CAD Forum

ryan-feeley

Unfortunately, Windows update seems to keep installing the 500 drivers. You need to take control of the graphics driver version to get consistent performance from Solidworks. Do a *clean install* of the latest driver from a software branch that is certified to work with your version of solidworks, ...

ryan-feeley

DanPihlaja do you happen to be pre 2022? Found this on the knowledge base that appears to describe your sort of issue. "Closed" doesn't always mean fixed on file-specific sort of stuff. But your experience has certainly happened before. SPR 1227494: User Interface - Task Pane: 'An invalid...

ryan-feeley

Doesn't work on ANY assemblies. I get the error if File explorer is turned on at all and before i open ANY files. Weird. I'd guess it is a file permissions sort of issue. I recall people have experienced error messages with that text for random reasons and resolved the situation by clearing out the...

ryan-feeley

Say you get an Asterisk when you open an assembly; is there an easy way to quickly find out what component(s) has (have) been changed? There are two pretty easy things that I check first (illustrated below). I think I learned about one or both of these from Alin . Discover Modified Files in an Asse...

ryan-feeley

Love it! Digging the dimension of 42. Perhaps 66 should have been 66.6? Or is that asking for more than a naggy popup given that even opening Solidworks means dabbling with dark forces better left alone.

ryan-feeley

There is very little transparency about what happens on their side when it really comes to requests and why some are just rejected when it's actually something that's really needed. I have a hang-up with this too. IIRC you must dig deep and then acknowledge a click-thru NDA to even access the "...

ryan-feeley

Sometimes it's just the edge projection type that changes, not the name. For example, if you have an edge between two cylindrical faces, that edge could project as a straight line, an arc, an ellipse, a spline, etc. So If the type of projected sketch element changes because it is being projected in...

ryan-feeley

I tried to paste a direct link to the SPR, but it only provides a link to the knowledge base. ~If you click the "send by email" icon near the bottom, you'll get a draft email that includes a direct link to the article. It is a pretty simple format. Something like~ [Update: while the botto...

ryan-feeley

Yes, in-context relationships are a bit flaky. They work enough of the time, or I wouldn't even bother. If a file has had many edits in its history, stuff gets weird, and doesn't show up until just before the deadline... I've had sketch relations just disappear, relations to non-existent sketch enti...

ryan-feeley

Sometimes I find sort of amusing "technical comments" ... Indeed! This is one of my favorites. If a 3D sketch doesn't solve (and mathematically it should), just add a random construction line somewhere. If that doesn't work, try somewhere else. This can actually work. And that it does is ...

ryan-feeley

Just stumbled across this on the knowledge base. This issue is marked "Implemented" in 2024. "Implemented" is not always synonymous with "fixed", but perhaps the situation is improved. imaca101 , can you test with that version? SPR on Equations with a Possibility that 2...

ryan-feeley

I'll second what mp3-250 said on display states. They too buggy to fight with. Use them, but don't fight. Just delete and re-create. Even this process is a bit quirky. 1. Switch to the "ConfigurationManager" tab 2. Click somewhere in the normal graphics area to take focus away from the Con...

ryan-feeley

@josh Is there a way to flip the sketch plane normal after a sketch exists? Not josh, but yes there is. As you probably know, you can flip the normal of an existing plane, but that doesn't automatically propagate to any sketches that use that plane (which you can determine by viewing the plane's ch...

ryan-feeley

You are correct that equations are an absolute boat anchor on solidworks performance. No idea why, but it is the case. This is not limited to 3D sketches, although it may be worse in that case. So to your question: So the problem is that Solidworks equations seem to have a major bug that ruins perfo...

ryan-feeley

I expect gupta9665 is on to something with the quotations. Be careful on ANSI (8 bits) v ASCII (7 bits). They overlap on the first 128 characters, but ANSI has another 100 or so odd-balls. These include a few variations on quotation marks and other stuff that isn't on a typical keyboard. I could eas...

ryan-feeley

FYI, I stumbled across this on the knowledge base searching for something else. It may give a little more info that helps you repair these files or give your var more context. It looks like you could upgrade them into 2020 and maintain the legacy data. Why do I see the following warning? ‘This file ...

