Since I started working here at Hawk Ridge Systems, my product focus has always been analysis and Simulation. From the time I worked in Simulation Tech Support to my current position as a dedicated trainer for our analysis products, I’ve always recommend to simplify models and utilize the techniques available within Simulation to reduce the size of the problem. This often includes cutting the model in half or in a quarter to utilize the symmetry features available in our stress analysis tools.

There are similar options inside of Flow Simulation that allow you to use the same type of technique, typically by changing the condition of the computational domain to symmetric. With the release of SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2015, specifying symmetry is now an available option during injection molding analysis. Here’s how it works.

In a situation where you have a multi-cavity mold featuring multiple instances of the same part, we can simplify the analysis model to just one instance of the geometry. In the image below, this is how the layout of the components will look in real life:

Fig.1: Multi-Cavity Mold

Considering that we have the same geometry patterned around the sprue, we can now run a plastics study on one instance of the pattern but specify if we have a ½ symmetric, ¼ symmetric, or a number of instances. This will then complete the study in a fraction of the time.

What we want to do is create a configuration that includes a single instance of the geometry along with the sketch representing the sprue and runner.

Fig.2: Simplified Model with Sketched Sprueand Runner

Now we can proceed forward in creating a manual solid mesh and choosing the Runner and Cooling System Design option.

Fig.3: Manual Solid Mesh Menu

Then we specify the appropriate mesh condition for your model and after you choose the Tetrahedral Mesh type, you now have a new option, Set Symmetrical Runner.

Fig. 4: Symmetrical Runner Menu

After you select the new option, you have different categories to choose from seen in the images below. Notice that as we change the symmetry type, the model displays a visual representation of how the multi-cavity mold would look. In the graphics below, only the part at top left is being meshed and analyzed. The ghosted parts on the right represent the symmetric representation.

Fig. 5: ½ Symmetry

Fig. 6: ¼ Symmetric

Fig. 7: Circular Symmetry

If we change the option to Circular Symmetry and enter 5 as the number of instances, we best represent the full model. The great thing about this is that the study will run significantly faster due to the new option but provide the results as if the entire model was being studied, including accurate estimates of the overall pressure and clamp force requirements to mold the part.

The Symmetry Runner setting is one of the great new enhancements for SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2015. To see other top enhancements., along with How To videos and great SolidWorks content, take a look at our YouTube Channel.

Whether you’re a fan of the National Football League or not, by now word has spread to even the most dedicated SOLIDWORKS drafter of the scandal over last week’s AFC Championship game, in which the New England Patriots allegedly violated NFL rules by intentionally under-inflating their footballs. How much this benefited quarterback Tom Brady is still up for debate, but the more important question surrounding the game arose last Friday when Coach Bill Belichick stated that the team’s own investigation found Mother Nature was to blame for the recorded drop of 2 psi measured at halftime. A plethora of voices from academia have weighed in, with many agreeing that taking the team-supplied footballs from the warm environment of the locker room to the chilly field of Foxborough- er, that is, Gillette Stadium, would have caused a corresponding drop in pressure. Professor Richard P. Binzel at MIT, for example, used the ideal gas law to estimate that “a 5 to 10 percent dip in temperature could bring about a drop of 0.5 to 1.5 pounds per square inch, or psi, in a ball’s air pressure.”

We in the world of simulation are aware of both the power and the limitations of hand calculations. In this case, it does appear that the ideal gas law predicts at least some of the reported pressure drop, but using this equation makes one big assumption: that the temperature of the air inside the ball actually would cool down to the same temperature as the air on the field. Luckily, a heat transfer problem like this is just the of type thing SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation, our embedded computational fluid dynamics tool, is designed to tackle.

To start with, we need a 3D model of a football, which luckily I know how to create in SOLIDWORKS:

Going through the setup wizard of our first project, we need to make sure to enable the key physical conditions that make for an accurate simulation. First, I selected an External analysis and enabled Gravity so we can simulate the natural air currents around the outside of the ball. Heat conduction in solids needs to be turned on so we can simulate the pigskin cooling down once on the field, thereby cooling the air inside. Also, Time-dependent has been selected since I need to know how quickly these temperature changes would happen to see if the story adds up.

On the Fluids tab, I selected the pre-defined model for air; no further work required. Under Solids, we’d need to choose the material for the ball, which nowadays is constructed of a synthetic leather with a bladder lining the inside. Those materials don’t exist in the default engineering database, so I created a custom material with a thermal conductivity of 0.2 W/m-K, similar to both rubber and leather which have good insulation.

Finally, it’s important to select the proper initial and ambient conditions. The game time field conditions in Foxborough were reportedly 51 degrees Fahrenheit, with an atmospheric pressure of 14.64 psi (slightly below normal). We also have the option in Flow Simulation to set a wind speed, but here I left it at zero, even though there would have been some wind, and the ball would have been flying through the air a good part of the time (cooling it even faster), I also ignored the heat that might have been added to the ball from players or referees holding it.

At this point, the only remaining task was to enter the initial conditions of the air inside the ball, by creating what’s called a Fluid Subdomain. If the ball was really inflated to the league-minimum 12.5 psi inside the warm locker room (I guessed 73˚ F), the air inside the ball should still have those same conditions the minute it’s brought out onto the cold field, barring any leaks (intentional or otherwise). Note here that I’ve typed in 27.14 psi in the pressure box, but don’t worry- I haven’t pulled a Jim Marshall. Flow Simulation always uses absolute pressure in its setup and results, so a “gauge” pressure of 12.5 psi really means 12.5 psi above atmospheric. In other words, the absolute pressure is 14.64 + 12.5 = 27.14 psi.

Before running the analysis, I made sure to set up some Goals in my project, which allow me to quickly see the key results. In this case I selected the average temperature and average static pressure on the inside faces of the ball, plus created my own custom Equation goal which will report gauge pressure, just the same as any of the NFL referees would have seen.

So what are the results? Assuming a time out on the field of 60 minutes, or 3600 seconds, the cold New England conditions would in fact cool the ball down a lot, to about 52.5 degrees, but not quite as cold as others have assumed.

So what effect did this drop in temperature have on the ball pressure?

SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation reports a final pressure of 11.45 psi, equal to a drop of 1.05 psi. So, this is a partial explanation, but it doesn’t fully account for the drop of two “pounds” reported by the officials at halftime. But wait, there’s more.

This is where Coach Bill Belichick comes back into the discussion. During his now infamous press conference, Belichick claimed that in addition to the on-field cooling, the balls could have been affected by the team’s normal “conditioning” process, where they try and break in the leather to create a more pleasing grip for Brady.

“So that process of creating a tackiness, a texture, a feel — whatever the feel is, it’s just a sensation for the quarterback, what’s the right feel, that process elevates the PSI approximately 1 pound..”

Bill Nye the Science Guy, Seahawks fan and hero of nerdy 90’s kids, weighed in, saying Belichick’s explanation “made no sense.” But what if Belichick was right, and it is in fact possible that rubbing the footballs heated up the air inside to above even the locker room temperature, leading to an ever bigger temperature (and thus pressure) drop out on the field?

