In today’s blog, lets uncover some of the methods of Visualization SOLIDWORKS has to offer, take a more in-depth look at RealView, and then we’ll take a look at which option will suit you best!

The first visualization technique that doesn’t require any special hardware will be OpenGL. All modern graphics cards have OpenGL capabilities, and should be able to handle OpenGL. All the processing is normally done on the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU).

Next, if you’re looking for more a realistic rendering, RealView will build off of what OpenGL provides. Now, if you’re not seeing RealView, which is found under ‘View Settings’ in the ‘Heads Up Toolbar’, you’ll want to make sure that ‘Software OpenGL’ is not turned on. The easiest way to identify if it is, is by going to your ‘System Options’ > ‘Performance’ > making sure ‘Use software OpenGL’ is not checked, as seen here. What software OpenGL does, when enabled, is disables the graphics card hardware accelerator and enables graphics rendering using only the software. Note that if you do have it turned out, you’ll have to close all existing files to be able to uncheck ‘Use software OpenGL’ since it is a ‘System Option’ and isn’t document-specific.

If you’re still not seeing RealView after verifying OpenGL is not on, you’ll want to make sure you have an approved graphics card as well as the best graphics card driver for the software version you’re running. You can navigate here to the SOLIDWORKS’ website: www.solidworks/sw/support/videocardtesting.html, where you’ll simply just put in the model of your workstation or locate the specific graphics card you have. You can then download the driver and see if ‘RealView Graphics’ becomes available for you!

The benefit of activating RealView is it will generate more of a realistic image by including:

• Dynamic and environmental reflections such as ground
• Surface shading including color, ambience, diffusion, and transparency
• Basic texture mapping techniques,, such as visible bump surface finish (depending on material/appearance applied)
• Diffused ground shadow
• Self-Shadows from the first directional light

When we begin to compare RealView to PhotoView 360, RealView only casts a self-shadow and floor shadow for the first directional light. You can easily adjust the directional light by going first to your ‘FeatureManager’, clicking on the last tab for the ‘DisplayManager’ > ‘View Scenes, Lights, and Cameras’ > expand out the ‘Lights’ folder, and right-click the ‘Directional1’ to get ‘Edit Directional Light…’

Lastly, how does RealView stack up to PhotoView360? PhotoView360, a SOLIDWORKS Professional add-in, allows for more in-depth, photorealistic renders and we can begin to see the differences between RealView and PhotoView 360 based off the chart below:

If you take a look below, I have three samples of the visualization we talked about today: OpenGL, RealView, and PhotoView 360.

The main advantage of OpenGL is the ability to take a quick snapshot and is the fastest of the three visualization methods. The disadvantage, as you can see, would be that it contains the least amount of detail of the three. The advantages RealView has over PhotoView 360 differences lie in processing time and the ability to render during motion. With RealView, you can rotate and pan around your model and the model will retain of the RealView characteristics. With PhotoView 360, the ‘Final Render’ window will only capture statically what it sees in the window, which means any changes to the camera position or model must be rendered again. In addition to that, PhotoView 360 requires more processing time, but it can be scheduled when you’re away from the computer or off from work! PhotoView 360’s advantages are that it’ll provide the most realistic render of the three, while providing more options in terms of light sources that influence shadows, depth of field, and advanced texture mapping.

At the end of the day, as long as you have SOLIDWORKS Professional or Premium, the beauty is you really don’t have to choose. As you can see, SOLIDWORKS makes it incredibly flexible for you to generate all three outputs to see which one will give you the desired outcome!

One of the unexpected and most well received announcements at SOLIDWORKS WORLD was that SOLIDWORKS engineers and designers have been busy creating a collection of apps for their own kids to get them excited about design and art with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). If you can get kids interested before the 7th grade, then their chances of going into an engineering or science path is much greater. The idea is to get kids interested when they are most impressionable and open to learning new things.

In 2009, the United States Department of Labor listed the ten most wanted employees. Eight of those employees were those with degrees in the STEM fields: accounting, computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, information sciences and systems, computer engineering, civil engineering, and economics and finance. According to the U. S. Department of Commerce, STEM occupations are growing at 17%, while others are growing at 9.8%. 

SOLIDWORKS Apps for Kids – starts with what SOLIDWORKS is great at – creating professional applications to address the different stages of design workflow, and breaks it down into fun bite-size applications for kids to have some fun and learn about design, art, creativity, crafts, and more. The apps will be OS and device independent, so that will help greatly with accessibility.

SOLIDWORKS Apps for Kids will include:

To register for the SOLIDWORKS Apps for Kids Beta Program, go to www.solidworks.com/AppsForKidsWould you like your child to be part of the Beta program, a unique opportunity to shape the future of the product? You are invited to participate in the SOLIDWORKS Apps for Kids Beta starting in the spring. SOLIDWORKS welcomes your feedback as well as your child’s opinion on how they can make the SOLIDWORKS Apps for Kids better. The release is scheduled for spring 2016 with SOLIDWORKS Education Edition Academic Year 2016-2017.

In this two-part series for SOLIDWORKS Composer, we’ll dive into what tools the program provides us to easily sort through a large assembly and find exactly what we’re looking for! In the first part, we’ll take an in-depth look of how to sort through the imported Assembly tree, and then create selection sets to save us more time later on.

