The SolidWorks Blog

Editing Legacy Electrical Data with SolidWorks Electrical

Did you know that SolidWorks Electrical contains a full set of 2D drafting tools for editing electrical drawings?  Here are just some of the features that will help you easily maintain your legacy data while also reaping the benefits of creating your new designs faster and better with SolidWorks Electrical.

User Interface:

The “Drawings” tab has many familiar drafting tools to quickly change or add details to your drawings.  All of the obvious ones are there: lines, arcs, rectangles, circles, text, etc.  You’ll also find tools like move, copy, offset, stretch, and mirror.

One of the most common drafting practices found in electrical drawings is the use of symbols or “blocks.”  SolidWorks Electrical can read, edit, and save 2D blocks.  2D users have grown accustomed to managing their drawings with layers and SolidWorks Electrical has that too.

Another thing that makes me feel comfortable when utilizing SolidWorks Electrical is its use of Grid, Ortho, and Object Snaps.  All those things you’ve learned from using 2D tools, like DraftSight, will help you quickly edit drawings in SolidWorks Electrical. 

Import/Export Capabilities:

As mentioned above SolidWorks Electrical can read 2D symbols and blocks.  In fact, it has a great wizard that allows you to import multiple DWG or DXF files.  As you import these files, you have the options to swap older legacy symbols or blocks with new ones that you have developed.  You can also swap title blocks or update attributes on the fly as you open the drawings.  You can also save these settings in an import configuration file for future use.  If you need to continue to provide DWG/DXF files for suppliers, SolidWorks Electrical can export to those formats as well as the widely used PDF format viewable in Adobe Reader.

When I first delved into the features available for editing legacy DWG/DXF files, I was pleasantly surprised.  I was already convinced of the cost and time saving benefits of SolidWorks Electrical, but my customers need to know they can continue to leverage years of legacy data.  I was excited to find out that SolidWorks Electrical can not only provide new and intelligent tools for improving the process of creating electrical schematics, it also supports maintaining and utilizing your legacy electrical drawings.

***

Scott High is the Technical Services Manager at 3DVision Technologies, a SolidWorks Value Added Reseller with locations across Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.  He is a regular contributor to 3DVision Technologies' Blog where you will find new ideas to improve your productivity with SolidWorks.

Want to try out SolidWorks Electrical? You can request a free trial on our website.

Want to see how SolidWorks can help you win new business and get to market faster? Request a  SolidWorks demo today.

And The Award Goes To… SolidWorks!

Roll out the red carpet--awards season is upon us!

This February, we are pleased to announce that SolidWorks products such as SolidWorks 2013, SolidWorks Electrical, and SolidWorks Plastics have been recognized for three different awards: Control Engineering’s Engineers’ Choice Award, Design News’ Golden Mousetrap Award and BostInno’s 50 on Fire Award.

Announced in the February 2013 issue of Control Engineering, SolidWorks 2013 has won the Engineer’s Choice Award for the Control Design Software category. The award highlights 29 categories of control, instrumentation and automation products that were introduced in 2012 including Network Integration, Motion Control, Machine & Embedded and Software. Out of 100 product nominations from 60 companies, SolidWorks 2013 stood out as “most exceptional based on technological advancement, service to the industry, and market impact”, according to Control Engineering.

Joining the ranks with SolidWorks 2013, SolidWorks Plastics and SolidWorks Electrical were selected as finalists for the Design News’ Golden Mousetrap Awards yesterday in the Materials & Assembly and Electronic & Test categories. Design News honored over 100 products, in addition to SolidWorks, for innovation in automation, electronics, materials and design tools.

Locally, SolidWorks has been nominated for the B2B Technology category of BostInno’s 50 0n Fire Award for Boston’s innovators, disruptors and stars. Winners will be announced for across categories like Consumer Technology, Dining & Retail, Marketing & Advertising, Sports & Fitness, Education and Design at the end of March. Stay tuned for results. 

For more information on SolidWorks award-winning products, visit our product page. Want to try out SolidWorks? You can request a free SolidWorks trial on our website.

Want to see how SolidWorks can help you win new business and get to market faster? Request a  SolidWorks demo today.

SolidWorks Electrical: What's In the Black Box?

 

 

What’s in the Black Box?

