Sheet Metal Miter Flange Hint

When using the miter flange command in SolidWorks you have the option of setting a ‘Gap Distance’ as seen in this picture:

The gap distance was set as  .069296 and the resulting ‘corner gap’ is .049.   If you are wishing to add spotweld tab flanges that would fold inside of these existing flanges you need to have a ‘corner gap’ of slightly more than the material thickness.  In this example I’m using 18ga which is why I went with the .049 corner gap.  The mitered flange command does not give you the option of entering the ‘corner gap’ it only gives you the option of entering a Gap distance.  How do you determine the Gap distance required to give you a desired corner gap?

The formula is:  

 

where .049 is the desired corner gap.

The keystrokes on a TI 89 calculator is as follows:  (replace .049 with the corner gap you desire)

KEY STROKES                      DISPLAY

2nd

√                                                  √(

(                                                   √((   * - on a TI 86 press ‘(‘ twice

.049                                             √((.049

^                                                   √((.049^

2                                                   √((.049^2

)                                                    √((.049^2)

X                                                   √((.049^2)X

2                                              √((.049^2)X2

)                                                    √((.049^2)X2)

ENTER                                         .069296…

 

With this useful piece of information I can now finish the part as such:

This started out as an exercise for myself wanting to get this procedure down on paper so I don’t have to think about when I need to do it.  But I guess someone else might get some use out of it.  Now I just need to create a function on the TI-89 to do this with less keystrokes…

Practical Sheet Metal Design Part 2

Practical Sheet Metal Design Part 2

Tolerances for Sheet Metal parts:

A bit of history first: When I started working in sheet metal in 1975 we generally worked to +/- .063 inches. In the shop I worked at initially there wasn’t a pair of calipers to be found. Everything was checked with a tape measure. When I interviewed at Byers Precision it was stressed to me that they worked to much closer tolerances, .010 - .015 typically. This led to a funny story…On my first day on the job I was given a print, told to figure the flat pattern, shear, punch & form the part. With the interview still fresh in my mind I determined to accomplish making this part to the +/- .010 tolerance. I sheared the part using a tape measure to size it, punched the holes on a manual one station punch and then proceeded to form the part on a hand brake. I worked and worked on this part trying to get it within the goal tolerance. An hour or two passed and even though I had a nice looking part it was still not within tolerance. I was starting on my second attempt when the foreman came over and asked me what the h**l I was doing. When I explained that I was having a hard time holding the part to +/- .010 he laughed and said that the part was not critical and as long as it was within an 1/8” of an inch it was good enough! If there is a lesson in that story it is this; know what the tolerance is before you waste a lot of time.

The factors that come into play in sheet metal are numerous but let’s just look at one now.
Material thickness: Take a look at the mill tolerances of sheet stock and you will see that the range of thickness for a given gauges bottom and top range actually overlap the gauges on either side. In other words a thin 11 gauge could be sold as a thick 12 gauge while a thick 11 gauge could be a thin 10 gauge. Engineers should allow for 5% thickness variation on thickness which would equate to .006 on 11 gauge. And consider that this amount doubles for each bend in the part as the difference will be seen on each side of the bend. Can tighter tolerances be held? Yes but a premium must be realized in order to achieve them. Hole location from the edge of a part can be held to a tighter tolerance but from a bend to a hole is again affected by the material thickness. Today’s modern numeric control punches and lasers have a positional tolerance of .003 to .005 inches so this must be figured in along with the sheet thickness variation. The only way around this would be to place the hole after the forming operation which is costly. So the in effect the tolerance for a hole from a bend is 10% (2 x 5%) or .012 + .005 or .017 inches for 11 gauge material. Some sheet metal shops will also want additional tolerance allowed for material elasticity variations that affect the form dimensions. At Byers we feel that we overcome these variations to some extent by use of custom K-Factors for the different materials. We also try to overcome these variations at the forming operation by varying the bend radius of the part to get the desired result. Engineers, check a sheet metal gauge chart before designing a part. You might be surprised how many times we get designs calling for 11ga but the part is actually designed with a .125 thickness. 11ga is never .125 thick, it is more commonly .120. That’s .005 difference before we even start modeling the part. This difference shows up most when the engineer has some dimensions on the inside of the material and others on the outside of the material. Be consistent, dimension to the inside or the outside but not both.
Since I’m discussing sheet metal gauges I must comment on gauge callouts for non-ferrous materials. Don’t call out for 11ga Aluminum. This is an obsolete and leads to confusion. Don’t be surprised if you get a call about this. Most designers are not even aware that gauges differ between ferrous and non-ferrous material which is why I will always call you and ask you what thickness in inches you actually want. A much better way to spec non-ferrous thickness is to give the decimal equivalent such as .090 or .060. Look at this chart to see the difference between ferrous and non-ferrous gauges

For more information on reasonable sheet metal tolerances see this page:

Everything I’ve said in this posting should be taken with a grain of salt. If you can design you part within these boundaries then you will get a better price on the production. But if tighter tolerances are a must then they can be done but you need to expect to pay a premium for them.

