Quick tip on flattening a screw conveyor flight

I came across this a few years ago when looking to flatten a screw conveyor flight.
I believed it couldn’t be done but here’s how….

Create a sketch on the front plane and place a 100 mm diameter circle on it.
Use this to create your first Helix/Spiral using the Pitch and Revolution option. Select Constant Pitch of say 600mm and 1 clockwise revolution starting at 0 degrees.
Repeat this with the same settings but use a larger diameter circle say 500mm.

Now comes the tip – Create two 3D sketches one for each helix. In the first 3D sketch select the helix and use the convert entities command. This will place a spline in the 3DSketch with an On edge relation to the helix. Repeat converting the second helix in the second 3D Sketch to make a second spline.

The rest is easy
Go to the Insert>Sheet metal>Lofted bends and select the two 3DSketches as the profiles using a thickness of say 6mm.

You flight is now finished and ready to be flattened

Mark Duggan
Intercad Technical Support Mgr

SolidWorks Innovation Day 2008 Singapore

SolidWorks Innovation Day 2008 Singapore was held in Swissotel Merchant Court on 12th October 2008. This event was organized by SeaCAD Technologies, sponsored by SolidWorks Corporation and Hewlett Packard. A total of 237 attendees from various industries gathered to witness the launch of SolidWorks 2009.

This year SeaCAD Technologies celebrates its 10th anniversary and opening the proceedings, Sean Seneviratne, Chief Technical Officer, shared how the company progressed through its first decade. He credited the success of SeaCAD to its people, products and especially customers, whom he thanked for their enthusiastic and loyal support throughout the years.

Benjamin Tan, Territorial Sales Manager from SolidWorks Corporation was up next as the keynote speaker to Inspire the Future. He shared four innovation traits contributing to the success of its customers and showcased many product designers who made use of SolidWorks to produce excellent consumer products in the market today.

The highlight of the day was the SolidWorks What’s New 2009. This year, What’s New 2009 had three main themes, Get Your Job Done Faster, Focus of Design Not CAD and Improve the Quality of your Design. Sean returned once again to the stage to demonstrate the performance improvements of SolidWorks 2009. SolidWorks 2008 and 2009 were put to the test live in front of all attendees and covering several common tasks, an incredible 50% increase in speed was seen, out of the box. SolidWorks 2009 also introduced new features like Speedpak to help users get their job done faster without having to change their current work flow. 3Dvia Composer was also brought in to show how users who do not know CAD could still work with SolidWorks CAD data to get their documentation work done.

Focus on Design Not CAD was the second theme for What’s New 2009. Deng Shumin, Technical Manger – Consulting, displayed SolidWorks 2009’s numerous enhancements to the user interface. The audience was clearly interested with the ability to support dual screens, giving them more work space onscreen. SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2009 had significant enhancements in the CAD editor tool within SolidWorks task pane as well as improvements in BOM having the ability to support weldment cultists, ability to add position numbers and having associative named BOMs with their assembly.
To round off the main presentation, Smita Panga, Technical Manager – Products, discussed how SolidWorks Simulation improves the quality of designs. Using new features like Simulation Advisor, users who were clueless about analysis before could now perform simulations like experts. Through a few simple questions, SolidWorks Simulation would be able to pick up boundary conditions to help run an analysis, giving feedback to help improve designs. In addition, designers would now be able to run a virtual simulation before physical tests are done savings lots of time and money.
New in SolidWorks 2009, Photoview 360 enables users to run rendering out of SolidWorks, saving lots of overheads. Its drag and drop interface is so easy to use that no amount of CAD knowledge is need for someone to start using it.
Apart from the presentations, there were also booths to showcase NUS FSAE team and HP workstations. Customers were given the opportunity to experience the power of SolidWorks first-hand with the latest HP workstations. A few lucky participants also walked away with fabulous prizes, including an iPod, Samsung laser printer, 19” LCD monitor and an HP IPAQ 612c.

Before the evening ended, the entire staff of SeaCAD Technologies gathered for a special anniversary celebration with our customers.

Deng Shumin
Technical Manager – Consulting
SeaCAD Technologies

Like working things out for yourself ?

Have you tried the SolidWorks Knowledge Base ?

If you’re like me you will spend hours working it out before asking for help. I work as an Application Engineer and spend my day problem solving. Most of the resources I use are available to Subscription Customers on the Customer Portal. I would encourage you to take a look – one of these is the SolidWorks Knowledge Base, a powerful resource that is available at your fingertips. This is the same Knowledge Base that we as resellers have access to.
Log into the customer portal – you will find the Knowledge Base under My Support along with a host of other helpful links as seen below.

The knowledge base can easily be searched just be typing in some keywords. Let’s look at an example – I have a Multi Seat SNL License with both Office Premium and Office Professional how are the licenses allocated when accessing SolidWorks – type it in the knowledge base and see… I will search by a few key words as seen below.

As you can see you are presented with a host of answers – these will either be Solutions written up by SolidWorks Support Engineers or SPR’s if there are known issues. Your search can be refined Source, Product, Area, Sub Area & Status and you can also simply scroll thru looking for your answer.

