Archive for May, 2007

SolidWorks Dimensioning Tips

Published
by
Josh
on May 31, 2007
in SolidWorks Tips
. 12 Comments

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solidworks tipsCan you imagine that just about everything in front of you right now has had a dimension on it at some point. Everything except that apple over there to the left. the Big Guy upstairs has an automated routing programs for that kinda stuff. Everyone probably has some opinion about how to dimension something, but there’s always some best practices to follow, particularly in a parametric design program like SolidWorks. Here’s some tips that might help.

Select an edge instead of a point
When you select an edge you’ll get a dimension right away. This goes for circles as well as lines. If you select an edge of a circle you get a radius, but if you select another edge it will pick up the centerpoint.

Dimension how you want the part to change
If you want a hole to stay one inch off the end of a part, dimension it like that.

Add relations before dimensions
This will keep your sketches cleaner and more parametric in my opinion. Like if you have a bunch of circles that need to be the same size, use an equal relation instead of dimensioning them all.

Display dimensions flat to screen
This one may be a preference, but if you work in some complicated sketches or a particular coordinate system, it may help. In Options, Display/Selection, uncheck the Display dimensions flat to screen. Play with it and see what works best for you.

Make relations and dimensions work together
To center a line, use a midpoint relation to pick up the center of the line and put a dimension on the length of the line.

midpoint relation

Right Click to lock a dimension
If you’re working in a tight location or an angle, get the dimension in the orientation it needs to be then right click.

Link Dimensions between sketches
If you need to make sure a group of dimensions are always the same, select them (ctrl-select) then right click on them and select link values.

Drive them with Equation or Design Tables
If you really want to get fancy, you can drive some of your dimensions with Equations and Design Tables. Equation will let you make a dimension equal something. Design Tables let you make a dimension equal something for each configurations.

So, was this helpful? Do you have some dimensioning tips that help you?

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10 Ways to Make Money with SolidWorks

Published
by
Josh
on May 30, 2007
in Business
. 2 Comments

dollarsHave you ever wondered what people out there do with SolidWorks or what the possibilities are?

Well, here’s some kind of unusual ways of making money with SolidWorks that may give you ideas about what you could do or get in to. These are things that I and others have done in the past and some I’ve thought of recently.

  1. Design lights for a metal working shop
  2. Create concept models and prototypes for inventors
  3. Consult with a VIP aircraft interiors company
  4. Do layouts for a welding shop
  5. Create flat patterns for a sheet metal shop
  6. Create Technical Illustration for a small manufacturer or tech pub
  7. Make 3D icons for a Media group
  8. Create 3D designs for a screen printer
  9. Make fly through layouts for a city planning group
  10. Create 3D models for TV advertising group

A lot of these go along with my interest in industrial design and web design. Some of these may also interest some of ya’ll in college that are wondering what kind of possibilities there are with SolidWorks. This is just a small taste really. And heck, you may even be able to start your own company doing some of this stuff.

By the way, if you’re interested in #3 contact me.

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Mixing 3D and Art

Published
by
Josh
on May 29, 2007
in Rockin' Cool
. 0 Comments

What happens when you take an artist, turn him into a software developer and stir in some Java OpenGL?

Answer: Mark Napier and some funky looking stuff

Play with some of the links on the right side at his site. I made this with one of his programs.

solid distortion

Now this isn’t done in SolidWorks, but in the past I’ve done some interesting things with the Displacement filter in Photoshop (Filter, Distort, Displace…) to some SolidWorks models. Here is a model that I distorted using a rusty street sign.

melting model

While not as complex and interesting and cool and interactive as Mark’s stuff, you can do a lot of interesting things when you put two strong programs and some creativity together. Have you done anything to create some art with SolidWorks?

Found via:Wired Multimedia
Also check out: Mark’s Blog

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Words to live by

Published
by
Josh
on May 28, 2007
in Noteworthy
. 0 Comments

In the states here, it’s Memorial day. Our three-day weekend we turn into four, our day we mow the lawn or paint that last wall. I want to thank my grandfathers that fought, bleed, cried, laughed, went to serve, came home to live and helped me never have to wonder what it is to be free. Thank you.

If you do anything today, thank someone for serving in any capacity or go over and listen to this incredibly moving Commencement address from General Peter Pace. They’re definitely words to live by.