November WNC-Aheville SWUG Meeting - minutes

More SolidWorks 2009 Goodies

At the November WNC-Asheville Users group meeting we enjoyed good food, conversation and presentation. Tom Wilson cooked up his excellent barbecue chicken and ribs with all the fixings. Wes caught us up on what is going on with WNC-SWUG. Several People brought up issues and questions that they had about SolidWorks. This is what is so nice about these meetings; you will either find an answer or at least find out that you’re not the only person experiencing the issue.
After the meal Wes gave us a short run down on what’s going on now and in the next few months. SolidWorks World was the 1st topic: February 8-11 in Orlando Florida. As of now we only have one ‘user’ that will be attending. As a person who went last year I strongly recommend you going. If it was at all possible (i.e. I won the lottery) I would be going again this year.
Our next meeting will be on January 8th, 2009. Wes encouraged us to all bring a product that we designed in SolidWorks to this meeting. He also shared that from the recent poll he conducted that the most sought after topic for meetings was hints & tips. So next year expect more member presentations of the base SolidWorks products and less 3rd party add-on presentations.
Wes then opened the floor for problems, questions and comments. I brought up an issue I’ve been having with the visibility of sketches changing on its own. No one had an answer for that but other people were having the same issue which in a strange way made me feel a bit better. Wes is having a problem with the “Dynamic highlight from graphics view” option toggling off by itself. A bunch of us have experienced this, I remember it being an issue in SW2007. Walid is having an issue with sketch visibility between different configurations. No one else had seen this but it might be related to the problem I mentioned.
Keith Dacus took over and showed us his favorite things that are new in 2009. I present them below in list form.
1. Triad is now active…change view orientation by clicking on the triad axis.
2. Magnifier…’G’ turns it on & off. With the cursor in the magnifier, roll the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Hold the ‘alt’ key down and roll the wheel to section what is in the magnifier. Move the magnifier by moving your cursor to its edge or by ‘ctrl’ middle button. And yes you can ‘ctrl’ select within and out of the magnifier. Really slick.
3. Double clicking the middle button is the same as typing ‘f’ for zoom all.
4. In the equation editor there is now a button on the bottom that pulls up a selector of all the properties.
5. Drop your bill of material into the assembly. This will allow you to manage all aspects of it while working on your assembly. It might have been at this point where we chased a rabbit and talked about Phil’s need to display a quantity as “as required”. We discussed virtual components and what they are used for. I asked about printing the BOM and Keith informed that while it can’t be done within the assembly file you can now do it in the drawing.
6. Instant 3D now works within assemblies allowing you to have dynamic feedback to change distance and angle mates.
7. Error reporting has been improved by the addition of phantom lines showing missing edges. For example when an edge is removed that a subsequent fillet modified you actually see a ghostly dash line showing the edge that is no longer there.
8. Rib tool – In previous versions you had no choice where the draft originated from, now when you apply draft you pick which face maintains the rib width. (not a very good explanation)
9. Measure tool now shows dual dimensions...I like this!
10. Multiple handles to pull and push on when in Instant 3D. Again we chased another rabbit here and talked about how Instant 3D should only be used for conception…hard dimensions should be applied at some point and Instant 3D turned off to prevent mishaps.
11. Weldments – several new and cool improvements here. Add chamfers and weld preps to gussets. Include weld gaps as required and some really neat trim/extend features. I wondered if the Weld Gap functionality would allow for negative values since we typically have a problem with shrinkage from the welding. In other word I need the members to be a little bit longer to compensate for the shrinkage. Keith checked it out and we found that you are limited to a positive value for the weld gap. But Michael Jolley verified that you can perform a ‘move face’ on the end of the weldment member and the cutlist updates accordingly.
12. Sheet metal – Convert to sheet metal and cross breaks...sheet metal is boring so that’s all I’m saying about that. Just kidding, once again we chased a rabbit and talked about how the convert to sheet metal is useful but will make a part that might not be manufacturable.

We wrapped up with some more questions and comments. Walid wanted to know how to do a ‘tabulated’ drawing. We received a short course on design tables from Rodney Hall. Wes closed the meeting by throwing out (literally) backpacks and briefcases to those who wanted them. He then drew names for the three $25 gas cards provide by our sponsor Rapid Sheet Metal.
Great meeting, thanks to everyone involved. Here are some pics taken by Rodney and me.

Practical Sheet Metal Design Part 1

Pracitcal Sheet Metal Design Part 1

CRASH!

The ability of SolidWorks to do sheet metal design is both a blessing and a curse to sheet metal job shops. Understand this is no fault of the software but of engineers who don't really understand how bends are made in sheet metal. The example shown in the following figures is typical of what some of our customers will design. They even provide us with SolidWorks part files that they have have modeled. Can this part be made as modeled? Yes it can but it would required special costly tooling and extended lead times for the tooling. It has been our experience that making this in two pieces and welding two seams instead of one is more cost effective.





Figure 1 - the part









A simple part until you start looking at the bending operation. In the following figures you will see that I added typical press brake tooling and a section of the press brake ram so that you can see the problem with bending this part as modeled.






Figure 2







The first bend is no problem. you could start on either end of the flat blank with the same results.




