CATI Tech Notes

Enterprise PDM - Working with overseas vendors

I thought I would share this blog article that I wrote on the InFlow site...this issue has come up more and more with our CATI customers:

http://blog.inflow-tech.com/inflow/2010/04/no-one-wants-to-buy-plmpart-9-of-an-infinite-series.html

3DVIA Sync

What can 3DVIA Sync do?  3DVIA Composer is a great tool to quickly re-use CAD data to create documentation of all kinds for your product, but what about 3DVIA Sync?  Does it help automate this process?  Does it help update your information when CAD data changes?  Let’s take a look at an example of using 3DVIA Sync to speed up the time it takes you to update your documentation….

Below is a diagram laying out the interaction between SolidWorks, Composer, and the methods used to present the documentation.

 

So what happens when the CAD data changes?   You can update the files in Composer, output all of the images again and make sure the programs are updated so they use the latest graphic.  That works and it still saves time over traditional methods, but Sync can be configured to make that process even faster.  

Here’s how it works. 

First, the CAD data is updated via SolidWorks.

Next we run a series of batch files that were created using 3DVIA Sync.  These can be run manually or triggered by an outside event, such as a PDM system. 

  

Sync and Composer together will work to update the required Composer projects,  and output the required images so the documents using them are updated without any interaction.   

So this. …

   
 

Becomes this….

   

Without opening any files.
 

Click Here to watch a video.

How to convert a Toolbox part to a standard part for PDM

From time to time you may want to copy a toolbox part for a custom part. In addition you may want to have that part get revision control as well. After attempting this a few times it's easy to give up. But like all things there is a trick to this. The toolbox files have a line in the file header that says "istoolboxpart". The old method was to change this information. Now we have a super handy tool for this. Go to your SolidWorks install folder on your machine, probably c:\program files\solidworks corp\solidworks\toolbox\data utilities\ run the sldsetdocprop.exe file.

You will have the ability to do specific files or folders. Select the files you would like to convert then choose "Property state: No" and click update status. The file will now be able to be checked into your PDM vault like any other part. That's it, you're done. Doesn't get much easier than that.

John Van Engen
CATI Technical Analyst

It's Just Time to...uninstall, clean, and reinstall SolidWorks

I as a tech hate, and I repeat hate telling a customer that they should uninstall and reinstall to try and solve a problem.  To me that is just poor troubleshooting.  I say that this is much like taking you car to a mechanic and him saying that I think that you have a bad head gasket.  Well the fact is that I either do or don’t have a bad head gasket, but I refuse to tear it down and just “throw parts” at the problem.  I would say that it is time to take a hard look at the mechanic.

That leads into the next question.  Have I ever told a customer to uninstall and reinstall SolidWorks even though I was unsure of the real issue?  Without a doubt yes.  And I will tell you why but first I need to go into what I do to look at troublesome machines.  CATI has service that we use called WebEx.  WebEx is an awesome tool.  It allows me to look directly at a customer desktop and even take control if I am allowed to do so by the customer.  This is letting me look right down the throat of the machine.  I then start looking around at the machine; depending on the issue maybe I look at graphics drivers, versions of files.  The whole time that I am controlling that machine I am also trying to get a gut feel for the overall “health” of the system.  The second reason that I would do tell a customer to uninstall and reinstall would be if I believe that one of the prereqs is the cause of the issue and I think that the customer will find it easier to reinstall the prereqs using the SolidWorks installation manager than trying to uninstall and reinstall the prereqs manually.

So this is where thing may get a little blunt.  Let me say sorry up front.  Come on guys!  Your machine with SolidWorks, SolidWorks (2), SolidWorks (3) all in the program files?  Yeah, not healthy.  Let’s face it this machine most likely doesn’t need support, it needs a exorcism.  All the ghosts of SolidWorks past right there to haunt you.  If the program file in SolidWorks is like this, where is you toolbox folder?  This location has changed of the years.  Maybe it got upgrade with the rest of SolidWorks, but the point is that this machine is not healthy.  The number of SolidWorks folders in the programs group is not the only way to check the health of a system, but it sure does clue into what this machine has been through.

CATI has a webcast coming up on this topic.  Keep a eye on webinars at www.cati.com to registration info.

Cool New Website for Engineers

I simply wanted to share a cool new website which may be valuable for CATI's customers.  The website introduction is pretty long, but the functionality on the site is very impressive.  At a glance, the website demonstrates how you can calculate, well , almost anything...enjoy.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html

SolidWorks Simulation Professional

 SolidWorks is giving a 30 day evaluation of Simulation Professional. All you need to do, is attend a webcast. SolidWorks has put together a support team to make sure you are successful  in meeting your engineering goals.  Here is the link to register. Remember to type "Computer Aided Technology Inc" in "who is your SolidWorks Reseller?" tab.

April 14^th --  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/480185760

 

April 26^th --  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/449536049

 

Benefits of using Simulation Professional.....

Assembly Simulation - Study interaction of parts under applied loading. Study design efficiency and reduce material and prototyping costs. Study effect of both loads and material choices on product performance.

Mechanism Simulations - Study physics based motion, based on mates, driving motors and inertia of components.

Compare and Optimize Design Alternatives - Determine best design option by comparing strengths, life, cost and weight. Perform comparison and design modifications with Solidworks environment.

Simulate Natural Frequencies - Predict and control your products natural modes of vibration to avoid potentially damaging resonant frequencies.

Simulate Heating or Cooling  - Simulate heat effects, fluid flow, thermal- structural interactions, and radiation effects.

