Javelin / TriMech Author
Chris Briand, CSWE
Use the ‘Exclude from Cut List’ option to manage SOLIDWORKS Modeled Welds
By Chris Briand, CSWE on February 7, 2018
One of the most common practices we run across while discussing weldment functionality with clients is the use of ‘Modeled Welds’ which are additional Solid Bodies that exist in the weldment file to represent the physical mass where a weld would exist — generally in…
Five reasons to avoid ‘Redirected Folders’ if you use SOLIDWORKS
By Chris Briand, CSWE on February 6, 2018
Redirected Folders seemed like a good idea at the time? If you are an IT administrator that is tasked with providing support to SOLIDWORKS users, one can often get caught up in the various conflicts that arise between SOLIDWORKS and it’s need for accessibility to…
Practical Values for approximating “Zero Radius” bends in SOLIDWORKS
By Chris Briand, CSWE on February 5, 2018
I am as sure as the words posted here that every sheet metal designer has been asked to fudge some values to represent a “SOLIDWORKS Zero Radius” bend or a “SOLIDWORKS Sharp Corner” at some point along the way. As it turns out there is…
Why is the SOLIDWORKS Automatic Solve Order option greyed out for my Equations?
By Chris Briand, CSWE on February 2, 2018
SOLIDWORKS Automatic Solve order is Greyed out? If you have encountered any instances where the “Automatic Solve Order” for equations is disabled, it may be due to to a setting titled “Display potential circular references in equations:” The options that govern the possibilities for…
Changing the SOLIDWORKS “Open External Referenced Documents” dialog behavior
By Chris Briand, CSWE on January 31, 2018
Every now and then, one of our fantastic support staff here at Javelin, run across a dialog that they have never seen before…. it’s a rare case to be sure. Especially rare if the features involved have been around forever and the dialog box itself…
SOLIDWORKS Feature Freeze Bar Enhanced in SOLIDWORKS 2018
By Chris Briand, CSWE on November 23, 2017
In previous releases of SOLIDWORKS, the “Feature Freeze” bar would experience issues if it encountered a folder where the features were in chronological order. This limitation has been addressed with SOLIDWORKS 2018 so that the Feature Freeze bar can force a temporary “unabsorb” of a…
Preparing for a Multi-Release Upgrade Between SOLIDWORKS Versions
By Chris Briand, CSWE on November 20, 2017
Is it the Correct Time for Me to Upgrade? Customers upgrade their SOLIDWORKS licenses for any number of reasons. Those reasons may be identical to the reasoning that another company or organization chooses not to upgrade. As the old adage goes “If it ain’t broke…
Apply a Bounding Box to any Model using SOLIDWORKS 2018
By Chris Briand, CSWE on November 18, 2017
Let’s take a look at a common scenario that crops up after a design is complete – the design of packaging! While some designers may be savvy and experienced enough to embark on their own packaging design, others will need to speak to someone with…
New Progress Indicator for Opening Assemblies in SOLIDWORKS 2018
By Chris Briand, CSWE on November 16, 2017
The new SOLIDWORKS Assembly Open progress indicator will resonate with anyone who has sat staring at their monitor wondering at exactly what stage, and exactly how long their assembly will take to open at any point. It is the tip of the iceberg for some…
Expanded use of the Perpendicular Mate in SOLIDWORKS 2018
By Chris Briand, CSWE on November 13, 2017
Like many enhancements that come along during any SOLIDWORKS release cycle, it seems like the ability to add a SOLIDWORKS perpendicular mate between a complex (Non-analytic) surface and a linear entity, may get overlooked rather easily. UNLESS this is the exact feature you have been…
A Rebuild Renaissance in SOLIDWORKS 2018
By Chris Briand, CSWE on October 26, 2017
As you might expect, the rebuild tool in SOLIDWORKS is one of the most frequently used tools in the suite. The frequency of this tool is due to the necessity to regenerate our models into a current state as the physical shape of the model…
Adding Symbols within your SOLIDWORKS Custom Property Fields
By Chris Briand, CSWE on June 7, 2017
We can add a hint of elegance, and more importantly reduce the number of characters required to annotate a custom property value through the use of symbols, or what Windows users would term as special characters. One example of this would be when placing a…
Where are the hidden settings for the display of SOLIDWORKS Cosmetic Threads?
By Chris Briand, CSWE on April 14, 2017
If you had interest in my previous article: The “Easy Bake” recipe for Displaying Cosmetic Threads, you may be wondering where to find the four settings that were mentioned. This article will help you to locate each of the four SOLIDWORKS Cosmetic Thread Display settings. The four…
The “Easy Bake” recipe for Displaying Cosmetic Threads
By Chris Briand, CSWE on April 14, 2017
Are SOLIDWORKS Cosmetic Threads a ‘Nice to have’, or a ‘Nuisance’? Depending on your organizations standards, SOLIDWORKS Cosmetic Threads can be a life-saver or a nuisance. The nuisance factor may be enhanced multi-fold, when you are unable to display cosmetic threads as intended in your…
Bring simplicity to your SOLIDWORKS Sketch through advanced use of basic features
By Chris Briand, CSWE on April 13, 2017
When we start out with a model we usually have every intention of keeping the SOLIDWORKS Sketch clean, simple and easily understood. With continually compressed timelines, even the most basic sketches can turn into a mess…very, very quickly. Consider the case of a simple sketch involving…