3DEXPERIENCE

3DEXPERIENCE Works is the Sound of SOLIDWORKS Getting Better

SOLIDWORKS Technical Update

Many of us understand why people are so passionate about Apple products or why people line up at Starbucks. Neither company invented mobile communication or coffee shops, but both serve their customers in a way that consistently provides exceptional quality. At SOLIDWORKS, we have put many years of development and effort into creating an exceptional user experience, removing friction between the creative process of design and the actual realization of a product. We do this in many ways but primarily by listening to customer feedback and then implementing their suggestions in upcoming releases—this is undoubtedly at the heart of the SOLIDWORKS culture. The 3DEXPERIENCE® Works portfolio is the next evolution of the mission, which is to create extraordinary user experiences for SOLIDWORKS® users from design through manufacture.   More Capabilities for SOLIDWORKS Users To begin with, 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS is SOLIDWORKS connected to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud. It’s that simple. Installing SOLIDWORKS is streamlined. Updates are more frequent and are pushed onto the platform helping your team to stay up to date with the latest enhancements. And, because 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS is part of the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio, you now have direct access to a range of powerful tools—unavailable to SOLIDWORKS users until now—that can help you get projects done faster and more efficiently. For example, the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio gives SOLIDWORKS users immediate access to powerful subdivision modeling (Sub-D) capabilities. Most of us understand that organic shapes are challenging—and typically slower—to build with parametric modelers. With Sub-D modeling, you can streamline the conceptual design stage because you don’t have to set up all the sub-structure necessary in parametric modeling. By leveraging the advanced Sub-D modeling capabilities within the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio, you’ll be able to significantly increase the number of new design concepts that you produce in a day. On-the-fly changes are quick and easy. Getting final approval becomes faster and more efficient. Design Through Manufacture Engineers and designers can share designs easily via the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, allowing key stakeholders—including non-engineers—to give feedback throughout the product development phase to help reduce downstream delays. Data management is already integrated into the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Capabilities such as revision control, product maturity, permission management, and more are automatically enabled when you make design changes to your cloud-connected SOLIDWORKS parts and assemblies on the platform. With all the data in the same place, everyone is up to date with access to a single source of truth. Therefore, data-driven decision-making is streamlined. And because you are accessing real-time data, there is no risk of being out of sync on model revisions or assembly configurations.   Simulation capabilities help you digitally validate your designs to gain insights into the performance, reliability, and safety of products at all stages of the development process. Simulation capabilities are extended for SOLIDWORKS users in the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio with direct access to advanced Abaqus Finite Element Analysis (FEA) capabilities, including but not limited to: Advanced non-linear static, quasi-static, and dynamic analysis involving sliding contacts, large deformation, and hyper-elastic materials Advanced meshing with a wide range of element formulations and types including tetrahedrons, bricks, shells and beam elements Fatigue simulations including uniaxial, multiaxial and infinite, all with stress and strain life formulations, and a robust material durability library High-performance computing (HPC) to expand compute capability and accelerate computation time on powerful computers, on-premises or the cloud Plus, the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio also provides SOLIDWORKS users with direct access to a number of manufacturing tools, enabling streamlined communication between departments to identify and reduce manufacturability errors at any phase to help accelerate the release to production. Who Appreciates 3DEXPERIENCE Works? Engineering Leadership 3DEXPERIENCE Works enables organizations to unite multiple disciplines and stakeholders across multiple time zones to work together to help get a single product to market. Engineers can move from ideation through delivery in one integrated environment. The integrated product development and built-in collaboration tools provide instant visibility into what your teams are working on, enabling you to quickly make changes when things go wrong and reduce non-value-added work. Business Leadership How do you grow and maintain a competitive advantage in a world where technology accelerates change and competition? 3DEXPERIENCE Works provides the ability to aggregate and share real-time information across the company. The tools allow you to monitor relevant key performance indicators to track brand awareness and competitive activity to maintain and grow customer loyalty, enabling you to quickly respond to changing market conditions or shifting buyer behavior. IT Leadership Changing technology and demands from company leaders can make it impossible to deliver all of the required solutions. The cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio provides the flexibility to add new capabilities from an integrated platform. With greater control and visibility into your investments, you can lower costs, reduce complexity, and increase return on investment, moving IT from a tactical utility to a strategic investment. If you take a minute to think about it, there is no longer a need to rely on dedicated in-house servers. Your IT team no longer needs to worry about server space, cooling issues, physical protection, or other concerns. Network infrastructure, storage, backups, and disaster recovery plans are handled for you. Plus, software updates, such as upgrades, service packs, and downloads happen automatically. Startups Your existence is dependent on getting to market quickly and finding the tools to support business growth. The scalable, cloud-based technology allows you to add new capabilities when needed, leveling the playing field for smaller companies competing with more established organizations. One for All, All from One The 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio combines the ease of use of SOLIDWORKS with best-of-breed applications connected to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The platform enables you to work concurrently and collaborate with your colleagues from any location. Whether you are a smaller company in a single location or a multisite international firm, product development teams must stay on the same page, including managers and executives, regardless of location. Now you can more easily innovate and solve day-to-day product development problems as a team. The portfolio delivers top 3D modeling, simulation, data management, and manufacturing solutions in one collaborative environment. Unite the people, applications, and real-time data from every aspect of your business for improved productivity, increased collaboration, and accelerated innovation. Connect your data to the platform through…

Solidworks

How SOLIDWORKS Helped Build A Belly Racer?