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Using Acrobat 3d for Data Exchange from SolidWorks

Published
by
Josh
on May 25, 2007
in Product Reviews
. 0 Comments

adobe 8Ok, I’m at the end of this series (Part 1 and Part 2) on Acrobat 3D and I’m going to finish it off with how it would work for data exchange of an assembly. I’m going to do what most would probably think of doing first and open up a SolidWorks assembly directly into Acrobat 3d. I’m gonna use data exchange as the method of conversion for a 2MB file.

Continue reading ‘Using Acrobat 3d for Data Exchange from SolidWorks’

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Friday Smackdown

Published
by
Josh
on May 25, 2007
in Smackdown
. 0 Comments

Here’s the freshest, unwashed, totally natural and incredibly entertaining and informative sites I came across this week.

colorsnVidia and Capcom announce Lost Planet Release - watch the demo, it’s incredible.
34 places to get Design Inspiration - if nothing is inspiring you this will help.
Web2.0 layer styles - to use in Photoshop and make the design process easier.
Ultimate Blog To-do Wish List - it’s all done for you.
My.Vpod.tv - This is just plain fun.

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Adobe Acrobat 3D and SolidWorks Revealed

Published
by
Josh
on May 24, 2007
in Product Reviews
. 3 Comments

adobe acrobat 8There’s nothing more enjoyable that seeing what a piece of software can do… except for maybe not doing it and going out with friends, but since all my friends are behind a computer like me, I’ll try to break me some software. I’m continuing today from yesterdays Adobe Acrobat 3D overview where we took a quick look at what you might expect. Today, we’re gonna get dirty.

Continue reading ‘Adobe Acrobat 3D and SolidWorks Revealed’

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Turn your Product Ideas into Income

Published
by
Josh
on May 23, 2007
in Tech to watch
. 4 Comments

ponoko rules manufacturingHow many of you have a binder of design ideas lying around? Yeah, me too, and have always been discouraged when I try to get a prototype made or quoted. NOVEdge has put out another interesting interview with the CEO of Ponoko whose new approach to turning out product just may change how and who is able to turn their product ideas into income. Check here to see how it works.

How cool is this?
I have to say, this is really, really incredibly exciting. It’s kind of like the inventors or technical designers version of Etsy. Get your stuff made and sell it - basic, yet phenomenally innovative from a manufacturing perspective. I’m not sure on the depth of the material list, but they are currently using laser cutting technology according to the interview.

Tell me more please
Currently Ponoko is in Beta, but you can sign up to be a beta user and also stay up to date via their blog. I can not wait to try this out. We’ll keep you updated to know how it goes.

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Product Review: Acrobat 3D Version 8

Published
by
Josh
on May 23, 2007
in Product Reviews
. 6 Comments

acrobat 3dAfter being chained in the basement for a few weeks to check out the brand spankin’ new Acrobat 3D I found the good, bad and some things that made me just barely fall out of my chair. I’ll leave out the part where I saw flying monkeys. I think that had to do with the lack of sunlight.

In less than a couple minutes, I can share a small model with the Design group and get feedback. This is typically the bottleneck in a very iterative design process. Acrobat 3D makes it easy and secure to share stuff, but there’s also some things that could be improved. Let’s have a look.

Continue reading ‘Product Review: Acrobat 3D Version 8′

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5 tips for better relations

Published
by
Josh
on May 22, 2007
in SolidWorks Tips
. 0 Comments

greys anatomyI know, you’re looking at your sketch that has more relations than the cast of Grey’s Anatomy and wonder how in the heck things went south so fast. Well, it has nothing to do with your social skills or being raised in the country, those things just need a little lovin’.

This means it’s time to fine tune things a bit, get rid of any nasty little relation that could be upsetting your sketches and use some methods for getting them to act better. These are general practice, because there’s gonna be exceptions.

  1. Avoid redundant relations
    This would include things like perpendicular, parallel, intersection
  2. Avoid using the Fix relation
    This is a no-no, especially for top-down design. Fully define your sketches.
  3. Use as few relations as possible
    This way if you need to change something you have fewer relations to update
  4. Use sketch envelopes
    Sketch envelopes are a way to quickly relate the sketches for your parts to an area. So, instead of having dimensions and relations to parts that tend to change, you relate it to one sketch.
  5. Set up a standard
    Going by the same process each time will make things faster for you and everyone else will know what’s going on with your crazy sketches.

This will not only clean up your sketches, but will also tend to make models load faster. fewer relations, fewer calculation and you reduce the risk of creating circular realtionships.

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