Have you ever needed to select all entities that have a certain face color? What about all extrusions that have edge angles less than 45deg? Or how about all red faces that have convex edges that are part of a cut feature? Well, Power Select allows you to do all this and more! Power Select is just ONE of many tools included in SOLIDWORKS Utilities which since 2016 comes standard in SOLIDWORKS! Power select can be accessed from the selection tool on the default top toolbar. Power Select lets you select Edges, Loops, Features, and Faces. You can combine any of those types of entities. Based on what types of
CATI Tech Notes
SOLIDWORKS Tips and Tricks and Info on Professional 3D Printing with Stratasys from the Technical staff of CATI
SOLIDWORKS: Opening a 2017 version file in SOLIDWORKS 2016
SOLIDWORKS: Opening a 2017 version file in SOLIDWORKS 2016 With each new release of SOLIDWORKS we typically get the question of “Can I open a 2017 file in 2016?” One of my counterparts at CATI graciously posted this very topic a few months ago with great details on what you CAN and CANNOT do with this backward compatibility. You can read this article here: https://www.cati.com/blog/2017/04/how-do-i-open-solidworks-2017-files-in-solidworks-2016/ What I am adding to this post is a scenario where a customer followed the steps listed in this Blog and still was unable to open a 2017 file in 2016 SP5. So we dug a little in the Knowledge Base and found a solution
Simulation – Use Those SOLIDWORKS Functions!
SOLIDWORKS functionality can make life easier when working with Simulation. You probably know them well, so why not use those familiar functions to your advantage? Let’s look at a few. Simulation-specific configurations Interference detection check for simulation-ready geometry Split lines for boundary condition application Configurations: Editing the geometry before setting up a simulation is usually necessary. By setting up a new configuration for the analysis, changes made there won’t affect the original design. This allows for several “what-if?” scenarios. Notice in the two screen shots below how the “Default” configuration contains all the assembly components, whereas in the “For analysis” configuration the assembly is simplified by suppressing some of the components. This simplification is
SOLIDWORKS: eDrawings Markups
eDrawings Markups This Blog article will walk you through adding markups to a drawing, saving those markups, inserting them into SOLIDWORKS, and then removing them from SOLIDWORKS. Publishing a Drawing to eDrawings You will find this option in the FILE pulldown menu of your open SOLIDWORKS document, it will say “Publish to eDrawings”. Once it is published to eDrawings, we can add markups with the option to add a comment. When directing someone to the view your markup is referencing, you have a few options; you can add a shape, text box, dimension, or even a picture. To Begin My MARKUP You will
Renderer Selection in SOLIDWORKS Visualize
Selecting the best rendering method for the job at hand is one of the most important decisions a user of SOLIDWORKS Visualize can make. The renderers and options that Visualize offers are best suited to different points in a typical workflow, and can help the user greatly increase her or his efficiency. This article/case study discusses those renderers and the best times to use them. Because Visualize leverages both CPU and GPU hardware, the “preview” of the render in the Viewport as you set up the shot is actually a real-time rendering. This means that what you see in the Viewport and what you get when you output the
SOLIDWORKS: Do You Use Selected Contours?
Do You Use Selected Contours in SOLIDWORKS? Even though many SOLIDWORKS users take advantage of Selected Contours when creating different geometry, I often see Selected contours not being utilized and overlooked. Maybe this is due to being unaware of the functionality or just not fully understanding how to use it. When creating sketches in SOLIDWORKS, most users create multiple closed contours within the sketch and don’t realize it. What does a closed contour entail? Closed contours are any boundary generated by the intersection of sketch geometry and can be used individually or in combination with other contours. Looking at the image below, there are four blatant closed contours.
SOLIDWORKS: Importing DimXpert Into Drawings
Importing DimXpert Annotations into Drawings Views Recently we ran into an issue where we wanted the DimXpert annotations in a Drawing using the dimensions that were already place in the model. This is not too hard to do, but the option to do so is not exactly where you would think it would be. I’m going to use a simple part for this example. After you place your View, go back, and select the view and Import options will appear. Select both the Import Annotations, and the DimXpert Annotations boxes Once the check boxes are marked, the dimensions will appear.
Posted in General Info
Reverse Engineering with Creaform and SOLIDWORKS
Format Image
Reverse Engineering with Creaform and SOLIDWORKS The hand held Creaform scanners are a great addition to your Inspection lab to speed up bottle necks and get more info quicker on your parts, but they can also be used for quick and effective reverse engineering. Once we have all of this scanned data acquired, we can use the VXElements software to extract all of the useful information we might need to build up a new part or a variation of the existing Geometry. In this case, we are going to be building a completely new product, but we want it to fit onto an already existing piece of hardware.
Posted in 3D Scanning, Digital Prototyping, SOLIDWORKS Tips and Tricks
Pedal to the Metal: 3D printing with Desktop Metal
Desktop Metal 3D printers are the latest addition to our lineup of best-in-class product development solutions. This groundbreaking line of metal 3D printers finally provides a solution to the limitations seen with other metal 3D printers currently on the market—limitations in speed, materials, and accessibility. We’re happy to provide 3D metal printing solutions with Desktop Metal that are quick, affordable, and offer a variety of materials, such as steel, aluminum, titanium, and copper. There’s been a lot of buzz in anticipation for Desktop Metal’s debut, and it’s easy to see why. Early backers like GE, BMW, and Stratasys have been vocal about their support. Desktop Metal’s 3D printed parts
Posted in 3D Printing, Rapid Prototyping
SOLIDWORKS: Making Sense of Simulation Meshing- Part 2
Making Sense of Simulation Meshing- Part 2 Welcome to part 2 of the 3 part series about mesh considerations in SOLIDWORKS Simulation. In part 1, we covered some high-level considerations and adaptive meshing. If you missed part 1, view it here. In this post we will discuss some mesh quality tools SOLIDWORKS Simulation has to offer. In the last post we will discuss different types of elements and meshes for Finite Element Analysis (FEA, FEM). Moving on, knowing if your FEA mesh is a good quality is essential to accurate studies using SOLIDWORKS Simulation. Luckily, SOLIDWORKS has supplied us with some great tools for interrogating the mesh too
Posted in Design Validation, Simulation
SOLIDWORKS Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
