Hawk Ridge Systems Blog 
Rony Godoy
Rony Godoy is an Applications Engineer out of our Woodland Hills, CA office. Rony has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from California State University, Long Beach. When he's not working on SOLIDWORKS, you can find him exploring the great outdoors. What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Temporarily Hiding Faces When Selecting MatesOctober 18th, 2017 by Rony Godoy
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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.
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! YouTube Direkt SOLIDWORKS PDM: Data Management – Methods of SynchronizationOctober 17th, 2017 by Chris Cook
Methods of Synchronization SOLIDWORKS does not synchronize property values between models and drawings on its own. For example, if a drawing note or field uses the $PRPSHEET method to link to a model property, the value present at the time the drawing is saved is cached inside the drawing. This is viewable in eDrawings. If the linked model property is changed while the drawing is closed, the new value will not be viewable in eDrawings. The eDrawings viewer can only access the properties of the immediate document it is viewing. To get these model properties to stick in the drawings we either need to make sure we always have the model and drawing open and editable at the same time, or employ an outside method of synchronization. Properties in PDM SOLIDWORKS PDM uses variable attributes to map data card variable values to the Custom Properties of our SOLIDWORKS files. This is a bidirectional link that will write to the file if the card value changes. You will observe in PDM that edits to card variables with these attribute mappings established require the file be checked out and will increment the version of the file on check in, since those edits are in fact changing the file. These attribute mappings are where we can establish a link between the model properties and the drawing properties. Examine our example variable and its attributes.
You will note that a CustomProperty attribute for all SOLIDWORKS extensions is accompanied by a $PRPSHEET attribute for drawings. Under very specific conditions these settings will copy the model variable value to the drawing variable, writing it into the drawing’s Custom Property. This link is global to the variable for your entire vault. If you require that some drawings do not carry the values of their models this link will not work, and you may need to look at other methods of synchronization, or use another variable. The specific conditions enabling this synchronization are:
These are some possible contexts for saving or check in your drawing:
Context #1 is the only one that synchronizes these variable values. When using the one model to many drawings option where each drawing represents one model configuration scenario #1 will still always synchronize. This is due to the drawing data card only populating the @ tab with one model configuration’s properties. If one model produces many configurations where a single drawing file uses multiple sheets to show a single configuration per sheet the trick to maintaining proper links is to set each sheet’s properties to look at a specific view. See the screen capture below.
The variable mappings inside SOLIDWORKS PDM will not assist in this type of configuration-per-sheet link. You will notice the drawing data card has a tab for each sheet, but the referenced model’s configuration properties will not appear there.
Scenarios #2 and #3 will not perform the synchronization. No amount of rebuilding or saving will match the drawing’s custom property with the model’s custom property. The drawing may appear correct, since the notes are pulling from the model’s properties directly. But the eDrawings preview may be incorrect if the drawing has not been opened and saved with the new model property value.
Forcing the Issue Outside PDM CUSTOMTOOLS Professional is a SOLIDWORKS add-in that provides the synchronization in either direction, from model to drawing, and from drawing to model. This works independently from your PDM environment, so users will need to follow standard vault editing procedures to ensure write access is available, and enabled. Videos of this in action can be found on YouTube. “Copy model property as drawing property” “Get property from parent” Forcing the Issue Inside PDM Synchronizing these properties through the data cards in PDM can have some advantages, especially when it comes to searching for those values. Since the drawing sheet tabs typically contain no data specific to them apart from manual entry a special add-in must be employed to carry out this operation. The HAWKWARE team created just such a tool, called Sync Card Variables. You can find more information about it here: https://www.hawkridgesys.com/products/hawkware/ As well as here: http://www.hawkwareapps.com/products/hawkware-for-pdm/sync-card-variable/ Since it was developed as a custom Task you can assign it to happen during a workflow transition to ensure that all values are properly synchronized before the files get too far along. For more information, check out our YouTube channel, get a SOLIDWORKS PDM quote or contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading! What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Bounding BoxOctober 16th, 2017 by Jacob Ames
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Finding the maximum extents of the design shown above would be an exceptionally difficult task without the use of a bounding box. To create one, simply navigate to Insert -> Reference Geometry -> Bounding Box in the dropdown menus. In the PropertyManager, you’ll find two methods for creating a bounding box. While both methods result in the creation of a 3D sketch and file properties, Best Fit will generate the absolute smallest box in which the design can fit, regardless of orientation, while the Custom Plane option allows for the selection of a planar element to define one of the directions of the box. Additional options allow for a preview of the bounding box, and inclusion of hidden bodies and/or surfaces.
