CATI Tech Notes

See 3D printing in action at CATI's Product Development Forum event

Join CATI at one of our Product Development Forum Events in May and see 3D Printing in action!  This open house style event will showcase 3D Printing Solutions from Objet Geometries.

In addition to having our 3D printing experts on hand, our award winning SolidWorks Technical Team will be discussing the various ways to utilize SolidWorks tools in your product development process.

This is a FREE event.

Event Details:

• Complimentary lunch
• Onsite demo of 3D printing technology from Objet Geometries
• CATI SolidWorks World 2011 Presentations - "Red Neck Workarounds" and "How to Prepare For Your PDM Implementation"
• All attendees will receive a complimentary SolidWorks 3D Skills Lesson from SolidProfessor as well as a copy of DraftSight, the no-cost 2D CAD Program from Dassault Systemes
• Speak one-on-one with a member of the CATI Team 
• and more...

Date	Time	Location
May 5, 2011	9am-3:30pm	Buffalo Grove, IL - CATI Headquarters	Register
May 12, 2011	9am-3:30pm	Indianapolis, IN - CATI Indianapolis Office	Register
May 18, 2011	9am-3:30pm	St. Charles, MO - CATI St. Charles Office	Register
May 25, 2011	9am-3:30pm	Brookfield, WI - CATI Brookfield Office	Register

We hope to see you there!

Jim TeDesco
Marketing Coordinator
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

How to Change the Orientation of an Imported SolidWorks Part

Today’s and tomorrow’s Daily Dose of Support is a combination of support calls I have seen over the years and that is how to change the orientation of a part file. The reason I am breaking this into two articles is because there are different methods, one for Imported Models and another method for Feature Based Models created in SolidWorks.

The orientation of Imported Parts when brought into SolidWorks as we all know we are at the mercy of what the “designer” in some other CAD Software thought was best for their application. So we can end up with a Front view that is twisted and at some obscure angle or with an Origin that is miles away from the actual part.

 

To correct this is actually a pretty simple process and can be used to cure several problems all at once. First things first correct any problems with the geometry. This means run Import Diagnostics, combine all Solid Bodies, patch all holes in surfaces, etc….

Once you have you model in a “workable” state you will need to do the following:

1. Select a face or create a plane that you want to become one of your 3 Standard Planes and start a new Sketch.
2. Generate 2 perpendicular lines in the proper orientation to represent 2 of the parts Axis.
    
3. Create a new Coordinate System (Features toolbar, Reference Geometry), use the intersection of the lines as the Origin and the Line for the Axis (X, Y or Z). Do not forget to use the reverse direction to get the Axis in the correct direction.
    
4. Save out the Part as an IGES, STEP, or any other neutral format, making sure that once the File of Type is selected you go to the Options.
5. In the Options dialog box change the Output coordinate system to your new Coordinate System you created.
    
6. Re-import the model back into SolidWorks and it will now be in the orientation of the new Coordinate System and any model changes you made to correct bad geometry should carry over to the new part.

Please check back tomorrow to see how to change the orientation of a Feature Based Model created in SolidWorks (http://blog.cati.com/2011/02/how-to-change-orientation-of-an-existing-solidworks-part.html). 

Josh Altergott

CATI Support Team Leader

How to change your SolidWorks Desktop Icon

I got an interesting email into Support the other day and thought it would be something other users would be interested in.

"I'd like to change the desktop icon to a Pac-Man icon so I can put it next to the AutoCAD icon (I've already changed this to a blue ghost) and make it look like SolidWorks is about to eat AutoCAD. However, I cannot change the icon using the normal method. Can this be done?"

Unfortunately SolidWorks does not allow you to Right Click on their icons and go to Properties and select the Change Icon. I did a little research and could not find a way to get this done easily so I went back to the customer and while I was trying to find a way to get it done they came up with a creative workaround.

Their steps were:

1. Make a shortcut to some other file
2. Change the icon
3. Redirect the new icon to SolidWorks

And here are their results.



Enjoy,

Josh Altergott

Support Team Leader



Solve Complex Problems - Without complexity

Is it possible a complex problem has a not so complex solution to it?

Come to think about it, usually the simple the solution the better it works. In my quest to find such cases I turned to my all time favorite search engine....Google and voila there is an entire website dedicated to this. Not surprisingly it is hosted by SolidWorks. .....

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/9676_ENU_HTML.htm

There are many case studies you can download. Can you find one that relates to your specific engineering environment?

