TriMech Blog

In our previous blog post, our software team shared with you some of the most useful tips they wished they knew when they started using SOLIDWORKS. In this continuation, we’ll take a look at what TriMech’s hardware team wished they knew when they started using SOLIDWORKS, and how some software updates have helped them in their pre-printing process.

CAMWorks is known for their CNC software for machine tools and was the first to be awarded SOLIDWORKS Certified Gold Product for manufacturing and CAM software. CAMWorks recently released ShopFloor which is the latest Industry 4.0/Smart Manufacturing tool made for the CNC machinist. This new addition aides in increasing production with fewer errors by virtually simulating the CNC program. Let's dive into ShopFloor and these exciting new features. 

Whether using 3D printing for business or for personal projects, nobody wants to have to re-print a part because of a flaw that happened during printing, especially if it could have been easily prevented. We’ve put together five key areas to monitor to avoid common print quality issues in order to achieve consistently better results.

A very powerful tool in SOLIDWORKS which can easily be customized is Mouse Gestures. Mouse Gestures provide shortcuts for up to 12 customizable commands using only a single right-click and drag motion. The gesture can be accessed by right-clicking anywhere in your workspace and then dragging the mouse towards a command on the wheel that pops up. Whether you are in a sketch, part, assembly or drawing, the wheel can be customized for each of the four workspaces.

Learn SOLIDWORKS in 5 Minutes!, Ultimate SOLIDWORKS Tutorial for Absolute Beginners, SOLIDWORKS Tutorial #80 – Simple and Effective. These are just a few of the titles of thousands of YouTube SOLIDWORKS tutorials. Nowadays, there is so much information available to us on the Internet and thousands of hours of videos about SOLIDWORKS specifically, but how helpful are they really? How do they compare with an officially licensed SOLIDWORKS training course? How do you choose the right video? In this blog article, we talk about self-learning on YouTube for free versus attending a live SOLIDWORKS training class.

Stratasys PolyJet 3D printers and specialty dental materials create multi-color dental models with unmatched accuracy that can mimic gum textures and print complex geometries. These multi-material models enable a variety of applications including orthodontic models, implantology case planning and cast partial frames. This additive manufacturing technology can empower you with more cost-effective interventions, enhanced efficiency, fewer risks and optimized patient outcomes.

The Stratasys J750 is capable of all sorts of amazing things, as we’ve seen recently with our articles involving the application of real-to-life textures and eyewear prototyping. An amazing new application for the Stratasys J series of printers that I’ve been running into quite a bit is the creation of full-color topographical maps that display visual data on top of satellite imagery, similar to how GIS software overlays data onto a two-dimensional map, but with the bonus of being able to quickly display elevation as well! What we’ve found in our initial studies of this application is that these three-dimensional maps are great at displaying data in a way that can’t quickly be understood when looking at a two-dimensional variant, such as census data regarding population density in relation to mountains and valleys. To get a good idea of what goes into this process, we’re going to overlay street data for the area surrounding Boston onto a topographical map of Eastern Massachusetts. 

We all remember the days when we first started using SOLIDWORKS. Many of us didn’t know a sketch from a sweep! There are so many useful tools within SOLIDWORKS and it can be daunting for new users to keep track of them. Whenever I teach our SOLIDWORKS Essentials class, at least one student will inevitably exclaim, “I wish I had known that months ago!” In this blog article, we’ll go over some of those essential tools you might not know about yet.

When creating Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) for industry standards, designers and engineers benefit from being able to add annotations on their 3D models. Thanks to SOLIDWORKS MBD, they can annotate and organize 3D data such as dimensions, tolerances, surface finishes, notes and Bill of Materials (BOM). This application helps in the automation of manufacturing processes such as tolerance analysis, machining and inspection. In this article, we will provide different examples through which the use of MBD was critical to creating designs for the military, compliant with the new MIL-STD-31000 A+B standard.

Nano Dimension announces the new DragonFly LDM 3D printer for manufacturing electronics. This unique system brings a specialized Lights-Out Digital Manufacturing (LDM) technology and additional diagnostic automation which enables the system to run around-the-clock with little to no monitoring. This is the first of it's kind for Nano Dimension and enables 24/7 uninterrupted 3D printing for greater production output which results in a significant decrease in time and labor cost for realizing in-house printing of electronics.

You are ready to learn SOLIDWORKS. Where do you start? Whether you are a beginner or self-taught, the best place to start is with training courses. Training is an invaluable investment, but we understand that there are alternative ways of getting more knowledge about SOLIDWORKS for free. We are here to help. 

MakerBot has announced an enhanced version of their new MakerBot Method 3D printing platform, the Method X. This manufacturing workstation builds on the existing Method  performance printer framework, keeping all the key features and benefits of the standard model, and expands the material options available giving the Method X the capability to create manufacturing tools and end-use production parts.