We Challenge YOU! New GrabCAD Design Challenge

Siemens PLM’s Solid Edge team is sponsoring another great challenge hosted by GrabCAD! This is your chance to trick out the Razor Crazy Cart by Razor USA to showcase your creativity, quality of design and design thinking. Simply download models, start designing, create a render and animation using Solid Edge and KeyShot, and submit it online.

If you are not a current Solid Edge user, start your 45 day trial here for your opportunity to win!

If you currently use Solid Edge, but want to show off your design with KeyShot’s amazing photo-realistic rendering capabilities, start your trial of KeyShot here.

You could win a Microsoft Surface Pro 3, a subscription of Solid Edge Premium with KeyShot Pro and Animation and a Razor Crazy Cart! Click here to view the details and submit your design today!

Have a Draft and missing your original model? No problem with Solid Edge!

In Solid Edge, the draft file does not need the original model it was based off in order to open and display its information and views. So if you ever find yourself in the position where you have lost your model and all you have left is your draft, not all is lost! You can still use that information to regenerate your 3D model.

Prepping your orphan draft file
When opening the draft file disregard the dialog box about it not being able to find the model.

The off color center line surrounding all the views, is just a visual indicator that the model is missing and nothing will happen if you update the views. You can still add and remove dimensions from each of the views.

All of the information that makes up the view is still there, but you will not be able to select any lines or circles. Think of it as a ghost image. If you try to use the Create 3D command now you will only recognize the dimensions on the draft. You first need to save the draft file as a *DWG and reopen it inside Solid Edge.           

Create your 3D model
With the DWG loaded, clean up the views by removing any extra hidden and center lines, crosshatching, section view text, and border items that might get in the way of the Create 3D command. You can double views to activate the block (if present) and do your deleting there, and afterwards, you will need to “Unblock” the views. (Again if present, performing this step will allow you to select the individual lines.)

Run the Create 3D command, select your *.par template, set your views, and the PAR file will be loaded. You may need line up your sketches to make it easier to create your model, but once there just use your steering wheel to re-create your part.

Watch the video below for more details!

Sam Estrada
Application Engineer
Swoosh Technologies

Adding Rule Based Dimension and Sensors in Solid Edge

Adding Rule Based Dimension and Sensors in Solid Edge

For those designers who know exactly what the final product is going to be, these couple of Solid Edge features may not help, but those other 99% of us may need some help building intelligence into our design to facilitate future changes.

The first thing to take a look at is Rule Based Dimensions. For example, my company designs skid mounted pressure equipment. Typically these designs have a build envelope to work in. Solid Edge is a great tool to make fast changes, but what if those changes invalidate the design, and you’re not aware this happened? Here’s the formula for this D = Design,  $ + dollars and : ( = wrong change so   D + : ( = $$$$$$$.

You get the idea: a wrong design change typically cost lots of monies and upset bosses. SO the first thing I would do as a designer is add a Variable dimension for a rule based less than or equal to dimension to make sure my overall build stays within my envelope (Read this past post about variable tables in Solid Edge). And to add another level of control to my design we can use Sensors. Sensors allow a designer to add design intent to a model.

As in the case above, we have a skid and we have a sheet metal control box that houses all the electronics. First thing we may need is a lock on the cover. You usually have a hole in the face to allow the locking mechanism to mount to. What happens if a design change came along and said the box need to be narrower, causing the hole the lock fits into gets too close to the edge? When the part is made the guy punches the hole and deforms the sheet metal or even worse it tears along the closest edge. With a few clicks these things can be all be elevated. A simple cutout to edge Sensor can be applied so these things will pop up a warning on the screen notifying you of such conditions.

To wrap this up the old adage fits well (an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure).  Swap cure for a wad of money, and our bosses love to hear about all the money you saved the company.

Watch this video to learn how to add rule based dimensions and sensors in Solid Edge:

Dylan Malek
Application Engineer
Swoosh Technologies

Solid Edge ST7 packed with Hundreds of Customer Requested Enhancements

Solid Edge University 2014, held during the week of May 12th in Atlanta, brought the launch of Solid Edge ST7. The most powerful Solid Edge yet is updated with hundreds of enhancements requested from you, the user, that allow you to accelerate your 3D modeling, streamline your design management, power up with new apps, and enjoy a user friendly experience.

Solid Edge has always lent its hand to aiding users to design faster and ST7 is no different. 3D Sketch, available in the part, assembly and sheet metal environment, speeds up modeling by rapidly defining 3D paths for sweep operations. 3D Sketch also allows you to model pipes and wires that are bent in more than one plane, and in the assembly environ¬ment for the definition of exact paths for piping, wiring and tubing.

Solid Edge ST7 speeds up the modeling of massive assemblies. Design faster and more flexibly by duplicating components or patterning components along a curve. Performance is faster in massive assemblies and now gives users the control over the extent to which the assembly is recomputed during open and save operations.

