What do I need to know to install my Composer, Plastics, Inspection, MBD, or Simulation package? First, all these products are installed thru the SOLIDWORKS installation manager. To download the installation manager, you will need to click the SOLIDWORKS download link. Run the installation manager and enter the serial number for your products. If you have all your licenses set up to be renewed at the same time you may have only one SOLIDWORKS serial number for all your assets. […]
SOLIDWORKS Plastics has introduced several new enhancements this year for 2021. Year over Year SOLIDWORKS Plastics has been adapted to behave more like SOLIDWORKS Simulation including familiar workflows and interface. This year has marked the apex of these changes making the interface different than before but familiar at the same time. This blog will be covering the Material Database changes to Plastics, but you can read about the additional changes in the blogs listed below. Plastics Redesigned Manager Tree Plastics […]
A question that my colleagues and I are often asked is ‘how accurate are the results from <insert simulation product name here>?’. You might think that is an easy answer. In some instances, it absolutely is. To me, the better question is ‘if I set up my study/project correctly, can I trust the results’. That gets to the heart of the matter when it comes to analysis. If we are going to design better products by utilizing analysis tools, the […]
SOLIDWORKS 2021 Robust Default Interaction Settings With every single new release of SOLIDWORKS, I am always impressed by new features that make the simulation process easier for users. SOLIDWORKS 2021 embraces this idea and there are numerous enhancements that make the simulation experience even more user friendly. In this blog I will be going over the Robust Default Interaction Settings enhancement, which makes assembly and multi-body simulation much easier. If you were to setup a multi-body or assembly simulation in […]
In recent years, the developers of SOLIDWORKS have exerted significant time and effort into improving the functionality, interface and usability of SOLIDWORKS Plastics. The 2021 release of SOLIDWORKS Plastics continues that trend with improvements in all areas, including a redesigned plastics manager tree, multi-material over molding processes, improved solver performance, an expanded material database, added functionality to co-injection processes and more. This blog will focus on enhanced modeling capabilities of baffles and bubblers. A baffle is a type of cooling […]
As noted in the many blogs you’ve likely seen in the CATI What’s New series, SOLIDWORKS Plastics has been significantly enhanced in the 2021 release. Check out the two key enhancements to the sketch-based runner design that will contribute to more accuracy in your injection molding simulations! The SOLIDWORKS modeling APIs are now used by the algorithm, resulting in more realistic shapes of the runner cross-sections and junctions. An enhanced meshing scheme applies tetrahedral elements at the runner core and […]
SOLIDWORKS 2021 brings many changes and enhancements to our injection molding analysis work. I recommend you start with a blog written by my colleague, Drew Buchanan, SOLIDWORKS Plastics – Redesigned PlasticsManager Tree. Like the SOLIDWORKS Plastics user interface, the process for performing multi-material injection overmolding has been revamped in SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2021. Let’s take a look at comparing the old and the new process for setting up a multi-material overmolding SOLIDWORKS Plastics study. Multi-material overmolding analysis requires a license of […]
With the release of SOLIDWORKS 2021 comes a great new change to the user interface SOLIDWORKS Plastics. The PlasticsManager Design tree has been redesigned in SOLIDWORKS 2021 to provide a more streamlined and logical workflow for setting up Plastics Simulation studies. In this blog I will be highlighting the changes in the Plastics interface for SOLIDWORKS 2021. Change 1: New Study Interface The first major change to the PlasticsManager tree is the new study interface. In 2021 they have replaced […]
If you have been following along with the What’s New series the last few years, SOLIDWORKS Plastics has been on a hot streak. As you will see in the other SOLIDWORKS Plastics What’s New blogs to come, a lot of work has been done to make the product function more like the other simulation packages. These workflow improvements have not been at the expense of functionality enhancements, though. Today I want to share some great improvements to the Co-Injection feature […]
How do I post process a SOLIDWORKS Plastics shell mesh study? Utilizing the analysis capabilities of SOLIDWORKS Plastics early in the product development cycle enables users to optimize the plastic injection molding process, create high quality parts, and reduce manufacturing costs. Now that the study has been solved, what’s next? Clean up the SOLIDWORKS graphics window? Gather data for inlet pressure or clamp force? Create animations? There are many post processing options for a shell meshed, SOLIDWORKS Plastics study. Here […]