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View our archived Tech Tips.
June 2010 Tech Tips
Going with the Flow:
Preparing your SolidWorks model for a Flow Simulation study.
Everyone has preferred ways of preparing 3D geometry for a FEA or
CFD study, here are some "best practices" for a smooth transition
between design and, in this case, a thermal and/or fluid flow
analysis.
> The best time to think about analysis is when creating the
original 3D model. Recommend creating a secondary "Flow"
configuration, where a version of the part or assembly can be
created that is better suited toward the requirements of the
analysis. This might include suppressing cosmetic features and
parts, sealing open seams in sheet metal, creating lids to be used
for boundary conditions and creating disabled volumes to be used
for mesh refinement or post processing. It is much easier to think
about these things as geometry is created than to go back and do
the work during the analysis setup. Create a Flow configuration for
each part, where necessary, and reference these simplified
configurations in the top-level assembly using its own Flow
configuration. This may sound like a lot of work, but when
incorporated into your standard procedures, it should greatly
reduce the setup time associated with your Flow simulation.
> Run an interference check using "treat coincidence as
interference" to understand where parts have face to face contact
and where they do not. Although interfering components won't
necessarily cause a problem in Flow Simulation, they may not be
desirable in thermal studies with conduction.
> Run the "Check Geometry" tool within flow to confirm that Flow
has detected a fully enclosed fluid volume (for an internal Flow
study) and that no invalid contacts exist. Invalid contacts such as
line or point contact between components are a frequent cause of
problems in a Flow study. Flow Simulation might "fix" some of these
issues internally and will highlight others that it cannot fix.
Click through any reported issues and they should highlight in the
graphics area. Take the necessary steps to remove point and line
contact by adding or removing material.
> In some situations, Flow may not be able to locate the problem
that is causing the solver to fail. In these situations, it is
necessary for the user to find the issue by inspection of the model
or by using various "tricks of the trade." With experience, even
these issues can be located without a great deal of effort. Start
by creating a large rectangular (or whatever shape you wish)
mulitbody or assembly component that envelopes half of the model.
Anything within this new volume will essentially be absorbed by it
and if the offending geometry is included, the problem should
vanish. If the problem still exists, then move the block to the
other side of the model. Refresh your model and study each time and
use Check Geometry as needed to interrogate the model. When you
have located the general area of the model that is causing the
problem, then next step is to systematically reduce the size of the
block until you have pinpointed the problem. This is an iterative
process, but can move relatively quickly in most cases. If your
problem involves an enclosure of some kind, run a separate test
study on just the enclosure with no other components present.
> Finally, with any analysis, particularly those that are prone
to difficulties, always start with the most simple representation
of the study and add complexity as needed until you reach your
requirements. This is critical and will aid you in moving smoothly
through the analysis process. It is all too common for engineers to
throw everything into the mix at once, including beautiful,
render-ready geometry and every analysis bell and whistle
available, then wonder why they can't just push "Run" Think ahead
and develop your own process for going from design to analysis and
you should find Flow Simulation a fast and powerful tool for
designing better products.
May 2010 Tech Tips
Importing Technique:
For those who import files from other CAD systems into SolidWorks,
often they run into situations where files will not knit properly
and instead of importing a nice solid, they get unknit surfaces and
gaps in their surface bodies. This may be because the tolerances
between the surfaces may be larger than what SolidWorks can handle.
Next time you import the surfaces try importing the bodies as
unknit surfaces. Scale the surfaces down by a factor of 10 using
the Scale Feather and then knit the unknit surfaces with the Knit
Feature. The scaling will decrease the size of the gaps between
surfaces and potentially within the tolerance range for the
surfaces to be knit properly. After the surfaces are knit, rescale
the file back up to by a factor of 10!
Delete Surface Holes:
When working with imported geometry or surface modeling many users
are already familiar with the Untrim command. Untrim will pull back
the edges of a surface (typology) to reveal the underlying geometry
of a surface when selecting edges. But Untrim is only effective for
external edges of a surface you wish to untrim. When it comes to
untriming internal edges of a surface like a trimmed internal hole
or cut, Delete Hole is more effective and less resource intensive.
To Delete Hole select one of the edges of the hole you wish to
delete and hit the "Delete" key. A dialog will come up asking if
you wish to delete the "Feature" or the "hole". Choose the hole.
(note: delete hole does not work to remove gaps between surfaces
only holes within surfaces)
April 2010 Tech Tips
Updating the Convert and Print Task Add-in in Enterprise
PDM:
When you upgrade an Enterprise PDM file vault to a new service pack
(or version) - the existing convert and print task add-in
(SWTaskAddIn) will not automatically update with latest version. If
you do not update the add-in, it is possible that fixes done to the
task add-in may not apply to the upgraded vault. To ensure you are
running the latest, updated version of the task add-in
(SWTaskAddIn), do as follows after the vault upgrade: 1. Verify
which version of the current task add-in is used by right-clicking
the enterprise tray icon > task host configuration: - If it is
2010 SP0 - version would read 2010000523 - If it is 2010 SP1 -
version would read 2010010616 - If it is 2010 SP2 - version would
read 2010020714
If using an old version, you need to upgrade the existing task
add-in in the vault: 1. Open administration tool on a
upgraded client - log in as Admin. 2. File > open >
browse to c:\program files\solidworks enterprise pdm\default
data\ 3. Load the "Convert_GB.cex" file. 4.
