solidworks 2010…configuration publisher

This new SolidWorks 2010 functionality has already gotten some press already but I wanted to take a quick opportunity to point out 3 new functions of the Configuration Publisher.

Name Change

It should first be pointed out the this tool has been renamed in 2010.  What used to be named the “Create PropertyManager” in 2009 will now be called “Configuration Publisher” in 2010.

Upload to 3D ContentCentral

As you can see in the screenshot below you can upload your models with all of your configuration options directly to 3D ContentCentral.  The button is in the lower left hand corner next to the Apply and Close buttons.

SolidWorks Preview

You can also quickly see what your Configuration Publisher interface will look like inside of SolidWorks by switching to the middle tab that is called “SW Preview”.  Here you will be able to double check your work and make sure that you are not missing a key input or missing a key option.

3D ContentCentral Preview

Like being able to preview what the SolidWorks interface will look like you can also see what the interface will look like online at 3D ContentCentral.  You can access this tab by clicking the furthest right tab called “3DCC Preview”.

A couple of other quick enhancement in regards to the Configuration Publisher that might be of interest to you are:

• the ability to configure custom properties.
• the ability to create a PropertyManager for assemblies.

The Configuration Publisher looks like a really nice tool and could even (if set up correctly) be used as a low end design automation software.  I am kind of curious where this tool will end up in the future.  Make sure you check it out and see what it can offer to your design process.

solidworks 2010…dfmxpress

DFMXpress was a new tool that was introduced in SolidWorks 2009.  In SolidWorks 2010 there have been 3 minor updates to the program that should make this even more valuable to users who are designing in a manufacturing environment.

DFMXpress is a product delivered by Geometric.  This tool is the light version of DFMPro which looks for and finds areas of your design that are difficult, expensive, or impossible to manufacture.

Sheet Metal Validation

DFMXpress in SolidWorks 2010 now gives you the ability to validate sheet metal parts.  As you can see below you can check your sheet metal part against such rules as hole dia. to thickness ratio, part edge distance to thickness ratio on a simple hole and also a countersink, spacing to thickness ratio on a simple hole and also a countersink.

Managing Standard Hole Sizes

You can now specify the standard hole sizes used by DFMXpress to validate parts.  You can access this by clicking Settings > Standard Hole Sizes > Edit.

Zoom to Selection

You can also quickly view a failed instance by RMB clicking the failure out of the list and selecting Zoom to Selection.

DFMXpress is a tool that is probably not used all that much (I may be wrong and I kind of hope I am).  However, with updates like this it is becoming a VERY useful tool when designing in a manufacturing environment.

solidworks 2010…mates

Carrying on with the motto of this release which was all about making it quicker and more user friendly and intuitive the mates area of SolidWorks 2010 got some work done to it.  There are only a couple changes but these changes are worth the price of admission in my honest opinion.  The changes were subtle but when you start using them I think you will agree with me as to how nice they are.

View Mates     

The mates in the FeatureManager tree and the View Mates tool has a new icon that you will probably notice right away.  The new icon is shown above (an arrow with a green hatch underneath).  You may be asking what in the world this icon means, right?  Well this is a quick way for you to tell which mates “ground” this component.  Have you ever had to relocate a component and not know which components held the component down and which ones where mates “grounding” other components?  Well in 2010 all you need to do is look for these icons and it will show you what is holding it down.

Replace Components

You will notice changes as soon as you activate the Replace Components command.  You will now be able to select from a list of part files that you have open similar to the way when you insert components into an assembly.

Once you select the component you wish to replace and the component to replace it with you will notice a couple of new items that will make it easier for you to do this.  A popup toolbar now appears as shown below.  From this toolbar you can:

• isolate the replacement part alone, show the replacement part with replacement parts, or show the entire assembly
• undo selections and operations
• delete mates
• skip mates
• toggle mate alignments

You will also see a view of the original component displayed in a popup window with the missing mate highlighted.

You can see both of these popups in the screenshot below.