Figure 3









The same holds true for the next bend. you will note that there is no interference between the sheet metal and the press brake.

Figure 4 - CRASH!

Now you can plainly see the problem. Even if the 4.00" dimension in the part sketch was increased the part would still crash. The only solution that would allow forming this part as modeled would be what we call a 'window punch'. This involves using a tool that would fit inside the part has modeled and extends far enough past both ends of the part so that 'extensions' could be placed between the press brake ram and the punch. When the last bend is made, one of the extensions would be removed so that the part could be removed. This only works for softer material of a lighter gauge because of the loading placed on the tooling.

I hope this explanation is clear to all those who design sheet metal with limited experience of the manufacture of sheet metal parts. I will continue in the coming days to share more instances where a small changes can save you money in your sheet metal designs.

WNC/ASHEVILLE SWUG MEETING TOMORROW

This is your last chance this year to attend our user group meeting. Barbecue will be on the menu as well as Keith Dacus presenting "What was not shown at the SW2009 Roll Out". Keith is an excellent presenter that will keep you entertained while you learn some of the great new stuff in SolidWorks 2009. I wish to thank him and TPM for supporting our user group.

I hope he concentrates on features in the base SolidWorks package. I hate getting all excited about some new feature only to find out that I have to have the professional or premium to take advantage of it. I was kind of interested in who has what so I set up a poll here for you to respond to. If you're not sure what you have here is a product matrix line.

One other thing...I know it's a day late but call or email a veteran and thank him for serving our country so that me and you can enjoy the freedoms that we have. You will be surprised at the response you will get. I email my uncle who served during the VietNam war and I could tell that he was touched by my thinking of him. I did the same for my brother who was in the Gulf war (the 1st one) and even though he was thankful of me thinking of him he was somewhat upset that he doesn't have the day off. I remember him pointing out when he worked another job that it was a shame that he got MLK day off but not Veterans day. Something to think about. Maybe 'THE ONE" will do something about this and make Veterans Day a national holiday like July 4th.

See you tomorrow night.

CSWP Training materials

CSWP Training materials…are they worth their cost?

I was able to successfully pass the CSWA exam earlier this year by doing the sample test available from SolidWorks and a lot of reading from Matt Lombard’s book.  My intention was to go for the Professional exam soon afterwards but that didn’t happen.  I guess I’m feeling the same trepidation as I did before I took the CSWA.  In my day to day work I use such a small subset of the SolidWorks program (sheet metal) I fear that I just don’t have the experience to even think of taking the CSWP exam.

So here is my question to the SolidWorks masses out there:  Are any of the training materials worth the $300 - $500 that they cost.  I’m thinking of the myigetit.com course and the one from Solid Professor.  I’m thinking of asking the boss to ante up for this since he’s not sending us to SolidWorks World this year.  But he will expect results, successful passing of the test. 

Come on guys, give me some feedback.  Surely someone out there has purchased one of these and has some advice to offer.

Thanks in advance,

Copy With Mates - A Simple Tutorial

The Copy with Mates command has always been an underused feature in SolidWorks for me. I'm not really sure why but every time I went to use it I had to refer to the program help to figure it out. On a recent project that involved a lot of hardware placement into the assemblies I took another look at the command and through repeated use I finally have a handle on it's use.
Take a look at this simple assembly that has a single PEM fastener installed with a concentric and a coincident mate to the sheet metal part. I need to replicate this feature with the same mates on all the holes.













Image 1

In Image 2 you see that I've selected the PEM nut and clicked the 'Copy with Mates' button. (I added the button to the toolbar, its not there by default.) The dialogue box shows the selected components and the mates associated with the components. Click in the box associated with the 1st listed mate, 'Concentric3' in this case.













Image 2

Now all that is left is picking the surfaces that will satisfy these 2 mates. You see in image 3 that I've zoomed up on one of the holes. I have the selection filter set to 'Faces' and I've already picked the inside of the hole in the sheet metal. You see a preview of the PEM nut placement.














Image3

Notice that next to the mate boxes there is a tick box with the word 'Repeat' next to it. Since all the PEM nuts will meet this mate requirement I will check the box next to the Coincident3 mate.
As soon as I check the box the PEM nut snaps into place as shown in Image 4 below.













Image 4

Make sure you click the OK button or the PEM nut will not be placed, but don't click it twice because that will exit the command and we have more hardware to place. All you have to do now is continue picking the face of the holes and clicking OK (once) after each PEM is placed.













Image5 - Shows that the face of the 2nd hole is selected and the PEM will be placed here.

Now think about how many clicks you will save by using the 'Copy with Mates'. Also note that if there had been a screw and washer inserted into that single PEM nut we could have applied the 'Copy with Mates' to all three at the same time. Here is the part with all the PEM hardware installed:

Playing around with SW2009

I just found something that I hadn't read or seen concerning SolidWorks 2009.  Under VIEW you will see a new entry call WORKSPACE.  Here you will find picks for Default, Widescreen & Dual Monitor.  Clicking on Widescreen gives you a vertical command manager.  This makes more efficient use of the widescreen monitors that seem to be the norm now.  Check it out!

Have you seen something new in 2009 that you didn't know about?  Lets get some posting going to share what we learn...