Drag-and-drop SWTaskAddIn to the add-ins node (not the convert
task). Select Yes to update the existing add-in. 5. Verify
via the task host configuration that the updated add-in is
loaded. 6. On clients that act as task host it is recommended
to exit enterprise and log in again to the view to ensure the
updated add-in is loaded.
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM with Mouse
Gestures:
You can use a mouse gesture as a shortcut to execute a command,
similar to a keyboard shortcut. Once you learn command mappings,
you can use mouse gestures to invoke mapped commands quickly. Every
function available in the in-context menu offered by the SolidWorks
Enterprise add-in can be assigned to a mouse gesture in SolidWorks
2010. To reassign a mouse gesture command in SolidWorks:
1. Create a new document 2. Load the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM
add-in 3. Click Tools > Customize… and select the Mouse Gestures
tab. 4. Set Category to Enterprise PDM 5. Click the Command column
header to sort the commands 6. Choose one of the mouse gesture
directions to reassign, and in the row for the new command 7. By
default, four directions are available. Select 8 gestures to assign
commands for eight gesture directions. 8. Click OK to save.
March 2010 Tech Tips
Direct Editing with Child Recognition:
SolidWorks 2010 allows you the ability to directly edit parametric
solids not native to SolidWorks. Direct editing will now import
child features. Just select on the feature and edit. FeatureWorks
will then recognize the feature and the child features, allowing
you to edit as desired.
Hole Wizard Headaches:
Remember the days of having to select a face first when using the
Hole Wizard. No longer is that the case. In SolidWorks 2010 the
Hole Wizard is smart enough to know if you want a 3D sketch or when
you select the face it will us a 2D sketch. Take a look into your
available standards too, notice Australian Standard (AS) is now
available as well.
February 2010 Tech Tips
Pack and Go:
You know where the assembly is, but how about all of the parts?
Some of them might be on your desktop, a few in My Documents,
others on a network drive. Sure, you could use File, Find
References, but then what about the drawings? How can you safely
copy these files? Pack and Go is a powerful and flexible file
management tool. For example, when using it on assemblies there are
options to rename parts/sub-assemblies, add a prefix/suffix to all
files, and then save the files to a new folder or Zip file. It can
also automatically locate and include drawings, simulation results,
and PhotoWorks renderings! Pack and Go can be found under the File
menu in SolidWorks, and is also available from right mouse clicking
a document in SolidWorks Explorer. Please note - Pack and Go is not
a suitable replacement for secure document revision control. That
need is best satisfied by SolidWorks Enterprise PDM.
Rapid Dimension:
New for drawings in SolidWorks 2010 is Rapid Dimension, enabling
you to quickly place dimensions that are automatically spaced for
easy reading. To access this feature, turn on the Smart Dimension
tool and apply a dimension to a drawing view as you normally would.
Once your selection has been made you'll notice the Rapid Dimension
manipulator (halved or quartered pie pieces). Simply hover over the
pie piece to preview the dimension, and left mouse click to confirm
the position. If needed the spacing can be changed from Options,
Document Properties, Dimensions, Offset distances.
January 2010 Tech Tips
Robust Virtual Components:
Virtual components have been around for a few releases and they get
even better in SolidWorks 2010. Virtual components are parts and
assemblies that have been created in the context of an assembly,
and are saved entirely inside the defining assembly. This makes it
extremely easy to rename components directly in the Assembly tree
avoiding the need to open, save as copy, and then use Replace
Components. Making one instance of a virtual component independent
of other instances is a simple Rt.-click menu selection. Also, the
folder where you store your assembly doesn't become cluttered with
unused part and assembly files resulting from design iterations. At
any time you can save the virtual component to an external file
with a Rt.-click. SolidWorks 2010 has all of this and more:
External components can now be made virtual while inserting them or
with a Rt.-click in the Assembly tree; Virtual component names now
always include its parent assembly's name (which updates
automatically when moving or copying to another assembly); External
references in moved or copied virtual components are ignored; A new
system option allows you to automatically override the creation of
virtual components and save new components to external files.
Sketch Pattern & Sketch Fillet
Enhancements:
SolidWorks 2010 welcomes new functionality in a number of sketching
tools. Now, sketch entities created through Linear or Circular
Sketch Patterns are fully parametric as they include the Number of
Instances as a displayable, changeable, and configurable parameter.
This works great for creating configurations, design tables, and
equations where you need to control the quantity of sketch entity
copies. Also, the Sketch Fillet tool now has a preview (with
virtual intersections) that you can drag to adjust the radius. Or,
you can set the radius in the PropertyManager before or after
selecting entities. Also new are an entity selection list and the
option to apply a dimension to each created fillet. Workflow is
better as the fillets are not created until you click OK in the
Property Manager.
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