May 08
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.
3DVIA Composer - DSS logo on ground
Apr 24
This tip is especially useful for users with a Floating Composer license!
If there are multiple users of 3DVIA Composer that would like to share a common library location, it’s not obvious how to go about configuring them all to do this. With a bit of text editing and copy/pasting, it’s fairly straighforward thankfully.
First off if you tried to figure this out yourself, you will probably start by going to (in Composer): File -> Preferences -> Data Paths, and you’ll see this:
Data Paths Dialog
Apr 02
For those users of 3DVIA Composer that periodically need to ask a SolidWorks designer to export files into the native Composer file type, this tip is for you!
This is a very specific scenario where the users of SolidWorks do not have 3DVIA Composer installed on their machine, but they do have the Composer plug-in installed to allow them to export their SolidWorks files to the native .SMG Composer file type. In this scenario, the SolidWorks user has no easy way of customizing the export options that are used when creating the Composer file. So as a result, things like file properties (metadata), could be missing or you may have surface bodies appearing in Composer, or solid bodies not showing. In this case, it would be nice to be able to customize the options used for the export. The answer is not an easy one unfortunately. Reach out to your VAR and they can provide assistance. There are some registry settings that we can supply to allow customizing these options. When you contact your VAR, mention SolidWorks Solution ID #S-023057.
See image below for a view of the Composer plug in, in SolidWorks.
Composer Plug-in menu in SolidWorks
Mar 05
Licensing of Composer is done though a FlexLM license service which is very common in the software industry. All licenses of Composer are Node-locked to a computer “MAC” address (even Standalone ones). Activation is common with SolidWorks but not Composer. Whether you have a Standalone or Network license type, the “Media Access Control” address or “MAC” address (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address) of the machine that is going to issue the license for the software is needed. The software license is “locked” to the MAC address provided. In the case of Standalone, it is the MAC address of the machine that the software will be used on. In the case of a Network license, it is the MAC address of the license server machine. If needed, the MAC address can be changed and a new license file created. There is a form to fill out and submit to SolidWorks. Please allow at least 2 business days for this.
Mar 05
When installing 3DVIA Composer there some things that are good to know before you start the install. Here is some background information. If you visit the 3DVIA Composer download page through the SolidWorks Customer Portal, you’ll find that there are a few choices. We’ll go through what these are. See image below:
Composer downloads
Dec 13
When exporting an SMG project to PDF, you may want to have a certain view (of many in the project) active by default when the PDF is opened.
Before exporting the file to the PDF format, the “Launch in View Mode” option needs to be turned on.
Go to File -> Properties -> Document Properties -> Project, enable the View Mode option.
Next, move the view that needs to be displayed to the top of the list in the Views tab (Drag and Drop). You can now publish the PDF.
Also, if the Launch in View Mode option is turned off, it’s possible to set the animation at time zero to look like a view by simply dragging the view to time zero in the timeline.
Nov 14
In 3DVIA Composer it’s possible to show the columns of the BOM in the Assembly Tree area. This can help to show which properties have been filled in, at a glance. Follow the images below to setup BOM columns.
The area where you can show the BOM columns
May 02
Occasionally when trying to move actors to make an exploded view, you may run into a situation where the default directions that the “Gizmo” offers you to move the actor do not match what is needed in reality. See the example below.
- Desired view
Apr 04
A quick way to create a walkthrough style animation in 3DVIA Composer is by using the Fly Through Mode tool and capture various “stops” along the way. Here’s how:
1. Go into animation mode in Composer.
2. Set the timebar in the timeline at the zero mark.
3. Start the Fly Through Mode tool. It defaults to a speed of 5.0, Click in the viewport and then press the up or down arrow keys to increase or decrease the speed. I find a speed of 1.0 is suitable.
4. Set your initial view Camera orientation. Likely this will be somewhere outside the assembly you want to “walk” through. Position the view as desired, make sure the animation timeline is at the zero mark, and click the “Set Camera Keys” tool.
Apr 04
In Composer we have the ability to select either subassemblies or the parts within them when performing a function such as a translate. The difference is subtle but important. If we select a subassembly using the Assembly Selection methods, the translate (or other operation) is performed on the assembly actor. Any component contained within that assembly is affected. If a component is added to this subassembly (drag & drop into the subassembly), it too will automatically be affected by this function.
If we pick each individual component in an assembly and apply the function, then only those selected components are affected. If a component is added to this subassembly it will not be affected by the function that was applied earlier to the components in that subassembly. You would have to redo that same function on the added components.
In animations, using assembly selection results in fewer keys in the animation timeline which simplifies things.
