CAD Forum

IndianaDave

I have been a Solidworks user for over 20 years. I've used the basic modeling software, creating parts, and assemblies, and creating drawings of those parts and assemblies for production. We use PDM for drawing management, and have recently added Flatter Files to make creating drawing packages easie...

IndianaDave

Uh... we use that check box! But... we are also only a 4-5 man shop. Ya it may be incomplete but we mostly deal with laser cut sheet metal so for the most part all the guys need to know is that a particular hole needs to be threaded & what tap to use. The laser has cut & positioned the hole...

IndianaDave

Open and check out, and save and check in buttons...
https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... G3EJKJkg0Q

IndianaDave

I definitely have a non-standard layout. I remember one time my VAR remoted in, and you would think I had asked them to do Cad in Word Perfect. They were absolutely lost because the buttons aren't where they expected them. I use my "S" key for absolutely everything. I have no toolbars or ...

IndianaDave

Why the hell?
Are there Covid researchers using Solidworks, or other Dassault products?

IndianaDave

Alin wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 9:42 amVoted.

Hmmm. Curious.
I just looked at this, and "Liked" it...
It had no "likes"

IndianaDave

Elementary, my dear Watson...

IndianaDave

This is likely a casting. You may have to use a lost wax process. There are processes where you don't need draft (processes where you're going to destroy/not reuse the cast and cores for each part). In these cases, you don't need to design the cast/mold. You'd just build an original part (plus shri...

IndianaDave

Regardless of the Solidworks issue... How experienced are you in mold design? If you're learning Solidworks, and also mold design, you've got your work cut out. That part might be above your abilities. Lets consider the part first. Does the part have any draft on it? That part is very complex. Espec...

IndianaDave

There is user a setting that allow PDM to search the whole vault for a drawing. The only problem we had with opening drawings was the "bug" that shown more than one drawing file, from a old version. When the file was derived from another 3D+DRW couple with a "save as" and later ...

IndianaDave

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Mon Apr 29, 2024 4:06 pm I recall this happening in the first SP of 2023 or 2022, what SP are you running...?

SW23 SP5.0

IndianaDave

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 4:25 pm Odd, it seems to work for me...?

image.png

Unfortunately, when I click on the "open drawing" nothing happens.
Have tried on multiple files.

IndianaDave

Love that we can open a drawing from the BOM on the sheet now...
Unfortunately, I can't right click and open the drawing of a part in the drawing view. It seems to be broken.

IndianaDave

This is not nearly as sophisticated, and requires your designers to pay attention, but we add to the actual description "Superceded by". We also add "Replaces xxxxxx" to the new number. This allows purchasing to order by the new number, but if, for some reason, he can't find that...

IndianaDave

hMMMM.... David, Converge would like to take a few minutes to let our valued SOLIDWORKS customers know about some important global changes coming down the pike from Dassault Systemes effective July 1st, 2023. SOLIDWORKS ANNOUNCEMENT If you follow the blog on https://link.edgepilot.com/s/9b4df517/05w...

IndianaDave

That's not technically a sheetmetal part, as far as Solidworks is concerned...
It's not manufactured via sheetmetal forming processes. You can't make that in a sheetmetal brake.
It is a stamping. made with a stamping die.

IndianaDave

Is the pin a purchased part? Do you need a drawing to show the cut length of the pin? If it's a pin you buy in 8ft. lengths, I'd make a weldment profile of the pin, and put the description and part number in the profile. Then use weldments and make it whatever length you need. Or, Draw the pin at th...

IndianaDave

DSS is putting way too much fucus on the 3D Experience platform, and getting everything on the cloud based do everything in one place platform... They are so invested in this new platform, they are ignoring the fact that probably 90% of their users just need a good, robust CAD package... We don't ne...

IndianaDave

THIS IS STOOPID. I cannot believe anyone would ask for this. If someone could please explain the benefit of a problematic new feature, that has very few (if any at all) real-world application, for me at least, that supposedly saves a single extra feature, at the expense of years of muscle memory th...

IndianaDave

That just means Solidworks has an argument that you have no hope of winning.
Anything you say to argue your point is invalid...
Kind of like a argument with a woman... No matter how right you are, you're still wrong.

IndianaDave

Have they separated sheetmetal bend lines from sketch entities in flat patterns?
We hate the workaround of having to show sketches, pick the sketches and sketch lines over the bend lines, and then turn sketches off again.

IndianaDave

Thanks for the tips guys...
I had already redone the file without using the sketch pattern, so don't have the original file to upload.
It's pretty easy to recreate, though...

IndianaDave

It seems something has changed, or I am missing a checkbox somewhere... I don't use sketch pattern very often, so this one caught me off guard. I made the sheetmetal cover, and have weldnuts, and mounting bosses welded into the inside. I created the hole pattern for the mounting posts, and made a sk...

IndianaDave

As mentioned... Just model it in sheetmetal to begin with.
Convert to sheetmetal works for basic boxes, and such, but for more complicated things, it's better to model it as a sheetmetal part right from the start.