On the ‘Assembly Pane’, we’re able to sort all the actors alphabetically by clicking on ‘Sort Alphabetically’. This will not only sort the Top level alphabetically, but it will also do so for all the actors under sub-assemblies as well. This is helpful for those that know the name of the actor they’re looking for and know which sub-assembly it’s in.

‘Sort Alphabetical’ Off

‘Sort Alphabetical’ On

We’re also able to search for actors if you know the name, but unsure of exactly which assembly or sub-assembly it’s a part of. For instance, if we wanted to search for all the actors that have ‘Socket’ in the ‘Name’, we can search for type in ‘socket’ in the ‘Search’ bar and set ‘Name’ to be the ‘Property’ to search for.

If we were to click ‘Next’, Composer will then cycle through each actor that has the word ‘Socket’ in its name. If our intention is to instead grab all the actors that have ‘socket’ in the name, we’ll click on ‘Search All’; this will select all of those actors that it’s pulled from the search results. In addition, we can choose how we want the actors to be sorted. For those that match the search criteria (‘socket’, in this case), I have ‘Select, Show, and Zoom to Fit’ on, and for ‘Non-Matching Actors’ I have ‘Hide’ checked on. What does that mean? When I click ‘Search All’, all the ‘Socket’ actors will be visible (because ‘Show’ is checked on), and they’ll be highlighted (because ‘Select’ is checked on) and all the other actors will become hidden (because ‘Hide’ for ‘Non-Matching Actors’ is checked). The camera will then’ Zoom to Fit’ the viewport window to capture all of the components shown!

If our purpose is to hide all of our components we selected from the search (let’s call them ‘Ball Sockets’ and ‘Socket Head Cap Screws’), we can simply just click on the ‘Home tab > Visibility > Hide Selection’. Now, if we wanted to instead control the ‘Ball Sockets’ and ‘Socket Head Cap Screws’ as a group, I can create a ‘Selection set’, which essentially groups all our components together regardless if they’re in the same or different assemblies. We can find the ‘Create Selection Set’ button as the 3^rd button from the left on the ‘Assembly Pane’.

The selection set will appear towards the bottom of the ‘Assembly Pane’, which you can rename by clicking ‘F2’. If we decided later on that we wanted to add some washers to this Selection Set, the process is simple; all we need to do is select the actors, right-click on the Selection Set (Toolbox Components, in this case) and click ‘Add Actors to Selection Set’.

The benefit of selection sets is being able to easily hide and show them with literally a check of a box, and they don’t even have to be in the same assembly! They’re especially useful when creating step by step assembly instructions where a certain group of components can be grouped as ‘Step 1’ Selection Set and the next set can be grouped as ‘Step 2’. That way, when you’re creating your views, you can easily select/de-select the components you wish to focus on, without having to search through the entire assembly tree! In the second half of this 2 part series, we’ll continue this further and see how ‘Assembly Selection Mode’ can help us create better views for assembly instruction manual!

Wow! The first set of Night School’s for 2016 have been a treasure chest of knowledge. Starting off with Assembly Modeling gems, Assembly Visualization is a tool that is not used very often. You can filter from parameters such as mass, density, volume, rebuild time, and much more. This really helps with identifying variables of concern to simplify parts, lower rebuild times, and keep track of important meta-data. Clearance Verification is a great tool to help you identify clearances less than the value you enter. Collision Detection shows if you have motion in an assembly and you move the component, if it will run into anything else. Hole Alignment analyzes the model – to make sure holes are actually lined up correctly. Performance Evaluation, which used to be called statistics at the part level and assembly xpert at the assembly level, give you an overall insight to the assembly. Part Modeling gems were also showcased at our spring night school. Geometry Pattern allows the pattern tool to copy just the geometry instead of the calculations that happen behind the scenes, saving computing resources. The Freeze Bar locks in features in the Feature Manager Design Tree so they are not rebuilt, saving on rebuild time. Thread is a new feature that was added in 2016! It creates a thread on the model with just simple inputs to the property manager. FeatureWorks analyzes a dumb solid, such as a step file, and creates a SOLIDWORKS feature list to use, this can be automated and interactive. In most cases both are needed to generate a feature tree. FilletXpert will reorder the fillets on the feature manager design tree so SOLIDWORKS can successfully complete a fillet command when done in one operation. DraftXpert adds draft to the correct face and locates the feature in the Feature Manager Design Tree where it is needed to solve for the desired geometry. Sensors are an amazing tool that helps scope parameters of the design, so as the designer is testing new ideas – they will get a warning when their parameters are incorrect. SOLIDWORKS Productivity Tools were outlined as well. Utilities is a set of tools used to help designers with certain aspects of their model. There is a Geometry Compare, Drawing Compare, Find/Replace, and a few others that weren’t discussed. These items really allow the user to get a new perspective on their model, or with comparing two similar designs. Design Study is a tool that allows you to enter a set of parameters to check against a desired value. It allows you to basically optimize your design without using the full optimization tool.   Visualize was presented as well. This is a very cool new tool that is there to use with PhotoView 360. It is another type of rendering tool that you can have to generate those marketing images. Check out the Hawk Ridge Systems website to learn more about this tool : http://www.hawkridgesys.com/products/solidworks-visualize/. Such amazing knowledge that was shared with everyone who attended!