Once again, hand calculations are of no use here, but we can have Flow Simulation find us the answer. This time I had to make some larger assumptions: namely, that the balls would be “conditioned,” i.e. rubbed for something like 5 minutes, or until the outside surface of the ball was roughly the temperature of someone’s hands. A bit of research informed me that in a 73˚ F room, the average temperature of a person’s hands is 86˚ F (not quite your internal body temperature of 98.6 ˚). To simulate the friction of the conditioning, I decided to apply a heat generation rate of 10 Watts to the outside of the ball (by comparison, the average human body at rest generates about 70 W of heat).

While it pains me to say so, after plotting the results I was forced to conclude that in this instance, Bill Nye was not, in fact, the Science Guy.

If the outside of the football were warmed in such a manner, the air temperature inside wouldn’t lag far behind, reaching a maximum of about 85 degrees after about 4 ½ minutes. The corresponding increase in pressure turns out to be real, the balls would measure just under 13.1 psi at this point.

Of course, what Belichick and others have claimed is that the pressure in the Patriots’ footballs was set after the balls were warmed. So, the question becomes, what would the footballs have measured at halftime if they were in fact filled to 12.5 psi when the air inside the ball was 85˚ F, rather than the assumed locker room temperature of 73˚? I plugged in the new number and re-ran my first simulation to find out.

Behold, after 60 minutes of exposure, the air inside would still have cooled down significantly, albeit about 3 degrees above ambient. Still, the now-larger temperature change of 31˚ results in a corresponding drop in pressure to 10.95 psi, aka “under-inflated” by 1.55 psi. We don’t know what the official measurements of each ball were, but if I wasn’t a technical guy I could see myself rounding this off and telling a reporter “two pounds.” We could also question many of our assumptions, was the ball actually out on the field longer? Did the air temperature drop below 51˚ F during the game? Doing so is as simple as changing the setup conditions, or even the 3D model, and hitting Run.

So, what am I saying, are the Patriots the good guys after all? No, you can argue that they knew what they were doing, gaming the system to create cushy, under-inflated balls for Mr. Brady. What I can say is that Bill Belichick’s explanation is plausible: normal temperature changes prior to and during the game could have caused the balls to drop by almost 2 psi without somebody actually letting any air out.

The only thing left to do is put Flow Simulation to its traditional use, simulating engineering problems to improve the quality of products. Now I just have to figure out what the current defect with the San Francisco 49ers is, and give them a call…

If you have been paying attention to my blogs (it’s okay if you haven’t), you’ll recall that I wrote an article on the basics of creating a sweep in SOLIDWORKS. Since I’m sure you’ve mastered this, let’s move on to some more advanced sweep feature functions. I will be focusing on the swept boss/base feature, but this can also apply to a swept cut.

The first thing I want to focus on is the difference between Follow Path and Keep normal constant. These are 2 of the Orientation/twist types under the Options pane in the Properties Manager when creating your sweep. To summarize, when the Follow Path option is used the profile will be normal to the path. This means if you look at a cross section normal to the path anywhere, the profile will be constant. In contrast, the Keep normal constant makes the profile normal to itself. This can come in handy if you have something like plastic tubing that’s profile can distort after you bend it.

To illustrate this difference, here is a part with 2 sketches to create a simple piece of pipe with a circular profile and a bent path:

After going into the Swept Boss/Base feature (under the Features tab on the Command Manager) and choosing the profile and the path, expand the Options area to view the Orientation/twist type. The default is set to “Follow Path”, so let’s see what that looks like when we hit the green check and create the part:

Part shown from the front view:

Here is the part shown sectioned at a diagonal leg. Notice how profile looks like an ellipse, this is because the section cut is parallel to the same plane as the profile:

If we edit the feature, we can change the orientation to “Keep normal constant”:

The diagonal section looks thinner instead of being a full round like before:

If we take the same section cut as before, the section looks round. This is because the cut is parallel to the profile:

The second aspect I’m going to cover is using a guide curve to control the sweep. Here is a sweep that looks like a Mobius Strip (feel free to look this up if high school math was a while ago like it was for me). The profile and path sketches are shown, and this part was made with a rectangular profile swept around a 3D sketch:

Taking a look at a section cut from the top view, notice that the profile of the part is twisted in relation to Axis1. I want this profile to be perpendicular to the Axis, so I’m going to create a new profile and use the 3D sketch as a guide curve:

First, I’ll flatten the tree to see how the part was created sequentially by holding [CTRL] and pressing [T]. Now I can use the roll back bar to go back to the 3D sketch:

I’ll create a new sketch on the front plane and use Convert Entities on the 3D sketch to get a 2D projection (Sketch2 is the new sketch). Sketch2 will become the new path:

Now I will modify the profile sketch so that it relates to the new path by adding a construction line that ties them together. Moving the rollback bar down past Sketch1, I edit Sketch1, add the straight construction line and add a pierce relation between the endpoint of the line and Sketch2:

Now, edit the sweep and replace 3DSketch1 with Sketch 2. Looking at the profile, the part looks like a flat piece and not curved as before, so we need to add a guide curve:

Expand Guide Curves in the Property Manager. You can add in multiple curves to control the shape, but in this case we will use the 3D sketch:

Now, the shape of the part looks similar, but if we take a look at the same section cut as before, the profile is perpendicular to Axis1:

And voila, this is what I’m looking for! If you’d prefer to watch a video of these steps, please check out our YouTube video. Happy sweeping and thanks for reading!

Imagine, innovate, and inspire with SOLIDWORKS Composer – that’s the motto of a group of college students at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, Washington.Edmonds College has a mission of helping students access educational and career opportunities in a supportive environment that encourages success, innovation, service, and lifelong learning. Using SOLIDWORKS Composer, the students applied artwork created throughout the college, then combined them into a visual collage of photography, acrylic, charcoal, digital arts and rock-&-roll.

All artwork within the animation was created by students attending Edmonds Community College; most of the artwork was photos taken from the hallways and lecture rooms. When asked for a statement on the final collage, one student said. “I wish we could give credit for every piece provided in this animation because truly that is where all the hard work took place. The only thing my team did was take photos of the artwork and compile it together with SOLIDWORKS Composer; once all the images were imported the rest was super fun and really simple to create. The music was then added later using the free Windows Movie Maker program.”

Watch the video:

Once again, SOLIDWORKS Composer proves it can be used for a variety of applications – the only limits are in your imagination.

I am often asked about the SOLIDWORKS Certification program, primarily about the benefits of being certified. Since SOLIDWORKS World starts this week, and since everyone who registers to attend SOLIDWORKS World 2015 gets the opportunity to take a complimentary certification exam alongside other SOLIDWORKS users — at no charge — I thought I’d take this chance to tell you why I think you should get certified in SOLIDWORKS – or at least consider it.

For starters, let’s cover what the SOLIDWORKS Certification program is in case I’ve already managed to lose anyone. SOLIDWORKS began offering knowledge-based tests many years ago, the prize of which is a certificate. It started as only a few certs, but has grown into 13 different certifications available to users ranging from the entry level Associate exam up to the all-knowing, all-powerful Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert (as well as many specialty certifications for things like Simulation and Sustainable Design). To earn your certification you must prove that you have the appropriate skills by completing an exam including knowledge and modeling based questions.

