The ability to tag features within a solid model was added with the release of SolidWorks 2008. This sometimes under-utilized capability may go unnoticed by many. After all, the function to add tags is a tiny little icon in the far right corner of the status bar. SolidWorks Labs has developed an improved user interface for tagging in the form of an add-in called Tagger. Within its own task pane, it allows the user to see all of the tags used within the open SolidWorks document. Users can even select specific tags as favorites that can be easily applied to a feature at any time. To use the tags, simply click on the term in the Tagger task pane. This will highlight the the associated features within the FeatureManager. This add-in from SoildWorks Labs adds new functionality that makes tags all the more useful.
Month: October 2009
SolidWorks World 2010 Agenda
The preliminary agenda is now posted for SolidWorks World 2010 on the SolidWorks website. The agenda is subject to change, of course. That usually means that more breakout sessions may be added.
If justification for attendance is still needed, the agenda itself can serve as an excellent resource. One way to look at SolidWorks World is that it is an opportunity to attend up to twelve educational classes. At $995, that works out to be just under $83 per session. I’ve easily paid over $800 a day for some industry seminars. SolidWorks World is a big bargain.
But wait, there’s more! Attendees also get to explore a large trade show (Partner Pavilion) with hundreds of exhibitors. Some trade shows are free, but more technical ones tend to charge some sort of nominal fee. At SolidWorks World, it’s included as part of the package.
Agenda links
 |
CAD Administration |
 |
Data Management |
 |
Design Automation |
 |
Design Validation |
 |
Education |
 |
Modeling Essentials |
 |
Productivity Tools |
 |
Customer Success/Designing Better Products |
 |
Design Communication |
Coming soon in November, attendees will be able to pick their session preferences. Spots are not guaranteed for regular breakout sessions even with advanced session preference selection. However, it’s important to pick preferences soon, especially for hands-on sessions which usually fill up fast.
13 and 13 (likes and dislikes in co-worker behavior)
ThomasNet has a blog. Apparently, it’s been running in one fashion or another since 2000. Of course, back then maybe they didn’t label it as a blog, but that’s really what it is. There’s a couple of articles that caught my attention recently.
13 types of irritating coworkers
In these articles, David R. Butcher explores the best and worst traits in our coworkers (and ourselves) at work.
His likes and dislikes may seem a bit arbitrary. He complains about the suck-ups in the first article, but lauds the jokers in his second. He makes the obvious observations regarding the positive coworker; yet in a sense of irony, he complains about the complainers. It’s a fairly entertaining read.
Funny marketing
It a rather blatant attempt to promote CoCreate, PTC sends out something that appears to be a fake survey via email every once in awhile. The email invites the reader to try out a “self-qualification” test on whether their team’s design style is parametric or explicit. The test asks such questions as “within the selected concept design, a broad range of predictable and structured changes can be driven quickly and easily to derive new designs” (choose one in a range of Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree).
The funny thing with this test, of course, is that regardless to one’s responses, the result is always the same. A screen will pop up declaring “Explicit Modeling is right for you.” It has links to find out about and download CoCreate. Even if I wasn’t my jaded self, this marketing approach would rub me the wrong way. It’s just cheezy, so I’m briefly ranting about it.
Point Location (Virtual Sharp)
Point Locations by another name, such VIrtual Sharps
The names for dimensioning methods within ASME Y14.5 often do not match the common names. For example, what most of us call ordinate dimensioning is officially labelled as rectangular coordinate dimensioning. This can make information about certain dimensioning methods hard to find within the standard. One dimensioning method that is particularly difficult to find is point location. A point location is where a point is located by the intersection of extension lines only. The method is known by so many other names.
- theoretical sharp corner
- theoretical corner
- theoretical sharp
- apex
- intersect
- intersection
- intersection point
- imaginary point
- virtual sharp
- and likely others as well
The SOLIDWORKS application uses the term virtual sharp. SOLIDWORKS offers a list of options for the delineation of virtual sharps (i.e., point locations). These options are found at Tools pulldown>Options...>Document Properties tab>Dimensions heading>Virtual Sharps subheading. The only method supported by ASME Y14.5-2018 is the use of intersecting extension lines from two surfaces; so called witness in SOLIDWORKS.
The standard does not require any other identifier or labelling. Yet many of us do feel compelled to add some sort of label to the dimension, using one of the above terms or their initials. A label does add clarity, particularly when the scale of a view makes display of a point location hard to read.
I covered this topic once before from a slightly different perspective in this article: Virtual Sharps. That article includes instructions on how to create a virtual sharp in SOLIDWORKS drawings.
SolidWorks 2010: Minor tweaks III
Quality is a word that is often confused when it refers to products. It isn’t just reliability or a degree of excellence or fitness for use.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing puts it this way,
The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.
ISO-9000 says,
Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.
ISO-9000 then defines requirements as a need or expectation.
Does a product have the features I need and work in an excepted manner? In ISO 9000 terms, quality is determined by the comparison of requirements with the inherent characteristics of a product or system. Well, SolidWorks’ march to quality continues with SoildWorks 2010, as previously noted on this blog and other sites. Along with more major changes, there are a ton of minor tweaks to take into account. Here is a short list of more of those items:
- When using the Custom Properties of the Task Pane within an assembly, the custom properties belonging to lightweight components are now viewable. As one might expect, changes to those custom properties cannot be made while the component is lightweighted. Even here, SolidWorks 2010 doesn’t stop the user. If the user edits a value, SolidWorks prompts to resolve the component.
- Normal To command now orients to the nearest global XYZ coordinates if nothing is pre-selected. When applied to a 2D sketch, Normal To aligns the model view to the sketch.
- SolidWorks now lets the user see decals on SolidWorks models without activating PhotoWorks. (Applying decals still requires PhotoWorks.) Use View pulldown>Decals, or Hide/Show Items inthe Heads-up View toolbar then View Decals. There is also a View Decals icon in the View toolbar itself.