Technical Communication Page 2

SOLIDWORKS Product Data Management (PDM) solutions are ideal to help you keep your project data organized and the latest version available for multiple teams during development. SOLIDWORKS Composer is used to create digital materials, documentation and technical publications all with the intent of giving customers and company stakeholders a better understanding of your product information earlier in the design process, lowering costs and speeding time-to-market. In this blog article, we look at how SOLIDWORKS PDM and SOLIDWORKS Composer work together to create more accurate output while saving more time when compared to a traditional product development workflow.

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.

Stratasys 3D printers offer two main technologies through which multi-color printing can be accomplished. PolyJet technology is the most widely known that allows you to 3D print multi-color, multi-material parts and is known for its detailed and realistic results. Surprisingly, many people do not know that single-print, multi-colored prints are also possible when using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology. Using Stratasys 3D printers and GrabCAD Print software, the process is actually very simple.

With so many software options out there, it’s hard to know which combination is right for your custom manufacturing needs. With the SOLIDWORKS family of integrated products we’re spoiled for choice, but that doesn’t make understanding all the options any easier to someone looking at it for the first time. We’ve taken a look at all the options and put together a summary of what we think is the “ideal” manufacturing bundle. In this blog post, we’ll go over all the top-level benefits for each product and what you’ll be taking with you.

Prior to the SOLIDWORKS 2018 updates, you were capable of saving a SOLIDWORKS assembly as an SMG file, however, there were no export options for SMG files and the default export option was set to exclude surface bodies. Due to this, users preferred to open SOLIDWORKS file directly through Composer, where import options can be customized as they need. Since the SOLIDWORKS 2018 updates, new SOLIDWORKS export options for SMG files have been added that allow full control over what information is saved to SOLIDWORKS Composer. These new options provide many advantages to Composer users that will be explained in this blog. 

SOLIDWORKS Education Edition is the perfect solution for preparing students for a career in engineering. With more than 200,000 jobs posted a year seeking employees with SOLIDWORKS experience, investing in their training will not go to waste. There are many questions regarding the Education Edition and what all is included. Let's dive into those questions as well as the updates to the 2019-2020 version. 

Manufacturing technology seems to catch on much slower than other technological leaps; it’s 2019 and I still train students every month coming from 2D drafting into the 3D world! Is this because of the companies, the designers, the machinists or none of these? There is a huge difference in how a job shop, or even a large-scale production facility, work versus how we think. We’re going to take a look at this much too common disconnect and what options are out there to improve shop communication and efficiency.

SOLIDWORKS is not just a CAD application. The integrated add-ins and supporting applications make it a complete engineering solution. I recently took advantage of these tools to complete a project that has been at the back of my mind for some time. It was a great opportunity to show how to use the SOLIDWORKS integrated platform from design all the way through the manufacturing and post-manufacturing process.  

The main appeal of DraftSight is that it allows users to create, edit, view and mark up any kind of DWG file with a familiar user interface, so transitions to and from a user’s CAD application are quicker. That integration between the 2D and 3D environment is key to what makes DraftSight such a great tool. Since it is part of the Dassault Systèmes family, it can seamlessly integrate with other products like SOLIDWORKS, GEOVIA, DELMIA and many others. With the release of DraftSight 2019, they have added even more integrations to the list, and these are our favorites:

Since its first launch in 2010, DraftSight has been designed to help users create/edit DWG files with powerful CAD tools and functionality. This latest release incorporates survey feedback from millions of DraftSight users and adds the most asked-for capabilities and greater functionality. It also shuffles the deck with regards to the old product portfolio and reallocates both old and new features across a new streamlined suite of products. In this blog, we’re going to take a top-level look at these changes and the new normal for the DraftSight product line.

From an engineering perspective, if you’re looking into the world of Model-Based Design (MBD) or have already been shifting that way, you’ll want to start researching some of the new standards that are being developed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). In particular, the new standard that they are developing as a product definition for additive manufacturing. In this article, we will provide a quick list of the standards being looked at this year and touch on how you can apply these and other standards in a SOLIDWORKS workflow.

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Model-Based Enterprise Summit at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD. This was the 10th annual MBE Summit and was focused on highlighting the practical implementations of MBE in the world, with the main theme being Democratizing the Implementation of MBE.

This event was possibly the most in-depth technical summit I have ever been to. The amount of applications for model-based engineering is amazing and getting to see how people are leveraging this technology is truly eye-opening. The list of speakers was staggering and humbling. It was truly exceptional to see so many experts in their field speak to how digital engineering has been completely transforming their businesses. As a mechanical-minded person focused on technology and interconnected systems, I believe there are certainly some exciting leaps coming in the future.