Coordinate System Mates

If you mate using coordinate systems you will also see some new features.  In SolidWorks 2010 you will be able to create a coincident mate between a coordinate system and the origin, you will be able select coordinate systems and origins as reference entities and choose to align the axes, and also you can use SmartMates to create mates involving coordinate systems and origins.

All in all these new mates options are VERY nice and you will definitely like them once you are able to start using them. 

solidworks 2010…some other assembly changes

So as is becoming standard on Friday’s I will cover a couple of the other assembly changes that you will see in this year’s release of SolidWorks.  Every year there are updates/changes that you will see that are minor in regards to the actual change and who might use them but still are very important to those who do use these features on an every day basis.  I personally feel that the changes you will see below are nice changes but I really only use 1 of them on a regular basis.  However, they are all important so I will cover them here.

Component References

In 2010 you will be able to assign a different component reference for each instance of a component in an assembly.  This can be extremely useful electrical harnesses or circuit board assemblies.  When we visited Boston in August this new feature received a few ooh’s and ahh’s from the bloggers that use these type of tools.

Another cool part about this is that you can also turn the component references on as a column in your BOM for your drawing as shown below.  Also you can select component reference for your balloon value on your assemblies.

Display States

Now when you are editing an assembly you will be able to specify which display state to use in the assembly.  Before it automatically used the display state that was current when the document was last saved.  In order to override this in 2010 you need to do the following.

• In the Display Pane RMB click a component > click Component Display State, Your Display State Name > in the Component Properties box under the Referenced Display State select the display state you wish to use.

SpeedPak

You will now be able to create a SpeedPak configuration for an assembly that has a “SpeedPak’d” subassembly active in it.

solidworks 2010…in-context components

Much like yesterday, the area of improvement that I want to share with you today is one of the very TOUCHY subjects between SolidWorks users.  When it comes to in-context modeling it is one of those subjects that you just try not to discuss; kind of like religion, politics, and your part numbering system.  I have to admit, I am taking the part numbering bit from a good friend of mine but I laugh every time of think about it.

Anyways, enough of me babbling and on to the meat and potatoes.  I am a HUGE fan of in context modeling so this update hits home for me.  In SolidWorks 2010 you can tell the software how it should behave for saving new in-context components.  Now in Tools > Options > System Options > Assemblies there is a new check box option called “Save new components to external files”.  If this box is check it will prompt you to save the new in-context component to an external file as soon as you create it.  If it is not checked it will save the component as a virtual part inside the assembly.  You can see this option in the screen shot below.

This is a nice addition that will allow users who are continuously designing in-context to quickly save a part off into an external file if that is what they are hoping to do.  If you are one of those users you definitely need to check this new option out and see what you think.

solidworks 2010…virtual components

The use of virtual components is always an interesting one to have.  Should you use them, should you never use them, when should you and when shouldn’t you.  Confusing and it seems as though every person feels a different way about it.  However you feel though, I think that the enhancement made to virtual components this release make it a very useful tool.

In SolidWorks 2010 you can insert an existing any part into your assembly and make it virtual.  This could be very nice if you want to make a quick copy of an existing part.  To make an existing part virtual all you need to do is insert it like you normally would but now you will notice a new option in the Insert Component PropertyManager.  On the bottom you will see a checkbox that you can select called “Make Virtual”.  You can see this in the screenshot below.

You will now see this virtual component in your FeatureManager tree called [Copy of your part name].

Another cool functionality of this is that you can make an existing part in your assembly virtual as well.  To do this highlight the part in the FeatureManager tree and RMB click it.  You will see an option now that says “Make Virtual” as shown below. 

Whenever you make a part virtual you will see a popup that warns you that making a part virtual will break the link to the external file.  If you do not want to see this dialog box you can select “Don’t ask me again” to turn it off.

Like in other releases you can RMB select the part from the FeatureManager tree and click Save As External Part.  This will allow you to save the part off as a standalone part file.

