The SolidWorks Blog

Getting to the SolidWorks World 2010 Tweetup

Just a quick note for those of you attending the Tweetup tonight. If you look for directions in Google Maps, the results you get won't actually get you to the House of Blues. Here's how you really need to go. 

From the convention center, go east on Katella Road, then turn left on South Harbor Blvd. Go about half a mile, then turn left into Disneyland and make your way into Downtown Disney. The House of Blues is about 3/4 of the way into the area.

The picture above doesn't show the whole route, but you get the idea.

Drawings Rountable and Product Specialist Interview

Post by Chris McAndrew, official Internet Correspondent of Solidworks 2010. All content cross posted at http://www.3dEngr.com

First up on the schedule at SolidWorks World is a Round table discussion titled “Magic Drawings”. These round tables were just recently described to me by Jeff Mirisola (of Jeff ‘s Toolshed) as “A bunch of power users sitting around bashing the product”.  Now this may be the case but when I heard that I just couldn’t help but think, squeaky wheel. The sessions are held in one of the ballrooms at the Marriott and are setup to accommodate about 20-25 folks and we’ve got about a quarter of the seats filled.

Put on by two SolidWorks employees Marc Leizza and Melissa Appel the session is used to gather information on what users need and where industry is going. Mark led off with the question “ If you had a magic wand, what would be the ultimate way to create a drawing. Would you even create a drawing. SolidWorks aside, what is your ideal case?” Nothing like being open ended to drive innovation.

One attendee wants to eliminate the time spent making a drawing, adhering to standards and generally wasting time doing repetitive tasks.  “Let me just design the product. I want it to automatically create drawings, I hate detailing,  drawings are required but it’s a waste of my time.”  An hour later in the round table the same user also commented that when doing these tedious tasks he routinely catches mistakes or issues that require further clarification. It is this dichotomy that allows me to give the benefit of the doubt to software providers when things inevitably do not work the way I expect or wish.

The discussion was lively with Marc driving by adding a few questions. Can you go paperless, WOULD you go paperless. What can be done to make drawing creation easier. The attendees generally seem knowledgeable and all clearly have used the software for some time. Of course a few comments were greeted with chuckles and admissions of using outdated (read 2008) software but generally refereed to big picture items rather than nit picky bugs and errors in the current builds.

The consensus here is that drawings are outdated but required. They are required for certain situations where QA is required or a computer can not go. I’m 24, my solution to everything is put it on a computer screen.  This is why I am *almost* for the iPad, I think it will make a tablet more ubiquitous. It is a marriage of the old school, which still dominates much of the manufacturing world, and the new school (my group that says “Just give them a screen”).  With CNC, rapid prototyping and 3D going everywhere I no longer buy into the paper as king. Paper is too static. Paper is a fire, one temperature hope it is the right temperature and I’ll guess at the time. Screens, be it tablet or not, are ovens or maybe even microwaves. Sure the learning curve is a little bit steeper but the result is a better product. Now with this analogy of course there are still things that are better over an open flame and it is not going away. A tablet allows a way to give paper power. Forget a section view, let whoever is holding the paper create it. Production floor confused about final geometry, let them spin the drawing iso view around and zoom in.

So what is in store for drawings? Will SolidWorks one day include a do my job button. Maybe some AI will allow it to see what is happening day in and day out and learn how to do it alone. Roll into work in the morning and have all the drawings for that day on the screen. Dimensioning out of the way, GD&T standards all followed, coffee piping hot. 

After listening to input on what the ideal software would be like Marc and Melissa wrapped up by giving out some contact info and requesting everyone to let them know directly if they had other issues. Then I got a chance to sit down with Marc for a few moments and ask him about the session and his time. For a man who spent all day Saturday helping aplha testers, is running 3 round tables today, and has a host of meetings on his schedule he seemed generally happy to give me a minute of his time.

Registration and Pre Show from the Internet Correspondent

Hello all. Let me introduce myself.

My name is Chris McAndrew and I'll be taking over this blog for the next few days. Thanks to the folks at Solidworks I've been given a pass, camera, and free reign on the yearly summit of designers, engineers, managers who want to go somewhere warm in the dead of winter. Solidworks World! They gave me this job after a post over at my own blog 3dEngr.com where all of this content will be cross posted (and maybe some extras).

The instructions from Matt West on what is expected of me this week. "Nothing, but just let me look at your posts first". Good thing we're not in Vegas.

For those of you at the conference, if you see me please stop me in the hall or mid-conversation and say hello. If you're unable to join us in person and will be following along online have no fear. There is plenty in store. So far I have interviews setup with nearly a dozen bloggers, 4 Solidworks employees, loads of people at the Partner pavilion. If there is a get together to review the product or get a specific collection of users (of user group leaders) I've probably got it on my schedule.There will be videos of most of these, links to presentation slides, written tips and tricks and if you follow me on Twitter ( @cbmcandrew or check out the #Sww10 tab) I'll promise to consume one extra drink from one of the many open bars we've got.

Videos will be embedded in Posts or available on Youtube at the SWWCorrespondent account.

