The SolidWorks Geek

If you are ever on the hunt for cool SolidWorks related applications, I would strongly suggest the SolidWorks Labs site. I make it a point to check back to the site often to see what cool new applications are available. Today was no exception. Today I saw that they added an awesome new application called Treehouse. Treehouse is a free application offered at the SolidWorks Labs site that allows you to plan your document structure in a easy to use user interface. In Treehouse you can also name your documents and add properties; all before drawing a single line in SolidWorks. Today we are going to take a quick look at this cool new program.

Exploring the Treehouse Interface

After Downloading and installing Treehouse to your computer, launch the program from your Start Menu.

The interface for Treehouse is extremely simple as you will see.

Templates List

In the upper-left side of the screen, your available document templates are shown.

Heads-up Display

Just like in SolidWorks, you will have a heads-up display directly above the graphics area. All the necessary commands are available from the Heads-Up display. Going from Left to Right, the commands are Zoom to fit, Keep new documents on screen, New, Open, Save and Export to SolidWorks documents.

Trash Bin

In the lower-left corner of the screen is the trash bin. To delete a document from the structure, simply drag it from the graphics area directly onto the trash bin. From what I can tell, you cannot un-delete or even undo when you delete a document from the structure. I would recommend saving often to prevent you from losing too much if you delete the wrong document.

Treehouse Options

In the lower-right corner of the display, you will find the Treehouse options. Click here to point Treehouse to your SolidWorks templates.

In the Options window, You can add or remove template folders that Treehouse will use.

Building Your Document Structure

Building your structure tree is extremely simple. First drag an Assembly template onto the workspace.

Naming your Documents

In the workspace, you can name your documents that you will be using in SolidWorks. Simply select the name of the Assembly Icon and type in the desired name.

This will be the name of the assembly, part or drawing when you begin working on it in SolidWorks.

Adding Document Properties

You can also assign your Document Properties to your documents prior to opening them in SolidWorks. Click the Show Document Properties button in the icon.

In the Properties screen, you can assign the document properties to your document. However, you cannot assign custom properties.

Adding Parts to the Structure

Once you have created your top level assembly, you can begin adding parts. You can either drag the part on your assembly in the workspace or press P on your keyboard after selecting your assembly.

Once added to the structure, you can change the name and add the document properties just as you did with the assembly.

Adding more parts and assemblies, you can plan out your entire structure graphically.

Once you have your structure figured out, you can then add drawings to your parts and sub-assemblies.

Saving Your Assembly Hierarchy

You can save your structure for future reference. In the Heads-up display click the Save button. If you want to do a Save-As, hold the CTRL key on your keyboard and select the Save Button.

Navigate to the desired folder and click Save. The file created will have an extension of .asmtree.

Export to SolidWorks Documents

Once you are happy with your structure, you are ready to begin working in SolidWorks. In the Heads-up display, select Export to SolidWorks Documents.

Browse to the desire folder and click OK.

Treehouse will now create the appropriate documents in the folder based on the structure you created. This may take a couple of minutes depending on how complex you made the hierarchy.

When completed, the documents are available for edit in the selected folder.

Opening the top-level assembly, you will see the parts and sub assemblies created and referenced. All that is left to do is open the parts and begin to build your project.

Explore For Yourself…

I hope after seeing what Treehouse has to offer, you will feel compelled to check it out for yourself. While you are at the SolidWorks Labs site, make sure you check the other cool programs available.