So why do these certifications matter?

While I cannot tell you that they come with prize money or a fancy present, they do help you in several ways, including a party in your honor. The reason SOLIDWORKS implemented the program was to create a standardized way of measuring a user’s skill level. This helps put users into competency rankings starting with “I’ve heard of SOLIDWORKS” to “I can model a varying pitch helical sweep in-context of an assembly”. Here’s a list of why I think these certifications are important:

1. Being certified is verifiable proof that you truly know how to use SOLIDWORKS and are proficient in it. Once certified your name can be put into a searchable registry of Certified Users for all the world to see.
2. It’s a great resume booster. Rather than putting “I know how to use SOLIDWORKS” as a skill you can list “Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional (Certificate #0000000)”. Guess which one looks better?
3. Already in a job, by taking a standardized test you prove well-roundedness with SOLIDWORKS – not just job specific skills that only benefit you at your current company.
4. Certifications have been used for work incentives. Some companies require specific certifications to get a certain job. Others just ask their users to achieve certifications, sometimes tacking on a bonus when they do.
5. How about bragging rights? We all do it, so why not have some credentials to back up the boasting. Get Joe on the other side of the wall to be quiet about that time you broke a reference by beating him to Expert level. The included logos with each test make great reminders on your business cards.
6. Remember me mentioning a party? Well, when you make it out to the annual industry convention, SOLIDWORKS World, and get extra flash on your nametag for each of your certifications. Plus they throw special events for different certification levels, like last year’s behind the scenes tour and cocktail hour in PETCO Park baseball stadium for Certified SOLIDWORKS Experts. (It was awesome!)
7. They can be free! If you are currently taking advantage of the many benefits of Subscription Services with your SOLIDWORKS license you qualify for several free test credits. Meaning you can get all the way to the Professional level without spending a penny. Want to know how? Follow the link and sign in with your SOLIDWORKS Customer Portal login to get your coupons: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/subscription/Certification_Offers.html

Ultimately certifications are as important as we the users make them. You probably wouldn’t take your car to someone with an ad on the internet saying he knows how to work on cars. Instead, you’d likely go into a shop where they have ASE certifications hanging in the lobby. As SOLIDWORKS users we need to take advantage of the work SOLIDWORKS has done to create certifications and hold ourselves to a higher standard. If you put added value on certifications, you increase the value of your SOLIDWORKS license and fellow users.

Ready to get started climbing the SOLIDWORKS Certification ladder? Check out the official certification program here - http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/mcad-certification-programs.htm. Not ready to take a Certification Exam, because you’d like a little more training first? Talk to one of our Training Advisors or take a look at our training schedules.

Also, be sure to check out the rest of the Hawk Ridge Systems blog (like this one, about the top ten speed moves for the CSWP) as well as our YouTube channel for tips and tricks to help you pass the tests.

A problem that I have come across when running my Simulation studies is having limited space on my hard drive for all the result files a study generates. When it comes to running a Static analysis, I sometimes run test studies where I am only interested in seeing the displacement results and not Stress or Strain; just to see if things are deforming in the direction that I expect.

By default, when a study has completed, SOLIDWORKS generates a .CWR file where the displacements, strains, and stresses are stored for every node in the model. Depending on the size of the problem, the .CWR file can grow in size, taking up hard drive space. In order to alleviate some of this headache, did you know you can control what results SOLIDWORKS Simulation will store?

Starting in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2013, there is an option to have your study only output the displacement information. This is a great feature because having this control will not only reduce the file size of the result but also improve loading speed especially on very large models.

In order to generate only displacement information, right-click the Result Options and select Define/Edit. You will then see the menu below where we can disable Stresses and Strains from being saved.

Fig. 1: Result Option to Disable Stresses and Strains

After you run the analysis with the option disabled, you will receive a ‘Data not available’ message; this is because most studies try to auto-launch a stress plot – if the data is not saved, you see that message. This is normal behavior and you should then see that your displacement plot is the only one that can be seen.

This feature also becomes helpful when you run a transient thermal analysis. When you create a thermal study, you will get the same Result Option section after you change your study to transient. The result option menu then changes to what you see below.

Fig. 2: Result Option to Control What Time Steps to Save

What we can do here is control which steps across the time range we want to save. This allows us to run a study with very fine resolution, to get accurate results, but control what information is being saved and reported, to minimize the size of the files on disk. We can add up to 5 time ranges where we can specify how much information we save in each range. For example, you might want to see the result of every step during a sudden increase in temperature, but see every 5^th step in a phase where it is slowly cooling down.

So if you are ever short on hard drive space or you want more control on what results SolidWorks generates, then this Storing Result options are the way to go. To see how these options work, take a look at my video.

SOLIDWORKS has a unique and powerful type of assembly component pattern for setting up patterned components along an open or closed path to dynamically simulate a roller chains, cable carriers, and power transmission systems. This new feature was introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2015.

In this 3-part series, we’ll take a look at how to set up a generic energy chain along with special cases and considerations for performance and optimum behavior.

Before we start to assemble this thing, let’s first look at how the individual components are mated together. The fixed bracket (orange) is fixed to the origin. There is a component that contains only a sketch (purple) to define the shape, or path, of the chain that is mated to the Front and Top planes, which means it can move back and forth (parallel to the Right plane). The floating bracket (green) has only a parallel mate to the top plane. And the link component (grey) has no mates applied.

Now when we choose the Chain Component Pattern, there are 3 options: Distance, Distance Linkage, and Connected Linkage.

Distance

This mode is similar to the Path Mate, but allows movement. Select the path individually or with the selection manager, then define the number of instances, or choose to fill the entire length of the path.

Next, choose the component, its spacing, and its Path Link and Path Alignment Plane. The Path Link is a location reference that “attaches” the component to the path. In this case it’s a circular edge, which defines an axis that pierces the path. The plane in the link is centered and sets the orientation of the part to the path.

If you fix the component with chain path sketch, you can can drag the link along the path and see the entire chain move. If the path sketch part is free to move left and right, you can drag that component and the chain will move accordingly. In this mode, the patterned components are oriented exactly the same as the “seed” or original link, so if you are dragging the link and it rotates (because it is not entirely defined by selections in the feature), the components in the chain, regardless of the position along the path, will also rotate in the same way.

Distance Linkage

This mode requires an additional positioning reference to locate the link along the path, but still allows for a defined spacing. In this case, we’ll just select the opposite circular edge of the link for the second Path Link which will fully attach it to the path.

Now, when we drag the path or the link, the chain components follow the path and stay oriented to it.

Connected Linkage

This option is what we want for this energy chain as it removes the distance variable and connects the links. Let’s define this chain to have 19 links.

The feature uses the same two Path Link selections to connect the instances of the link component to each other.

To finish the chain and make it something you can use in a higher level assembly, you would mate the first link to the fixed mounting bracket, and the floating mounting bracket to the end of the chain then when we float the path sketch component, the energy chain behaves realistically. It even stops when it reaches the limits of the path.

