For people who are new to SolidWorks, and want to setup some standard templates, this will be a good article to start with.
The background information stored in a new drawing file is from two locations – drawing template and sheet format.
Sheet format stores the sheet size, scale, title block, etc. Basically what you see in a new drawing file (no views inserted yet) is controlled by sheet format. File name extension is “.SLDDRT”.
Drawing template includes drafting standards – font sizes, dimension, annotation styles, etc, AND a link to the sheet format (optional). If there is no link, you will start with an empty sheet and you can choose a sheet format manually. File name extension is “.DRWDOT”.
If you’ve seen that little yellow tag icon in the right side of your status bar, you can use this to help filter through your FeatureManager Design Tree. Clicking the icon will open up the Tags dialog box. When you select a feature in a part or a component in an assembly, you can type in a tag. Entering this tag into the filter will quickly show you these items.
FIRST SWUG-SIMCOE MEETING Date: Thursday, March 8th Time: 4:30pm to 7:30pm (Dinner & Door Prizes included!) Location: Holly Community Centre – 171 Mapleton Ave. Barrie, ON REGISTER: Contact Group Leader Michael Fernando
A new SolidWorks User Group for Barrie and surrounding area, named SWUG-Simcoe, has been created. It is
a voluntary group dedicated to building a network of SolidWorks users, while enhancing their skills and knowledge of the software.
The inaugural SWUG-Simcoe meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 8th 2012 from 4.30pm to 7.30pm
and will be held at the Holly Community Centre (TBD). Future meetings will be planned 4, 6 or even 12
times per year (you get to choose at the meeting) to bring very resourceful presentations and demonstrations
by professionals from a variety of industries.
The only requirement to attend these FREE SEMINARS is to have some basic knowledge of SolidWorks (or other CAD software). If you have any questions or issues, please bring them with you and get first hand support in finding a resolution. Many professional trades’ people will be attending and will be able to exchange their knowledge and expertise with yours.
Please note that this is a voluntary technical group meeting and NOT a marketing event; but networking and
sharing knowledge will be encouraged.
There will be a limited number of seats available so please register as soon as possible to avoid
disappointment. Remember registration and attendance is FREE … in fact you could leave with more than you
brought.
We are seeking sponsors to encourage participation by donating door prizes, gift certificates, gas cards etc. Please inform the Group Leaders (listed below) if you or your company are willing to participate as sponsors, or are just attending.
If you have suggestions or ideas to make this event even more interesting and successful, please contact: Michael Fernando or Kelvin Lamport.
When updating SolidWorks that has been installed using a floating, network license the latest version, many users will forget the very last step, re-activating the SolidNetwork License Manager.
This needs to be done so that the SolidNetWork License Manager can communicate with the SolidWorks Activation Center and be allowed to provide the new, updated licenses to the SolidWorks users who are connected using the network licensing system.
Importing model geometry can be a real pain if you don’t know how to apply some tricks. We will take a look at a few techniques in importing sheet metal files.
When a geometry is imported into SolidWorks, a popup dialog appears and asks the user to run “Import Diagnostics”.
In general, a standard rebuild with the toolbar button or a complete rebuild by pressing CTRL-Q will update the model with the changes you’ve made. But you may want to add an extra step if you’re working with complex models or surfaces.
By default, rebuilds check every new or changed feature against only adjacent faces and edges. This allows for a faster rebuild times and will locate issues in the majority of models.
When you are working with complex models and surfaces, it’s a good idea to do a thorough error-check every once and a while to ensure all features are error-free. There is a setting under Tools > Options > System Options tab > Performance.
Enabling “Verification on Rebuild” will force the model to check new or changed features against all faces and edges of the model. This will decrease performance, so you should disable this option after the complete rebuild. Any errors should be corrected as soon as they are found to ensure future features will not be adversely affected. If this check is not performed, typically any problems in the geometry will not show up until the model is exported to another format for use by another CAD or CAM application.
Over the recent Christmas holidays, I became aware of what seemed to be the noise of constant running water in my toilet. With a bit of investigation, and a bit of time, I was able to deduce that the flapper valve in my toilet was leaking, causing water to run into my toilet constantly, and just wasting the water.
Here’s how to tell if your flapper valve is leaking. Don’t worry about touching the water in the tank, as it is the same water you drink.