Simulate Drop tests - Save time and cost by reducing number of physical tests. Define drop height, surface and orientation. Perform realistic collision simulation between parts. Visualize resulting contact.

Fatigue - With Simulation you have the tools to evaluate and improve part or assembly that must withstand rigors of daily operation. Also, find design life of the product.

Rajat Trehan

Product Manager- Design Validation

Computer Aided Technology Inc.

Turn on LAN Connection

    I came upon an interesting situation the other day on support. It had to do with a borrowed license. The customer had borrowed a license and then was out of the office working on a project with a tight deadline. When Solidworks was started this message was received:

 

 This was something that I had not seen or recalled ever seeing before. (I should mention the fact that this was a message inside of the Windows 7 environment) Now since this was a borrowed license I suspected that this was a laptop. The answer was yes.

For some reason I thought back to a call received many moons ago about a borrowed license situation. There was a problem in particular with a certain Dell machine. The M90/M6300 chassis to be specific. Now this really isn’t really a problem.  It is intended behavior. When you disconnect from the network or go to battery, the size of the laptop and the energy concerns that use the resources tend to go into survival mode. So usually you’ll get a bunch of things that become disabled or put into “Lite” mode to conserve battery power. One of these conservations is to power off or disable the LAN card. If you are on WIFI you really don’t need to have redundant connections. Right? In most cases it really doesn’t mean much, however Solidworks needs to have the connection that the license was borrowed from turned ON in order to see a valid borrowed license.

So the fix was simple. The customer had booted on battery and his laptop had turned off his “hard” LAN connection to save power. I was just a matter of turning it on and then firing Solidworks. Sometimes it’s the simple things that are just a click away that can drive us nuts. Hope this helps!

Todd Werginz

CATI

CATIpults Are Back!

Next week marks the re-launch of the CATIpult learning sessions.  What is a CATIpult? The format has changed, so here are the details.

CATIpult learning sessions are unique educational opportunities designed for SolidWorks users of various experience levels. CATI Technical Analysts have put together a series of hour long presentations in the form of convenient webcasts.  The CATIpult webcasts are conducted via Webex and consist of live SolidWorks hands-on training, Power Point presentations, and product demonstrations.

Many of this year's topics were originally developed by our technical staff for SolidWorks World 2010.  So, if you missed SolidWorks World 2010, now you can see these presentations live in their entirety.   Topics change monthly so check the CATI website for upcoming topics.  Our first CATIpult webcast of the year, Allowing SolidWorks to Perform, will be presented April 15th.  The name "Allowing SolidWorks to Perform" is a bit controversial. We had to change the name in order to present it at SolidWorks World 2010.  Now you can see the presentation as its developers, Josh Altergott and Adrian Fanjoy,  intended it to be.  Allowing SolidWorks to Perform outlines the results of over 120 distinct test runs with SolidWorks comparing different environment settings, hardware, and modeling methodologies.  These comparisons have been made in a manner that allows us to give quantifiable results to help the user determine what changes in their environment will have the greatest effect on their SolidWorks performance.

So far the response has been overwhelming.  There are still some spots left to sign up for the April 15th webcast. Register for this event and others by clicking here.

May's Topic - Making Sense of Pretty Pictures

 

Jim TeDesco

Marketing Coordinator CATI

When good things go bad…

As with any new release, sometimes good things go bad.  Something that is new in SolidWorks 2010 that has some people quite flustered, myself included, is the convert entities command.  In previous releases, when you pre-selected a face and then selected the convert entities tool, the dialog box would automatically close after converting the entities.  In 2010, the dialog box remains open.   There was a subtle change to the functionality of most sketch tools with this 2010 release.  If you look closely at the property manager, on the same line as “OK” (green check mark) and “cancel” (red X), you will notice a push pin called “Keep Visible”.  This will keep the property manager open until you select “OK”...

 
This is great for some tools, like the copy or move commands.  However, is quite annoying for others, specifically the convert entities tool.  By default, SolidWorks has this push pin depressed for the convert entities tool.  For others it is not.   Bottom line… If you think that there is a tool that should automatically close after use or should stay open, look for this push pin option.

 

Nathan Brunner

CATI

 

 

 

 

Customizing SolidWorks Toolbox-V2.0

I had posted a blog article on customizing SW Toolbox a while back and shortly after doing so SolidWorks went and changed the interface on me so after some digging here is V2.0

 

I recently had a customer who called into support and was looking for a way to add some custom features to Toolbox. In particular they were looking for:

“On  a number of Hex bolts that I use, I need to have 3 different styles of same size..

Say Ø1/4-20 X 2" Hex Bolts..., (1) Ø1/4-20 x 2" Grade 5, (2) Ø1/4-20 x 2" Grade 8, (3) Ø1/4-20 x 2" Stainless Steel.

Some of my hardware, I need several more styles for given size..  Different color anodizing, coatings, Zinc plate, Chrome, etc...

All these variations of same size have different part numbers on my end..  So the assembly BOM lists which variation goes in the assembly.

I can only get it to list, configure 1 single "style" per size...

How do I get it to list multiple selections (styles) for a given size?”

The answer to this can be found in the Configure area of Toolbox under the Customize Hardware area and there are few basic steps to get this set up for your application.

1.    Find the Standard, Fastener Group, Fastener Category, or specific Fastener Type that you want to apply properties to.

 

To see the rest of the article please download the PDF from the link below.

Download Customizing SolidWorks Toolbox-V2.0  

Josh Altergott

Support Team Leader