When adding this energy chain sub-assembly to a top level assembly, there are a couple of things to do:

• Since the movement of the component that contains the path sketch is what determines how and when the chain moves, make sure that component is mated correctly to other parts in the assembly that will drive the movement of the chain.
• In order to allow this glorious chain motion, you must set the chain sub-assembly from Rigid to Flexible.

In Part 2 in this series, we’ll take a look at special use cases of the chain component pattern such as a closed loop bicycle chain with two types of links, rotary motion, and using in-context sketches to define the path.

The ToolPath Simulation in CAMWorks is an easy-to use tool to check your toolpath for several problems such as collisions, gouging, or under-machining. Proper use of the Toolpath Simulation tool should be incorporated into every CAMWorks workflow. One thing you may not know is that in CAMWorks 2014 and later you can start the simulation from a work-in-process rather than from the raw stock. This is extremely useful for simulating operations that depend on previous operations to avoid a crash.

Let’s use a simple part with a few nested pockets as an example:

The highlighted slot feature is going to be machined after the rectangular and circular pockets have already been cut. That allows the end mills for the slot to safely rapid to depth in the existing pockets and enter the slot from the side rather than having to ramp or spiral to depth. When I run the Toolpath Simulation the default behavior is to start the simulation from the raw stock. This means that I have to simulate all of the previous operations first just so I can see what the part will look like when we start to machine the slot. If I don’t, then CAMWorks will think that my rapid entry move will cause a crash:

So here is the trick: Just hold down [shift]on your keyboard when you invoke the Simulate Toolpath command (version 2014 or newer). Now, CAMWorks presents you with a dialogue asking what operations you want to be simulated in the background for the Work-in-Process model. This command works no matter where you invoke the simulation from, and it allows you to run operations from previous setups as well.

Once you select the operations for the “WIP” model and hit OK, CAMWorks will simulate those selected operations in the background much quicker than you having to sit through the simulation (note: this can still take a few minutes for 3+ axis toolpaths, but it’s still faster). Now, the “stock” that I am presented with for the simulation has several cuts already taken out of it and just as predicted, my rapid entry comes down safely in the space created by the previous operations:

This trick is particularly useful if there is an operation or two that you need to simulate several times while making minor adjustments to the operation parameters. In fact, once you get a hang of it you might find yourself instinctively holding down [shift] every time you simulate a toolpath.

I hope you found this helpful. For more content like this please subscribe to our blog and YouTube channel. Happy machining!

SOLIDWORKS Composer is all about telling a story, whether the story is how an assembly gets from a pile of parts on the floor to comfortable furniture, or how to identify the correct replacement part for your engine. This is an entirely different job from the detailed technical drawing work done in SOLIDWORKS Drawings, but many of the tools carry over. Exploded line sketches, labels and balloons, dimensions and section views are all tools that look familiar from the SOLIDWORKS environment but give us a variety of new capabilities in Composer.

Path Tool

Paths are used to create 3D lines (2D lines in 3D space) that illustrate a path from components neutral locations. Paths are divided up into two environments and two different types. These tools become available once you’ve selected a geometry actor that has been translated from its neutral position. The environments are simply there so that you can create both types of basic paths in both the View and Animation environment.

There is a significant difference between Associative Paths and Non-Associative Paths. Associative paths will update the path line if the Actor ever changes position. Non-Associative path lines are just snapshots of the current position. I use Associative Paths almost exclusively because you can use the same path line for multiple positions of the part or fine tune the location without needing to think about updating the path line.

The last option in the Paths toolbar is the Generate Free Path tool. This becomes available when you have an existing path line selected. By clicking on Generate Free Path Composer will create a copy of the existing path that has on association and hide the path that was used to create it. The original path still exists, check your annotations to find it. From that point you can drag the free path wherever you want. This is a great tool if the path lines are close but not quite where you want them.

Label Tool

This tool is about as straight forward as it can get: select the tool, click where you want the tooltip attached to. The information displayed is all up to you. If the “Meta-Properties” are available, meaning that the parts in Composer came from a SOLIDWORKS model with custom properties and you chose to import them, you can display the properties in the label.

There are a host of other options in the label tool drop down. Label with Multiple Actors is may seem a bit confusing to use at first because at first glance it looks like you’ve just created a normal Label. The trick is to look for the crosshair symbol next to the Label text box in the graphics area. Left click on the icon and drag it to the new leader location. You don’t necessarily need to use the Label with Multiple Actors tool to get the crosshair. It should display next to a regular Label as well.

The rest of the label tools are pretty specific including ones used to callout surface areas, volumes, or even point coordinates. There’s also a mysterious one called pipe length. This is specific to CATIA V4 files so unless you’re using those don’t worry about it, Composer is just showing off its roots.

The last one in the list is GD&T, and again it’s about what you’d expect from a labeling tool. I do like that this tool is eager to snap onto specific edges of your model. There are drop-down menus in the Label properties to select your tolerance type and text strings to fill out the rest. One quick tip though, to get the text broken up into boxes use the vertical line – | –  on your keyboard.

Inside SOLIDWORKS, there’s a unique and powerful type of assembly component pattern available for setting up patterned components along an open or closed path. This is perfect if you want to dynamically simulate roller chains, cable carriers, and power transmission systems.

Previously, we created a generic energy chain to give an overview of this great new feature. In this article, we’re going to take a look at a few special use-case scenarios.

Energy Chain with Rotary Motion

The previous example would work great with some type of gantry with linear motion. In this case, what if the motion is more circular or rotational than linear?

Well, it’s all in the sketch path that drives the Chain Component Pattern. You aren’t limited to sketches only consisting of lines and arcs for the chain path. You’ll notice that this case requires 3 arcs in the path: one that defines the outer diameter (or the outer ring), one that defines the inner diameter (or the hub), and a small arc that represents the bend or return between the two.

Now in order for this to behave properly, the “dummy” component that contains the chain path sketch must be properly constrained in the assembly. For the correct rotary motion, the component must be concentric to the ring and hub components and, in this case, constrained to the hub so that when the inner hub is dragged (rotated), the chain path moves with it and therefore drives the Chain Component Pattern to move with it. (See below.)  Extra features such as bosses and/or reference geometry may be needed in the chain path sketch part to allow you to mate things together as desired.

Closed Loop Chain

Now let’s take a look at a perfect example of a closed loop chain. This one has another interesting twist as unlike the energy chain, which uses a single type of link, a bicycle chain has two types of alternating links.

When we set up this feature, we’ll need to pattern both the Inner and Outer Links that alternate to make the chain. We’ll use the “Chain Group 2” option and selections to accomplish this.

Something else to consider here is that in reality, the final link in the chain would be attached to the first link in order for it to be a closed loop. However, we cannot create the mate to accomplish that in SOLIDWORKS. So, how do we make sure the total length of our path is correct so that the final link does indeed meet the first one?

The trick here is to determine the total number of links you want and use the “Fill Path” option. Once this is done, you can measure the remaining gap between the first and last component. Using the Path Length Dimension, adjust the sketch path by that amount to close the gap.