Pull the lid off the toilet tank. Make sure to set the lid aside, and flat on the ground.
Use a bit of food colouring and place a few drops in the tank.
Come back in a while (minutes to hour) and see if the food colouring has started to leach into the toilet boil. If you see food colouring in the bowl, chances are that you have a leaking flapper valve.
Fear not, as this is an easy and inexpensive fix.
Turn the water off to the toilet. There is usually a valve located on the tank feed.
Flush the toilet and drain the water from the tank.
Locate your flapper valve – and gently remove it from the pins. (Note there are a few varieties of flapper valves, so use caution when removing).
Use a bit of Scotch-Brite Green scrubber pad to gently scrub any calcium, or iron that may have precipitated out of the water and onto the valve and the valve seat.
Reinstall the flapper valve.
Turn on the water to the tank, and add a few drops of food colouring back into the tank.
If the food colouring doesn’t leach into the bowl, you have fixed a leaky flapper valve. If food colouring is still leaching, you will have to replace the flapper valve. You can usually buy one for $5.00 to $10.00 dollars at your local home repair center. Make sure to bring your old valve into the store to ensure you get the right one.
Replace the flapper valve as follows:
Follow steps 1 to 3 from above.
Install the new flapper valve.
Adjust the chain length to accommodate the amount of water flowing through when you push the lever
Turn the water back on.
Replace the toilet tank lid.
Additionally, you may want to use the time while the tank is drained to get a small brush and remove any “Guck” that has formed up on the components inside of the tank and tank walls. A bit of vinegar added into the toilet tank will also help clean and disinfect.
If you are still having problems, you may want to call a plumber, as you may have a more serious problem. Good luck!
My name is Martyna and I’m the new marketing intern at Javelin. I’ll be blogging every other week – keeping you lovely people updated about what’s going on at Javelin!
A short blurb about me:
I went to school for Early Childhood Education, and got tired of changing diapers and putting kids shoes on (only to have them kick them off). So, I decided to pursue a psych degree. During my second year I thought to myself, ‘hey, I want to open up a business’. So I went to Sheridan to get a general business certificate. After taking some marketing courses during the program I decided that marketing was something I was interested in. I applied for the marketing co-op program and ta-da! Here I am at Javelin for my very first work term!
As the new marketing intern I’ll be helping Javelin reach out to students with the following two main initiatives:
Facebook – the goal is to make the Javelin Facebook page a fun place for engineers – and future engineers- to connect, gain valuable information and share whatever they’re working on.
National Engineering Month – Javelin will be a Silver level sponsor for National Engineering Month (March). We’re working on getting connected with students and becoming a valuable resource for them at every stage of their learning process. Javelin will be attending many events as well as hosting our own at the office so stay tuned!
9 Things I learned in 9 days at Javelin
(I’m a fast learner, I know)
If your boss tells you to dress up like a cowboy – he means it
Engineers aren’t dorky (at least not all of them)
Don’t hit the snooze more than 7 times – you’ll be late
Starting something new is scary, but without facing scary things we’d never accomplish anything!
You should work at a place with good a coffee machine – I’m saving like $6 a day by not going to Starbucks – score!
Traffic sucks!
I already appreciate the workplace related jokes on Failblog.com (check it out it’s hilarious) http://work.failblog.org/
Working in a beautifully designed office is great! And can’t forget the little things i.e kudos to the nice smelling lotions in the woman’s washroom and the snack cabinet!
The power generation and distribution industry is evolving to meet the current needs and they are focusing on smarter systems and smarter designs. Working with the industry giants has been a great experience, providing us with some insight as to how we can go about improving our design process.
Asking the right questions increases the chances of getting the right answer. So, what are the right questions?
1. How can I achieve greater design efficiency?
Having a list of components that you use regularly can go a long way
You can test the performance of the components and introduce some standardization. This in turn not only reduces the cost of design but also gives you more consistency in terms of quality.
2. How can I automate tasks ?
Automating tasks requires you to have a good design tool. Tools like E3 help you automate different parts of the design process completely or partially as needed.
Reports are a great area to automate as well. Particularly reports that can improve manufacturing, and in turn reduce the maintenance time and cost drastically.
Intelligent systems like E3 help you produce these with a click of a button without errors.
3. How can I reuse parts of my design efficiently?
Design reuse ensures quality and standardization.