ST7 users now have the ability to create photorealistic renderings with integration of KeyShot. KeyShot is the easiest and fastest rendering software that allows users to produce beautiful product images and processes concurrently with modeling operations.  Any changes to the model are automatically updated in the rendered image using the “Live Link” capability with no need for you to reassign materials, set up animations again or update any other settings.

Solid Edge SP, a SharePoint based data management solution received a facelift in the latest release. Visualizing data and assemblies has never been easier. Quickly create workflows for task completion and show multiple property cards at once.

    

Solid Edge is part of a growing ecosystem of apps designed to increase productivity, manufacturing, and collaboration capabilities. These apps allow for mobile access to standard and catalog parts, automated output of models for 3D printing, expanded manufacturing abilities, cloud-based collaboration, and more. This includes CAMWorks for Solid Edge and CADENAS PartSolutions. View the apps available here.

Solid Edge ST7 brings a more intuitive user interface resulting in a faster learning curve and improved efficiency. A visual startup page provides easier access to templates, recent documents, instructional videos, the online community and standard parts. Learning paths that meet the needs of specific users are easier to access, and an improved 3D orientation “quick view cube” enables you to quickly understand model orientation and jump to common views.

Look for our What’s New in Solid Edge ST7 webinar coming soon!

Start your free trial of Solid Edge here.

Candis Spraul
PLM Marketing Specialist
Swoosh Technologies

Material handling equipment maker Action Construction boosts competitive advantage

Action Construction Equipment designs better with Solid Edge. The company implemented Solid Edge and successfully boosted its return on investment through the high value of maintenance, enhancement and support. Success after the CAD purchase included quick answers to questions, internal issues quickly resolved, latest technology easily deployed, building a more productive workforce, greater efficiency across operations and an increased competitive advantage.

Learn how here.

Try Solid Edge free for 45 days here.

Aircraft engine parts manufacturer cuts development time 30 Percent

JSC Star designs better with Solid Edge. Using Solid Edge, JSC manages collaborative assembly design, reduces engineering errors and eliminates physical prototypes.

Learn how here.

Start your 45 day free trial of Solid Edge here. 

Creating 3D Frames in Solid Edge ST6

Solid Edge speeds design of rigid frame structures beginning with a 3D sketch defining the frame skeleton. Solid Edge automatically creates frame components using standard cross-sections and generates cut lists for manufacturing.

Discover the ease of use when creating 3D frames in Solid Edge using the Frame Wizard. Swoosh Technologies’ Application Engineer, Dylan Malek, walks you through steps to create a frame in Solid Edge. Also, discover new features in the latest version – Solid Edge ST6.

Solid Edge How To: Changing Modeling Measurement Units

In Solid Edge, there is a way to quickly change the measurement units when working on a design. This can be done with a new design, existing design or one that was brought in from another CAD system. Follow the steps below to learn how!

1. Here is a 3D model created and dimensioned in inches but the modeling measurements need to be changed to millimeters. With the model loaded, go to the application menu  select “Properties”  “File Properties”

2. In the dialog box that appears, select the “Units” tab. There you will find a list of all of the available units that can be used when modeling in Solid Edge. Change the units to millimeters.

Note: In this same dialog box you can change decimal precision on the units, the Angle Readout, and Area Readout options.

3. Next, accept the change and return to the model. Any new created geometry or synchronous change made to the model will now be in millimeters.

Now you may be thinking “Why did the dimensions stay in inches?” This is because you have changed the modeling units only! The dimensions are being controlled by the “Style” used in the model template.

4. To make the overall style change, select the dimensions from the PMI section in the Pathfinder (hold down “shift” to do a multiple selection). In the dimension command bar, select “ANSI MM” from the drop down list.

 Note: If you want to make a change so that when creating a new dimension it will be in millimeters, all you need to do is go to “Styles”

5. In the dialog box select “Dimensions” from the “Style type” field in the top left hand side and select “ANSI (MM)” under the “Styles” field. Click Apply.

Sam Estrada
Application Engineer
Swoosh Technologies

Use of Solid Edge Cuts Development Time and Reduces the Financial Risk of Innovation

Fripp Design and Research designs better with Solid Edge. Product design company reduces development time 30 percent and enhances its innovation reputation. Solid Edge’s synchronous technology enables easy manipulation of models, fostering design creativity.

Learn how here!

Start your 45 day free trial of Solid Edge here.

Speed Up your Performance with Large Assemblies in Solid Edge

No one likes wasting time waiting for parts and assemblies to open, and once they do open waiting for the software to catch up to rotations, zooms, adding features and parts to assemblies is very frustrating. Let’s go over a few settings that can greatly enhance your performance with large assemblies in Solid Edge.

Shown above are the default settings in Solid Edge for assembly opening. From the opening Solid Edge splash screen follow this path: Application button/Solid Edge Options/Assembly Open As. Set the Open As setting based on your hard ware configuration and personal preference.