In-Context Chain Path Sketch

There are applications where the movement of the chain is dependent on the position of other components in the assembly to which the chain is attached. This is easily done by creating an in-context sketch constrained to the moving component, in the chain sub-assembly.

In this example we have a gantry system where the chain path sketch is defined in the context of the assembly to the vertical head component. Notice the angle of the path is not specified; it is dependent on the position of the head component.

Now, there is one difference in the behavior of the chain movement when using in-context referencing for driving the chain path. When the component (the head) is moved, the chain motion will not be real-time. The top level assembly MUST be rebuilt so that the chain path sketch is solved for the new location of the component, which then allows the chain component pattern to be solved. This is still very useful for positioning information in your design and drawings.

In part 3 of this series, we’ll take a look at special considerations regarding optimum behavior and performance when using the Chain Component Pattern in SOLIDWORKS 2015.

Every now and then, we look back over the functionality that has been added to SOLIDWORKS software over the last few years, and find something we at Hawk Ridge Systems find really useful, but we don’t see our customers utilizing when we talk to them over technical support or in customer visits.

One of those features is Submodeling, which became available with the release of SOLIDWORKS 2013, and is part of the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional package (it also comes with SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium).

When running Simulation studies with large assemblies, the Submodeling feature allows you to refine the results on critical components without having to rerun the analysis for the entire assembly. In technical terms, Submodeling helps transfer complex global loads from the entire structure, to local sub regions to obtain accurate stress results in local regions.

Submodeling allows you to start the analysis process on a large assembly by running a “coarse’ parent analysis. This analysis may use coarser mesh than is really needed, might make simplified assumptions about contact conditions, or might neglect connection detail like welds or bolts. Note the relatively coarse mesh in the screenshot below.

Once we have this initial study complete, we can then identify parts that we’d like to investigate in more detail in a submodel. By right-clicking the name of the study and selecting “Create Submodel” you’re presented with a list of which parts you want to select. Loading from the master study is transferred (as a displacement value) to the boundary between the parts included in the submodel, and those neglected.

In the scenario below, I might be particularly interested in the connection between the foot plates and the vessel legs. I can refine the mesh in that area in much greater detail, add the detail of the welding strategy, and run these cases in much faster time than including these details in the master study. At the same time, we’re including the overall mass, stiffness and global loading effects on the model.

There are some considerations to keep in mind when creating a Submodeling study. A Submodeling study is derived from an eligible parent study and should meet these conditions to be eligible for a Submodeling study:

• The study type must be Static or Nonlinear static with more than one body and not be a Submodeling study itself. The parent study cannot be a 2D Simplification study.
• The selected bodies that compose the Submodel may not have No penetration contact with unselected bodies that result in contact pressure across the cut boundary.
• The selected bodies that compose the Submodel may not share connectors with unselected bodies.

By taking advantage of this Submodeling capability we were able to focus our analysis on key components in a large assembly with less effort and higher efficiency. If you haven’t tried this submodeling approach before, I’d highly recommend spending some time investigating this often overlooked, but very powerful feature.

A unique and powerful type of assembly component pattern is available in SOLIDWORKS for setting up patterned components along an open or closed path to dynamically simulate a roller chains, cable carriers, and power transmission systems.

In the third and final part of this series we’ll take a look at some considerations for performance and optimum behavior. (Need to catch up? Click on the article to read Chain Component Pattern Tips – Pt. 1 and Chain Component Pattern Tips Pt. 2.)

Here are some suggestions to avoid potential problems:

• Avoid extra mates: The chain pattern uses mates behind the scenes (Path Link and Path Alignment Plane selections) to control the position and movement of the pattern components. Adding more mates in addition to these can result in poor performance or failures to solve the mate system. Try to use as few mates as possible to control the chain movement. As shown in our example in part 1 of this series, mating components to the end of the chain is the preferred approach, rather than mates to instances in the middle of the chain.
• Avoid mates between the ends of the pattern: As outlined in the SOLIDWORKS Help – “Best Practices for Mates”, you should avoid creating ‘loops’ of mates, as these are difficult for the solver to handle. As the chain pattern uses hidden mates, creating a relationship between the ends of the pattern will create such a loop, resulting in poor behavior or mate errors.

• Slow down when you drag the chain: While I’ve been pretty impressed with the performance, there is still a lot of solving going on ‘under the hood’, so if you use rapid movements when you drag, the solver may struggle to keep up. Slow, steady, and deliberate movements will result in the best results.

• Allow the path part the freedom to move: If one end of the chain is fixed, the chain can’t move, right? Wrong! Because the part containing the path sketch is free (it has degrees of freedom to move in at least one direction), this part can be dragged to model a chain. Just ensure its correctly mated to allow motion in the correct direction. You aren’t restricted to only simple ‘racetrack’ shapes either – chains with rotary motion are possible with paths made up entirely of groups of arcs.

• Other types of chains: To create a closed loop chain where the start and end are joined, use the ‘Fill Path’ option. You can fine-tune the chain path sketch to get the ends to meet, however. Once you have the desired or correct number of links, measure the remaining open distance between the end links, and use the sketch Path Length constraint to adjust the path accordingly until the end links meet.

In this blog series we’ve looked at a general overview of the new for 2015 Chain Component Pattern along with a sample of a generic energy chain. We’ve also seen some examples of other applications such as closed loop bicycle chains, rotary motion chains, and using in-context design to define the path of the chain between other components in an assembly. We’re looking forward to seeing what you can do with it and what other applications you can devise to take advantage of this powerful new feature!

