to them. If all hatches are added to a single layer, their visibility, print status, or color can be adjusted simultaneously in just a couple clicks.

What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Layers and Colors for Hatches Figure 5 – Cross Section of Assembly with Colored Layers Applied to Hatches

Layers and colors for hatches are just one of many improvements this year, so be sure to check out our What’s New series for additional blogs and videos on all the new features included in SOLIDWORKS 2018. For more information, check out our YouTube channel, get a SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD quote or contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading!


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What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Tab and Slot Feature

 
October 19th, 2017 by Terence Woo

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Tabs and slots are commonly used to align interlocking sheet metal components, and the new Tab and Slot feature in SOLIDWORKS 2018 allows for corresponding tabs and slots to be created in one operation. This is definitely easier than using a complicated design library feature or separate extrude, cut, and pattern features.

What's New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Tab and Slot Feature

The required selections for the Tab and Slot feature are the edge to add tabs to and the face for the slots. The tabs can be offset from either end of the edge. The spacing can either be set with an equally spaced quantity or spacing length. The length of the tabs needs to be specified and the height of the tabs can be defined with different end conditions. Fillets or chamfers can be added if needed. And the clearance between the tabs and slots can be specified.

What's New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Tab and Slot Feature

Some other notes about the Tab and Slot feature:

  • Two linked features are created in the FeatureManager Design Tree (one for the tab and one for the slot).
  • It can be inserted at any position along the slot body.
  • Groups can be used to manage multiple edges.
  • It works with planar and cylindrical geometry.
  • The bodies do not need to be in contact.
  • It works on regular, non-sheet-metal solid bodies as well.

For more information, check out our YouTube channel, get a SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD quote or contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading!


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