Welcome back! A quick review of what we covered so far:

• Depending on the information provided, we can use the ‘Sort Alphabetically’ option or the ‘Search Actor’ option:
  • If we know the name of the actor we’re looking for as well as the assembly it’s in, but there’s a few hundred actors in it – we can use the ‘Sort Alphabetically’ option, which will sort all the actors in the top level and all sub-assemblies alphabetically.
  • If we only know the name of the actor, we can use the ‘Search Actor’ option, where we have numerous options for actors that match our search criteria and ones that do not.
• We can use Selection Sets to group components together that are in different assemblies, so if we wanted to hide all the screws or washers in the file, we just need to create the selection set and just uncheck a box!

The last selection mode we’ll dive into is the ‘Assembly Selection Mode’ which gives us the opportunity to select an entire assembly by selecting just one component that’s in that assembly; in addition, it’ll also allow us to create better sub-assembly instruction manuals. We’ll find the ‘Assembly Selection Mode’ on the ‘Assembly’ tab as the first icon from the left. Once activated, when you select a component, it should highlight the sub-assembly in blue, as opposed to the normal orange.

We’ll hide the ‘1001_Bug_Shell” and focus on the ‘3000_RC_Boxer’. If you know the name, you can search for it. If not, but you know what it looks like graphically, you can zoom in (make sure to create a camera view, first!) to select any component in that ‘3000_RC_Boxer’ assembly’. As long as you have ‘Assembly Selection Mode’ on, it’ll select the entire ‘3000_RC Boxer’ in blue.

Next, we’ll translate the ‘3000_RC_Boxer’ up out of the ‘Buggy’ and then we’ll uncheck ‘Assembly Selection Mode’ to create our Linear Explode. Where the ‘3000_RC Boxer’ is right now, is a position I’ll reference as ‘X’. It’s final position where the sub-assembly was translated to.

We’ll then do a quick linear explode by selecting all the components and dragging the arrow along the ‘blue’ axis. Up until now, we could have done all of this without ‘Assembly Selection Mode’ – what’s the purpose of it? The advantage lies in the next segment. After we explode our components, we can then create images to show the components collapsing back into their neutral positions. Do we want these components to be going back to the ‘X’ position or back to the where they were inside the ‘Buggy’? As you’ll see below, when ‘Assembly Selection Mode’ is used, the components will restore back to the ‘X’ position. If we were to create an animation, we would see the components being assembled outside of the main assembly first, and then we would have the ‘3000_RC_Boxer’ return to the assembly as a whole, instead of individual actors.

Assembly Selection Mode used:

‘Assembly Selection Mode’ not used:

When this entire process is done without ‘Assembly Selection Mode’, we’ll see that components will return back to the main assembly, as opposed to the ‘X’ position. In an animation, we would see all these individual components would collapse back into their neutral position in the main assembly. Which one’s correct? Based off how we had created this, the method using ‘Assembly Selection Mode’ would be easier for someone assembling this together to follow because we’re essentially focusing on assembling a specific sub-assembly first, and then assembling the sub-assembly back into the main body. At the end of the day, there is no real right or wrong way to do this; what’s important is that you understand the behavior of both so that you can create assembly instruction manuals that clarify what’s going on, instead of confuse!

A lot of times when working with large assemblies with a high number of mates, manipulating the positions of the assembly can make the model move oddly because of the different combinations of mates and the different amounts of unconstrained degrees of freedom associated with each mate. Typically, you would have to generate several configurations and mates if you wanted to have different set positions for an assembly. If anyone has tried this, they know that process is a tedious one.

To alleviate this issue, SOLIDWORKS 2016 introduced a new Mate Controller feature. What this allows us to do is be able to individually control the position of each mate, one mate at a time. The Mate Controller is located under INSERT>MATE CONTROLLER inside an assembly file. When inside the feature, you need to select all of the mates you want to control. It may be helpful to actually rename the mates so you can clearly see which mate you are modifying. The next thing to do is add a position and name it whatever you want.

You will notice that after making the mate selections, you can modify each mate position individually and that one alone will move the assembly in the graphics area. You can even select the lock symbols next to the mates if you prefer to lock down the movement to only allow the available degrees of freedom left. Once you have specified the desired position, you can select the Update Position icon. This will save the position and allow you to add more.

The great thing about this feature is that you can calculate an animation where you can set how long it should take to move from one position to the other. This can be saved as a video file and even create a rendered video file if you have PhotoView 360. If you create animations or motion studies the traditional way, Mate Controller can streamline that process by allowing you to export the animation.

The process is really easy where you just have to navigate to the motion study tab and select the animation Wizard option and the mate controller option should be there. This is a powerful feature because alongside of creating easy animations, you can even extract kinematic information if you run a motion study.

Overall, the Mate Controller is a great feature and more importantly, easy to use. We can utilize this feature for many reasons to communicate the movement and positions of an assembly. To check out how this new feature works, check out my YouTube video here!

The Trim Surface feature is an essential tool for surface modelers. It is a tool to trim away any surface bodies that are used for reference when creating organic shapes. For SOLIDWORKS 2016, there have been enhancements made to clearly see what bodies you can potentially keep or discard.

In this example where I want to model a water jug, I have gotten the model up to the point where I need to trim away some of the excess surface bodies.

Going into the Trim Surface feature (INSERT > SURFACE > TRIM), the property manager still has the familiar window where we need to select all the faces we want to keep or remove for the final model. Usually you pick the option that is easiest to select. In this case, it’s easier for me to choose the faces that I want to keep.