SolidWorks 2009 rollout by TPM

The rollout of SolidWorks 2009 put on by TPM was very informative.  Several members of the WNC-SWUG were present as witnessed by the pictures below.  Wes kicked off the event with an introduction and invitation to become involved with the user group.  Keith Dacus started the presentation with a demonstration of Simulation the new upgraded version of Cosmos.   This is the first presentation I’ve seen Keith do and I was very impressed, good job Keith.  Every time I see a presentation of an analysis package I think back over the last year and the times when it would have came in handy in my work but there are not enough times to justify the expense for us as we actually do very little design work in house.  That said I do have to comment on the new sensors that are available in even the base package SolidWorks.  I not sure but I think that the ‘Mass Sensor’ will be available to all users.  It allows us to constantly monitor the mass of the part while you are modeling it.  If this is not included in the base package, please correct me.

After a short break the session picked up again with Steve Ostrovsky showing us all the cool stuff in SW2009.  Speedpacks are slick but the thing that will help my job the best is the new way to handle custom properties.  When you have a multi user environment it is hard to get consistency across the board.  The new custom properties interface builder will really cut down on the typing we have to do as we will be able to select all the options from drop down lists or check boxes. From Steve’s demonstration it appears that the process of building the interface is really painless.  When he started showing it I was worried that the ‘logic’ behind the interface would be visual basic like but to my pleasant surprise it was just a matter of dragging and dropping.  I know I’m doing this subject justification but just suffice to say that I think you’re really going to like it.

Another new feature that is of interest to me is the ability to convert a solid to sheet metal.  In fact I’m working on a project now that could benefit from this.  I’ve loaded SP0 on to my laptop for testing and to try this feature.  Look for another post with my results.

Below are some pictures from the rollout:

our fearless leader

Keith Dacus of TPM / Greenville

Steve Ostrovsky of TPM / Columbia

Wes, Phil, Tim, Tom & Matthew

SolidWorks 2009 Solid to Sheetmetal

Initial Thoughts on DriveWorksXpress

Thoughts on DriveWorksXpress
Although this is obviously a very powerful and useful tool as evidenced from all the demos and videos floating around on the WWW I have found some issues.

1. You can never find a tutorial or demo that does exactly what you are wishing to do. (Like how would anyone know what I want to do anyway?)
2. All the tutorials and examples that I’ve seen start at the DriveWorksXpress use. You really and truly need to be thinking DriveWorksXpress when designing the parts initially.
3. You can’t teach the logic of DriveWorksXpress in a tutorial. If you don’t have a grasp on the logic of what you are trying to do you will never get it to work. This is not a fault of the program but rather a fault in my brain.

I spent a total of 5 hours over the weekend trying to make a DriveWorks database to drive a metal cabinet design that we have. At some point yesterday I finally admitted defeat to myself. Please understand that the program does exactly what it is suppose to do and does it well. But from my experience I’ve learned a few things that will help me in the future. Oh and BTW when I say that I ‘admitted defeat’ it doesn’t mean that I’m giving up, it only means that I think I need to start the process of using DriveWorks earlier in the design cycle.

What I’ve learned:
1. You can take an existing design that you did over a year ago and build a DesignWorksXpress database around it. But be forewarned you better have a complete understanding of how your design works (no pun) and interacts with other parts in the assembly. This is where I am with my cabinet project.
2. Limit or eliminate arrays of features with dimensions that need to be driven. I had several arrays with only 3 elements in them. While I’m sure that DriveWorks could deal with them it’s one more dimension rule you will have to create. I’ve found that using ‘linked’ dimensions within the sketch to make multiple features works better.
3. In my original design I did a lot of in-context part creation in the assembly. This seems to cause problems. If trying to use DriveWorks on an existing assembly you might want to go back and break all the references making sure to track down any other parts that might reference the part you just broke the references to. This includes mates in the top level assembly.
4. Your directory where the assembly resides is going to get very cluttered with the new parts and assemblies you create. Make a copy of your directory before each ‘test’ run of DriveWorks. I used Pack and Go to make a flattened copy of all the components within the assembly.

Please understand that I don’t mean this to sound like I’m putting the product down. Heck I even know that eventually I could get this to work on the mentioned cabinet assembly. But I also know that if I had of stopped 3 days ago and went back and redid the cabinet with the intention of using DriveWorks I would have been ahead of the game.

Expect additional posts on this subject and eventually a working DriveWorksXpress assembly.

COSMOS is now Design Simulation

COSMOS is now Design Simulation

At the September 11th WNC SolidWorks User Group Meeting Dana Parish from Central Florida gave an excellent presentation on the Who, What, When and Why of design simulation. I left with the feeling that this is something that should be in my CAD toolbox. Dana’s presentation really focused in on how the tools can help designers and engineers alike in their endeavors to design and build products in a cost effective manner. Dana’s partner, Ramesh Lakshmipathy showed us how the software worked using real world examples. One of his example files was from Precision Gear provided by our own Phil Behm. It was a housing that Precision Gear has cast overseas. Phil said it was designed in the old days when steel was cheap and the ‘When in doubt, make it stout’ finite element analysis was the preferred method. By running the design simulation tools on the housing Ramesh was able to trim 8 lbs from the part. And he did all this in about 30 minutes. He went through the process for us and I must say that it was impressive.