ryan-feeley

If it works, you will have to open the template, then go through the steps to use this feature. After that you can delete everything out of the history tree and save the template. FYI, I've had weird troubles in the past if I open the template directly to do this sort of thing. Strange tessellation...

ryan-feeley

Almost as affordable to change to a different software. Probably not much more work. Haha! Perhaps there is a bit of a non-survivor bias in the Solidworks customer base? Any company that has 10 y/o mission critical CAD data in Solidworks that they expect to have retained any engineering value is a ...

ryan-feeley

I appreciate the effort you're taking here! I've considered doing something similar at various times, and I've never quite been burned badly enough to actually do it. But I've been close. I did make one script that attempted to strip out the noise from the system options .sldreg exports, to make it ...

ryan-feeley

Thanks Matt, The (driving) spline is a converted entity. So it isn't really an "uncontrolled spline". It is fully defined -- it arises as a converted entity from a fully defined conic in an upstream sketch on the same sketch plane. Solidworks just converts conics into splines for whatever ...

ryan-feeley

Hi everyone, I run across this periodically. Does anyone know if there is an open SPR on this that I can vote on? The illustrated sketch has a "generic spline" converted entity (black) that was originally a conic in the parent sketch. I'm trying to use that to drive the curvature of an adj...

ryan-feeley

Random aside. I agree with Josh that this isn't relevant to the current question, but FYI Any given feature either rebuilds or not... There's not a "rebuild-ier" rebuild to make any given feature "try harder". This is supposed to be true, and is a good mental model. However, it i...

ryan-feeley

josh Thanks for digging! I just tried to replicate this and actually had a different result testing in Swx2022 and Swx2020. I created a simple sketch with a line segment, and a tangent arc. Then I fit this with a spline having a 0.01mm tolerance in sketch2 and a spline having a 0.05mm tolerance in ...

ryan-feeley

Thanks Jim! Well that answers that. I'll keep using my hacks.

ryan-feeley

Does anybody know a way to discover the fit tolerance used for an existing fit-spline sketch entity? At times I note the value I used for the tolerance in the name of the resulting sketch, but this feels like a hack. I believe such a spline will update parametrically (within reason), so Solidworks m...

ryan-feeley

I don't think you have access to the stresses. You can RMB the Results and click List Connector Forces to get some high-level info. From that, perhaps hand-calcs could give you what you need about the bolts themselves? Short of that, I think you have to model the bolts directly so you can control th...

ryan-feeley

To add to what Frederick_Law said, in addition to restarting the machine after a fresh install of Solidworks, to archive the canonical settings you should Create dummy Part, Assembly, and Drawing files (default templates is fine). This populates additional entries in the registry. Open the system op...

ryan-feeley

Nicely done!

ryan-feeley

Here are a few references that might help out. You may have have seen these already: Get the transformation matrix of coordinate system using SOLIDWORKS API That shows how to do the conditional logic to get the transformation only if an extra coordinate system is available. Get Points of Repeating E...

ryan-feeley

Could you do the math in your macro?

I believe the API allows you to extract the 4x4 spatial transformation matrix from a selected coordinate system. Get that and then do the matrix math to transform each of the points?

Maybe there is a more direct way, but I'm not aware of it.

ryan-feeley

The packaging industry uses "color blocks", aka "process control patches", as part of the printing process. I suppose if one wanted to use a color on a print, but was a bit hesitant about everything printing the same grey tone, or looking too faint, they could do something simila...

ryan-feeley

Color does not reproduce well and will lead to loss of information on a legal document. Photo copying or printing to b/w or grayscale will cause loss of emphasis and this can lead to dimensions or other information being lost. Think of printing yellow text or lines to a grayscale print..then copy t...

ryan-feeley

On my system, that is in a Visualize folder: `C:\Program Files\Solidworks2018\SOLIDWORKS Visualize\Plugins\sp.x\resources\fonts\extrafiles\TrueType\SymbC.ttf` Catia Symbols reference in the registry.png See the attachment. I had to zip it to allow it to upload, so you'll have to unzip to get a .ttf.

ryan-feeley

What happens if you hover your mouse over them? Or RMB the equations node of the feature tree? I believe there is a some way to get an indication of the (supposed) problem. You can also try CTRL+Q to do a force rebuild. Another possibility (I can't see from your screen capture) is that you have the ...

