Javelin / TriMech Author
Andrew Lidstone, CSWE
Creating Configuration Specific Properties in SOLIDWORKS Toolbox Parts [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on February 25, 2014
When configuring the SOLIDWORKS Toolbox Properties, you can enter “Description” and “Comment” values for each fastener’s size. These values are populated to configuration specific custom properties in the SOLIDWORKS part files. But what if you wanted to enter more property information than just these two…
How to Rename or Move SOLIDWORKS Files Correctly [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on February 5, 2014
As your library of SOLIDWORKS files grows, you may at times need to rename or perhaps move your files from one folder location to another. This can cause issues if you simply right-click on the document in Windows Explorer and click “Rename” or if you move the file…
SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM Pack And Go Files Out of the Vault [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on January 21, 2014
If you are managing your SOLIDWORKS files using Workgroup PDM, you may have wondered how you can package up file sets so that you can share them with others. When managing your SOLIDWORKS files using Windows Explorer you can use Pack and Go, and when…
SOLIDWORKS Multiple Versions Detected when opening a file
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on October 29, 2013
Whether working with legacy documents or files from a supplier or customer, you may at times be opening SOLIDWORKS files from different releases of SOLIDWORKS. The new SOLIDWORKS Multiple Versions Detected functionality introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2013 can be a great help when working with such…
Resetting the Workgroup PDM Administration Password – VIDEO
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on October 28, 2013
If the password for the SolidWorks Workgroup PDM administrator user has been lost, it is possible to reset the original administrator login account. When Workgroup PDM is first installed the administrator user is pdmwadmin with the password pdmwadmin. If this user has been deleted or…
Network Rendering Client – VIDEO
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on October 10, 2013
The PhotoView 360 rendering tool in SolidWorks can produce some astounding photo realistic renders. However large, high quality renders don’t happen instantaneously. In fact a large render of a highly complex model could take hours to complete, even on a very powerful system. PhotoView 360…
Exporting SOLIDWORKS PDM Vault Settings [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on July 13, 2013
If you are using SOLIDWORKS PDM to manage your documents, you are no doubt aware that PDM offers Administrators an incredible amount of control over how the vault interacts with users and with your documents. However with great control comes … a great number of…
Displaying Mass using Different Units on a SOLIDWORKS Drawing [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on July 8, 2013
When dimensioning models in a SOLIDWORKS drawing it’s very simple to switch the dimensions from inches to millimeters to meters by changing the drawing files unit system. Regardless of the unit system being used in the model file (the part or assembly), as soon as…
Using a Third Party Software as a Viewer in Enterprise PDM [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on July 6, 2013
Viewing SolidWorks files, Microsoft Office files, dxfs, dwgs, pdfs and many other common documents in Enterprise PDM is as simple as selecting the file and looking at the preview tab. But what if you have files that require a special viewer that is not integrated with…
Selecting Configuration When Opening [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on June 3, 2013
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…
How to render transparent backgrounds in PhotoView 360 [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on May 27, 2013
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 want a PhotoView 360 Transparent Background Rendering? The approach to get…
Magnetic Lines [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on May 4, 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.
Reopen files when launching SolidWorks [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on May 3, 2013
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…
Reuse Letters from Deleted Views [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on May 1, 2013
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…
Custom Views For Drawings [VIDEO]
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on April 23, 2013
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…