IndianaDave

I would take screenshots as JPGs or PDFs and send to them...
I've never had sales or marketing departments that insisted on actual Photoshop files.
This seems kindof silly.

IndianaDave

The most important thing is to think about the primary planes and what makes sense... If the thing you're designing is symmetrical, then one of the planes should be at the center of the part. For example... A tool cart. The floor is constant. You typically want everything a certain distance from the...

IndianaDave

VTmechie wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 3:40 pm I just went from 2011 (old job) to 2021 (new job). How's that for a leap?

Holy Hell!!! That IS a leap!
Talk about getting your moneys worth!
I'd imagine going back and using that version from our SW21 would be like going back and playing Nintendo 64 after playing my kids XBox!

IndianaDave

I can't even figure out how to get to the list...
The 3DX@!#%^ site is just so frustrating and I don't have time to figure it out.

IndianaDave

This is an application where precision really isn't as important as appearance. I would create the two points per tile on the splines, as shown above, and constrain the tile to those. Then manually rotate the tile into position, and fix it in place. No need to create tons of constraints. That many c...

IndianaDave

I'm not sure if a Windows update did this or not, but our weldment profiles sort differently, now... Seems to have happened the week before last. In this example, all of the 0.25 x 2, 2.25,2.50,2.75 used to be all together sequentially. Now the nominal sizes are together, and then the fractional are...

IndianaDave

Onedrive has nothing to do with "where used"
That would be your PDM.

IndianaDave

What is the reason for doing this?
If we did this, the part would get ordered twice, or purchasing would at least call and ask us if it was a mistake...

IndianaDave

What are you trying to crush in Solidworks? (Joke)

IndianaDave

Just looking at improvements to this forum
There are "How to" questions in all three.
Maybe they could just be consolidated?

IndianaDave

Honestly, From the outside looking in.... I couldn't figure out what you guys were arguing about... Seems each comment changed what I thought you were saying... Some of it might be language / translation issues. Some of it might be using the term "Assemblies" when referring to to assemblin...

IndianaDave

You're not using an assembly for a weldment, are you?
Use the weldments feature, and you can create sub-weldments.

IndianaDave

We do many weldments that combine structural steel members with multiple sheetmetal bodies. It's cumbersome trying to pull out details and flat patterns for each sheetmetal body. To get flat patterns of each sheetmetal part, we have to create a config and delete/keep bodies to isolate that part. Thi...

IndianaDave

Well this is infuriating... After so many customers scrambled trying to find other options and weigh them compared to paying for Draftsight. What I'd really like is better editing abilities for DWG and DXF files inside of Solidworks. We can open them, and do some work on them, and use familiar Solid...

IndianaDave

I decided to join my former VAR (CATI) 3DExperience user group Webinar this afternoon... It was basically a sales pitch trying to sell the platform. "Over 400 apps" on the platform you can use... They showed XForm? I think... feeform modeling on the cloud. I asked why they didn't just impr...

IndianaDave

What... Oh, it's an icon, and it's only when you click in the design tree. I'd swear I was searching for that for a full five minutes, looking on every menu I could think of. Thank you! "A FULL FIVE MINUTES"... No offence, but I couldn't help but chuckle on that one. Maybe I'm stubborn, o...

IndianaDave

Wow... So good to see others (sad to see, actually) having similar issues as us. We've been on SW2020 with PDP Standard for almost a year, and still haven't gotten it mastered. Seeing a lot of similar issues as many of you. And like you all, things are just to inconsistent, and convoluted to make it...

IndianaDave

I believe so, I need a cut pattern to cut the part. I've never expiremented with display or appearance but if you can get a DXF cut file from that point me in the right direction! You can't... For material that is purchased (expanded metal, chain link, tread plate, etc) this works fine... Best opti...

IndianaDave

Large patterns have been an issue with Solidworks (and probably other CAD software) since the beginnning... Perforated sheet, expanded metal, etc. aren't necessary to create, unless you need it for the mass. Even then, you can create a material that has the mass, and it should calculate the weight p...

IndianaDave

We moved from 2017 to 2020, SP5.
We all have multiple crashes per day.
We have not been able to figure out the root cause.
We also went from Workgroup PDM to PDM Standard, and moved our pdm archive to "the cloud"
It's been months, and it's still a mess.

IndianaDave

IndianaDave

Hello everyone...
Long time listener...
First time caller...

Actually I may have posted once or twice, by now.
I'm too busy working to post much, but do come here to search for answers occasionally.
Much easier to find stuff than the official SW3DHorribleEperience site.

IndianaDave

I keep seeing Dassault Systems pushing Draftsight as a 2D, and now more often as a 3D design package... It seems DS is pushing all of the 3dEcperience stuff, and the collaboration stuff, but isn't really putting much focus on the basic Solidworks program. Anyone have any inside info, or predictions ...

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