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

Signing off from Concord (plus some useful links)

OK, I'm all done with pre-show stuff. No more presenter spotlights, no more contests, no more People @ SolidWorks World. The vault has been emptied. So au revior for now, and stay tuned for updates from Anaheim starting, well, probably tomorrow.

For those of you who can't attend, here are a few things you might want to bookmark (in addition to this blog). I'm sure there will be more coverage coming out of Anaheim than anyone can keep up with, so I hope you're ready.

SolidWorks on Twitter

SolidWorks World on Twitter

SolidWorks World #SWW10 hashtag

SolidWorks 2010 Flickr group

SolidWorks on YouTube

SolidWorks Blog Squad & Forum Posts

SolidWorks 2010 YouTube group

People @ SolidWorks World 2010: Me

This is the last video in the People @ SolidWorks World series, so I hope you've enjoyed them. I actually hadn't planned to do this, but several people said they wanted to see it, so I gave in. So here you go, this is me, talking about myself.

SolidWorks World 2010 Presenter Spotlight: Justin Kidder

Wrapping up our SolidWorks World 2010 presenter spotlight series is SolidWorks’ own Justin Kidder.  Justin’s presentation “Configurations - An Insider's View,” is scheduled for Monday 2/1 at 10:30 am. 

Q: As a presenter, what do you enjoy most about SolidWorks World?

A: My favorite thing about SolidWorks World is the high energy level.  Thousands of people coming from all over the world, the excitement is through the roof!

Q: What do you anticipate the hot topics to be for the 2010 show?

A: For the 2010 show, people are going to be talking about the new Sustainability product a LOT, and we’ll be seeing a lot more talk about analysis and how it is used during the design process. 

Q: What’s your favorite memory from past SWW shows at which you’ve presented?

A: I think my favorite memory of being a presenter was getting stopped in the hall the day after by my presentation by an attendee who spent the next 5 minutes shaking my hand, thanking me for my presentation and telling me how much what I talked about is going to help him get his job done.  Knowing that I was able to make such a difference just by sharing what I know made it totally worthwhile.

Q: What sessions do you most look forward to attending?

A: Definitely the SolidWorks 2011 demonstration.  I love seeing the crowd up on their feet cheering for the next release.

Q: What makes you geek out?

A: Geek out?  Where to start…playing games on the Xbox360, downloading iPhone apps or even learning new programming languages!  What doesn’t make me geek out?

People @ SolidWorks World 2010: SolidWorks Partner Team

Shantanu Kedar and Heather Hasz make up half of our partner team. In this video they talk about what they do here at SolidWorks, what goes into running the Partner Pavilion at SolidWorks World, and few things about the event you might not know about.

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

A note from Jeff Ray & Rich Welch regarding this week’s technical issue

Last week, we became aware of a potentially serious issue that could affect SolidWorks users running on a 64-bit operating system with SolidWorks 2009 SP5, 2010 SP1, and SP2 with the PhotoWorks add-in.  The cause of this issue was not immediately apparent, so we began an investigation in order to understand the exact nature and extent of the problem.  Fortunately, this has only directly affected a small number of our customers. Following the investigation, we instantly launched a series of activities to resolve the issue.

 

These activities included:

1.       January 18:

a.       Removed all affected service packs from our web site.

b.      Inserted a technical alert through the RSS feed when SolidWorks software is launched.

c.       Posted detailed information regarding the issue on the technical support and knowledge base sections of our web site describing the issue.

d.      Contacted the affected customers to offer assistance, including onsite resources to help recover from any effects resulting from this issue.

2.       January 19:

a.       Created and posted hotfixes to resolve the issue and mitigate any potential problems for other customers.

b.      Contacted all VARs to reclaim all affected SolidWorks media in their possession, and to retrieve and replace any affected media that may have been delivered to customers.

3.       January 20 and 21:

a.       Sent a detailed explanation to customers identified as having activated SolidWorks on a 64-bit operating system.   This included step-by-step instructions for installation of the hotfix.

 

We currently plan for Service Pack SW2010 SP 2.1 to be available for download by January 27 on our website (www.solidworks.com) with SW 2009 SP 5.1 available by February 1.  These service packs will resolve the issue without the need to install a hotfix.

 

You can find details and a link to the hotfix here:  SolidWorks Technical Alerts

 

PLEASE NOTE: This issue only occurs if the PhotoWorks add-in is loaded after more than 2GB of model data is loaded in SolidWorks.  Our data indicates that this issue is NOT applicable to customers using:

• PhotoWorks on 32-bit standard operating systems
• PhotoView 360 on either 32-bit or 64-bit systems
• SolidWorks 2010 SP0
• SolidWorks 2009 SP4.1 or earlier

 

We sincerely apologize on behalf of Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. to anyone impacted by this issue, and for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you experience any technical issues regarding the installation of the hotfix, please contact your local reseller or our technical team directly.  If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us directly.  

Regards,

Jeff Ray
CEO
DS SolidWorks Corp.
Jeff.Ray@3ds.com

Richard Welch
Vice President, Worldwide Customer Services
DS SolidWorks Corp.
+1-978-318-5202
Richard.Welch@3ds.com