Today I’m up to my eyebrows in DriveWorksXpress. We have a perfect project for this application. Look around in your kitchen at the cabinetry and picture these made from #3 brushed stainless steel. They are used in a pharmaceutical laboratory. We have made the cabinets twice before and both time I was thinking that there must be a better way. The sizes and the configuration of the cabinets change based on the wall space available and their actual use. There are single door cabinets of various sizes but they could hinge on the left or the right sides. There are double door cabinets of different sizes and there are cabinets with door and drawers and some with just drawers. It’s really confusing since some parts will be the same for multiple cabinets and some will be the same except for a single hole…You get the idea. And if I’m not confused enough the shop guys really lose their minds when the assembly starts.

I’ve watched videos, read tutorials and worked through them. I talked to Michael Jolley last night and he gave me a few pointers. So as I told my boss this morning, it’s now down to me figuring it out as I do it. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. Or not!

What ‘bout them Tarheels! Great win guys!

No politics spoken here!

No politics spoken here!

Things are finally starting to calm down at the Cox household.  The last few weeks have been a blur of activity.  From refurbishing sixteen computers to trying to get the yard work done has been a struggle.  There was some mention by my wife of having my nose in a computer screen for the last three weeks.  But all that is finally behind me now.  The Shelby HAMfest has come and gone and I managed to sell all the computers but three.  I still have a bunch of 20” CRT monitors that are in excellent shape if anyone is interested…I will make you a deal on one or two or three or…

 

The HAMfest was great.  The new location is better as far as the facilities but some of the older people were complaining about how spread out it was.  If you have never been to an event like this I suggest you try one out.  Whether you’re into HAM radio or computers you will find a bunch of people with like interests who are just dying to strike up a conversation.  Last year I took my Commodore SX64 and a bunch of people stop by to reminisce about their Commodore 64 days.  This year my brother took some token-ring switches and had similar results.  BTW – neither the SX64 or the token ring gear sold but we did get a lot of traffic to our table because of them.

 

During the process of setting up the PCs for sale I learned a lot about Linux and in particular Ubuntu Desktop.  I’m tempted to set up one of the left over machines in my house just to see if I can make it do all that I typically do on a Windows machine.  With a little searching around the web and a bit of under the hood tweaking I believe that this can be a windows alternative.  Excluding SolidWorks of course! In fact on the new build of my ‘regular’ desktop machine I installed OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office.  I’m wondering if there is a way to hook the OpenOffice spread sheet into SolidWorks instead of Excel, this will be my next project.  I did temporarily install Outlook just to get my contacts imported.  Does anyone know of an alternative that can sync your contacts with your pocket PC?  I’m not worried about the email since I use Google’s Gmail almost exclusively now since I just found out that I can add my Pop3 accounts to it.

 

In response to comments made on some of the blog entries I would like to thank the ones who read and responded.  The situation concerning the ‘limited user’ status on the CAD machines at Byers has now been lifted with yours truly being responsible for the computers in the CAD department.  Whoever said that I should just keep bugging the IT manager about this was right.

 

Thanks for all the tips on the imported sheet metal part.  I foresee someday SolidWorks recognizing a sheet metal part and making the necessary adjustments to the dumb solid on its own.  This is what I meant by ‘Smarter SolidWorks’.  I do wish that when you comment on the blog that you would leave enough information so that I will know who you are.  I removed the requirement that you be logged in to comment to make it easier for all of ya’ll but please in the spirit of community tell me who you are.

Smarter SolidWorks

It continues to amaze me the problem that Solid Modelers have talking to each other. Okay I can see where the curvy stuff would give problems but sheet metal? Come on guys this is as simple as dirt. I was sent a couple parasolid parts translated from SolidEdge the other day and they were both what I would consider to be simple. One of the parts had seven faulty faces that that SolidWorks could not repair. The whole ordeal makes me have a few questions.

Question #1: How do you get faulty faces in a sheet metal part? It wasn’t due to bad modeling practices since the part was created in the sheet metal module of SolidEdge and I know from experience that SolidEdge makes the user adhere to the same basic sheet metal rules that SolidWorks does such as uniform thickness and such.

Question #2: Why can I import a SolidEdge part file and an assembly file but not the sheet metal (.psm) file? The customer was able to translate it into a part file on his end but it didn’t help the situation anyway.

I even sent this part to my VAR’s application engineer and he wasn’t able to do anything with it other than suggest deleting the bad faces and add it back using the surfacing tools. He went on to say:


" I don't really have any good news for you, but translating 3D cad models is a big separate industry - for a reason. Modeling software file formats don't always like to work together, as you can see here.”



Wow that’s a news flash! Since I’m a little rusty on the whole face/surface thing I fell back to my old standby which is to insert the bad part into an assembly and then build a good part on top of it.

Question #3: Why did the part fail? Was it because there was a hem on the part that actually was closed completely flat against it face to which it was added?











Or was it because of the overlapping flange that does touch the opposing flange?











