CAD Forum

MattW

Not a macro, but you can click this and then window everything.

MattW

You can try this. It is choking on the random STLs I've tried

MattW

Ok...I "fixed" it. The point being that you need the relations show to truly know in SolidWorks. [/quote] OK, I clued in. I did say absent a fixed relation. The quiz question shows the relations, shows X, Y, and the construction line all horizontal, X coincident with the origin. I don't kn...

MattW

jcapriotti wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 1:21 pm image.png

Ok...I "fixed" it. The point being that you need the relations show to truly know in SolidWorks.

Can you post the file?

MattW

Given standard SW colors of black = fully constrained and blue = not fully constrained, I am not seeing how you could get Y not be colinear with X and have Y black, absent a fixed relation. The quiz sketch even shows sketch relations, which I don't think are needed. I don't think you even need the c...

MattW

I just found out you can "Add Constuction Lines" in a Parallelogram. Kind of fun to play with. You get different behavior dragging a corner around between from corners and from midpoints.

MattW

2024 sp5 3 point CENTER rectangles. I am not sure why AlexLachance has trouble reading my mind. ;) You guys are getting different behavior than me. I thought it might be related to use of the command manager, where I am using the sketch square flyout off my sketch shortcut key, but that isn't it. If...

MattW

When sketching 3 point rectangles, this option exposes itself AFTER drawing the rectangle, but only applies to subsequent rectangles. Is there a way to expose the option before, or get it to apply to the rectangle just drawn? The workflow now is to draw a rectangle, click 'from midpoints', draw anot...

MattW

I've actually never used the 2d to 3d tools, so they might be best, but it can be as easy as copy/paste. Open the sketch, copy the elements you are interested in, close the sketch, open a new sketch and paste. You will lose a bunch of constraints and it may not be in the orientation you want, which ...

MattW

You should name your planes and set up your views however you like and move on. Which axis goes up or North or whatever is arbitrary and has no real meaning. I can imagine that people in the automotive space use the out of the box orientation for Zup that DS is using. I would be more inclined to arg...

MattW

When you draw on a plane, in which direction should the 3rd axis point?

MattW

It isn't on ours.

A related question is how many people are left that even could scale a drawing, and how long since it would have been considered acceptable practice?

MattW

@AlexB I will be using that in the future, I think

MattW

I, and most people, work on the surface of the earth. Having 1 lbm exert a force of 1 lbf due to earth's gravitational field doesn't strike me as outrageous, it actually seems quite practical.

MattW

lb = lbm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_(mass)

MattW

I got some code that could enter the values from a table, so I have that down. Now I have to work on the Siemens 840d coding. I saw somewhere that Siemens documentation makes sense to people who already understand the material.

MattW

Thanks. The remarks implies that it could be related to snapping, and it behaved properly when I turned that off. When on, it would either miss circles completely, and sometimes would start drawing them with them in the wrong orientation. I don't understand this behavior, the errors are random. I co...

MattW

Greetings all- I am working on a macro that draws a series of circles in a 3d sketch. Right now, I am just working out how to handle variables to draw circles of varying centerpoints and diameters. The problem I am running into is that not all the circle persist, when I step through it creates the c...

MattW

Would this do what you want?

MattW

We had the opportunity to head a few hours south this weekend and enjoy the Texas Hill Country. It always surprises me how much a few hours drive can make in what season you are in. Our bluebonnets are just starting here in the Dallas area, but the ones down near Fredericksburg, TX are well are the...

MattW

@AlexLachance where in Quebec are you located? I am probably going to be in the Montreal/ Laurentians area for a week or so this summer.

MattW

We are on 2021. Templates are in PDM, and the only location in File Locations. going to new... gets this screen. image.png The home screen is the same as the one in the first post, ie, Part, Asssembly, Drawing. Clicking on those opens the template listed in file locations, in spite of the label on t...

MattW

The screen goes black or the device is unresponsive? I seem to recall my screen occasionally going out, but I don't use the screen much and haven't seen that in a while. Space Pilot pro, not Space Mouse.

MattW

I think this shows up by default when you click on a part

MattW

JSculley your link didn't work, saying there is no SPR80312, but it did lead me to this: https://support.3ds.com/knowledge-base/?q=docid:SPR803012 QUESTION For Hole Wizard hole types, how are near side and far side countersink values calculated; is it possible to customize them? ANSWER By default, ...

MattW

Not countersunk screws, the edge break on the holes:

The values come from someplace, and are linked to the hole size, usually, but I can't figure out where. My experiments with 'favorites' aren't quite getting the behavior I would like.