Rajat Trehan

Product Manager - Design Validation

Computer Aided Technology Inc.

It's All About Workarounds! Really? Yes Really!

In my experience it’s all about workarounds. Isn’t it? I mean really let’s think about it. In everyday life if there isn’t a given path or answer what do we do (especially designers and engineers)? We work around it. I can’t remember the last time something went off without a hitch or some sort of a “bump in the road. It isn’t supposed to be smooth. As the type of personality that expects perfection in most situations, I have come to understand that in order to live up to my expectations, I‘ve come up with a workaround for just about everything. Including the word count for a blog article (be “wordy”)

There is always a means to an end and this totally rings true in this statement. “When you need to drive a nail in, everything looks like a hammer”. So keeping this in mind, I had an interesting request the other day for an easy way to overlay a “featured” part over a “de-featured” part on a print in an isometric view. It took me 2 seconds to reply “no problem”. But as I thought of my work-around on the fly, there was the proverbial “stick in the spokes” issue. You can’t do an Alternate Position View in a part drawing. Doh!! Ok, we can make this up as we go and then the wheels start going and I take a sip (gulp) of coffee and the next thing ya know here it is:

• Create a part with 2 configurations- 1 for your “featured” part, one for your “de-featured” version.

• Insert this part into a new assembly 2 times “fixed” and specify the configuration for the correct instance.

• Open a new drawing using your assembly as the parent. Insert a view; I’ll use isometric for this example.

• Make sure you specify a reference configuration as the “top level” view. (this is one of my favorite enhancements for 2010 BTW)

• Insert an “Alternate View” and shoes the other configuration. This view will be in the “hidden lines view” visible. You have the ability to select a predefined configuration and this is my preferred method.

•  So in the end what we have is a laid-over style look of a “featured” part and “de-featured” part with a pretty simple procedure and just using the tools already provided to us in a slightly different fashion.

 Hope this helps!

Todd Werginz

Technical Analyst

Computer Aided Technology

Save as Exterior Faces…….

There are certain times that you just do not want all the information shown. Only certain people need to see certain things at certain times. For instance: You have a customer or vendor that has requested a footprint of a specific machine, assembly or what have you. They need this in a 3D environment to use in a layout or some other application. Your company has invested countless hours developing this product or products and there is proprietary information contained within this model(s). Or your assembly is very large and you just want to cut down on the overhead that you are sending out. The ability to save out your assembly as a part can help you out.

From the “Save As” dialog box choose your Save as Type to part:

 

At this point you will have to make a choice to what you want to save out.

 

The “exterior faces” checkbox will save just that. No solids, a collection of surfaces of just the exterior faces.  The Exterior components will save out a Multibody solid with no feature history and only the parts on the outside. In other words- “No Guts”. All components will save as a multibody part with no feature history.

    So this begs the question, what if I have a single part file with proprietary information inside and I do not want my competition getting a hold of it? How about starting a new assembly with your one part in it and doing the save as part option. This way you could leave the “guts” out and accomplish your task of keeping your information yours.

Todd Werginz

CATI

Still Redneck

Well Tuesday was the SWUGN Technical Summit in Naperville, IL outside of Chicago.  It was a very good group with roughly 130 attendees, several good presentations, and a wedge salad that I liked quite a bit.  To find out when there will be a SWUGN Technical Summit near you check out this sight.

SWUGN Info

As we usually do with an event like this, Josh Altergott and I took the chance to get a little Redneck.  We presented "Redneck Workarounds -- The SolidWorks Answer to Duct Tape and Bailing Wire".  We had a lot of fun making fun of bizarre fixes, my accent, and Josh in general.

We mentioned during the presentation that we would make the slides available through the blog so it is attached to this posting.  Download Redneck Work Arounds.  I hope everyone gets something out of it.  Even if the fixes and workarounds in the presentation are not directly helpful to you; maybe you will be inspired to think a little redneck when you run into a difficult situation.

We decided this time to freshen-up the content a bit.  We removed a few obsolete workarounds and added a few that are a bit more pertinent.  My favorite new work-around is probably "The Disappearing Dialog Box".  Here it is:

The Problem:

My Measure dialog box is no longer visible on the screen.  
  

The first potential workaround:

Change the resolution on your screen to be the max allowed.  Sometimes when a user has the resolution set real high the dialog will get pushed to the edge of the screen and then when the resolution is set back to a lower level the dialog box stays at the original coordinates that are now off scree.