For example, you have a really powerful desktop with a huge amount of RAM let’s say around 20 GB, a dual 2 GB video card setup, and a 15,000 RPM SCSI hard drive, “because who wouldn’t want a get up like this”? With a workstation like this you could easily open 2,000 part assemblies with all parts active and all design features turned on, but if you’re like the other 95% percent of us using adequate equipment to get the job done the settings are very important and often ignored or over looked.

 Using the default options, we get an assembly open with all parts, including sub-assembly parts inactive. By inactive I am referring to the parts that are visually seen but not fully loaded into memory thus saving load time. Keep in mind parts that are inactive are not usable until the are activated, which is simply done by right clicking on the part and setting it active.

Another option on the Open As settings panel is to use simplified parts in lieu of designed parts. Shown above you notice what the ‘use simplified design’ will do for you. If the bolt quantity is 200 then you will have 200 complicated helical features that have to be calculated every time you rotate the screen. Helical features are synonymous for being memory hogs, therefore, if the feature doesn’t have any bearing on your design there is no need to have it shown. The time savings gained by taking less than a minute to simplify the design will greatly be compounded in the assemblies the parts are used in.   

For those of you whom prefer to set or change the Open As permitters also have the option to tweak all the individual Open as settings from the open dialog box.

I use this when I open a large assembly that has not had features simplified or if there has not been configurations created that may have time saving benefits such as allowing the user to only open and see the part(s) wanted. I am sure to change the setting to open with all parts turned off. Once I have my empty assembly open, which opens quickly regardless if theres five or 50,000 parts, I begin turning on parts and subassemblies making configurations and simplified parts as I go through the assembly structure. Or if you have the time just say open, go get lunch, maybe a run to the post office, or perhaps wait for the cable installer to show up - it’s really your choice!

Once the assemblies open, there are still many the settings configure. Under the view drop down there are settings for the quality of geometry and the style of viewing such as “Default, High Quality, and Rendering.” There are also settings in “View Overrides” that allow you to turn on reflections, bumb maps, textures, high quality shadows etc. Keep in mind that the more “fancy-flashy” looks take a toll on performance if you don’t have a quality video card to drive them.

Speaking of video cards, there are several selections to choice from based on your video card performance. Shown below are these options. If you uncheck the Automatic selection box, the option to change the settings manually appear. Here is a list of  of the definitions available for selection given by Siemens PLM:

• Graphics Card Driven (Advanced): This option provides full acceleration for all 3D displays and should provide the smoothest display possible for manipulating graphical objects or editing profiles and sketches. To achieve this higher quality display, Solid Edge requires a higher level of graphics card support. Such support may not exist for older graphics cards. This option is designed specifically for use with the latest mid-range and high-end graphics cards.
• Graphics Card Driven (Basic): This option provides full acceleration for all 3D displays and should provide a stable display across a wide variety of midrange to high-end graphics cards. While all displays are hardware accelerated, this option avoids accessing graphics requests that may not be widely supported. Choose this option if Solid Edge is unable to generate consistent displays when using the Graphics Card Driven (Advanced) option.
• Graphics Card Driven (Direct3D): This option is available for the Windows Vista operating system only. This option is intended for Windows Vista users who are unable to generate consistent displays using one of the other graphics card driven options. 
• Backing Store: This option provides a mixture of graphics card and software generated displays. When you manipulate a view, Solid Edge directs all display requests to the graphics accelerator to provide the fastest frame rate possible. When the view manipulations are completed, the final display is generated using a slower, more stable software method to provide a consistent display for all possible configurations. Choose this option for older, legacy configurations, especially when working with graphics cards that are not designed to support CAD applications (gaming or consumer-level graphics cards), or if Solid Edge is unable to generate consistent displays using one of the graphics card driven options.
• Software Driven: This option is provided for diagnostic purposes and should not be used for normal displays. The primary reason for this option is to isolate the source of any graphic anomaly that might occur. In most cases, the graphics driver contains a flaw or is out-of-date. This option should only be selected if directed by support to verify such a condition.
• Use Display Lists: A display list is an OpenGL(r) capability that allows the CAD application to load geometry to the graphics card memory. This off-loads that data from the system memory. Using the dedicated resource on the graphics card is much faster than using shared system memory. This option is set by default for most midrange to high-end cards. A display list increases the performance of the Graphics Card (Advanced) method so that the display rate approaches and sometimes matches the display rate of the Graphics Card (Basic) option.

There is no special combination of settings and configurations that you should set. Every computer is different and some settings do not work great on certain computers. My Dell Laptop doesn’t render correctly when set to Advanced, but works great on Basic. I hope some of these tips help to speed up your performance in Solid Edge!

Dylan Malek
Application Engineer
Swoosh Technologies

View the current Solid Edge training schedule here!

Solid Edge with synchronous technology enables faster, easier design modifications

Leutenegger + Frei AG designs better with Solid Edge. Food processing machine manufacturer reduces design time from three weeks to one day. Solid Edge’s synchronous technology enables design modifications to be made significantly faster and easier compared to prior methods and other systems and the company enjoys a tenfold improvement in design time turnaround.

Learn how here.

Start your free trial of Solid Edge here.