Month: December 2007

SWW8 Free Admission to Exhibit Hall

Well, thank you to SolidMentor for breaking the news from the SWW8 registration site about the free Exhibit Hall Only passes.  I didn’t know whether or not I could say anything about the free passes in my previous post.  That doesn’t matter now since it was officially announced here: http://www.solidworks.com/pages/swworld08/Tacton.html

SWW8 Preparation

I’m ready for my first trip to SolidWorks World 2008 (SWW8).   Yes, I’m mildly excited.   I got my coach flight picked, my hotel (not very many steps up from being a motel) reserved, got my economy class car rental reserved, and more importantly, I have all of my breakout and hands-on sessions “purchased “.   I was actually lucky to select one hands-on session, for reasons I shall not go into here.   [Insert maniacal laugh here].
I went back to the SWW8 registration site a couple of days after the announcement that the Session Preference Page was live.   After only a couple of days, I found every hands-on session fully booked with wait lists filled to the gills; except for one.   It doesn’t appear that the topic of how to link SolidWorks to ECAD systems with the IDF file format is very popular.   If someone is interested in Circuitworks, this seems like a good opportunity to get exposure on how to use it with SolidWorks.
I just went back to the Session Preference Page again today to find that apparently new hands-on session was added to Monday for those of us interested in SolidWorks API.   It’s meant as an introduction to API, so if anyone is interested in getting first time exposure, that session may be the ticket.
Two of the sessions to look forward to are Matt Lombard’s “Hybrid Modeling Techniques“, and Chris MacCormack’s “Using the Power of 3D to Teach GD&T“.   These are breakout sessions.
I found out the hard way that once you have a session booked for a particular time slot, you are pretty much locked into it.   I didn’t want to change my sessions, so this was fine with me.   I found out because I first thought my sessions had to be reselected when adding new sessions.   (The Session Preference Page isn’t all that clear about how it works when it comes to modifying one’s schedule.   It just gives you errors messages when you do something it doesn’t like.)   I guess if someone wanted to make a change, they’d have to contact the group that is organizing SWW8.
In addition to the Monday – Weds sessions, I’m also participating in at least two focus groups on Sunday, starting first thing in the morning.     That means I have to fly in on Saturday, instead of early Sunday.
Also, for those people who may be interested in just seeing the exhibit hall (maybe for just one day), I highly recommend contacting their VAR for possible deals before attempting to purchase the Exhibit Hall Only Pass from the SWW8 site.  This is especially true if you are attending with a full pass, but wish to bring along a co-worker who isn’t interested in the sessions but still wants to see the exhibit hall.
See you there! chrismaccormack

Materials Database Library

Click here for the download page of the updated ctopher SolidWorks material database library.

Have you ever needed a material database that has more than the standard materials that comes with SolidWorks? Over the past eight years I have created solid models for military and commercial designs that required accurate 3D models to send to our customers for weight and FEA analysis.I have weighed the actual against the calculated weight from SolidWorks and the parts were very accurate, 98-100% accurate. Major aerospace companies were pleased.I created my own material database based on the materials used in these industries; it is available on my site for free download: Materials.[Updated 9/2016 ML]

Sometime in the near future, I plan on expanding the material database to include materials requested by other SolidWorks users and friends. [Update 9/2016 is now available at the link above. ML]

Create a SolidWorks Drawing Watermark

For whatever reason, watermarks are sometimes necessary, even on drawings. Since SolidWorks has no watermark feature, and does not allow the user to change the order of drawing entities, a workaround is necessary. Here’s a method I recently discovered.(I am currently using SolidWorks 2007 SP3.1.)

 

  1. Open the drawing.
  2. Edit Sheet Format
  3. Use Annotation Note to create and place the text that will become the watermark.
  4. Edit the properties of the Note to adjust its font, angle, size, etc as desired.
  5. Highlight the Note and change its color using the Line Color function.For best results, assign a very light color to the Note.
  6. Right Mouse Button click on the Note and select Make Block and accept.
  7. Edit Sheet.

 

The Note will now appear underneath all other objects on the Drawing Sheet. This tip is based on the SolidWorks Forum discussion which can be found here:http://forum.solidworks.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=6&threadid=1989&enterthread=y

*UPDATE*

I have written an article detailing a more advanced method that will link the text of the watermark directly to a custom property here: Create a SolidWorks Drawing Watermark (with linked value).

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UPDATE for SolidWorks 2013

SolidWorks 2013 now has the ability to set any annotation note on the sheet format to appear underneath all drawing elements to act as a watermark.  The method mentioned above is no longer necessary to achieve the desired results. Please see SolidWorks 2013 What’s New – Display Note Behind Sheet.