The second potential workaround:

1. Edit the registry key that is the position holder for that dialog box HKCU\Software\SolidWorks\SolidWorks2010\General  
2. Find the "Measure Dialog Position" entry
3. Edit this key, delete any/all values, OK
4. Run SolidWorks and try Measure

I hope that this helps some folks out there but remember; it is your registry.  Be very cautious.  You can kill a machine if you are not careful.

Thanks,

Adrian

 

No Internet Connection Activation

Eventually you’ll have to get to the internet somehow to activate your Solidworks products. Let’s face it, how would we live without it at this point? Solidworks is completely activation based now for all products which requires some sort of connection to the big bad web somewhere sometime.

Some users do not wish to have their workstations connected at all do to various reasons. The main one’s being security threats, resource suckers and general distractions from the main goal which is productivity. However you still need to activate your Solidworks within the 30 day grace period to get it to fully function.

Here is the process:

1.   When prompted to activate your products, Solidworks will always default to the “Automatically Over the Internet (recommended)” check box.

2. Select the Manual via email option.

3. Press the Save button on the next screen and save the file.

*Important Tip Here-REMEMBER WHERE YOU SAVE THE FILE

4. Get a copy of the saved file to a flash drive or some other removable media.

5. Send the file that was generated to activation@solidworks.com

6. Wait for the response file to come back. This will not be instantaneous!

7. Once your response file has been emailed to you repeat the process listed above in reverse. This time pressing the “Open” to read the response file.

That should do it. You can now concentrate all your efforts on designing which is why you have Solidworks in the first place.

Todd Werginz

CATI

Updating Solidworks Service Packs for HUL Serial Numbers

How do I update my Home Use License (HUL) for all of the service packs? Because when I go to do the update Solidworks will not let me. If you have a network license you also have the ability as per the Solidworks license agreement (Please take time to read) to install 1 additional Home Use License per seat that is the lowest level of software you have in your package. Let me explain. If you have 2 seats of Premium and seat of Professional and then 5 seats of Solidworks Core, you will get a serial number that entitles you to install 8 seats of Solidworks Core on your home computers. Read the license agreement for further explanation of the legalities of all that.

Getting back to the solution of updating the HUL serial numbers. From the XP OS you’ll want to go to the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs and hit the change button at the Solidworks installation.

 

 From the Windows 7 OS, its a little different looking. Navigate to the Control Panel or God Mode. You’ll need to get to Programs and Features and right click on Solidworks and hit ‘Change.’ I would show a picture here from the Microsoft Snipping Tool (which is cool by the way!) But I do not have access to this OS as of this article.

When you hit the change menu Solidworks will launch the Installation Manager and then do its normal checks and start up. You will be modifying the existing installation and the next screen will be the serial number screen. At this screen you will change your number to the Network license number and then get your updates to whatever service pack you will be going to. As of right now the current service pack for 2010 is SP 2.1. It might ask for the original installation files which were on the disk (sp 0.0) so have that handy as well.

After you run your updates you will need to repeat the process to once again change your serial number back to the HUL number and continue on. Hope this helps!

Todd Werginz

Technical Analyst-CATI

 

Imported Files – Turning Surfaces into Solids

Problem – Many times when you import a customer’s part or assembly and it opens as a part that has a ton of surfaces or it may open as a multi level assembly and each of those parts is made up of surfaces.  The file that I chose to work with was an assembly that when imported into SolidWorks opened as a part file by setting some of the import options. The Feature Stats for this part show how the rebuild time is effected by having to look at all 697 surfaces.

Files like this can pose several problems as you start to work with them. The first problem is file size; the current file is 5mb. Next when you put several parts that are built like this into an Assembly they can start to bring your performance to a slow crawl in no time, drawing performance and view display will also be effected. Lastly if you need to make any modifications to this imported file it will be difficult because there are no solid bodies to work with. Also you will notice all of the colored edges in the part this is because we have a System Option on to show edges of open surface in a different color.

  

 

Solution – Reduce the overall number of surfaces in the model and try to create a model that is made up of a single or multiple Solid Bodies. In the attached PDF are the steps that will guide you through the process I took to create a file that was made up of a single surface. I have also attached the part files for you to use as a reference. 

Overall on this part it took me about 30 to 45 minutes to get the final result but the overall reward is the time it will save you later in the design process of not having to wait around for your drawing or assembly to open or rebuild.

 

Download Imported Files-Turning Surfaces into Solids

 

Good Luck

Josh Altergott

CATI Support Manager