SOLIDWORKS Technical Update

If you have read any of my blogs about the Tucker Torpedo, racing at Indianapolis, or the Tucker Carioca you know that I’m a car guy. For those that didn’t read those blogs and just so you know; I’m a car guy. I jump at the chance to work on, rebuild, customize, race and thoroughly enjoy cars in all forms. One of my favorite time periods is 1930 to 1960. During these years hot rods were created. After WWII men came back home with specialized knowledge about high-performance engines from being aircraft mechanics. And the pilots who were adrenaline junkies needed to go fast but didn’t have an airplane anymore to satisfy that need. So they turned to cars, and this is what this blog series is about. The men and women who took the know-how and need for speed to turn war surplus aircraft parts into cars were known as “Belly Racers.” These were land speed record cars, not your typical race cars you see on TV. These were small, light and fast, but they also have their downsides. Like all auto racing, it’s a dangerous sport and this was especially the case back in the 1940s when safety was secondary to going fast. The Belly Racer got its name from the auxiliary fuel tanks used on aircraft during WWII, which provided additional fuel for extended flights. What you might have thought of as a deployable bomb under the fuselage of an airplane in war movies was instead a belly tank. The tank could be dropped at any time by the pilot if needed. Here’s a good picture of a belly tank that can hold several hundred gallons of fuel. After the war, the aux tanks or “Belly” tanks were no longer needed and considered war surplus. The pilots and aircraft mechanics probably bought the belly tanks at their local Army/Navy store and turned them into land speed racers using their hot rod knowledge. Back in the late 1940’s drag racing was just getting started in California and that wasn’t what they wanted to do. They wanted to go as fast as the planes they flew. So they turned to land speed racing, which had been around for several decades starting with Henry Ford when he covered the mile in 39.4sec at an incredible 91.37MPH. Quite an accomplishment back in 1903. A belly tank was an easy choice to make if you’re going to build a land speed racer; it’s aerodynamic and light. Knowing this going in when building a land speed racer takes a lot of guesswork out of coming up with a shape that has a minimal drag coefficient. But the aerodynamic shape does pose packaging challenges. A driver, engine, cooling system, suspension, driveline, and fuel tank all have to fit inside the belly tank. These challenges didn’t thwart the guys who were building these racers. They were very ingenious and resourceful. Their accomplishments in the garage building and developing the belly racer were as satisfying as the accomplishments on the salt flats where they raced. Here in the U.S. land speed records have been made on the beaches of Daytona Beach, Florida, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, and at Black Rock, Nevada, where the land speed record was set at 763MPH in 1997 by the Thrust SSC! Bonneville is the oldest and most famous site for land speed records starting in 1912. Both Bonneville and Black Rock offer an almost unlimited area to hold land speed races because it takes 11 miles of flat open area to set a speed record. As a racer, you have five miles to get up to speed before entering the timed mile then five miles to slow down. In order to set a land speed record, the car must make a return run within an hour and cover the same 11 miles. The average of the two runs determines the land speed record. There are many YouTube videos to watch on Bonneville land speed record racing. Watch a couple if you can you will be entertained and impressed by the engineering involved to go fast. Attending Bonneville is on my bucket list to attend because I’m a car guy and an engineer. Some of the coolest purpose-built race cars are can be found at Bonneville including Belly Racers like these: This is what a Belly Racer looked like back in the 1940s. The Idea Of Building A Belly Racer In SOLIDWORKS Came from a British chap, Paul Cameron. Paul and I crossed paths because of the Carioca project and have become friends because of our mutual love of cars. Paul reached out to me about a year ago and asked if I was interested in helping him with his Belly Racer project. What do you think my answer was?