Let’s discuss how to represent certain objects in a SolidWorks Electrical schematic as a “Black Box.” A black box is a generic schematic symbol which can be used to represent any device or apparatus, acting as a time saving feature where a new unique symbol is not required or there is no time to create one. Black boxes are rectangular and can have editable pins associated to them. Once a black box has been created on the fly, it can then be added to the symbol database for reuse across the company. In this case let’s create a black box that represents a drive.

In the above picture I have four wires and a circuit breaker. I want to create a symbol for a motor drive but do not have one in my symbol library. So the Black Box comes to the rescue. Simply by drawing a box over the wires, the connection or “pin” points are automatically created as shown below.

Also notice that SolidWorks Electrical is keeping track of this black box as a “Component.” This is an object on the schematic that will now show up on the Bill of Materials and Manufacturer information can be associated with the drive from our Manufacturer parts database built into the SolidWorks Electrical application. Or this can be done on the fly by associating the real world terminal descriptions on the drive. So in the above picture it assigned pin numbers, but I can change these numbers to logical pins like the pin for ground or L1, as shown below.

As you can see, the terminal identifiers show up on the schematic itself and they are also part of the component object in the database. The wires that connect to the drive also are aware of this fact and from to lists can now be automatically generated.

The table on the drawing is showing the Wire Number as well as the Origin and destination of each of the wires. These can even go to other pages of your schematic with great ease, but that will be the topic of a future blog article. The above events may seem trivial to create in SolidWorks Electrical, but doing something like this in other 2D CAD systems, even ones created especially for Electrical Engineers, can be an hours long process. The video below show more detail on creating black box symbols and then adding them to your library for future use.

***

Michael LaFleche is Regional Technical Manager at CAPINC, a SolidWorks Value Added Reseller with locations across New England. He is a regular contributor to their CAPINC University blog.

Want to try out SolidWorks Electrical? You can request a free SolidWorks trial on our website.

Want to see how SolidWorks can help you win new business and get to market faster? Request a  SolidWorks demo today.

How do I buy SolidWorks or get a trial version?

Here at SolidWorks, we work hard to make our products easy to buy, learn and use; however, two of the most common questions we receive are:

• How do I buy SolidWorks?
• How do I get a trial version of SolidWorks?

The answer to both questions is actually the same--by contacting a SolidWorks Value-Added Reseller. Unlike many companies selling software for the consumer market, SolidWorks does not sell directly, or offer trial versions for download from our website. And there's a reason for this.

Despite being easy to learn and use, SolidWorks is a sophisticated piece of software with multiple package options and add-ons, with functionality for building everything from simple sprockets to complex cars and airplanes. When you express an interest in SolidWorks, we want to make sure that you talk with someone who can discuss your business with you personally and recommend the ideal solution.

That's where your local reseller comes in, meeting with you and putting together a personalized quote to meet the needs you have today and help you be more productive in the future. The same goes for product trials. We want to ensure that you have the best possible experience when you're evaluating our products, which is why trials are only available through your local reseller. Once your reseller has discussed the right options for your business, he or she can provide you with the corresponding trial software, and will be available to answer questions during the trial period.

SolidWorks resellers are also the first line for product support, and when you buy SolidWorks, you can be sure that you have a local team available to help you out with the initial set-up process, as well as walk you through any support issues you may have in the future. They are committed to working with you and helping you be successful.

When you contact SolidWorks directly, we will pair you with the best reseller in your area to speak with.  They will contact you directly to schedule a consultation and demonstration, and when you're ready, provide a comprehensive quote. And if you like, they can provide a trial version of SolidWorks and any of our other software solutions.

Want to try out SolidWorks? You can request a free SolidWorks trial on our website.

Want to see how SolidWorks can help you win new business and get to market faster? Request a  SolidWorks demo today.

SolidWorks 2013 has arrived

Every fall, a new version of SolidWorks is unveiled. We’re always really excited about all of the new functionality that goes into every release, and you’ve probably heard that over 90% of enhancements are driven by customer requests. That’s true for 2013 as well, but this year might be a little more exciting than usual.