ryan-feeley

Made an account just to say thanks for this. This issue has been driving me insane. Glad it helped! It's driven me insane at times as well. Which version of Solidworks are you on? They appear to have restructured equations a bit in 2021 but I don't think they fixed any core issues. The newer versio...

ryan-feeley

Thanks everyone! There are some good nuggets in here that I can definitely apply. I'll summarize and add a few ideas of my own: Get the contact info to the tech support managers. If you're lucky, you can meet them in person during the annual "what's new" presentations You can get decent su...

ryan-feeley

Hi everyone, I've worked with three VARs over the years and have noticed a fairly consistent trend when I report bugs. The trend seems to be 1) assume I'm an idiot and must be mistaken; 2) assume I've never read the documentation, done any training, read any books, read every dang thing on the knowl...

ryan-feeley

did you see alins post? In versions prior to 2020 displaying multiple configs in an assembly will cause the file to be dirty. Adding a save on rebuild mark will ensure every config is rebuilt on save. Thanks Rob! I appear to have missed that (at least in this viewing of this thread -- I've watch th...

ryan-feeley

I find any model file with more than one configuration is automatically dirty whatever I do. Dwight [UPDATE thanks to Rob! Prior to 2020, if an assembly uses a model in a configuration that is not the "last saved configuration", which automatically includes any case where an assembly uses...

ryan-feeley

If you are running SW on a 4K display, try to set the resolution at 1920x1080 and run SW again. It could be some dialog is not 4K compliant yet. Nailed it! Thanks mp3-250 . I had changed the screen scale under the display settings, but not the actual resolution value :facepalm. For the record, I wa...

ryan-feeley

Hi everyone,

I can't figure out how to make the draft analysis colorbar any size other than tiny. I've experimented with the Windows display settings. Nothing seems to affect it. Any ideas? Here is what it looks like on my machine:

Thanks!
Ryan

ryan-feeley

Is this what you had in mind? Yeah, that's exactly the sort of process I had in mind. I don't know how to implement the next step, but say after you deform the truss, I'd be interested it extracting the edges where it intersects with the inside/outside faces of the main structure. And then I'd use ...

ryan-feeley

To tackle the full problem, I think it first makes sense to ignore the sine-wave aspects. Those are topologically equivalent to "flat" (actually gently curving according to the overall part shape) surfaces. They are just bunched up in a special way. So see if you can even imagine how to ge...

ryan-feeley

I'm sure there's an API solution that loops through all your models... But short of that, if you only care about parts that are used in assemblies, if you look at the "Mass Properties" of each top-level assembly, there is a note at the bottom that indicates if any part within the assembly ...

ryan-feeley

I´m new to this and thought it may be easier dawn the line to combine as much as possible. Good luck in your journey! 3D modeling is a lot of fun, but it has its quirks. Most of the time little lines like that are no problem at all. If you are going to machine, 3d print, or render something, a curv...

ryan-feeley

I´m trying to join faces but when i select them and hit the join command I get an error message. Is it necessary for your design that those faces be joined? You effectively want to reparametrize three faces as a one face, with a single underlying mathematical UV definition. I don't think the paraso...

ryan-feeley

Fun challenge! I think using splines and surfacing is the right approach. I don't have time right now to give you an example, but here are a few recommendations. Start with a picture of the shape you want to develop, and sketch in the "seams" where different surface patches would stitch to...

ryan-feeley

Hi Everyone, Don't know if this is common knowledge or not, but I just discovered that when you create a partial fillet on an edge, and get the little draggable meatballs to control the end conditions, the "start condition" end corresponds to whichever vertex on the edge is nearest your mo...

ryan-feeley

I see this sort of thing most often when replace-face is involved. It seems to be particularly "tolerant" if you will. Because of this, I try to avoid using replace face when it is going to need to infer a tangent or nearly tangent edge . Sometimes it can be VERY wobbly, as you say, and re...

ryan-feeley

In case it wasn't clear, this is the indicator from Solidworks that caused me to explore this in the first place. I got tripped up thinking "why is the min radius of my seal-off < 1mm?? I designed the stepped PL so it could easily be above 2.5mm." Why the Small Miminum Radius of Curvature ...

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