Once created, the bounding box exists as a feature in the Design Tree, and can be edited, suppressed, or hidden like any traditional feature. As changes are made to the model, the bounding box will update parametrically while preserving the original settings, but beware when using the Custom Plane option, as model changes may result in a missing reference. Creating a bounding box for a part also generates a number of file properties automatically, which can be linked to drawings, or otherwise used just like manually-added properties. Click File Properties in the standard toolbar, then the Configuration Specific tab to view these new properties, which include the length, width, height, and even volume of the bounding box.
It should be noted that for multibody parts, creating a bounding box using this method will include all bodies (unless hidden). As such, it’s not currently possible to create separate bounding boxes for each body individually using the new Bounding Box command. However, there are multiple workarounds available to accomplish this, including saving the bodies to discrete part files, leveraging configurations/display states to show a single body at a time, or following the established workaround for creating bounding boxes prior to 2018. Please see our video on this workaround for more information.
As seen here, SOLIDWORKS 2018 allows for the creation of a bounding box and file properties for standard parts in just a few clicks, and this capability is just one of many exciting new enhancements this year. 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! YouTube Direkt SOLIDWORKS Composer: Introducing the Animation LibraryOctober 13th, 2017 by Scott Woods
If you’re currently using SOLIDWORKS Composer for creating technical documentation and 3D animations then you already know there is no easier tool available for automating the animation process. SOLIDWORKS has now taken this a huge step further by including pre-canned animation templates. With the new Animation Workshop automatic animation can be easily applied to any part, assembly, or grouping. SOLIDWORKS is once again making life just a little bit easier by automating commonly used actions.
For this blog I am going to be focusing on the new Animation Workshop, located in the Workshops Tab > Publishing > Animation Library. For this entire blog, I will be working in Animation Mode with the Timeline turned on. All settings will be set to default but it is important to note that all properties can be modified before and after the automatic animation is created in order to fully customize the outcome. The latest enhancement to this Workshop was released with version 2017 SP 3.0.
Currently, there are two animation library groups, Highlight and Motion. The Highlight group controls various properties, such as color, to bring attention to a particular 3D actor. The Motion group adds movement to a 3D actor to show assembly, disassembly, and other movement actions. Under each group, there are several Animation functions. Each highlights or moves the selected model a little differently so play around with them. Also, remember all actions can be adjusted before and after you create the animation directly in the Animation Library Workshop. To edit a Step, click on it and the Create button will change to Update. These actions not only shave hours off of creating animations but bring the end publication to life, automatically adding clean professional animation movements and highlights that you may not have time to create manually. And why would you want to when it’s automated? Now let’s apply some animations. There are quite a few pre-set animations that come with the installation of SOLIDWORKS Composer, here we are going to cover a couple of our favourites using the top cover of this drill press. The first Animation Library feature on the shortlist is Highlight-Focus. Highlight-Focus creates three seconds of animation, causing the top cover to flash five times and then permanently changes to a darker blue color at the end. By pressing the Create button Composer automatically adjusts the keyframes in the timeline to bring a user’s attention to the part and then applies a color change to prepare the user that an action is about to take place.
Now that the user knows something is going to happen to the cover we are going to apply another automatic animation. This next animation is going to be used to remove the cover and hide it so the user knows they need to remove this part before proceeding to the next step. For this, we are going to use Motion-Remove. Motion-Remove will cause the part to flash then translate away from the main assembly and then fade away.
Just like that, a disassembly animation of this cover has been created, taking a 20-minute process down to 30 seconds to develop. For more information, check out our YouTube channel, get a SOLIDWORKS Composer quote or contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading! SOLIDWORKS 2018: What’s New – Rotate with Linear PatternOctober 12th, 2017 by Nikki Stakic
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Here are a few examples where I used this new feature in some of my designs. I hope you found this informative. Comment below with ideas for designs you could use this new and cool enhancement on.