If you were to hook my brain up to a projector and start scanning for things I remembered from engineering school, stress-strain curves would probably pop up. Once upon a time I (probably) recreated one or two of these curves in a materials lab, but nowadays I settle for giving the every-man definition: a stress-strain curve is a collection of data describing how resistant a material is to stretching. Naturally, if you’re looking to run a stress analysis on your products in SOLIDWORKS, there’s a good chance you know this information may be important too. If you aren’t exactly sure why or how, read on. The first thing to determine about stress-strain curves is when you actually need to use them. If you’ve ever seen one, you know that it’s usually a line graph with stress on the y-axis and strain on the x- (typically from a uniaxial tensile load). You likely know that for ductile materials like metals, there is a relatively straight, steep section at the beginning followed by a sudden bend and then a section with more curvature. This bend is known as the yield point, at which the material begins to deform permanently (and generally do interesting things). In most cases, yielding is rather undesirable, so engineers are trying to make sure the maximum stress in a product doesn’t get close to the yield strength. If that’s true for you, the full stress-strain curve isn’t needed; a quick-running Linear Static stress analysis in SOLIDWORKS ignores the post-yield behavior and only requires you to enter the Young’s Modulus, a simple number that describes the straight, elastic region of the curve. But if you’re looking to see the real behavior of the material even after yield (like a sagging beam or your iPhone being dented on the ground), you’ll need to run a study that allows a Plasticity material model, such as Nonlinear Static or Drop Test. Assuming you’ve chosen an appropriate study type, the option will be available under the Model Type drop-down in the Material Library. There are multiple Plasticity models, but the most common one is the von Mises model, which assumes yielding occurs when the von Mises equivalent stress (published in 1913 by a suave young Austrian) exceeds the yield strength. The stress-strain curve can now be defined on the Tables & Curves tab under the “Type” drop-down menu. In this case, the curve is already visible because I’ve picked one of the default SOLIDWORKS materials that include the data it, noted by the “(SS)” annotation at the end. If you want to use a material that isn’t in the library or doesn’t have the stress-strain curve, you’ll need to create a custom material and fill in this table (default SOLIDWORKS materials cannot be modified). Pro-tip: additional stress-strain curves are available in the file “cosmosworks curves.cwcur” under [SOLIDWORKS Installation directory]\SOLIDWORKS\Simulation\CWLang\English. Access these by right-clicking the name of your study and selecting Define Function Curves. It’s important to be careful when entering the data as two common mistakes can occur if you aren’t paying attention (which absolutely never happens to me, ever). First, make sure the units match your material data before you fill in the table. Strain is always entered as a decimal (i.e. 1% strain is 0.01), and in this example, stress has been set to N/mm^2 or megapascals. If you change the stress unit after entering the data, SOLIDWORKS will convert the values for you, making them very wrong very quickly. The cells can be filled in by clicking in the table and typing, or by pasting (Ctrl+V) copied data from an external spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel. HTML tables, text files or other documents may work as well. The second common mistake is not putting the correct range of values in the table. If you’ve obtained stress-strain data from a material vendor or text, it probably starts at a strain of 0, indicating no load applied from the test fixture. In SOLIDWORKS however, only the post-yield information needs to be entered because the pre-yield region of the curve is assumed to be perfectly linear and perfectly elastic (or, a straight line with the slope of the Young’s Modulus). So, the first cell in the table should always be at the yield stress of the material (this is why the preview of the curve may look different than your source). Ideally the last entry for the stress-strain curve will be the fracture point of the material (when it literally broke), so remember that any areas of your model showing strain above this value would in reality be cracking and coming apart. Finally, one more adjustment may be necessary depending on how the strain information of your material was provided. By default, SOLIDWORKS Simulation uses the more-common engineering strain, which is simply calculated as the change in length of some material divided by its original length:

By contrast, true strain (some would call it perfectionist strain) is calculated as the natural log of a material’s final length divided by its original length:

If your stress-strain data was supplied using this more precise true strain calculation, you’ll need to go to the Properties menu (right-click on the name of the study in the analysis tree) and select the “Large strain” option. The option is aptly named- using a curve defined with true strain will be more accurate at extreme deformations where the cross-sectional area of the material begins to shrink from stretching. Assuming you’ve checked these steps off your list, upon running the study you should be warmly greeted by results showing realistic stress, displacement, and strain of your design even after yielding. In fact, by using the Probe tool on a displacement plot and clicking the Response button, it’s often easy to see the yielding in the material occurring as the load is applied followed by the permanent deformation when the load is removed. Stay tuned to the HRS blog for more journeys through time, space, and getting computers to do our work for us.

Dimensions

Let’s face it, not everyone is a wizard when it comes to looking at standard views shown on a drawing, picturing the part or assembly and on top of that understanding the accompanying dimensions. I often take for granted the training I received in school. To this day there are occasions where I need to stare at the drawing for I bit before I can picture what’s going on.

That struggle takes time, adds frustration and can often lead to mistakes. With the help of SOLIDWORKS Composer we can get those dimensions off of your engineering drawing and into a format that allows just about anybody to understand the information you’re trying to get across.

Measurements… Where Are They?

SOLIDWORKS Composer’s annotative Measurements are all neatly organized in the Author tab. Being in the Author tab should immediately tell you that we are adding collaborative actors and they will be organized in the collaborative actors section of the Left Pane after we add them. You’ll notice that almost all of them have drop-downs so using them effectively comes down to finding the right tool for the job.

Before you use them make sure your unit system is set up correctly. This can be checked in the document properties the input should reflect the unit system the part was designed in. For SOLIDWORKS Files this should always be set to millimeters. The output should reflect the unit system you want to see in your measurement annotations.

Length and Diameter Toolset

The first set of tools are the Length and Diameter commands. They can be used to add measurements for the length of edges, both circular and linear. Their primary job in Composer is to allow you to show dimensions of single part. The properties for the Measurements are similar to a label so remember to set up a Style to get that a consistent look. They also have a section for GD&T annotations so they can act as an informal substitute for the inspection drawing.

A few quick tips on the tools:

To flip the direction of a circular edge measurement look for the “Complementary” Property and select “Proceed”, not exactly the most obvious property change.

 

The curve length tool requires an actual curve and cannot be applied to an edge. If you would like to use this tool for pipe lengths or any other curvy shape remember to check the box to Import curves. This does not work for SOLIDWORKS curves unfortunately, same with the Import points.

The thickness Measurement is probably the most interesting in this toolset. It creates a thickness measurement by drawing a line normal to whatever surface you select. Because of this straightforwardness I’ve found it to be one of my go-to tools. I don’t need to worry about finding an edge or a vertex and the callout becomes very clear in a 3D format.

Next to the length tool is the diameter measurement. It can create radius or diameter callouts. The input needs to be a circular edge, unless you are using the 3 point version in which case the input can be any three points on the model. If you want to place a circular dimension to show a circular pattern of holes hold the “alt” key while placing the dimension and hover of the cylindrical faces of the holes. This will detect the circular edges and pick up on the center point.

Next to the length and diameter commands is a long list of other tools to create measurements. The idea behind breaking them off into their own list is that these tools are more useful to create dimensions between two or more components. All of these tools are associative so as you move actors around the annotations will update with the new position. In order to have that associativity with your actor position keep an eye on the tool tip when placing the annotation. If it shows up as red that means you are about to attach it to the correct corresponding geometry. Yellow means it’ll be attached to a geometry actor but not at any specific location.

 

The Chain and Fan dimensions are a way to continuously add dimensions either as a chain, so one click establishes the first reference and from there the annotations will continue to “chain” from point to point or fan out from the original point.

In the end, dimensions are about as straight forward as they can be. With a host of options in the Composer toolset you can easily find the right tool for the job.

Want to learn more about how SOLIDWORKS Composer can improve your product communication and help you leverage existing 3D CAD data? Watch the video: Results in 90 Seconds With SOLIDWORKS Composer

In honor of National Pi Day, I thought I would skip the dessert and go straight to a savory tortilla pie. Being an engineer, it wasn’t enough of a challenge for me to simply go to the store and purchase a bag of chips, noooo, I wanted to make my own chips.

Because my tortilla pie is sure to be a big hit, I need to create a roller that will cut the chips in a mass production environment, and can be used in a production machine to cut tortilla chips out of a sheet of dough as it travels through the machine.

I begin with a simple cylinder for the roller – in this example 3.5in diameter x 2.75in long – and insert a Reference Plane that is tangent to the surface of the cylinder and parallel to the right (or front) plane. This plane is what I will use to place the sketches that will be used to create the geometry for the wrap features. As seen in the image at right, the first part of the sketch is a construction rectangle that will serve to hold the triangles of the chip geometry.