Or maybe it’s the lance & form that has no relief (which incidentally is how it is in the real world)?














It might be one or all of these that is causing the part to fail. But my point is that if we can’t translate other than by ‘dumb’ solids then some rules need to be followed on both ends. Why can’t all the CAD companies get together on some rules that govern sheet metal parts? Why can’t the importing modeler be a little smarter and recognize the face or even let me tell it that this is a sheet metal part and in turn it would know to adjust so that features can be recognized.

Now just to temper the bad with some good, go check out this video. I hope this works as well on my computer. Solid to Sheet Metal

Friday Fritters

Okay it’s a strange title but as I start to write today I have no idea where I’m going. So hang on or jump off at any time!

One thing about SW2009 that really interests me is the Custom Properties tab and the ability to customize it. One thing that really irks me is when I have to go behind someone revising his drawings and find that he hasn’t filled in a single custom property. Hopefully this will make it easier to manage thus making him more apt to use them.

What’s going on in my life? I mentioned that we had replaced all the PCs at the company I work for. I struck up a deal with the owner where as I would remove all the old ‘junk’ and take care of a fitting disposal. This process included general cleaning (you’d be surprised at how filthy a PC can get) with 100PSI compressed air and several bottles of Mean Green Cleaner. Then I did a complete wipe of the hard drive using KillDisk and finally a re-install of an operating system. Most of the systems had COAs (certificate of authorization) for one version of Windows or another so they were set up again. I’m only going back as far as Windows 2000 Pro, anything older will get some flavor of Linux installed. So far I have four Dell Optiplex GX150s, two custom built CAD stations with Athlon 64 3400s, Quadro FX500s and 2GB RAM. There are a few more machines with Pentium 4s and then a slew of Microtel machines that have AMD Durons and 256MB RAM. The Microtels were bought with Lindows installed which was replaced with Win98. I’m not sure what to do with these machines. I’ve tried Xubuntu since it is a scaled down version of Ubuntu designed to run on low end hardware but I haven’t had much luck with it yet. I don’t have COAs for Win98 so that’s out of the question. Are there any suggestions from the hardware geeks out there?

I also have 15 20” Dell CRT monitors (anyone need a monitor?) that are stacked in my garage. Yeah it’s been a dirty hard job with late hours and no promise of any monetary reward but it has been fun. I already managed to sell the Optiplexs with monitors. One of the CAD workstations went to my co-worker who helped move all the stuff to my house. Some of the guys here at Byers have expressed interest in a computer and anything that is not sold will be going to the Shelby HAM Fest (which incidentally is being held in Dallas NC this year) on Labor day Weekend. But the sooner I get rid of all this stuff the sooner the wife will be speaking to me again. Wait a minute, let me think about that.

Thrown into the pile-o-junk will be a couple of SpaceNavigator PEs and one of the FX500 video cards so if you have any need for them or a 20” monitor leave a comment with contact information.
From the Wikipedia:
A fritter is any kind of food coated in batter and deep fried. The word comes from the Latin *frīctūra ("frying") by way of Old French and Middle English. It can refer to a dessert, a side dish or a main course food.
I hope you enjoyed your batter coated, deep fried side dish of useless verbage on this fine Friday. The only other question that begs to be asked…was it a desert, a side dish or a main course?

SolidWorks 2009 coming to blog near you soon!

SolidWorks 2009 coming to blog near you soon!

Because everyone else is blogging constantly all about SW 2009 I’ve been hesitant to add my observations or opinions. In finality you will be the judge of how the new release works for you. But just so you know a little of what to expect in the new release here is a link to a list of links to blogs and youtube videos showing off and or lamenting the highlights of SolidWorks 2009.

http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/solidworks/reviews.htm

I can’t wait to get my grimy little hands on it!

Friday Strangeness

Here’s a strange one:
I used the assembly feature hole wizard on an sub-assembly this morning. I place two sketch points to locate the holes while in the initial command. I then Ctrl-Tabbed back to the main assembly to make sure I was adding the holes on the correct side of the sub-assembly. Everything looked good so I edit the hole wizard sketch to add three more sketch points for all the holes I needed. No problem adding them but when I update I only see the original two holes I added. I played around with a bit but couldn’t get the remaining holes to appear. I finally gave up and did another hole wizard and included all the points I needed and it worked fine. I’m curious as to whether this is the case always or is it another ‘feature’?

Here’s another question for any config/design table experts out there. I have created a working design table that basically just uses some simple calculations to generate different lengths of tubing for use in another assembly. I don’t do configurations with design tables that often so please excuse my ignorance but I need to add back the custom property “description” to the table so that when inserted into a drawing it is more understandable. Is there a way to force SolidWorks to refresh all the parameters not just the newly added ones? If not can you provide me with the proper syntax to do this? I hope that I’m providing enough information for you to see what I’m trying to do.