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! YouTube Direkt SOLIDWORKS 2018: What’s New – Include and Exclude Suppressed Components in Pack and GoOctober 10th, 2017 by Ricky Huynh
Today, we’re going to be diving into a SOLIDWORKS 2018 new enhancement on a widely used SOLIDWORKS feature – Pack and Go! We’ll see how we now have an option to ‘Include suppressed components’ in our Pack and Go in 2018! First off, what is Pack and Go? Pack and Go, if you’ve never used it, is a lifesaving feature! It allows you to gather all the referenced files for your drawings or assemblies, and either add them to a specified folder or add them to a zip file! This is useful for a variety of different situations – some of which are, but not limited to:
If you’re interested in learning more about Pack and Go, head over here SOLIDWORKS 2018: What’s New – Reverse Tangency Direction in Sketches!October 9th, 2017 by Ricky Huynh
Today, we’re going to be diving into a new SOLIDWORKS 2018 sketch enhancement when working with arcs and splines – reverse endpoint tangency! We’ll see the various situations where this new tool can help complete both simple and complex sketches. Before 2018, when sketching a tangent arc or making two splines tangent to each other – this would happen:
The arc or spline would flip the opposite tangency you were aiming for. Do you remember how you fixed it? Often, I found myself having to delete the arc and spline and recreating them. Read the rest of SOLIDWORKS 2018: What’s New – Reverse Tangency Direction in Sketches! What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Flattening RoutesOctober 6th, 2017 by Vince Farrell
Hello (again if this isn’t the first blog you’re reading from me), and welcome to my article on some key enhancements with flattening routes in SOLIDWORKS 2018. In case you aren’t familiar with it, routing is a module that lets you create 3D models of pipe, tube, and electrical routes and is available in SOLIDWORKS Premium. Flattening is the way to represent electrical routes in a 2D fashion for drawings. It’s not this kind of flattening.
I’ve already used the Flatten Route command and have 2 different styles of flattened routes in the Feature Manager Tree. These are saved as configurations that you can switch to once they are created.
I’m going to start with an annotation flattened view that shows all of the connectors and wires but isn’t to scale. The first enhancement I want to show off is the ability to right-click on a connector or segment and view the connected segment or connector respectively.
This can help you easily identify what goes to where and to make sure things are connected the way you want. The second enhancement that I’m going to cover is that you can now move around the entire route in its flattened state. To show this, I’ll switch over to the manufacture view in which the harness is to scale and there is a form board outline.
From Figure 8, you can see that the harness isn’t fitting into the outline of the form board. Prior to SOLIDWORKS 2018, to change this you would need to right-click and select Edit Flattened Route to change the X and Y positions. Now, when you right-click you can select the command Move Connected Route Segments.
Once you are in this mode, an XY indicator shows up in the graphics area allowing you to drag the harness to where you want. Alternatively, key in values in the Property Manager.
If you choose to drag it, a ruler shows up that helps you move things a set distance. This is a nice shortcut to help you get things positioned perfectly.
In this article, I went over 2 of the enhancements for flattening routes 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! SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation 2018: What’s New – Free-Flowing Liquids Come to SOLIDWORKSOctober 5th, 2017 by Damon Tordini
For customers of Hawk Ridge Systems, one of the most popular uses of SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation has long been predicting the performance of hardware and industrial equipment – things like valves, manifolds, and piping systems. Engineers commonly use Flow Simulation while designing such components to ensure a certain fluid delivery rate, minimize pressure resistance and select the right pumping equipment- even including certain processes like heat transfer or mixing of fluids. In mixing problems, such as exhaust gas recirculation or blending liquids, it’s always been possible to see mass or volume concentrations, density changes and more- even with as many as ten different fluids- but there was always one major caveat. Until now, it has only been possible to mix fluids of the same phases (gasses with gasses, liquids with liquids), which mean it was impossible to simulate any system with a free-flowing liquid surrounded by a gas- for example, water sloshing in a tank, or aeration in a static gas-liquid mixer. What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Callouts for Advanced HolesOctober 4th, 2017 by Jacob Ames
The Advanced Hole command made its debut in SOLIDWORKS 2017, allowing users to create complex multi-step holes in a single feature. Despite already being an impressive time saver in the design process, the command has seen significant improvements this year. New in SOLIDWORKS 2018, callouts can now be added to Advanced Holes with minimal effort. In this article, we’ll investigate how to add these annotations to an existing model. It should be noted that Advanced Holes created in SOLIDWORKS 2017 will not be capable of generating callouts, and must be recreated in SOLIDWORKS 2018.
Read the rest of What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Callouts for Advanced Holes |
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