The length dimension of this rectangle is used to hold the equation using pi. When editing the dimension, select the”=” sign to indicate to SOLIDWORKS that what will follow is an equation. Then, select on the feature of the cylinder to display the diameter dimension and select that in the graphics area and type “*pi” after it. The complete formula should read D1@Sketch1*pi. (if it reads D1@Sketch1*pie, you’re not doing it right).

Next I used the new Segment tool in SOLIDWORKS 2015 to divide the bottom of the rectangle into equal parts with points that I can attach the corners of my triangles to. (When the pie is finished, you can decide whether or not to divide into equal segments, but not here).

After drawing in my triangles, making each leg equal to each other, I offset the sketch to the width that I want my blades. I used .025in, then enclosed the ends of the profile and used fully define sketch to make my sketch fully defined. It is important to use an enclosed profile, otherwise the cheese will run out.Now I have the first sketch defined, so I use the Wrap command to transfer the sketch to the face of the cylinder.Notice the property manager of the Wrap command and the selections that I chose. I repeated this procedure to create the circular wrap features shown in the image at right. I needed to do three wrap features because more than one contour is not allowed in the wrap sketch. (You can use either corn or flour for the dough, but this has nothing to do with the contours).

Once I had the pattern created I finished the model by mirroring the body a couple times in order to create the completed cylinder. All that’s left is to create the mounting tabs and cut the keyhole that is needed to install the completed cylinder into the machine.

Now all I need to do is to cut the chips and make the tortilla pie! Well, I don’t exactly have the machine made yet but that’s just a minor detail…

Are you doing anything for National Pi Day? Let us know in the comments below!

Usually this isn’t the question that we get on support or when talking to our customers about optimizing their analysis workflows, instead our customers ask “Why does this analysis takes so long to solve?” or “What hardware do I need to make this analysis solve faster?

While you can throw hardware like SSDs and faster CPU cores at your analysis, eventually there are diminishing returns and by far the biggest impact you can have on solve time is optimizing your analysis setup, starting with the level of detail you include in your model.

To start what I recommend is looking at where you are in the design cycle. This should generally define the level of detail you’re shooting for and level of accuracy you should be looking to get out of your analysis. In addition to that, it should set some expectations about solve time. For example if you’re working on a design concept and solve times are very long, you’ve probably included too much detail in your model or made your setup too complicated. Conversely if you are finalizing a design, shorter solve times shouldn’t necessarily be expected but by applying the recommendations below you will ensure that your solve times are as optimized as possible.

Once you have a broad understanding of the level of detail your model should have based on the stage in the design cycle that you’re in, the next step is to figure out exactly which components should stay and which should go. The ones that you will want to keep should fall into one of these 2 categories:

1. The load path. What components need to be part of your model to ensure that your loading condition is characterized? In structural analysis that means the path from your force to your restraint, in thermal analysis where your heat goes in to where it goes out and in flow analysis which components create the flow path.
2. Measuring locations, areas of interest and areas of concern. In all likelihood, these are the features or components that you’re really looking to evaluate, so they are a given and need to be part of your analysis. But this also helps you hone in on the scope of your analysis. If you’re analyzing an electronics enclosure within a vehicle, your area of interest is around that electronics enclosure, it is unlikely that you need to model the whole vehicle.

Beyond that, we get into the nitty gritty of idealization and simplification best practices when it comes to the coarse and fine details. For example it is always recommended to remove small features, holes, fillets, gaps…etc and suppress components that aren’t of importance. And similarly it is always best to use the proper idealization like shells and beams or smart parts like bolt connectors or fans rather than discretely modeling them. But if you’ve followed the recommendations above, your work here should be minimal and if you run into something that is going to be a bear to idealize or simplify, you’ve probably made up for it elsewhere such that it is ok to keep it around and not significantly affect the solve time.

So that’s it right?

Well, almost. There really aren’t any more steps for optimizing the level of detail in your model but if you have been following along closely there is one loose end that needs to be wrapped up. In the back of your head you should be thinking, “Great, I can decrease solve times but what about the accuracy of my analysis? Doesn’t removing these components, features and details decrease the accuracy of my results relative to the physical/absolute behavior of my design?”

The answer to that question is yes but if you’ve done a good job planning your analysis and followed the recommendations above, the impact on accuracy will be minimal and any deviations are easily explained by assumptions in your final report. Worst case, as you move through the design cycle, as more information becomes available and more details are added to the model, you have will have a solid, optimized analysis foundation to build upon and can easily add accuracy and detail without significantly increasing solve time.

The next round of SOLIDWORKS Night School events is coming up! With just a couple of weeks until our first sessions, I thought it might be nice to give a quick preview of what’s to come.

The Night School topic for this April is Assembly Techniques. A lot of time can be spent creating and managing assemblies, so it’s important to be familiar with all of the assembly modeling tools in SOLIDWORKS.

We’ll share some core strategies and the latest improvements for working with assemblies, including:

• Top-Down Design – Top-down assembly modeling is a powerful way to design custom parts. We’ll discuss how to create virtual components, perform in-context editing, add assembly features, and manage external references.
• Toolbox Components – The toolbox is a great way to speed up assembly design. We’ll go over the options for adding toolbox components to assemblies.
• Mating Techniques – What’s your favorite way to add mates? We’ll explore different methods for mating components and check out recent additions like the slot and profile center mates.
• Assembly Troubleshooting – Oh no! Errors! It’s common to run into issues with complex assemblies. We’ll show off some tools that help to identify and repair problems.
• Large Assemblies – Performance can take a hit as the number of components increases. Lightweight, large assembly, or large design review mode can keep assemblies running smoothly.

If you haven’t been to one of our Night School events before, they’re technical learning sessions about specific areas of SOLIDWORKS software. We bring out your local Hawk Ridge Systems team, serve some light refreshments, and share tips and tricks in a seminar-style presentation. It’s a great opportunity to mingle with other SOLIDWORKS users, and we always have some prizes to give away!

I’ll be presenting at our Canadian events in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary. My colleague Ricky Huynh will be presenting at our US events in Portland, Seattle, Ontario, Irvine, and the San Francisco Bay Area. We’ll also host an online session for anyone who can’t make it out to a local event.

>> Find a SOLIDWORKS Night School near you

The first Night School of 2015 is right around the corner! Following up on my colleague’s preview blog, there have been some questions about whether or not you’d benefit from attending.

I’m personally a questions guy myself, and I find most engineers are the same way. With that said, these next few questions (and answers) should give you more of an in-depth look of what this Night School will be all about!

See if any of these scenarios are familiar or apply to you:

Hey, I’m barely starting up on SOLIDWORKS – should I attend or is too advanced? 

Yes, you should attend! You’ll get a wealth of information and a good overview of what you can do with assemblies in SOLIDWORKS, as well as an opportunity to network and see how others in the industry are working with assemblies in their design process. If you find that there’s so much material and you didn’t get it all the first time, we’ll be hosting an online session too!

I usually get assemblies that are already put together – how would this Assembly Techniques Night School benefit me?

Whether it’s Bottom-Up (building our parts and then relating them with one another in an assembly) or Top-Down design (starting from the assembly level and creating our components), you’ll be more flexible (no pun intended) working with engineers when they give you an assembly or just a folder full of parts! You’ll have a better idea of what techniques they used and what their design intent was, allowing you to streamline the overall design process without having to go back and forth with the engineers or vendor.