First thing I will do is select all the mutual faces and select Keep Selections. Now I will utilize the new 2016 Preview options to filter on what surfaces to visually include or exclude in my graphics area. We now have the option to view Included, Excluded, or both included and excluded surfaces. In this scenario, I will filter using the Excluded surface option, and then select the faces I am keeping.

We can then turn on the Show Included Surface filter and see what we are left with for our kept selections.

If we turn on the filter to show both included and excluded surfaces, we can see the kept surfaces in yellow and the excluded surfaces in blue.

These new filters make it a lot easier now to see what surfaces you want to include or exclude in your overall surface model. SOLIDWORKS also included a convenient Create Solid option to convert the surfaces to a solid once the software recognizes there in an enclosed volume.

Overall, this is a great enhancement feature added to the Trim Surface making an even better experience during surface modelling.

Check out my YouTube video to see how this feature works here!

If you have ever needed to create borders for drawing sheet templates, we all know that it can be a time consuming task. We would need to physically sketch out the border in SOLIDWORKS or we had the option to import a DXF/DWG. The problem with that is that there was no easy way to adjust the amount of columns or rows there were originally created or even the offsets of the border to edge of sheet.

Now in SOLIDWORKS 2016, this task has been drastically improved to save time and effort by introducing the Automatic Border feature. It is located on the command manager under the Sheet Format tab after you are in Edit mode for a sheet format. You can also find it by right-clicking on the drawing to edit sheet format. Once in Edit mode, you can right-click again and find Automatic Border.

After selecting the feature, you have the option to delete any entities you don’t want such as a title block that your existing template might have. You will notice that after adjusting the border, the entities that make up the block will not adjust sizing.

When selecting the Next arrow icon, you will see a border appear on the drawing and a way to adjust the following:

• Rows
• Columns
• Margins
• Center Zone Dividers

These are the major options within the PropertyManager, but it does include a few other options that can be referenced here.

What’s great about this feature is if you display your zone lines, the border markers are linked to those zones and will notice the size and adjust accordingly.

After completed the border options, you will see it overlaid on your current drawing. At this point you can save the sheet format and link it to any desired drawing. For more information regarding how to do that, refer to this Drawing Template vs Sheet Format blog.

Overall, Automatic Border is a great addition to the family of drawing features. It streamlines the process to create new border or even adjust existing ones. Check out my video to how it works here!

For many years SOLIDWORKS has had a nifty way of designing sheet metal parts; create them in the formed/bent shape, and then hit a tool called Flatten to get your flat pattern. There are plenty of people who use this workflow for things definitively not made of metal – cardboard and plastic packaging, vinyl wraps and stickers, and all manner of fiber/fabric based shapes used in composite part design are often created using “Sheet Metal” to take advantage of time-saving tools like Flatten and Edge Flange. As many designers of these types of products will attest, this workflow is very powerful, but does have some limitations, and for a long time very curvy, organic type shapes were extremely difficult if not impossible to create this way.

In 2015, many of these users’ prayers appeared to be answered with the arrival of the Surface Flatten tool; allowing you to select several surfaces on a shape or body and automatically create a flattened pattern based off that curved shape – without the need for designing the part with any sheet metal tools! While a big hit, it had some room for improvement, and in 2016 the Surface Flatten tool has been enhanced to include projected sketches and relief cuts to incorporate a wider scope of shapes that can be flattened.

In this example, we have the forward aeroshell of a quadcopter that needs to have some stickers or decals designed for it. Rather than spend a lot of time creating surfaces, or trying to recreate this part using sheet metal tools (good luck with that!), we will use the Surface Flatten tool to create a flat pattern on which art can be drawn, as well as incorporate a cutout of the Hawk Ridge Systems hawk logo and some relief cuts to take strain out of the flat pattern. To begin, click the Surface Flatten tool on the command manager and then select the faces you wish to flatten out as shown in image 1. They need to be connected faces, or else the flat pattern cannot be calculated.

After selecting the adjoining faces you wish to flatten, select a vertex from which to virtually unfurl the flat pattern. This is indicated by the upper arrow in image 2. Then, if there are any cut-outs or projected sketches (such as the logo in our example) you select them from the feature manager tree into the Additional Entities box indicated by the lower arrows in image 2. This will then project whatever the shape you selected is onto the flat pattern, incorporating any stretch or compression so as to ensure the original curved shape you picked is what you will end up with.

Finally, looking at image 3 below you can see a comparison of the flat with and without a relief cut added, in this image you can easily see from the deformation plot of the flat pattern that the relief cut removes a lot of internal stresses in the edges of the shape, making for an easier to wrap/fold sticker.

In image 4, we return to the property manager of Surface Flatten to add the second relief cut sketch indicated by the lower arrows to get the splits in the flat indicated by the upper arrow.

The final result is shown below in image 5, where you can see the flat pattern of the curved body now incorporates the sketch and relief cuts, and this can now be directly exported to a dwg, dxf or an art program for more work. In this manner, you can quickly and accurately create flat patterns for any number of shapes from square and boxy to round and organic, and directly export a shape that someone can cut and then fold/form/roll into the appropriately curved shape.

At SOLIDWORKS World 2016, DS SOLIDWORKS CEO Gian Paolo Bassi announced SOLIDWORKS Xdesign – a new online, browser-based SOLIDWORKS design product for desktop and mobile devices. During the presentation, Gian Paolo even showed it working on an iPad and an iPhone, which could make things very interesting.

