SW-MASS problem

[Peter De Vlieger]

Recently someone asked if we could put the weight of our routing parts in them so as to have an easy way to see the complete weight.

Seeing that there are ample parts that aren't uniform in material, e.g. flanges that have a steel core although the outside is in a PP glass fiber enhanced coating I had to look into how we could get that set up.
Easy solution is putting the SW-MASS into the design table. Or so I thought.

Result I got was that when checking the value of a particular config then it's wrong. However if I open the design table, do nothing, and close it again and re-check the config weight is displayed correctly. BUT only for that config. If I want it also correct for another config then I have to make that config active, open and close the design table and voilà. It even seems to remember the right amount for the previous 'checked' config. But alas all other configs are still wrong.

When I presented this issue to my VAR I got the responds that I have to assign a material to the config which to me doesn't make any sense but I did so anyways and yep.... didn't make any difference. When you think about it, why would assigning material to a part influence the values that are dictated by an amount in a design table specifically used to OVERRIDE the value it could calculate because of the assigned material.

Does anyone have a suggestion on what I'm doing wrong or how I can it to work as it should without having to open/close the design table for each config of each part that this have to happen in?

[mattpeneguy]

It's the age old problem of SW not having the information of configurations that aren't loaded into memory.
Where is this information to be presented? Is it on a drawing or something?
If you have a flange that is in an assembly and you place that assembly on a drawing, put the BOM on the sheet, the flange weight should be correct in the BOM because that flange configuration is loaded in memory, right?

If you need the weight to be correct in the part itself, I suppose you could put a column in the design table for it and either programmatically rebuild all configs or IIRC there may be a way to force rebuild all configs with a command. But any change to a dimension would mean you'd have to do that rebuild all command.

I remember when I first looked into it I wasn't impressed at all with the way configurations are handled in SW. You can do a lot with the functionality, but it has some real limitations.

I re-read your post and let me get this straight, you actually have the assembly with the active component in it with the configuration in question active and SW is giving you the incorrect weight?... If this is the case, I think you have found a regressive bug. You should not have to open and close the design table to get the correct weight.
What version of SW are you on?

[Peter De Vlieger]

Matt,

I guess I wasn't clear enough in my description of the issue I face. So I'll try to bring it back to the basic elements.

1/ We talking about a part that has a design table that drives all dimensions of that part's different sizes in the different config's.
2/ The part has two bodies. One body is in one material and the second body is in a different material. There for assigning a material to the part is not a solution.
3/ To get the correct weight of the entire part I added a column in the design table $SW-MASS with all the correct data for each config.
4/ When checking the data with the mass properties function of the part itself I can only get the correct value after I have opened and closed the design table of the config in question open.
5/ If I can't get it to give me the correct data when checking in the part itself there is no way that I'll feel secure in believing the numbers when putting that part in an assembly
6/ If I would open and close the design table while having one config after the other active and then save the part, it would show the correct values for each config.
7/ I REFUSE to do that for each config of each similar part because this 'professional program' should make my work easier, not add to it.

Again, I might be overlooking something or I might be doing something utterly wrong so I'm hoping that some of the resident Guru's can point out where I'm being stupid or to confirm that SW2022 SP5 has an issue that SW doesn't know.
(I won't be switching to 2023 until at least SP4, I'm tired to be an unpaid beta tester)

[jcapriotti]

Are you overriding the mass properties and entering a manually weight value for each configuration?

[Peter De Vlieger]

Jason,

To get the correct weight of the entire part I added a column in the design table $SW-MASS with all the correct data for each config.
In other words, yes, every config has it's own value in the design table specifying the value it needs to use to override the weight.

The part in question being a routing part (stub end with flange combination) it's the only way to get the correct data when using it in assemblies or we would have to change everything so that the backing flanges have to be brought in separately from stub ends which would cause it's own issues seeing that the routing module in solidworks is in certain places stitched together with barbed wire.

[mattpeneguy]

Peter,
I'm guessing the parts were made as a single body?
Hindsight being 20/20, if the parts were made as multibody you could assign materials to the separate bodies:

[jcapriotti]

@Peter De Vlieger The problem had when using the design table for setting $SW-MASS was that the ability to set "Override" is configuration specific and the default is to not override. So even though I entered a new configuration in the table, then typed a value, it didn't set mass for that configuration. If I activate that configuration and go to the Mass Properties dialogue, select Override "Mass Properties"....it's not checked like the other configurations. I'm checking in 2019 so yours may behave differently but it appears to be some kind of desync issue between the interfaces.

Need a way to "configure" that override checkbox easily or see it for all configurations.

[jcapriotti]

I'll have to try in 2023 later but this indicates it was fixed in 2023 beta

[Peter De Vlieger]

Thank you Jason.

Sure, according to that it should be fixed in 2023 Beta... not that it really means anything because I have experienced myself that something was notified as fixed in a beta version 2 years down the line but by the time one can actually get the supposedly fixed version I ended up reporting that although I might have been fixed in the beta it was broken again in SP2.

And yes, I suspect it has to do with the program failing to sync it, which is utterly ridiculous because isn't the entire idea of a design table that you can rely on it instead of hoping that it might give you correct information?

Have a nice one
Peter

[Frederick_Law]

Put a Bible on top of your SW computer.
If it fail, keep the Bible open.

[Peter De Vlieger]

Frederik,

How about an upside down, backwards, chinese, braille bible with half the pages missing..


(for those not getting the reference : George Carlin)

[DanPihlaja]

What if you add a "rebuild on save mark" for each configuration, then save it.

Then, the geometry (and I assume design table data) is saved separately for each configuration inside the the part file (making the part file size larger).

Maybe it will fix the problem?

[mp3-250]

All configurations should have a check✓ mark otherwise do a CTRL+SHIFT+Q rebuild all configurations before saving and in your system option disable the "purge configurations" (or similar option) .

[TTevolve]

If you are actually entering a known mass into a column in the table don't use SW-MASS, just use a variable that doesn't have a standard solidworks system variable attached to it.

[imaca101]

Not sure if this is relevant but my experience is that your custom property for the weight needs to be in the configuration tab. If you put in the custom tab it causes the error you are seeing. Also note that each config has it's own mass property and you need to use that specific property, not the part mass.
So the column needs to be
$PRP@(NAME OF MASS CUSTOM PROPERTY)
and the property needs to be
"SW-Mass@@name of configuration@name of part.SLDPT/SLDASM