Hide / Show Extension and Dimension Lines

Posted on May 29th, 2008 in Dimensions, Drawings, User Interface by The SW Geek

How many of you after switching over to SolidWorks 2008 couldn’t figure out how to hide an extension line? There was a small change to how you hide or show dimension and extension lines that seemed to be made under the radar. The first time I needed to hide an extension line I was shocked to find the way I have become accustomed to was no longer there. No worries though, the command is still available and even easier to find then before without having to dig though menus.

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Configuring Features and Dimensions

Posted on May 28th, 2008 in Assemblies, Configurations, Dimensions, SolidWorks, User Interface by The SW Geek

A couple of weeks ago I introduced the Configure Component command in assemblies. In case you missed it, the Configure Component command extends the ability to control the display of components in assemblies in one interface. In one window you can configure a component to be suppressed or unsuppressed in different assembly configurations or you can select which part configuration will be used in each assembly configuration. It is a great time saver that I hope you have found useful. Now I am back to introduce you to the Configure Feature and Configure Dimension commands.

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Standards Tuesday - Drawing Notes Pt2

Posted on May 27th, 2008 in Drawings, Standards by The SW Geek

Last week I wrote about Drawing Notes for Standards Tuesday, I hope you found the information helpful. There were a couple of things I didn’t get a chance to cover because I wanted to limit the size of the post. If you missed it, make sure you read Standards Tuesday - Drawing Notes. What I wasn’t able to discuss was language requirements per ASME Y14.100 in regards to Drawing Notes.

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Listing my influences

Posted on May 25th, 2008 in Rants by The SW Geek

Before I went to college I played bass in a hard rock band. When people would ask us what kind of music we played we would list our influences. That usually gave a person a good indication as to how we sounded. Our influences did not always influence our sound but taught us something that we then used to create our own sound. 15 years later and I can still list my professional influences, only now they are not rock stars in the music industry but instead rock stars of their industry. I though it would be appropriate to list who has influenced The SolidWorks Geek blog either directly or indirectly.

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Making the Symbol Library Yours

Posted on May 24th, 2008 in Customize, Drawings, Productivity, SolidWorks, Standards by The SW Geek

On the last ‘Standards Tuesday’ I mentioned flagnotes and using the Symbol Library to insert them into your notes. For those who are not familiar with it, the Symbol Library is a library of commonly used symbols ranging from dimension symbols to weld symbols, also the most common flagnotes are available. The Symbol Library can be accessed in the FeatureManager by clicking the Add Symbol button, the one the looks like the centerline symbol. Also to refresh your memory, flagnotes are symbols listed with the General Notes that only apply to specific points and regions in a drawing. The Symbol Library should have just about every symbol you might need for your notes but there may be times, depending on your company standards, you may need additional symbols. Luckily, adding symbols to the symbol library is not as hard as it may seem.

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Standards Tuesday - Drawing Notes

Posted on May 20th, 2008 in Drawings, Standards by The SW Geek

After the drawing number, title and revision, the Drawing Notes are usually the next thing the someone will look at on a print. The drawing notes provide more information then what is normally provided by the drawing itself. The notes can be used to better describe the part, provide information about finishes, describe inspection requirements or just provide more information to the machinist. Usually if the dimensions alone do not tell the whole story then the notes will provide the rest.

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Linking Dimensions in Sketches

Posted on May 19th, 2008 in Dimensions, Sketches, SolidWorks by admin

When you are working on designs, there are times when it is necessary to link dimensions. Linking dimensions associates a word or word phrase to a number value that other dimensions in a model can then reference. This is an especially handy tool when you are dealing with complex models that have multiple features that may share the same value. When you update one of the values, all the features or dimension that are linked are then updated at once.

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The SolidWorks Geek is Back!

Posted on May 18th, 2008 in Misc by admin

Last week just when things were getting good I had a major setback. The SolidWorks Geek blog was created using BlogEngine.net and MySQL on a windows server. Now I don’t want to point fingers but I experienced a crashed that even had my hosting companies support team at a loss. I was extremely frustrated to say the least, but like the say “Every Obstacle is an Opportunity in Disguise “

This “minor” set back gave me the opportunity to move my blog onto a Linux system and set it up for WordPress. Despite losing my comments, all seems to be going good. I was even able to update the over all look the the site. At this point I am extremely happy with how the site looks and works but I do have some minor tweaks to make over the next few days. Now that I am back to full force I will be start making new post in the next couple of days. Thank you to everyone that helped in making my transition and to all my readers for having the patience to stay with me.

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Configuring Components in Assemblies

Posted on May 14th, 2008 in Assemblies, Configurations, SolidWorks by admin

If you have spent anytime with assembly configurations in SW 2007, you would know how many steps it took to set up components for each configuration. Then if the component had configurations as well, it added even more steps. I don’t want to go on about some of the horror stories I have encountered but I will say that it is enough to cause most CAD administrators to shutter. With SW 2008 configuring components for assemblies got a heck of a lot easier.

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Standards Tuesday - Titling your drawing

Posted on May 13th, 2008 in Drawings, Standards by admin

What is the first thing you look at on a drawing? The drawing title. This week for “Standards Tuesday” we will be talking about the drawing titles as there are described in ASME Y14.100. Since one the very first things anybody looks at on a drawing is the title, I figured this is the best place to start. I would bet that you were not aware that there was a procedure for drawing titles per ASME standards. Judging by some of the titles I have seen in my career, it seems that no one is aware of these procedures. Section 5 of ASME Y14.100 lays out the procedures for creating titles for engineering drawings and the items they describe.

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