All in all I think that the updates to the virtual components are really nice.  I see huge opportunities for this when inserting design library components and wanting to make a change to one of them or other similar circumstances.  This is definitely another tool that I will like to see how it works in a production environment.

solidworks 2010…mirror components

Another nice enhancement in the next release of the revamping of the mirror component function.  It was my experience in past releases that the mirror component tool needed some serious help as it was not very user friendly.

There are really 3 enhancements to this tool that are noteworthy.

1. A mirror component feature is now added to the FeatureManager tree to maintain the position in regards to the seed features.
2. You can create an opposite hand version as a derived configuration of the component that you are mirroring.
3. The mirror component PropertyManager has been simplified to improve the work flow.

As you can see below the first step is similar to previous versions of the tool.  First you are going to want to select the plane to mirror over and the components to mirror.

The next step is where you will begin to notice some differences.  You will see that you can orient your mirrored component 4 different ways (normally) with a simple click thru interface as shown towards the bottom.  Here you can also tell it to create an opposite hand version and select whether or not you would like to isolate the selected component that you are working with.

After you select all of your orientation and mirroring options you end up with your desired result, hopefully.  As shown in the picture below you also now see the MirrorComponent feature added to the FeatureManager tree.

All in all this is a nice upgrade from what has been available before and I am looking forward to actually using this in production when we upgrade.

solidworks 2010…assembly visualization

Even though SolidWorks did not focus on new functionality for their SolidWorks 2010 release they did add some nice new functionality.  One of these things I will cover today.

A new feature in SolidWorks 2010 is the Assembly Visualization tool.  This new tool allows you to quickly display & sort the assembly components in a list and in the graphics area.  You can find this tool on the Evaluate tab in your CommandManager as shown in the picture below.

The Assembly Visualization offers 2 different view options.  The first is the nested view, which is shown below.  This view shows only the top level assemblies and your subassemblies are indented.  The other view is the flat view where your assembly tree structure is eliminated and you only see the part files.

You can also see in the picture below that there are value bars that overlay the part name.  This get longer or shorter depending on the value that you are sorting by.  You are able to turn these on & off as well.

There are a variety of preset categories that you can sort your assembly by but you are also able to create your own custom column to sort by.  This also allows you to use an equation as shown below.

Some other cool functionality this tool allows you to do is:

• You can modify and edit properties from this interface
• You can save the list into a separate file such as a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet
• The graphics area colors correspond to the colors in the Assembly Visualization interface  

solidworks 2010…display states & custom properties

Similar to what I did last Friday I will cover a couple of areas that are changing in SolidWorks 2010 as opposed to just a single function.

Both display states and custom properties have some improved functionality with the display states changes a little bigger for most users.

Display States

SolidWorks 2010 now offers that ability to specify display states in part files the same way you could for assemblies in the past.  Instead of me trying to explain it all to you, I have attached a screenshot of the chart that was included in the “What’s New” document.  I think this does a pretty good job of showing what is and what is not available.

Custom Properties

In a smaller update but still relevant, SolidWorks 2010 now allows you to view the properties of lightweight components in an assembly.  Note that you can not save changes to the properties when in lightweight but when you change them it will prompt you to resolve the component and then you will be able to save them.

solidworks 2010…saving multiple docs

Following what has been the calling card for SolidWorks 2010 the development team has consolidated another area of the software to make it 1 dialog box instead of multiple dialogs that you need to cycle through.

In the past when you would close an assembly or multiple documents you would need to go through multiple dialog boxes asking whether you would like to save each one or not.  Starting in SolidWorks 2010 this has all be put into a single dialog box as shown below.  This is just another way to save a little time when closing out of multiple documents or assemblies.

When you get to the above dialog you will have 3 options that you will be able to choose from; save all modified documents, selectively save modified top-level documents, or discard changes to all documents.

Also, if you do not like having to do this and would always like to save all modified documents or discard changes to all documents you can select the “Don’t as me again when saving” check box in the lower left hand corner to not be bothered with this dialog box again.  Remember, if you accidentally check this box you can turn it back on by checking it again in Tools > Options > System Options > Advanced.