Let’s look at the answer to our question as it’s regularly asked and posting it here will be of value

Solution Id: S-07286 Area: FAQ

Question: How would Office Premium and Office Professional floating licenses work in a SolidNetWork License (SNL) environment?

Topic: SolidNetWork License

Answer: First, it is important to understand that a company which has purchased, for example, two seats of Office Professional would have a license file which shows two licenses of SolidWorks and two licenses of Office Professional. If a user just turns on SolidWorks with no add-ins, he will use just the Solidworks license. Once he turns on one of the Office add-ins, the Office Pro license will be checked out. Any Office license moves as a bundle and will allow the user to turn on any Office add-in.

SolidWorks queries the license server in sequence for license types which may support the product an end-user is enabling. For example, if a user turns on PhotoWorks, a request is made at the license server for a PhotoWorks license, an Office license, an Office Pro License, and then an Office Premium license. Any of those license types will allow PhotoWorks to add-in, so SolidWork will use the most efficient license type first.

Therefore, the case of a mixture of Office Premium and Office Pro will work like this:
User A will check-out an Office Pro license if he adds-in any of the Office Pro modules. If he adds in COSMOSWorks® Designer, COSMOSMotionTM, or Routing, he will use an Office Premium license instead. Several hours later, another User (User B) turns on an Office Pro add-in, like PhotoWorks. If no more Office Pro licenses are available, this will check-out an Office Premium license. That user will retain the Office Premium license until he turns off all add-ins or closes SolidWorks.

Knowledge is Power start using the SolidWorks Knowledge base today

Linsay Armstrong
Application Engineer
Intercad Australia/New Zealand

Notes about Installation…

With the release of SolidWorks 2008, the Installation manager was introduced. This Installation Manager (IM) helps the user streamline the installation process, by assessing your entitlement through your serial number. SolidWorks goes online to check for products to install and also any updates that are required. The installation manager does take away some of the freedom of the installation process however it also ensures that you do not install anything you cannot license nor does it allow you to get into too much trouble.

Some great features of the installation manager are the ability to schedule the download and installation, so you could set this download to run overnight and install automatically, so when you come in, in the morning you’re all set.

Some other options that are worth noting; “Speed up downloads by using more network bandwidth.” This setting allows SolidWorks to download from multiple peers allowing the download to be much quicker. This setting however is not always allowed by all proxy servers meaning that you may have download issues, if you are getting security messages then try turning this setting off.

Further to the download many customers are having issues with the download size, yes it is large however not as large as the IM indicates, it’s compressed to about 2/3 of this figure the total figure is how much room the file needs once it lands. Also do not be fooled by the original download of the IM as there is a new IM for each service pack, this is about 30Mb once this is downloaded the new IM will assist you in downloading the rest.

When installing for the first time, don’t bother with the service pack downloads just yet, get the service pack 0.0 in first, get it running then check for updates through the help menu.

Also if you can have the original installation media inserted into the DVD drive you will reduce your download hugely!

For more information on installation of SolidWorks Individual and Administrative Image, and other products like PDMWorkgroup check out this great link: https://www.solidworks.com/downloads/Supportfiles/SW_Installation_Guide/2009/English/WebHelp/Installation.htm

Remember installation is all about permissions, and no Anti-Virus service running. Stop your Anti-Virus service in Administrative Tools NOT in the taskbar. Keep it simple and you’ll be fine…

Next blog… Activation Stay Tuned!!!

Micah Speight
Intercad Pty Limited., www.intercad.com.au
Authorized Solidworks Reseller in Autralia & New Zealand

SolidWorks Tools that keep your workstation healthy

Working constantly in support for Intercad I have a few tips that may help if your system is unstable. These are things to look at and good practices that will keep your system healthy.

1. The video card maybe having trouble.
Go the SolidWorks video card testing site https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html This site not only has video cards but systems that have been tested with that card and the video card driver used. The video driver may not be the latest but it has been certified and tested by SolidWorks.

2. Brand named computers are not much more expensive but the time lost when there is a conflict between computer drivers is well worth the extra money compare to white box or DIY machine. Similarly building your own computer to a specification can also have pitfalls. One client found this out when he purchased a cheap power supply which although specified correctly was not up to the job.

3. Use Rx. This tool is definetly underused and has a lot of helpful features.

Two are circled above;
a) Click here to launch SolidWorks in Software OpenGL mode. This lets you start SolidWorks and bypass your graphics cards using the computer processor to produce the image. Very helpful if you suspect crashing due to your graphics card as it will be stable.

b) Click here to launch SolidWorks while bypassing the Tools Options settings. If you have exited the program illegally you may have some corruption of your registry settings. This bypasses your computers registry and uses “Out of the Box” settings. If your instability is resolved using this contact Intercad or your local VAR and they can edit your registry to fix this.

