Javelin / TriMech Author
Julian Wolf, CSWP
Enhancements to User Interface Fundamentals in SOLIDWORKS 2021
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on March 29, 2021
SOLIDWORKS 2021 brings several enhancements to improve the user interface (UI), across a range of dialog windows and menu options. Editing Materials When SOLIDWORKS Simulation is active, editing materials in a study provides an additional option in the Edit Material dialog window (right-click Material in…
Transfer Body or Part Material in SOLIDWORKS 2021
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on March 15, 2021
SOLIDWORKS 2021 provides more flexibility for controlling the material choice when inserting a part into another part, by adding new options in the Insert Part PropertyManager. After selecting the Insert Part command (Insert > Part), the Transfer section of the PropertyManager shows two options for…
Copy Tabular Simulation Results to the Clipboard in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2021
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on March 9, 2021
SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2021 has added another option to export data from your study results. Besides generating a report, you can copy tabular data from several sources to the clipboard, and then paste this data into another document, such as a spreadsheet. This data can be…
SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2021 Geometry Corrections for Curved Surfaces in Contact
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on November 24, 2020
SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2021 has improved the calculations for curved surfaces that come into contact by integrating geometry correction factors. These help improve the accuracy of linear static studies involving cylindrical, spherical and conical contacting surfaces. Take the two cylindrical rings below. After creating a separate…
SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2021 Default Mesh Settings
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on November 19, 2020
SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2021 increases your control over the default mesh settings for new Simulation studies. Accessed in the menu through Simulation > Options, the default settings provide numerous options to configure studies before they are created. Shown below are the default mesh settings for SOLIDWORKS…
SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2021 Mesh Quality Diagnostics Tool
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on November 12, 2020
SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2021 has added an important tool to help diagnose and efficiently improve mesh quality — the Mesh Quality Diagnostics Tool. Take the hoist ring part below: of particular interest is the area where the ring meets the block. In SOLIDWORKS 2020 and previous…
Simplify Your SOLIDWORKS Assembly Drawing with Display States
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on May 12, 2020
One use of display states is to help improve the clarity of information conveyed in a SOLIDWORKS assembly drawing. In the example below, we have a u-joint assembly drawing with a bill of materials. What if we want to include a view of one particular…
Clean up your SOLIDWORKS Drawings with the Auto Arrange Dimensions Tool
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on May 8, 2020
A helpful SOLIDWORKS tool for organizing dimensions and annotations in a drawing is the Auto Arrange Dimensions tool. This can be activated several ways: By selecting the tool from the Align Toolbar (enabled by right-clicking the CommandManager and selecting Align from the Toolbar drop-down menu)….
Changing the Direction of a Beam in SOLIDWORKS Simulation
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on May 5, 2020
When you model a beam in SOLIDWORKS, you can set up the cross section to align with the default coordinate system. The contrived beam shown below was modeled with the bottom face parallel to the x axis: If a simulation study is created and the…
How to Align Breaks in a SOLIDWORKS Projected View with a Parent View
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on September 4, 2019
A customer recently contacted me with a strange situation: they were unable to drag the breaks in a SOLIDWORKS projected view in their drawing. See the image below as an example: the bottom view is the parent view and the top view is the projected…
Weld Bead behaviour in SOLIDWORKS when selecting different entities
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on August 30, 2019
Say you have two pipes (as pictured below) that you want to weld together. SOLIDWORKS allows you to model a weld bead at the part or assembly level. In this case, we will add the weld bead in the assembly, by selecting Insert > Assembly…
What to do when SOLIDWORKS can’t find the “properties.txt” file
By Julian Wolf, CSWP on August 28, 2019
Have you ever tried to configure a feature and received the error message below…’The properties.txt file cannot be located’? Typically, this properties error is encountered after upgrading SOLIDWORKS to a new major release (year). Resolving this error is straightforward. First, check to make sure that…