Pallet Forming Tools

An underutilized feature of SolidWorks by me is the “Pallet Forming Tools”. I have modified the ‘standard’ tools that ship with SolidWorks into the tools we have in our shop and in the modification process is where I have difficulty. We did take the available training at our VAR when we first switched over to SolidWorks but of course the current version of SolidWorks was 2001+ and I would suppose that a few changes have been made. But as I said I have modified some of the shipped tools into something we can use. The process is always trial and error. I make the changes I think need to be made and then insert the tool onto a part and see what happens. Here is the part that I have a problem with, if I see I need to make more changes and make them they are not reflected on the tool I already inserted. I have to delete the form tool and then insert it again. Am I wrong on this? Maybe this has been changed or maybe I just don’t know what I’m doing. I would think that somehow they be associated and update as such.

An update for anyone who interested in my weight loss attempt; I am now an official Weight Watcher Lifetime member. I reached my goal weight and maintained it for 6 weeks. Actually I’m having difficulty not losing any more weight… (I never thought I’d be typing that in my lifetime.) Was it worth it? I can say with a resounding YES it was. I feel much better, have more energy and don’t have the need to Lipitor or hypertension medication any longer. People will tell me that I’m looking good and I respond, “No I’m looking thinner…I’m still ugly!”

Am I supposed to be writing for this Blog?

Am I supposed to be writing for this Blog?

No excuses, no explanation, suffice to say that I’m back now after an extended leave.

What’s bothering me today, the new IT department’s policies concerning administrator rights to my computer. Oops did I say ‘my computer’, I meant the computer that I’m attached to 9-1/2 hours a day five days a week.

A little background information is in order here. We all have shiny new workstations here at Byers. They are built to the hilt Dell machines with 4 GB RAM, fast SATA 2 drives and a mid-level Quadro video card. All this is connected to a ‘real’ Dell server with all the bells and whistles. During the install process I was given the administrator password so that I could get all the CAD/CAM software up and running on the machines in the engineering department. This involved fresh installs of SolidWorks and any other programs that we use in performing our jobs.

Everything was up and running and we were productive again and then I realized that I had forgotten to enable duplex printing on the OkiData printer. When I went to fix this problem I was informed by the computer that I must be logged in as the administrator. I then found out the password for this account had been changed and there was no way this information was going to be given to me.

I understand that there are users on our network who have no business with administrator rights. We’ve been down that road before, virus, malware and spyware being installed at the user’s spontaneous desire to click something in their web browser. But I’ve been an integral part of the migration to technology here. When I first started working here the company had recently acquired their first Numeric Control Punching machine. The programs had to be typed into a machine that punched a paper tape that was loaded into the machine controller. There was no CAD/CAM then. As one of the sheet metal mechanics on the shop floor it was my responsibility to manually draft out sketches of the parts in the flat so that the programmer could write the code on a yellow legal pad which was handed to one of the secretaries so that she could type the code into the paper punch tape machine.

When we finally did get our Applicon Bravo CAD/CAM system I was the one who of 3 persons who went through the training and the only one who actually caught on to the system. Not only did I do all the CAD work back then but I was also responsible for the system maintenance. The system was running VMS on Digital Equipment hardware. VMS makes all flavors of windows look like a piece of cake. I even wrote several programs in DCL (Digital Control Language) that managed the tasks of backups, restores and even file renaming of the DXF files to the 8.3 format which was needed by the machine controls.

I’m saying all this just to say that I really feel as if I’ve been ‘dumbed’ down. Heck, I can’t even delete unused icons on my desktop now! Forget about checking for new SolidWorks releases…I must be an administrator.

Yes, there was a problem here at Byers. There was unlicensed software floating around. The system we had for backing up our precious data was crap! People here were installing everything from NASCAR race day to Print Shop 1.0 with no control and no concern as to what was happening to the actual programs that were needed to perform their jobs. But to blanket all persons with the same restrictions is actually counterproductive to the persons who know how to do their job and how to adapt their computers to do it better and faster.

But if this is company policy then I will live with it. I will continue to do my job to the best of my ability with the equipment and software available to me. Will I be happy about it? I don’t think so…all these icons on my desktop are really bugging me!

Am I being a jerk about this? Let me know what you think. Are any of you trying to work under the same conditions? Let’s get some comments going!

SWUG meeting Thursday

WNC-Asheville SWUG meeting July 10th
See the website for details.

I’ll be doing a ‘very’ short presentation on FeatureWorks and then the evening becomes what Wes calls ‘Open Mouse Night’. If you have any cool tips or tricks be prepared to show them off. Bring your files on a flash drive or CD-ROM. If you’ve never been to a meeting this would be a good laid back meeting to attend. We always have food (usually pizza) and good conversation. Get to know the people in the Asheville area who are using the same CAD software as you and experiencing the same issues using it. There will be some VARs represented at the meeting but they are banned from making any sort of sales pitch but they do have answers to a lot of the typical questions that come up.

You might have noticed a theme change on the website. It is a work in progress as I’m creating some new graphics to go with the theme. But the good news is that things seem to fit better in the boxes that with the old theme. I’m no website designer by any means and I do it so infrequently that I have to re-train myself every time I do make a change.
Here is the graphic I want to use as the header:

I'm now a CSWA!

This is a special blog for me…CHECK IT OUT!