SolidWorks 2013 includes some really cool new capabilities that customers have been requesting for a while. For example, there are some new geometry tools that will help you create models faster and easier. These include:

• Conic Sketch – This gives you full control over shapes for smooth transitions between existing geometries.
• Intersect Feature – You can quickly add or remove geometry without sketching.
• Varying Dimension Patterns – Helps you save time creating patterns, increases design flexibility, and reduces the number of features needed for models. 
• Section View Assist – Speeds the creation of production drawings for faster and more consistent section views.

There are also some new tools to help you optimize the performance of a SolidWorks installation and maximize design team productivity. These include:

• CAD Administrator Dashboard – This helps simplify management and troubleshooting of multiple SolidWorks users within a company from a single aggregated view.
• Simulation Sub-Modeling and Incremental Meshing – You can more accurately perform precise simulation analysis for specific areas of large and complex models, and do it faster and more efficiently.
• Network Rendering for PhotoView 360 – This helps you save time with faster rendering of photorealistic images by networking multiple computers to share the computational load.

There are also some new tools that help you work and collaborate with other people on your design team, vendors, and other supply chain partners. These include updates for improved connectivity, enhanced viewing capabilities, and expanded sharing of designs and data, such as:

• Previous Release Interoperability – Starting with SolidWorks 2013, you can collaborate with customers, suppliers, and internal teams with the ability to open SolidWorks files directly with SolidWorks 2012 (SP5). Users can work more efficiently and improve collaboration and file exchange, reducing delays and easing the transition to the latest release.
• SolidWorks Enterprise Product Data Management Workflow – Route documents and contact users more efficiently to reduce delays and accelerate time-to-market.
• DraftSight/SolidWorks Enterprise PDM Integration – Access DWG files within SolidWorks EPM from the DraftSight user interface, and leverage 2D into the design process.
• eDrawings — You can measure, select and markup  designs from anywhere using a mobile device

You can learn more about SolidWorks 2013 on our website (no registration required), so go check it out. And if you’re interested in attending a live seminar on SolidWorks 2013, visit: http://www.solidworks.com/launch/find-a-seminar.htm

Introducing SolidWorks Electrical

Today, we’re excited to announce the release of SolidWorks Electrical, which makes it possible for you to design products requiring electrical systems for power, control, safety and data acquisition.

SolidWorks Electrical lets you precisely develop the overall system design and integrate the electrical aspects into the 3D mechanical model to create a better design in less time.  The integration of the electrical and mechanical design processes allows early identification of problems, resulting in less rework, improved quality and decreased time-to-market. 

By providing a real-time link between 2D and 3D model data, SolidWorks Electrical helps you synchronize electrical and mechanical designs and flag problems in the beginning stages of product development. This will ensure that you don’t run into any roadblocks that cost you time and money when bringing your products to market.  SolidWorks Electrical will consist of two separate product offers:

SolidWorks Electrical: database driven, 2D electrical system‐level schematic design tool

• Simplifies the overall electrical systems‐level design process relative to using basic 2D CAD
• Multi‐user SQL database means multiple people can work on the same project at the same time
• Single line schematic planning tools directly linked to detailed multi‐line versions
• Large library of schematic symbols: > 500k and growing
• Symbol creation wizard make it easy to prepare 2D schematic symbols
• Real‐time, bi‐directional updates between 2D schematic and 3D model as the design is changed so everything is kept in synch
• Powerful tools for wiring PLCs and terminal strips cut the time required to add advanced automation components into your design

SolidWorks Electrical 3D: connects systems‐level schematics created using SolidWorks Electrical to 3D models designed in SolidWorks.

• Import schematic design data into SolidWorks 3D CAD software
• Enable placement of all electrical components in the 3D model
• Auto‐route cables/wires based on 2D schematic data
• Separation/segregation checking ensures that electrical runs are separated to prevent electromagnetic interference
• Determine cable/wire/harness lengths needed, and provide real‐time links to 2D detailing tools
• Provide path planning/space allocation and collision detection for electrical cable/wire runs relative to hydraulics, pneumatics and all components

SolidWorks Electrical will be available soon in North America and Europe, and the rest of the world later this year.

You can learn more about SolidWorks Electrical on our website.

Want to try out SolidWorks? You can request a free SolidWorks trial on our website.

Want to see how SolidWorks can help you win new business and get to market faster? Request a  SolidWorks demo today.