Having the ability to reuse the same section in a project but keeping it unique with device numbering, wire numbering or just cable details can be difficult. E3 takes care of these things automatically, so you can reuse your protective circuits again and E3 will also ensure you don’t have 2 fuses called F1!!
4. How can I keep the information accurate throughout the project?
Accuracy breeds quality. The more accurate and detailed your design is the better results you achieve with the product life cycle.
This is a common challenge when you are working on a project that has multiple views of the same electrical information. Thankfully E3 understands this and keeps all the views of the component synced together so you don’t have to manually find the areas to make the changes.
5. How can I make changes without introducing errors?
It can be difficult to keep track of changes in the design and make sure you replicate those changes in all parts of the design. However, it is essential to do so.
You are on a slippery slope once errors are introduced into your design and go unnoticed; the problem is cimpounded every time you make changes.
E3 provides multiple levels of design rule checks to maintain the integrity of your design. Additionally all aspects of your designs are automatically kept up to date drastically reducing the possibility of making errors.
Using the right tool for the right job is very important in maintaining efficiencies. If you want to compete in Formula 1 Racing — a bicycle is not the answer!!
Learn more – Join our webinar ”Electrical Design for Power Distribution and Generation”
E3.WireWorks has been having a very positive impact on our clients, but just because the design team wants the tools, does not mean they can convince the ones that hold the purse strings to invest in it. To justify the E3.WireWorks investment it is important to identify 1-3 areas where there will be a measurable return. With the work that I have been doing with our clients over the last few years with E3, I have identified 5 top areas where a good return is possible.
1) Product development time shortened
A typical product development cycle for electrical engineering has a great deal of time spent on schematics and an equal or greater amount of time spent detailing panel layouts, cable or harness plans, and generating reports like bill of materials. E3.Series and E3.WireWorks have the capability of greatly reducing this product development cycle by streamlining original schematic creation, partially automating panel and cable layouts and completely automating reports. The graphic below shows how the typical design process may change.
Even more important than the time savings of the original design is the time savings of design changes. With all electrical design fully associative, design changes will automatically propogate which avoids the extra time spent updating information in all appropriate places.
2) Manufacturing is easier
With drawing packages being done in E3.WireWorks, manufacturing will be more streamlined than ever. The extra detail makes it a breeze to interpret and there are a variety of ways to consume the documentation electronically such as the intelligent PDF’s with hyperlinks between references. You can even take it as far as building step by step instructions for panel building with the combination of wire reports and the E3 Viewer. This video shows some of the ways to build from E3.WireWorks:
3) Common costly errors are avoided
Errors creeping into designs can be more than a nuisance – it can lead to many wasted hours of corrections, unnecessary communication and ordering of materials. If the errors make it through the manufacturing stages and into the field, there are even more costs related to making fixes out in the field. E3.WireWorks plays a significant role in reducing the amount of errors that make it into the drawing package. By keeping devices and wires organized and unique, it makes it easy to copy, update and reuse drawings without forgetting to do rename and make repetitive changes to multiple drawings and reports. There are even online design rule checks that catch miswiring signals together, catching loops or in some cases performing online circuit calculations.
4) Get the information you need, when you need it
There is a lot of benefit to a company to get the information you need when you need it. If high lead time items need to be ordered from an early bill of materials or milestones of work need to be shared with clients, it can be very advantageous to have a tool in place that avoids unnecessary work to hit your intermediate goals. Even more significant is being able to leverage the work that has been done to speed up the remaining design steps. WireWorks has allowed our customers to achieve this by keeping the entire electrical design associative on an electrical engineering database. You can literally start anywhere in your design process and fill in the blanks elsewhere later on.
Here is a quick list of steps that can easily be the first on your list:
Bill of Materials
Detailed schematic
Single line schematic
Panel layout
Cable interconnects
Hydraulic or process schematics
Tag lists
Location and hierarchy planning
5) Sales boosted by increased competitiveness and quality
Up until this point I have been focusing on reducing cash flow out of the business. This is great, but many companies have been seeing a large benefit to the cash flow coming into the business as well. With higher quality deliverables and incredibly quick turnaround times, customer relationships and margins have improved. Both of these have lead to more dollars and cents in your pocket by increasing loyalty and winning more contracts.
When updating SolidWorks that has been installed using a floating, network license the latest version, many users will forget the very last step, re-activating the SolidNetwork License Manager.