Information is a bit scarce at the moment, but we do know a few tidbits that make us very excited for the release of this new tool.

In addition to a User Interface and modeling environment similar to the 3DEXPERIENCE products (Industrial Design, Conceptual Design), it also features animation and model based definition (MBD) functionality. Xdesign also includes the new SOLIDWORKS Xdrive app for sharing, managing, and working on SOLIDWORKS files online.

One potential game-changer that jumped out at us is something called Design Guidance. Here’s what SOLIDWORKS has to say about it:

“Design guidance is a new revolutionary approach. Imagine how much you could get done if your CAD system worked for you! The technology we’re building will flip the CAD script. Instead of engineers and designers telling their CAD system what to do, the CAD tools will evaluate appropriate options based on information you provided. Predictive computing will ultimately change the way products are designed and free you up to problem-solve, experiment and innovate. It’s time we enable you to focus more on innovation and less on CAD.”

A beta program for this new tool should begin soon, with product availability in the Spring of 2016.

To sign up and be kept up to date on SOLIDWORKS Xdesign and 3DEXPERIENCE Xdrive app, and to learn how you can participate in Beta Programs:

http://xdesign.solidworks.com/

In a previous blog, we used the Compare Geometry tool to analyze two versions of the same part to quickly identify any geometric similarities and differences. This time around, we’re going to take a look at the Compare Features tool. The Compare Features tool works very similarly to the Compare Geometry tool, but instead identifies the differences in actual solid features, including appearance properties.

To use the tool, click on Tools > Compare > Features. This will turn on the Utilities Add-In if it was not already turned on, and will also expand the Task Pane with the Compare tool active. From here we can select the two files we want to compare features. If you already have the files opened in SOLIDWORKS, select them from the drop down menus for Reference and Modified Documents. If not, you can browse for each of the files. Under Items to Compare, select Features and click Run Comparison.

Compare Features references the FeatureManager Design Trees from the two parts and compares the list of features by name and type. These features are classified as either Unique Features or Modified Features. Unique features have their own name and type and appear exclusively in one part or the other, whereas Modified features have the same name and type and are in both parts. When Modified Features are found, the tool pairs them together and compares their individual parameters. This helps distinguish what features may have been added/removed, or had parameter values changed from one version of a part to the other.

The results will be listed in the Task Pane, showing each of the Unique Features and Modified Features for each of the parts (if any). If you click the top level feature (Unique (1)/Modified(2) Features), the Unique and Modified Features are color coded in the graphics area to show where the differences are between the two parts. It also shows a red dot in place of a feature icon if a Unique Feature doesn’t exist in that version of the part.

Furthermore, if you click on a Modified Feature from the list, the feature is highlighted on both parts in the graphics area and the parameters for that feature will be listed below. In this example, both parts have the “CSK for M10 Flat Head Machine Screw1” feature, but one has an Up To Surface end condition and the other has a Through All end condition. The tool will detect any differences in sketch geometry as well, which is why Cut-Extrude3 is on the list as a Modified Feature.

The results for the Compare Features can be saved in a by clicking on the Save Report icon at the top of the Compare Task Pane. We can see how the Compare Features tool differs from the Compare Geometry tool. Both work great to quickly compare two versions of the same part, but each has their specific uses. Be sure to check out our YouTube channel for more helpful tips!

Several year ago, SOLIDWORKS introduced the Wrap command – a nice little tool for wrapping a 2D sketch onto a planar or non-planar face. Since then, many improvements have been made to the tool, but even in 2016 we’re still unable to use the wrap command on a spherical or toroidal surface.

1 – Notification of Unsupported Face Type

The traditional workaround for this issue has been to leave the sketch on its plane and perform an extruded cut with an offset start condition and an offset from surface end condition. However, this often produces unwanted non-uniform geometric conditions, or in some cases, total feature failure. Swept cuts have also been used to circumvent this limitation, but with limitations of their own.

2 – Undesired Results Produced from Extruded Cut Command

So how do we resolve this? The key lies in the Thickened Cut command, a tool typically reserved for surfacing. By projecting our sketch onto the spherical surface using the Split Line tool, we can then select the sketch region and convert it into a surface by using the Offset Surface command and specifying an offset of zero.

3 – Split Line and Offset Surface Used to Produce Surface Body

With this surface now available, we can leverage the Thickened Cut command, resulting in a nice cut of uniform depth on our spherical surface. While an Extruded Cut could produce the same results for this model in particular, this technique can be extended to toroidal surfaces, or any other surface type not currently supported by the Wrap command.

4 – Thickened Cut Used to Produce Cut of Uniform Depth

It’s been revealed this year at SolidWorks World that enhanced functionality for the Wrap command is soon to come, supporting all types of surfaces – but until then, enjoy!

In this blog I will be utilizing the amazing SOLIDWORKS Flow simulation CFD (computational fluid dynamics) tool to find out what motor specs I would need to get my RC Helicopter airborne.

The Flow Simulation tool is built into the software interface directly, so there is no time wasted exporting or importing your model. This also means that design changes can be easily and efficiently implemented and tested. As we will see, the set up for this type of problem is a breeze when using this tool, as is finding the data we need.

BACKGROUND

In order to get my RC Helicopter to fly the rotor blades must produce sufficient Lift. To understand lift, consider a solid body immersed in a non-stagnant fluid. Lift is defined by the component of force generated by the solid body that is perpendicular to the flow direction. In our case it is the force that is normal to the ground generated by the rotor blades.