Design

The Future of Design and Manufacturing

SOLIDWORKS Technical Update

Powerful computers and fast communication networks are more affordable than ever. Cloud-connected tools, such as those offered on the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform, enable superior collaboration and the ability to keep everyone on the same page—all in a single environment. We have talked lots about how designers benefit from an integrated environment. But What About Manufacturing? It is still fairly typical for most small- to mid-size manufacturers to rely on emails, faxes, and phone calls as the primary vehicles to communicate with customers. However, manufacturing can also work from this same common platform as designers do. One that is automatically in sync with product development, whether products are produced in-house or with outside suppliers. Make Communication More Efficient Design engineers and manufacturing have a history of poor or strained relationships. The lack of being on the same page can hurt productivity resulting in higher product costs. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform enables you to create project Communities where you can securely invite everyone to the product development project including customers and suppliers. Because you are working from the cloud, all information is shared in real-time—no more managing tons of project emails. Disputes with designers or managers or clients are quickly resolved by reviewing communication threads within the Community. Follow-up meetings can be quickly organized using 3DLean on the platform, which guides and captures discussions in a natural environment leveraging a simple digital whiteboard, marker, and sticky notes. 3DLean makes Lean principles a natural outcome of team engagement, so improvement becomes second nature instead of a forced or awkward part of the process. Get Involved Earlier in the Design The 3D CAD review capabilities on the platform enable your entire team to review the product design without any requisite CAD knowledge. From engineers to managers to manufacturing, all team members can participate in the design review process with full 3D digital renderings. Potential issues discovered earlier in the process are less costly to resolve.  Real-time design for manufacturing (DFM) advice from the shop floor or suppliers avoids (potentially expensive) downstream issues. Making 3D reviews available to everyone is like sharing a common language; the entire team can participate in the design review process. Plus, all communication is captured on the platform, so traceability is built right into the process. It becomes so much easier to communicate concerns, identify issues, and propose resolutions when everyone can see and review the 3D CAD model themselves. This enables internal stakeholders without CAD tools and outside suppliers to participate and get involved sooner in the development cycle. Automatically in Synch By now, you can probably easily see that when the entire team—designers and manufacturers—work from the same platform, making informed decisions is faster because everyone has access to real-time data, regardless of access to CAD tools. With all the data in the same place, everyone is up to date with access to a single source of truth. And because you are accessing “live” data, there is no risk of being out of sync on model revisions or assembly configurations. With the ability of everyone to work from any location, traditional roadblocks to efficient deliveries and collaboration are eliminated. Manufacturers are no longer in the dark until the last minute. Relationships with designers and customers improve. Manufacturing by its very nature is a collaborative effort. The advantages of a system that can embrace all of the product development from concept through manufacturing should be obvious. Processes can be streamlined, productivity increased, delivery dates consistently met, and team communication maximized in a shared technology environment. The 3DEXPERIENCE World presentation called The Future of Design and Manufacturing helps give you a visual, real-world scenario to imagine what this type of computing environment might do for your company. If you have further questions, please contact Us

