This tip came from the SolidWorks Knowledgebase. This is a question I receive on a regular enough basis that I felt that it would be posting on Javelin’s blog. This tip as well as many other great tips can be found on the SolidWorks Knowledgebase which can be accessed through the SolidWorks Customer Portal at https://customerportal.solidworks.com/.
Here is the Process to manually update Toolbox:
1. Make a copy of your existing 2011 (or older version) Toolbox (NOTE: the entire SolidWorks Data folder) for backup purposes. Then, you can run the upgrade on the original Toolbox dataset. Copy the 2011 SolidWorks Data folder to a designated folder on your Desktop.
2. Update the SWBrowser.mdb file using the UpdateBrowserData.exe utility:
At this point you have realized that owning a 3D printer will streamline your product development process, and provide additional benefits such as confidentiality, faster turnaround, and accelerated time to market.
You have also determined which technology is appropriate for your product, and selected the machine whose size and features best fit your needs and budget.
If you are planning to buy a printer for your personal use, or if you work for an organization that needs 3D printing, the purchase must have a rational and measurable justification. For an organization you will need to present the proposal to your management team. You should justify the need for a 3D Printer from both financial and technical aspects:
Demonstrate that a 3D Printer will provide a financial benefit: by reducing the cost of the current product prototyping or testing methods. Your presentation must be strongly supported with actual numbers and measurable projections.
The chosen technology can be easily supported by results: present an example printed part to your management team. Depending on your product needs, specific features in the printed part will match your main requirements e.g. high detail, product specific materials, production cost, speed, impact resistance, etc. Every technology has its own strengths, and they will be evident in the benchmark part.
The benefits of in-house 3D Printing: such as confidentiality, faster time to market, and improvements in your product design process; which may not be 100% measurable, but must be highlighted and explained.
When you are able to present the benefits, supported by numbers, plus facts and convincing reasons, the purchase of your 3D printer will be a no brainer.
Stay tuned for the next chapter: Benchmarking. Don’t buy before you try.
How many times have you tried offsetting a set of faces only to get the error shown in fig. 1?
Fig. 1: Rebuild Error when Offsetting or Thickening Surfaces
Most likely there are some faces that will disapear or will go through other faces during the offset. The actual challenge is pinpointing these faces and eliminating them from the selection. You do not have time for trial and error, especially when you want to offset a zilion of faces at once.
I feel your pain. I wish that SolidWorks would offer us the option to create a partial offset of all the faces that can accept the operation, or at least to highlight the faces that could not be offseted, so we can remove them ourselves. It is too bad that no such troubleshooting tool has been included in the Offset or Thicken Surface commands.
When working in 3DVIA Composer you will notice that there is a DDS symbol on the ground. If you want to remove this, or change it to something else you can.
Have you ever seen these messages before when launching SolidWorks?
Not to worry! This only means that the Hole Wizard/Toolbox functionality has failed to find an important database file, SWBrowser.mdb. The fix is simple. Open your SolidWorks options under Tools > Options and select “Hole Wizard/Toolbox” from the System Options tab.
I have a feeling that the new Command Search function in SolidWorks 2012 will become the best friend for my students in the new year. No more wasting time trying to find the icon or the menu item for a particular command. Just start typing the command in the “Command Search” field and suddenly they will have a 3 options to choose from:
Run the command
Drag the command’s icon to any toolbar of their choosing
Find the Icon or Menu Item for that command
Things get even better when using the Shortcut Bar (by default the “S” shortcut key). Just press S and continue to type the command you are looking for. You will find out that the Command Search field is activated and is filled as you type.
Watch this short video for a quick demo of this functionality:
Objet Braingear model printed in a single print job! No assembly was required.
In any assembly that involves mechanical interaction between components, defining the right tolerances according to the model material and the manufacturing process is a key factor for success. Designing a part for rapid prototyping is not an exception.
There are two methods of prototyping assemblies with an Objet 3D printer – either print individual components to be assembled later, or print the whole assembly in one single print job. The method you choose will depend on the type of assembly you require…
Individual components for subsequent assembly: use this method for the following circumstances:
If you don’t have a multi material printer (such as an Objet Connex), and need to use different materials due to mechanical properties or colour specifications.
When, due to the complexity of the assembly, the support removal is a challenging process (intricate channels or hard to reach inner gaps).
A tolerance of 0.3 mm (12 thou) between touching surfaces will let you assemble the components once they are finished and allow the parts to move and interact freely.
3D printing the assembly in one transaction: this is the preferred method if you don’t need to use different materials / colours in a moving model and assembly is not required; this method is also a time saver.
You will need to allow a 0.3 mm (12 thou) tolerance between touching surfaces to allow the support material to fill the gaps between parts and prevent the moving components to be bonded together.
Take a look at the example, this was created in a single print job without the need for assembly and the individual gears move as required!
In my opinion SolidWorks has the best user interface from all CAD programs. Have you noticed how it is always trying to read our thoughts? And most of the time it does a pretty good job, saving us – the users – a lot of keyboard or mouse clicks, therefore a lot of time which makes us more productive.
That being said, I always disliked one particular area where the software was trying to be helpful, but actually created more work for me – and that is the parasitic point placed automatically by the Hole Wizard.
Up to SolidWorks 2011, when you selected the surface where the holes were to be placed, SolidWorks created automatically a point inside your sketch (fig. 1).
As older computers become outdated and need to be replaced, or upgraded, a fairly common question we get from IT departments is how to move the SolidWorks network license to a new server with the least amount of disruption to users possible.
The steps below detail how to move an activation based, meaning SolidWorks 2010 or newer, SolidNetWork License service to a new computer.
In SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2011 many of the commands that I used from the right-click menu, in Explorer Vault view, were moved to SolidWorks Enterprise PDM menu bar. I missed being able to right-click and quickly “clear the local cache”. Luckily in SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2012, menus can now be customized to include my favorite commands, including adding “clear local cache” to the right-click menu. Read More »
I have a feeling that the new Command Search function in SolidWorks 2012 will become the best friend for my students in the new year. No more wasting time trying to find the icon or the menu item for a particular command. Just start typing the command in the “Command Search” field and suddenly they will have a 3 options to choose from:
