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Futures… made of… Virtual Parts and Assemblies!

SolidWorks 2010 introduced some great new functionality to the area of Virtual parts and assemblies.

First of all lets go back to basics:
What are virtual parts and assemblies?

• A part or assembly that does not have a saved file on disk
• Saved internally in the assembly
• Can be a bought-in, non modelled item such as paint or glue
• Square brackets are used to denote the part or assembly as virtual

Virtual components are especially useful in top-down design. During the conceptual design process, when you frequently experiment with and make changes to the assembly structure and components, using virtual components has several advantages over the bottom-up design method:

• You can rename these virtual components in the FeatureManager design tree, avoiding the need to open, save as a copy, and use the Replace Components command.
• You can make one instance of a virtual component independent of other instances in a single step.
• The folder where you store the assembly is not cluttered with unused part and assembly files resulting from iterations of component designs.

So what’s new in virtual parts and assemblies in SolidWorks 2010?

• Make existing components virtual
• You can make externally saved components virtual, which breaks the link to the external component file. Existing references are ignored and the component is renamed.
• Naming virtual components
• The name of a virtual component now always includes its parent assembly's name. This ensures the virtual component is always unique.
• Copying virtual components
• You can copy virtual components between assemblies. The copy is not linked to the original virtual component. Existing references are not copied, and the copy is given a new name.
• Moving Virtual Components
• You can move virtual components within the hierarchy of the FeatureManager design tree. Existing references are ignored and the component is renamed.

Lets take a look at an example:

Technorati Tags: Virtual Components,SolidWorks 2010,Tips and Tricks

Welded to the spot – and now edge…

One of the most common questions from people who have welded structures is, “can you model welds?”. Well, obviously!

In 2010 we have a new edge weld connector, similar to the spot weld connector already available.

The tool allows you define a fillet or groove weld, either single or double sided between any two sheet metal parts or shell structures like the one below.

By picking two intersecting surfaces the edge weld is generated for you at the intersecting curve.

Now all you have to do is pick an electrode material from the list of steel and aluminium types, and provide an estimated weld size.

The weld is then ready to go!

Simply solve your simulation as usual and the forces and moments are automatically passed through the new weld onto the surrounding structure.

However the really neat bit comes next. Not only is the weld connector a new joint type, it currently compares the forces and moments through the weld to the AWS 1.1 standard and tells you if the weld size you have chosen is good enough!

To get this info, RMB the Results folder and chose Define Weld Check Plot. Hit the OK tick and you get a new dialog that lists all your welds into two groups, those that pass and those that fail according to the standard.

This allows you to browse each connector and see where you need to define a larger weld.

What is more, if you chose a weld in this dialog and hit the Details button, you get even more helpful info containing the required weld and throat size plus the forces and moments experienced by the weld in the particular configuration you tested.

And as a final benefit, you can also plot the required weld size and throat size along the weld length (from an indicated start point and direction) based upon the loads generated from the simulation.

 So you can see that with a few short steps it is possible to assess your design for weld sizes. In fact you could put any arbitrary weld size in, because the software then tells you what is ultimately needed, which is of course what you want to know!

Technorati Tags: SolidWorks Simulation,Simulation,Welds,Simulating Welds