Javelin / TriMech Author
Matt Campbell, CSWE
Black Background in SOLIDWORKS Composer .SMG export
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on June 5, 2012
On occasion you will notice that when you export your .smg file and preview it, it will have created a SOLIDWORKS Composer black background. This is obviously not ideal. You will generally only see this happen when you are exporting and have colour region turned…
SolidWorks 2012 changed how you create linked values. The new process takes a little longer than the old way. The benefit to the new way is that what is linked is clearer to different users because it is in global variables. You will see in the following video that I set the value as a variable, then link dimensions to that variable. They say a picture is worth one thousand words, so I hope a video is worth one million. EDITOR’S NOTE: SW has restored the Linked Values tool from the right-click shortcut menu as of SP1 so the method demonstrated in this video is only necessary if you’re using SW2012 SP0.
3DVIA Composer: Creating Fast and Easy Renderings
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on April 25, 2012
For this blog post I am going to show you how to take existing CAD data and render it using 3DVIA Composer. For this example I am going to use a model that already has texture on it. The first thing I am going to…
Help! I Can’t See My Model in SOLIDWORKS!
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on March 29, 2012
When providing technical support to our customers I see this issue a fair amount among new users. They cannot see their part on the screen but the feature tree is still visible, and if they click on a feature they can see a silhouette of the…
DriveWorks: Fast Way to Copy Rules
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on March 29, 2012
While working on my DriveWorks Solo Certification, I was shown a really fast way to copy existing rules into new rules. It is faster than CTRL+C (copy), CTRL+V (paste).
Updating Your SolidWorks Files to 2012 Format
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on March 28, 2012
This is the season to upgrade your SolidWorks from 2011 to 2012. A good practice is to convert all of your models to 2012 too. This will save you from having to convert an old assembly later on, which is helpful if you are working…
Why Are You Not Using DriveWorksXpress?
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on December 13, 2011
When you purchased SolidWorks you might not have realized that you received a free version of DriveWorks. DriveWorksXpress comes with every license of SolidWorks. In this blog, I am going to show you how to start using it and how to automate your modeling process….
How to Insert a Virtual Sharp in a SOLIDWORKS Sketch or Drawing
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on November 28, 2011
While teaching a SOLIDWORKS Essentials training course, a customer attending the class asked for the best practice on how to add a virtual intersection point to a part so that you can dimension to the point. His method was to insert a sketch point using…
While teaching a SolidWorks Essentials course, I had a student show me a drafting trick that I had not seen before.
Viewing Your SolidWorks Models in Actual 3D
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on October 24, 2011
In an older blog I showed how to get your models on your iPad using 3DVIA.com https://www.javelin-tech.com/blog/2011/06/how-to-display-sw-models-on-your-iphone-and-ipad/ Now I want to show you that once you have your files on 3DVIA.com you can do more than just view them on your iPad. You can make…
Why Can’t I See My Temporary axes in the Part Environment?
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on October 11, 2011
While sitting in on a SolidWorks Essentials training course, there were some really good questions from the students that I think everyone should know the answer to. Therefore, I am going to write a couple of fundamental knowledge blogs. I have seen this issue a…
When mirroring a component or sub-assembly in an assembly you have to remember that SolidWorks mirrors relative to the center of mass of the component or sub-assembly. If you are not aware of this you can get some unexpected results. I have created an unsymmetrical…
How to display SolidWorks 2011 models on your iPhone and iPad
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on June 20, 2011
Have you ever wanted to share a 3D model you have built, but you are not around a computer… it does happen! Well, you can now use the 3DVIA app from iTunes.
You might have noticed that it is no longer an option to save eDrawings files as a .exe file in eDrawings 64-bit. This is because a 32-bit computer would not be able to open the file. The good news is that saving as a .exe…
How to change the SOLIDWORKS Standard View Orientation
By Matt Campbell, CSWE on April 4, 2011
Have you ever imported a model from a vendor, customer, etc. and the part orientation does not make sense? You can change the default view to any rotation that you like. When your part is in the part or assembly environment, press the spacebar to…