Top 5 New Features in SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2022

SOLIDWORKS Technical Update

SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE rolled out a little differently this year. If you treated yourself to one of GSC’s virtual 2021 What’s New Recaps, you saw our 25-year veteran Jeff Setzer unveil myriad new features in 2021 through the eyes of Square Robot’s AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle).  And just as in years past, this 3 hour ‘deep dive’ proved to be only the tip of the iceberg! Just like an iceberg, most of the mass is below the surface, so let’s take an ‘in depth’ look at a few of our favorite SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2021 enhancements and how you can put these to work right away once you make the switch! (Need a refresher? View our SOLIDWORKS Electrical page) Below is a list and brief description of several new features where I show you my top 5. But don’t take my word for it, read over the notes and see how 2021 can benefit you! 5. Use Splines & Arcs to Define Your Routing Path (EW_Path) Check out this video displaying new possibilities in 3D Routing, also embedded below this text. Where our routes always resulted in lines and splines for our routes, we now can use splines, along with lines and arcs to guide our routes. The ability to use this extra sketch type gives us more control over the route’s path to ensure clearance in geometrically complex mechanical frameworks, and also can help avoid some of the common “bend radius” warnings that appear during routing by giving our EW_PATH splines to smooth out tight corners. 4. SOLIDWORKS Electrical Viewer With the addition of the Electrical Viewer (present on anyone’s machine at time of install of 2021), users can now review and even export or print drawings without using a license of SOLIDWORKS Electrical. If your team is hard at work and no licenses are in the pool and you just need to get in and review portions of the design, this is a great tool to have. It’s simple to pull up, and can avoid interruptions to your team that is hard at work and focused on laying out your next big thing. 3. Exclude From Bill of Materials (BOM) While SOLIDWORKS teams have had a convenient way to hide items from their BOM, Electrical users had to develop their own methods, typically via USER DATA and Filtering. Now Electrical users can join the party, getting their own “Exclude from BOM” function. This is handy for when you want to use the convenience of a part’s data (attributes, footprint, symbols etc.), but it’s project inclusion may be assumed (and ignored) or accounted for by the mechanical team. Now adding that extra documentation is cleaner and easier. If a part NEVER belongs on your BOMs, you can check the box in your Library. If it is a case-by-case exclusion, you can address it on the part properties, and update only that component. Now run your reports with the Exclude FILTER or hard code into your custom query via a “WHERE” statement (i.e. WHERE “exclude from BOM” == 0) and those parts will dissolve from your reports! Also check out this bonus feature for your BOMs…what can this do for your Electro-Mechanical Collaboration? It’s good to have options! 2. Wire Options It took me a minute to fully understand the impact of this one, but trust me, this is BIG. I recently worked with users sharing several ideas they had to build into SOLIDWORKS Electrical. They described how each time symbols on a node changed, the wire flow also changed automatically. However, their intent was typically to remote a component and replace it with something else, preferably leaving the wiring as it was. Now in our Project configuration, we can solve exactly this! You’ll notice when you fire up your projects, 3 new boxes that will be checked by default to maintain legacy behavior. However, changing these settings unlocks some serious time savings! Unchecking the first 2 boxes now allows wiring to maintain its state by keeping the nodal indicator and setting a “PENDING” state on the open end of the wire, meaning that wire exists in the database as a flying lead, and also stays in place when another component comes into play. So no more wiring order changes, once it’s set, it sticks. I get the feeling this will be one you’ll set and never want to go back. And finally… 1. Scheduled Archiving This one almost made it into 2020, and has been requested in virtually EVERY training class I’ve ever run. Happy to say it’s here! We now have the ability to create our environmental archives automatically. This past year I helped with a higher than usual number of cases with unexpected Electrical data loss…and having the Environmental Archive capture regularly makes these situations SO MUCH easier to recover from. Previously this had to be scheduled and maintained by your team. Now we can now use Windows Task Scheduler to set and run the archive in the background at a convenient time without interruption! Set it for 3 a.m. on Saturdays and you’ll never have to send out those email blasts to everyone over lunch. Here’s how it works. By visiting your SOLIDWORKS Electrical folder in Program Files, we have a ewenvironmentarchiver icon, open this to set your options. You can choose to create a TOTAL or PARTIAL backup depending on your preferences, along with the path for where to place the final file. Now we turn to the Windows Task Scheduler, and in your task list you can verify the path to the target the .exe file along with defining it’s time and frequency via “properties.” Schedule a test run to make sure everything is set properly. It will create a uniquely named archive file in the output folder at the scheduled time. A report can be generated showing if the archive finished cleanly or had trouble with anything along the way. And enjoy the peace of mind knowing your Electrical data is getting backed up routinely and will be easily recovered. Related Video: Prevent Data Loss with…

2D Draftsight

Learn How 2D DraftSight Complements 3D Design Tools

SOLIDWORKS Technical Update

Young Industries, Inc., has manufactured conveying systems and related components since 1947 and holds many patents for problem-solving equipment. The engineering staff regularly evaluates better methods to develop, design, and manufacture custom-designed equipment for handling dry bulk materials in the chemical, petrochemical, ceramics, and coatings industries. The majority of Young Industries’ design and engineering work, including all-new designs, is done in 3D using SOLIDWORKS software. However, specific tasks, such as modifying legacy drawings, creating simple layouts, and developing P&IDs (piping and instrumentation diagrams), are better addressed with 2D design tools.   The Right Tool for the Task- 2D Draftsight The company used MountainTop® 2D design software until it experienced both hardware and software failure. When Young Industries decided to look for an alternative 2D Draftsight design solution, they evaluated the available 2D design packages. DraftSight®Enterprise from Dassault Systèmes was chosen because the software is easy to maintain and support, and it included the needed features at a better price. Plus, DraftSight directly integrates with SOLIDWORKS PDM, which the company also deploys. Eliminating the translation from 2D to 3D saves engineers time and effort. For example, a customer’s DWG/DXF file is much easier to manipulate in DraftSight Enterprise.  Minor modifications can take about 15 minutes in DraftSight versus days of work remodeling an old 2D drawing in SOLIDWORKS. Managing Legacy Data DraftSight also enables Young Industries to manage its collection of 2D legacy data and library of 2D drawings more effectively. This accessibility helps accelerate proposal development, which saves both time and money. The move to DraftSight Enterprise has also improved the company’s drawing management function because DraftSight is fully compatible with SOLIDWORKS PDM. And, because DraftSight is so intuitive and similar to AutoCAD, engineers can learn it in a day or two. “DraftSight is an indispensable tool in our tool belt, says J. Tyler Thompson, VP of Operations for Young Industries. “There are times you need a hammer and times you need a screwdriver. We can very quickly and easily translate what is possible between those two applications if we need to jump from one to another.” Young Industries maximizes design productivity by using DraftSight Enterprise software for 2D tasks, such as creating P&ID diagrams, and SOLIDWORKS for 3D design needs, such as large assemblies. To read the full story, click here.  To learn more and request a quote for DraftSight Enterprise, click here.