The rotor blades generate lift by creating a pressure differential which in turn generates the upward force needed to get airborne [see Appendix]. Considering that the weight of the RC Helicopter is 2 kg, I will have to generate more than 20N (4.5 lbf) of thrust to get airborne.

Helicopter blades are designed to operate at a constant RPM. The amount of thrust produced at any given time is controlled by the pitch angle of the rotor. My RC Helicopter has a pitch angle range from -10 degrees to +10 degrees (zero being neutral, or zero lift).

The image above illustrates the rotor blades at 0 degree pitch. The following image shows the rotor blades at a 10 degree pitch.

The different configuration of pitch angles allows the pilot to control the amount of thrust at any given time.

An important fact to consider is that the highest demand on the motor will be when you are generating lift. By testing the configuration that is producing maximal lift, the torque on the blades will represent the maximal torque requirement for my motor.

SET UP

Before jumping into the Flow Simulation tool, we first need to create a couple of parts that represent the rotating region of our study.

Theoretically, the rotor blades should produce flow fields that may not be axially symmetric. Therefore, a local rotating region (sliding mesh) technique will be used.

The working fluid will be air, unsurprisingly, and all other conditions will be standard. The main driving force of the flow will be dictated by the spinning of the rotor blades.

The next step is to ‘switch off’ any components that are irrelevant to our study. Theoretically, I could just study the rotor blades, but will include the canopy and main structural components for completeness. Other details like the inner frame or little bolts and gears will not give you any more accuracy. In fact, your mesh will have to be refined around those areas which would massively increase your cell count and solver time.

BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

The set up for this particular problem is rather simple. We only have the two rotating regions to define, and we’re done.

I set the rotational speed at 2000 RPM, which seemed to be the general speed for most RC Helicopter motors.

GOALS

Since we are interested in solving for the motor specs and determining the thrust characteristics, I will define some Engineering Goals to enable easy calculation of desired values.

• A Surface goal on the faces of the rotors to calculate total Torque.
• A global goal of the Y (vertical) component of force (thrust).

That should encompass all the data we need.

MESH

Once the model is simplified, it’s time to focus on our mesh. Since the business end of our study will be taking place at the rotors, I will need to make sure that the mesh is refined in those areas, particularly at the blade tip. The bulk of the surrounding volume can be much coarser.

This can be done by specifying local refinement regions and an overall course setting (mine was at 2). As a rule of thumb, it is a good idea to have 2-3 elements between your model and the rotating region boundary.

By keeping the overall cell count low with enough small volume cells where you need them you can get good results without having to let your computer run overnight (although this is unavoidable in some complex cases).

RESULTS

• Zero degree pitch (neutral) position

As can be seen from the Velocity Cut Plot, the flow is not being directed axial through the blades and is thus not developing any significant thrust.

By reviewing the Engineering Goals set earlier, it is shown that there is only about 1 N of thrust, nowhere near the 20N threshold we need to overcome (which is good news for a neutral position).

• 10 Degree Pitch

As can be seen from the Velocity Cut Plot, the flow is being directed downward. The details are lost in this plot since the direction of the velocity id not being recorded. Therefore, a Flow Trajectory Plot would be needed to further study the flow behavior.

The Compare tool would allow me to quickly create the two plots seen above.

The compare tool can generate plots from multiple studies, allowing you to quickly view and compare the performance of various design configurations, as I did with the 10 degree and zero degree rotor pitch configurations.

The Flow Trajectory Plot clearly illustrates the direction and sense of the flow. It is also interesting to view the blade tip vortices around the blades.

The results of the study show that the blades are producing 95.6N (21.5 lbf) of thrust. This is more than enough to get airborne.

The torque on the blades is evaluated to be 15.86 Nm (11.7 ft-lb), which translates to a power requirement of 3321.7 Watts (power = Torque x Rotational Velocity).

Looking at available RC Helicopter Motors, one viable solution is to use the Turnigy HeliDrive SK3 Competition Series motor which is rated to 3770 Watts and only weighs about 400 grams.

Recall that we worked with a motor speed of 2000 RPM. For a more complete analysis, we could utilize a Parametric Study. This would allow us to run the same study with a range of RPMs to ensure the motor is the right choice across the entire power band.

Thank you for reading this blog!

APPENDIX

For those of you who are interested in how the rotor blades generate lift consider the following:

0 Degree Rotor Pitch

As can be seen in the images above, the pressure distribution across the blade is symmetrical about its chord. This trend mimics the velocity profile of the streamlines. The increased velocity creates areas of lower pressure. However, due to the symmetric nature of the profile the net lift is zero.

10 Degree Rotor Pitch

As can be seen in the images above, the pressure distribution is no longer symmetrical about the chord. As before, the pressure distribution closely mimics that of the velocity profiles of the streamlines. In this case, the pressure differential creates a resultant force oriented perpendicular to the flow direction (lift).

30 Degree Rotor Pitch

Eventually, as the angle of the rotor pitch continues to increase, the flow can no longer keep attached to the blade. The detached flow increases the drag force (the force component parallel to the flow) and reduces lift.

This phenomena is known as Stall, and should be considered during your design process. This can easily be detected by utilizing the Streamlines option when creating a Velocity Cut Plot.