You’ve found yourself thinking, “There has got to be an easier way to center a component without fumbling with calculations and setting up a bunch of distance mates.”

We’ll take a look at the Width Mate, and its new enhancements that allow you to define its range of movement: Centered, Free, Dimension, or by Percentage. We’ll touch on the new Profile Center Mate too!

You’ve finished an assembly and have to send it to someone outside of the company…and all of your parts in separate folders. What now? Do you painstakingly comb through each folder and put everything in one folder to .zip over to them?

We’ll take a look at how you can easily find references for an assembly, even replace missing references, and how to easily grab all of the parts and sub-assemblies you need, using our Pack-N-Go feature!

As a manger, you’re just trying to take a look at the progress of a large assembly (1000+ components) and maybe just take a few snapshots… but it’s taking forever to load.

We’ll talk about Large Design Review so you can pop open the assembly, rotate and inspect the model, and grab a few snapshots without having to wait for every single part to rebuild.

What if you know everything?

We’ll probably just have you come up on stage! All joking aside, maybe you’ll find that one little keyboard shortcut or tool that you didn’t know existed, like the Collapse the FeatureTree shortcut (ESPECIALLY if you have a large assembly) or Select Other.

If you know all of this stuff, great! Our suggestion? Bring a colleague along with you so they can learn more while you enjoy some free food and networking time with other SOLIDWORKS users – and your local Hawk Ridge team.

As you can see, we’ll cover a wide range of topics ranging from the basics to more advanced topics, and tips and tricks in between – there will be something for everyone!

See you at Night School!

>> FIND A SOLIDWORKS NIGHT SCHOOL – ASSEMBLY TECHNIQUES  NEAR YOU

3D Printing Support

With SOLIDWORKS 2015 and the new Windows 8.1 3D Printing Driver, 3D printing has never been easier. Simply select “3D Print” from the File menu, and after a few quick selections you can be on your way to rapid prototypes, faster than ever, with the most popular 3D printers.

To access a local 3D printer, with a part or assembly document open, click File > Print3D or click the button on the CommandManager bar.

If your 3D printer has a driver supported by the Microsoft Windows 8.1 3D printer pipeline, the Print3D PropertyManager opens (see image).

Microsoft’s Windows 3D printing flow uses an XML-based data format called 3D Manufacturing Format (3MF). Software applications that support this format convert their data to 3MF format and send it to the operating system’s print spooler for 3D printing.

Prior to the use of the 3MF format, the 3D printing process involved:

• CAD design to create a parametric solid model that is easily scaled.
• Mesh review after exporting the model from the CAD program.
• Mesh fixing using a custom software program to optimize the mesh for 3D printing.
• Printing preparation, including specifications for a raft to be used as a print base, supports for overhanging material, model density, and print quality.
• Printing using an application that communicates with the printer while the 3D model is being printed.

With the Windows 8.1 printer driver, you can go straight from your model to 3D printed output. With your CAD design open in SOLIDWORKS, you open the Print3D PropertyManager, where you:

• Select a printer from a list of available printers that use the Windows 8.1 printer driver.
• Orient your model within the print volume defined by the printer you select.
• Select print options for quality, infill percentage (density), supports and raft.
• Print the model by clicking OK.

After you set the print options in the Print3D PropertyManager, Windows 8.1 handles all communication with the 3D printer. A preview of the print bed and the model’s location within the print bed lets you modify settings before committing to a 3D print job.

Note: To use the Print3D PropertyManager for the Windows 8.1 print driver, you must be on a computer that runs the Windows 8.1 operating system. However, if you’re running Windows 7 you can still use the Save to File capability to save your model to a 3D printing format.

As rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing become more and more ubiquitous, anything that streamlines the process that takes us from CAD model to actual products is a welcome addition to SOLIDWORKS 2015.

Want to learn more about 3D printers? Download the 3D Printer Buyer’s Guide.

For all of you golfers out there, the Masters tournament has just begun, and it’s a great opportunity to watch the best players in the world compete. One thing that always amazes me when I watch the tournament is how they can make long putts on some of the toughest greens. I recently read this article that said if your putter is aimed 1 degree to the left or right of the hole for a flat 10 foot putt, you will miss. Talking to my instructor about this small margin for error in putter alignment, he said that you can compensate for a 1 degree misalignment to the left of the hole for a 10 foot putt, by swinging along a plane 1 degree to the right of the hole.

So in theory, any misalignment in the putter face can be compensated for by the path of your swing and vice versa. When trying to test things myself, I realized that there are so many factors to consider such as the bumps of the green, the consistency of my putting stroke, and even the consistency of the golf ball. All of these factors make it difficult to know what really caused a missed putt. So I turned to SOLIDWORKS Motion which allowed me to account for the kinematics and create a consistent setup in order to compare results between 3 scenarios:

• The face of the putter and swing path aligned with the target
• The face of the putter pointed left of the target 1 degree and a swing path aligned with the target
• The face of the putter pointed left of the target 1 degree and a swing path 1 degree right of the target

So here is how I setup these analyses:

Created An Assembly

10 foot Putt Assembly

Defined The Path Of The Stroke And Mates

I used a circular sketch that went through the center of the putter face and the contact point on the golf ball. I defined a path mate between the center point of the putter face and sketch. I also created a mate that kept the putter parallel to the putting surface.

Path of the putting stroke

The sketch was created on a reference plane which represented the swing path and allowed for the angle to be changed. Finally a mate was created to change the angle of the putter face.

Swing Path And Putter Face Angle

Defined Contact

In SOLIDWORKS Motion I created a contact feature to define the elastic properties when the putter hits the golf ball. In this case, I defined the coefficient of restitution which sets the ratio of relative velocities of the putter and ball before and after impact.

Elastic Properties Between the Putter and Golf Ball

Restitution coefficient obtained from:

Adli Haron, K A Ismail (2012). Coefficient of restitution of sports balls: A normal drop test. Retrieved from iopscience.iop.org/1757-899X/36/1/012038/pdf/1757-899X_36_1_012038.pdf

Using another contact feature, I defined the friction properties between the golf ball and grass in order to simulate the proper roll of the golf ball towards the hole.

Friction Properties Between the Golf Ball and Grass

Friction properties obtained from:

Scott K. Perry (2002). The Proof Is in the Putting. Retrieved from http://home.comcast.net/~saintjohnboscooffice/images/martikean/articles/38.pdf

Defined Gravity

Finally I needed to define the direction of gravity in order to have the ball stay rolling on the ground. Gravity is also what will drive the putting stroke when the putter is started a set distance away from the ball along the arc of the stroke.

Definition of Gravity

So what were my results?

Well as it turns out, for a flat 10 foot putt and aiming just 1 degree to the left of the hole with a stroke made along a straight path to the hole, it is true that you will just barely miss the hole. Now if you compensate for the 1 degree face angle left of the target with a stroke that goes along a path 1 degree right of the hole, you will make your putt. Below is a summary of the results I obtained along with links to videos for a few of the results.