Configurations are a great way to control your models in SolidWorks. But when you have an especially large assembly that takes a lot of time and system resources to load, it can be frustrating if, once the model finishes loading, the active configuration isn’t the one you wanted to work on. Then you will have to wait again as the configuration you want is rebuilt.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to just load the configuration you want, right away, when opening the file?
SolidWorks Photoview 360 does a really great job of creating amazingly realistic renderings. We’ve discussed before how to add your own background image in SolidWorks to use in a render, but what if you only want your model rendered and to have the background be transparent?
The approach to get a transparent background in a PhotoView 360 render will vary depending on what release of SolidWorks you are using. Here is the process for SolidWorks 2012 and SolidWorks 2013.
SolidWorks has learned a pretty neat new trick from the Composer: balloons can now be attached to Magnetic Lines in SolidWorks 2012, giving designers more control over the alignment and spacing of balloons in drawings.
When working on a big project, it isn’t uncommon to have several different files open in SolidWorks at once. If these files are coming from multiple different folder locations, hunting them down and opening them again each time you close and reopen SolidWorks can be a time consuming process.
That’s where the very first option in the SolidWorks settings come in handy: “Open last used document(s) at startup”.
You may have seen this before, create a detail or section view and it is automatically named View A, great. Except oops that wasn’t the view I wanted so I delete View A and start again … except now the new view is automatically named View B. It’s not the end of the world, I can manually change the view name back to A, but from this point on each new detail or section view I create will automatically generate with the wrong letter. A new option in SolidWorks 2012 can now allow you to change this behavior.
Perhaps you received a different part file that you need to use in your assembly. Or maybe your original file was lost and needed to be recreated. If the new file is saved as the same name as the original file, the next time you open your assembly get ready for some internal ID errors.
Whenever you go to make a drawing of a part or assembly you have created in SolidWorks, you are presented with a set of predetermined views to chose from, front, top, isometric etc. But what if the view you want to use isn’t in that list? How can you get a drawing view on the sheet in a non standard orientation? One way to do this is to use a custom view.
When teaching the SolidWorks Essentials course one habit that I try to instill in any new (or not so new) SolidWorks users is to always, always, rotate the view normal to the sketch plane when creating a new sketch or when editing an existing one. This helps them to get a clearer picture of their 2D sketch in the 3D world of their SolidWorks part.
Now, a new option added in SolidWorks 2012 allows users to automate, at least, part of that practice.
When using Solid elements in SolidWorks Simulation, it is crucial to have a well defined mesh in your study to obtain accurate stress results. Here are some items to check to see if your mesh is sufficient. If not, refine the mesh or add mesh controls to the specific areas.
As you create your exploded views, take a look at the options available. They may speed up the time it takes to generate your exploded model. Here are a few tips to help you on your way, along with a video demonstration.
Explode Direction: If the reference triad is not in the correct orientation, you can specify the direction to explode by selecting an edge or face of the model. Another shortcut is to hold Alt, then drag and drop the blue sphere at the triad origin onto a face or edge.
Auto-Space Components after Drag: This option allows you to easily explode multiple components at the same time along a direction. The slider bar gives you control of the spacing between the components. If some of the component spacing needs adjusting, just double-click on the component or the Step and drag the blue arrow. You can also drag the blue arrows to reorder the chain of components. Just drag and drop a component in between other components in the chain on the graphics window.
Select Sub-Assembly Parts: When this is unchecked, the entire subassembly will be selected and moved. You can enable this option to move individual components from within the subassembly.
Reuse Subassembly Explode: If you have already setup an exploded view in your subassemblies, there is no need to duplicate your work. Just select the subassembly and click the Reuse button to copy in the exploded steps.
Editing steps: You can edit the order of steps by dragging them up and down in the list. To edit the spacing, double-click a component in the graphics view or the Step feature in the PropertyManager and the blue arrows and properties will be available. Click Apply and Done to save.
Configurations are a great way to control your models in SolidWorks. But when you have an especially large assembly that takes a lot of time and system resources to load, it can be frustrating if, once the model finishes loading, the active configuration isn’t the one you wanted to work on. Then you will have to wait again as the configuration you want is rebuilt.
SolidWorks has learned a pretty neat new trick from the Composer: balloons can now be attached to Magnetic Lines in SolidWorks 2012, giving designers more control over the alignment and spacing of balloons in drawings.
You may have seen this before, create a detail or section view and it is automatically named View A, great. Except oops that wasn’t the view I wanted so I delete View A and start again … except now the new view is automatically named View B. It’s not the end of the world, I can manually change the view name back to A, but from this point on each new detail or section view I create will automatically generate with the wrong letter. A new option in SolidWorks 2012 can now allow you to change this behavior.
When teaching the SolidWorks Essentials course one habit that I try to instill in any new (or not so new) SolidWorks users is to always, always, rotate the view normal to the sketch plane when creating a new sketch or when editing an existing one. This helps them to get a clearer picture of their 2D sketch in the 3D world of their SolidWorks part.