4. Maintenance of your system.
Rx is again the tool you should make use of.

The system maintenance tab.
Notice above that it will clean out not only temporary SolidWorks files but normal temp and internet temp files. You can also see at the bottom circled two really neat features that allow you to select your computer drives and do a check disk and run defragmenter.
Lastly how often and when do I have time you ask?
When selecting Start Maintenance it will ask you whether you want to do this

Now
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
and at what time.

All you need to do is set it and it will do as often as you want when you want even if you aren’t there as long as your machine is on. Rx is the easy way to keep your machine clean and the hard drive clear. Go To Start>All Programs>SolidWorks xxx>SolidWorks Tools> SolidWorks Rx.

More tips later …

Mark Duggan
Intercad Technical Support Mgr

Tired of updating Multiple Workstations at your site?

Tired of updating Multiple Workstations at your site – if you maintain SolidWorks on more than 1 Workstation then you should consider using an Admin Image.
Have you had the situation where multiple users on your site are all downloading and installing service packs separately? Using up valuable bandwidth and productive time – if so then using an admin image is just what you need

An admin image allows you to install on multiple machines concurrently. When the admin image is Service Packed all the clients can be automatically updated – a huge time saver
Creating an admin image is now very easy using the SolidWorks Installation Manager. Gone are the days of needing to create multiple admin images for each add-in product using command line syntax.

The SolidWorks Installation Manager guides you thru the simple process of creating an Admin Image that can contain all the add-ins available including the likes of SolidWorks Simulation & Motion.
A full guide is available on the Customer Portal once you’re logged in take the link for Admin Guides under the references section. Then select the SolidWorks Installation and Administration Guide – once there you can browse to the section on Admin images as shown below right.

Once your image is created you still have the ability to edit options if you have specific requirement for various computers – for example you may need to change serial numbers or add-ins that are being installed.

The SolidWorks Administrative Image Option editor is designed to help you with this – the new 2009 version has been enhanced with additional options as shown below

So I would encourage you start using an Admin Image its well worth the effort and will save you and your staff allot of time…

Linsay Armstrong
Applications Engineer
Intercad Australia/New Zealand

SolidWorks, does ‘works’ just fine sometimes you just need to tweak your workflow a little…

Working on Intercad’s Technical Support team you come across many customers that sometimes just seem to struggle with the performance of their machine(s) and as SolidWorks adds greater value to the product each year this performance appears to go downhill… Not true!

I’d have to say nearly 80% of SolidWorks performance related issues are the blame of an incompatible video card or just the video driver. As SolidWorks is so reliant on the openGL functionality of your video card having the right hardware and configuration is critical, the right hardware or driver can give you either a good or bad experience with CAD software. To aid this SolidWorks produce their own drivers which are available on their website at www.solidworks.com if you have not checked your video driver for updates in the last 6 months please do. The drivers can be filtered on the site by Vendor (please also note that DELL and HP are also listed as cards for these systems are specific to DELL and HP configurations) SolidWorks version and system can also be filtered.

Not only hardware and drivers but your workflow may just need updating…

With each new version of SolidWorks there are many new features, many of which are customer driven enhancements. With these new features the software inevitably becomes larger, this will lead to you more than likely requiring an update yourself! In the past few releases SolidWorks has added many performance enhancements to assist you in getting the most out of you currant system. SolidWorks prides itself in the customer not having to constantly upgrade their hardware, so performance enhancements like SpeedPak, greater functionality in Lightweight mode, and Large Assembly Modes are added to assist you.

In the recent release of SolidWorks 2009 there have been many fantastic performance related enhancements, one of which I have noticed is in the drawing views. As you zoom in and out SolidWorks is adding view detail as you zoom in, this means that when you are just looking at the sheet from a page fit perspective not every little piece of data is loaded into the views leaving greater RAM space. This feature has been added to improve dynamic display speed and generation of drawing views.

The new SpeedPak functionality is brilliant offering you the ability to insert large sub-assemblies into an even larger top level assembly, not only this but all you BOM and annotation features are still available. SpeedPak allows you to generate drawings of large assemblies quicker than ever before. Another fantastic feature of the SpeedPak is you can email only the assembly file and not all the references as all the reference information is added to the file when you generate the SpeedPak.

Other features like “Quick View/Selective Open”, Display States and the ability to load specified drawing sheets have been added in SolidWorks 2009, this giving you the ability to only load 1 or 2 sheets of a large drawing file, maybe just to make a minor adjustment, save as PDF or print.

To summarise the above, SolidWorks has so many great performance enhancing features with every new release that it can be hard to keep track of them all in our little worlds. SolidWorks together with Intercad and other vendors all over the world have put together Innovation Days that you can attend to gain this vital information. So don’t get left behind with this extremely fast paced developing software and get along to one of these events, also take the opportunity to speak with Technical Support staff and SolidWorks affiliates from around the globe!

Don’t get left behind, finding yourself using SolidWorks 2009 with your old 2003 techniques!

Watch this space for more…

Micah Speight
Intercad Pty Limited., www.intercad.com.au
Authorized Solidworks Reseller in Autralia & New Zealand