MattW

Opening the custom properties tab does exactly that.

MattW

MattW

I don't know what you want the macro to do, but our templates have no custom properties and we use the custom properties tab and the property tab builder to control the addition of custom properties. These are customizable and will probably do what you want.

MattW

Working on my picture frame game, which needs it.

MattW

I was doodling with weldments and lofts, and this is what it looked like: image.png Then I noticed there was a file MakeProjectedPlanarWire.x_t in the folder. I didn't know what it was, so opened it up, and this is what it was: image.png It is a surface from the inside face of the box. I have no ide...

MattW

I think your drawing is getting worse, but it sounds like you are doing what your are told.

A jig like this would verify alignment and hole minimum size and represent probably less than an hours worth of work. There might be good reasons to not do this.

MattW

I know I am preaching to the choir here, but you say that hole alignment matters but it isn't called out at all. It sounds like you are attempting a manufacturing document and hoping that controlling the edge of one flange relative to the other will get you you the results you want, which it might. ...

MattW

I am wondering if some of those patterns aren't actually generated by a pattern or pattern like feature, but something more like a macro.

MattW

The two methods I would look at for the patterns shown would be curve driven pattern and sketch driven pattern, and I would guess for sketch driven pattern, at least, you will need a way to calculate sketch points outside SW and import them. It looks like the patterns shown use a combination of tech...

MattW

The biggest problem with McMaster Carr models is the visual properties are maxed out.

Setting these two sliders in the middle will cut the file size to 30% of what it is initially. Suppressing the helix will cut that in half again.

I have a macro for reducing image quality.

MattW

In a part or in an assembly? It may not take much to create a circular reference in an assembly.

MattW

All fasteners from McMaster-Carr also have some other bloat stuff as well, which makes the file open slowly even if you get rid of the threads. Which is why I cycle everything I get from them through what @zxys001 has referred to in the past as a "Parasolid wash". Suppress the threads, sa...

MattW

For some reason, it doesn't want to let you make your hole locations coincident from within the hole wizard. You can, however, just put some hole locations on the surface, then exit the hole wizard, and then go back into the 3d sketch and make the points coincident.

MattW

I suspect the appearance is applied at the body level. Your appearance hierarchy is showing appearance at the feature level, but I think that is coming from it being an imported part. If you click on a face, you should be able access an appearance hierarchy display like this: image.png and it will t...

MattW

That doesn't look like features as such, it looks like a bunch of imported bodies, and the appearance is applied at the body level. It looks like there is much more to the part than what you are showing. If you can share the part, I will take a look.

MattW

JSculley wrote: ↑Thu Jul 21, 2022 3:11 pm Assembly Open Progress Indicator:

image.png

Didn't have that one listed, but there was one listed for "Drawing open Progress Indicator". That seems to have done it.

MattW

mike miller wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 10:09 am I don't know how SWX records it, but I know it can be way off the deep end sometimes.

2022-03-10 15_14_53.jpg

I could use this information now, and I have apparently dismissed this message. I am not seeing it my dismissed messages in System Options. Anyone know what this is called?

MattW

I suppose it depends on what you want to accomplish. I would start by saying do not put horizontal or vertical relations in your sketch, make them parallel and perpendicular, minimize external relations in the sketch, and make sure external relations you do use are not consumed by feature.

MattW

If you can, I would contact them and ask, because it is a good question. I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is along the lines of "we have always done it this way." The other reason I could think is if they use a macro that looks for a CS, since maybe you can't refer to the default sinc...

MattW

I am currently using something else, but considering you probably already have Solidworks CAM, I would think it is worth turning it on and seeing if it would work for your needs.

MattW

image.png Select All-> and then Change Transparency. My limited testing shows that this will set everything to Transparent or not. Before finding out that that would work, I set up an Advanced Select (at the bottom of the list above) image.png you have to save the name of the search. Go to the Mana...

MattW

I have only done composites on a simple hobbyist level, but I haven't seen a mold approached this way. I don't know the scale of the part, but that tab looks like a problem if you are planning on using cloth, unless you are going to make that separately and then bond it in. Given the amount of work ...

MattW

If you are making lots, then that would be true. I am not a moldmaker, but I think the reality is all surfaces will be be surface machined anyway.

MattW

I am guessing what you really want is good solid model of the part. Ed Eaton gave a good presentation on using scan data to build a model at SWW a couple of years ago. https://dimontegroup.com/solidworks-world-2017-using-3d-scan-data-effectively-model-curvy-stuff/ I tried just doing the base-revolve...

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