There are many shortcuts and options in SOLIDWORKS that help users mate components together to create assemblies quickly and easily. This blog describes one such example – Multiple Mate Mode. This gives us the ability to mate multiple components to a common reference in a single operation, which saves a lot of time.

In this carburetor assembly, the needle, holder, O-ring, washers, and gas inlet all need to be mated together. Additionally, the main component they will all be mated to is the carburetor body. This will require numerous concentric mates and coincident mates between each of the components and the body, adding to the number of mates listed in the feature tree.

Instead of creating each of these concentric mates individually, we’ll leverage Multiple Mate Mode. When you’re in the Mate property manager, you’ll find the Multiple Mate Mode button to the left of the Mate Selections box. When this is toggled on there will be two selection boxes – one to define the Common Reference (blue box) and the second to define the entities that you want to mate to the reference (purple box). In this example everything was mated together with a concentric mate; using the inner cylindrical face of the carburetor body as the common reference (highlighted in blue), and selected the faces of the other components accordingly (highlighted in purple). Make sure you don’t click the green checkmark before you are finished adding all of the entities you wish to mate. Doing so will end the multi-mate.

In addition, we’ll check the box to Create multi-mate folder. Doing so will group the concentric mates we just created into a nested Multi-Mate folder in the list of mates. This is a great option to have checked on as it cleans up the mate folder in the Feature Manager Design Tree, and makes it easier to make any modifications to the mate parameters.

Any of these mates can be removed from the folder by right-clicking on the individual mate and selecting Remove from multi mate, whereas right-clicking the Multi Mate folder and selecting Dissolve Multi-Mate would remove all mates from the multi-mate folder. In contrast, mates that share the same common reference can also be placed in the folder by dragging and dropping the mate in the Feature Tree. One thing to note is that Multiple Made Mode is limited to Standard Mate types only. You can find a video demonstration of this utility, along with other useful tips, on our YouTube channel! Thank you for reading!

What an exciting Career Day at Kate Smith Elementary in Sparks, Nevada! Kate Smith Elementary had a STEM focused career day to help inspire the kids to explore the path of 3D Engineering!

I spoke to four different classes ranging from 4^th to 6^th grade. Students asked me if they could use 3D engineering to design the robot Boston Dynamics has been working on in SOLIDWORKS. Or maybe a Ferrari…

I was able to present the students with Minecraft and Quad Copter models, showing them some of the tools SOLIDWORKS has to offer. I showed them how SOLIDWORKS gives 3D engineers the option to virtually test a model before it’s manufactured. We reviewed the Collision Detection tool, which is used to ensure the moving components of the assembly won’t collide with other parts.

When I showed the students that by moving the propeller on the Quad Copter, it would collide with the guard, they used 3D engineering to help me figure out why that wouldn’t work properly (with my guidance, of course). The guard was in the wrong spot, so we moved it in order to replicate how a Quad Copter functions in reality.

We then talked about other ways to prototype with the use of 3D printers! We discussed how 3D printing can save money and time by completing a model of what is being designed before taking it to be manufactured.

The students were quite brilliant and able to show me how important it is to prototype virtually and use a 3D printer as it saves time, money and even prevents mistakes.

As I was leaving the school, I was told by many students that they now want to be engineers! I was a super hero! What a successful day!

When designing sheet metal parts, it’s very common to have an asymmetric part that requires an exact opposite hand (mirrored) version. SOLIDWORKS has always had a great part mirroring function that accomplished this in no time, eliminating the need to completely create the new part from scratch. However, if the part was made with Sheet Metal features, the manufacturing information was not transferred to the mirrored part. This information is critical when documenting the mirrored part on a production drawing. Introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2015, when creating mirrored versions of sheet metal parts it is now possible to transfer the sheet metal and flat pattern information from the original part to the mirrored part, saving you a huge amount of time during the drafting phase.

The manufacturing information that can be transferred to mirrored sheet metal components includes:

• Flat pattern geometry                                   •     Bend lines
• Fixed face                                                         •     Bend parameters
• Grain direction                                               •     Sketch transformations
• Faces to exclude                                             •     Forming tool information

Let’s take a look at the process to see how this is done. To create our mirrored part,we select the mirror face, then click Insert > Mirror Part.

So far, so good. Nothing new to the workflow yet, but now here’s where things get interesting! In the PropertyManager, under Transfer, select:

Sheet metal information: Transfers the sheet metal and flat pattern information from the original part to the mirrored part, such as fixed face, grain direction, bend lines, and bounding box.

Unlocked properties: This option allows you to edit the sheet metal definition in the mirrored part, which will update the cut list properties. This applies only to new feature properties, not the imported mirrored body.

Now complete the operation by clicking the green check and let’s see what kind of goodies came over into our new, mirrored part. The new part retains the sheet metal information from the original part.

If we expand the FeatureManager, we can access all of the transferred properties and information. First, in the “Sheet-Metal” folder, we can see that we have the Sheet-Metal feature, which is editable (via RMB or Context Toolbar) because we unlocked the properties when we created the part. If we needed to change out the Gauge Table, thickness and bend parameters, and Auto-Relief settings, that’s now possible.

Next, the Mirrored Part feature contains Cut List and bend information. The Cut List properties are available. Note: if you RMB on the body feature in this folder and select Edit Definition, you are taken back to the Transfer property manager in case you need to include or exclude certain things from your model.

And lastly, the “Flat-Pattern” folder contains the flat pattern information. You can edit the Flat-Pattern feature to change things like the Fixed Face, Corner Treatments, Grain Direction, and Faces to Exclude. The Bend Lines and Bounding Box sketches are also contained here, in addition to the Flattened Bends. Just like a native sheet metal part!

All of this information in the mirrored part makes the drafting side of this design much, much easier. The information for Bend tables, Cut Lists, Flat Patterns, etc. are all contained in the part and can be used on your production drawings to fully detail the design in a much more automated way without having to recreate things that were already present in the original part.

CAMWorks provides two different methods of creating a “Part Perimeter” feature to remove material from the outside of your part. These methods are the “Open Pocket” and “Boss” types.

Part Perimeter type “Open Pocket” should be used when it’s intended to remove all material up to the selected geometry. This should be used when there is a significant amount of material to remove from the stock, and multiple parts are not being cut out of a single piece (such as a sheet). This is the typical method you will be using when machining parts from bar stock.

“Open Pocket” Type Part Perimeter Feature

Part Perimeter type “Boss” should be used when it’s intended to follow the outside profile with one or several passes. This is appropriate to use as a Part Perimeter for applications such as routers, where it is intended to plunge down and cut out just the outside profile of the part. It may also be appropriately used to “clean up” parts such as castings or partially machined parts that need only slight material removal.

“Boss” Type Part Perimeter Feature

This concept is extended to CAMWorks “Open Pocket” and “Boss” features. Unlike the “Part Perimeter” feature which only applies to the outside profile of the part, the “Open Pocket” and “Boss” features allow you to machine areas internal to the geometry.

The “Boss” feature, when applied to an internal boss as pictured below, allows you to chase the profile of the boss. This would allow cleaning up of a casting’s critical surfaces or other geometry, but “Boss” features are not what you would typically want to use for mass material removal.

“Boss” Feature

The “Open Pocket” feature on the other hand, as pictured below, allows for automatic removal of all material to a certain depth. It automatically detects any islands (internal features that protrude above that depth) and intelligently machines around them. This means that you can very quickly program material removal around multiple features, simply by selecting the bottom face and applying an “Open Pocket” feature.

“Open Pocket” Feature

The setup of both the Open Pocket and Boss features can be seen in our companion YouTube video:

CAMWorks – How to use Open Pocket and Boss Features

It was a beautiful Wednesday morning in Santa Clara when I stepped into the convention center. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. For those of you who haven’t been to the convention center, it’s quite large. It can hold many different events in its long halls.

At 8:40 AM, things were still pretty quiet. All booths were being set up and I even made quick friends with the gentleman next door. He had candy, so that helped. I was the first to arrive and didn’t realize that the large square object in the corner of our booth was the ProJet MJP 2500. It was HUGE. We would later use it for 3D printing live demos.

I took a few moments to get set up, and as our lovely Hawks began filtering in, we set up our swag and brochures to entice customers in. While the booth was relatively small, we had lots of 3D printed examples in our glass case. And there were eight of us. Needless to say…it was cramped.

One of the cool samples we had was the 3D printed legs given to Derby the Husky. On the far left, you can see the actual 3D printed leg given to the dog. In the middle shows his progression from no legs, to a sort of backpack of wheels and then his new legs!

Once 9AM hit and we were all set, customer began pouring in. Because we were at the rear of the trade show floor, it took some time for them to come to us, but when they did, we impressed them with using the ProJet 2500. We decided to print a wrench and an X-wing from Star Wars. While the print took seven hours, it was amazing to see the printer in action. Our customers agreed.

All in all, we had a great turn out the first day! Of course, having our genius Riley and smart guy Kevin helped a little.

Say cheese!

To see the video on the Design 2 Part trade show, check out our YouTube channel!

Hey everyone, welcome to my first article in a series on Draft Analysis. In this series, I’m going to go over the basics of this tool that is helpful to anyone working on cast or molded parts. This first article will be an introduction and overview to what this tool does.

There’s one thing that I want to clarify before we get started is that this is a tool to make sure that your part has enough draft for how you’re planning to make it. It DOES NOT add draft to the part. That is something you can do either when you are creating a feature such as an extrusion, or something you can add afterward by using the Draft command. However, once draft has been applied, it will check your part based on the parameters you put in to make sure it meets your requirements. We will be adding draft to the part in the last article in this series.

What is draft? It’s the angle that is put on the side faces of the part so that the part doesn’t get trapped in the mold or cast. There are many factors that go into determining the draft angle of a part, but I won’t be covering that in this article (sorry!) Ask your local mold or cast maker, hopefully they can help.

Figure 1: Mold experts.

Let’s take a look at this part, a plastic power strip cover. This part will be made by a simple mold with just core and a cavity. After taking a look at this part, I figure that the most logical place for the mold to split will be the Top Plane. I’m going to use that plane the neutral plane.

Figure 2: Power strip cover with Top Plane shown.

To start the draft analysis, switch over to the Evaluate tab on the Command Manager. You’ll find it grouped next to similar tools for analyzing different aspects of your part. Left click to enter the tool.

Figure 3: Draft Analysis button on the Evaluate Tab

That’s going to wrap up this first article on Draft Analysis. In the next article, I’ll go into setting up the tool and using the different options. Please check back for that article, and thanks for reading! Also, if you prefer to watch a video here a link to my video on Draft Analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PteHTMtS2t0