I know it’s only the associate exam but I’m still proud of it. I said a quick prayer before I started the test and I told God that if I passed I’d be sure to let everyone know that He is getting the glory. Thank you God for helping me remember, stay calm and stay awake.

If you have a free voucher to take the test remember that it expires tomorrow. Go ahead and take the test, yes it’s is a bit difficult and if I can do it you can too. A couple of pointers:

1. Two computers or at least a dual display, one for the exam and one for SolidWorks.

2. There might be questions on ComosXpress, but if you can build the models and assemblies fairly quickly you do have time to run an analysis and refer to the help to get the answers you need.

3. Note that some questions may require you to build a part or assembly and the part origin is given or it’s arbitrary. Pay attention or you won’t find your answer in the choices given.

That’s about all I can legally tell you about the test.

New Computer is now running but...

I'm posting from the old machine now. It has been an interesting week which is why there have been no new posts. But to let everyone know how it's going here is an update.

The new Dell Precision T3400 is sitting on my desk right next to the old machine it will be replacing. Both computers are currently hooked up to the beautiful new 24" monitor. I can switch back and forth between the two computers with just a push of a button. But I do keep getting confused and moving the wrong mouse or typing on the wrong keyboard. I've been getting everything running on both new machines as I get time. SolidWorks is installed on both and I have a service pack 4.0 download queued up for 10PM tonight. Printer and plotter drivers are installed as well as Foxit PDF editor and Acrobat. Email is working but there are some issues with the wiring in the building which has my machine falling back to 10mb network speeds. Come to find out the new gigabyte switches won't fall back to 100 mb on CAT5 correctly. We verified this by running a 81' CAT6 cable on the floor from the switch to my machine this morning.

There you go, we are up and running but mostly still on the old hardware. At this rate we should be ready to go completely to the new machines by Tuesday...I hope!

Logitech MX Revolution…first impressions

Logitech MX Revolution…first impressions

I have a new workstation so I decided that it was time to upgrade my trusty Trackman Wheel. Remembering what Philip Thomas said in a recent presentation, I looked for the mouse with the most buttons. The only self implied limitation was that it would have to be a Logitech mouse or trackball. Looking at the Logitech website I see that there are only 3 trackball styles available now. I’ve tried the cordless Trackman Optical before and found that it just doesn’t feel comfy in my hand. My daughter has a Trackman Marble and even thought I don’t cuss out loud I do write it down and sign my name to it every time I have to use it. So I’m left with the choice of going with another Trackman Wheel or switching over to a mouse. I decided to go with the latter.
The MX revolution arrived today and even though I’m not running on the new workstation yet I thought it might be good to start getting used to a mouse again so I hooked it up. It came with enough of a charge to start using it right out of the box. I installed the SetPoint software and I’m off to the races.
The mouse feels good in my hand, the buttons are placed in positions that are easy to locate and press. The wheels (yes wheels) roll very smoothly or with a ratcheting movement. The wheel on the top is your standard scroll up and down and side to side. I sacrificed the ratcheting movement so that a press of the wheel is now the middle button. There is a button behind the top wheel that by default initiates an internet search with the search engine of your choice. There are 2 more buttons above the thumb rest that are set as forward and back. The wheel that is controlled by your thumb is set by default to task switch between applications. The description of this button in the supplied help and instructions is incorrect, IMHO. It is described as a means to switch between documents (Ctrl-Tab) when in actuality it switches between applications (Alt-Tab). All of the buttons are customizable overall or per application. I added Solidworks.exe to the application list and went to work.
Right now I have the FORWARD button defined as ‘S’, the BACK button set as ‘Ctrl-Tab’. The thumb wheel can be defined as three functions as you can roll it forward, roll it back and press it. In SolidWorks I roll it forward for a fit to screen, press it for an Isometric view and roll it back for a normal to view. I’m trying to think of what I want the left and right tilt of the top wheel to do in SolidWorks. Anyone care to share how they have their mouse buttons programmed?
So far based on my limited use of the MX Revolution I can say that you might want to consider this. Even if you’re an old trackball man like me you can learn new tricks and enjoy the process.

New Dells, CSWA/CSWP and my garden?

All the new computer equipment is here from Dell now...$70,000 worth. We set up one of the workstations and the 24” monitor is awesome. The installer will be here next week to get everything up and running. Note to myself: Don’t forget to do the SolidWorks license transfers.

My brother is a professional IT person. I spent last night helping (mostly watching) him fix a slew of problems at the company that my wife works at. What a mess! I just thought the network problems at Byers were bad. One of their servers is running Windows NT4 and only has a 6 GB hard drive.

If you have any thought of taking advantage of the free CSWP or CSWA test you need to be reminded that this offer ends on the 30^th. SolidProfessor has a course to help you prepare for it. See Matt’s blog on this subject for more info and the way to get 50% off the price.

I did my first harvest from the garden last night: 3 grape tomatoes, 4 zucchini and 2 crooked neck squash. I’ve been cutting basil and lettuce for weeks but this was the first real veggies to come from the garden. I believe I’m going to have a good crop this year. The squash and zucchini are loaded with blooms and I have little green tomatoes coming out of my ears. Another note to self: Don’t waste the garden space on strawberries; you must need an acre or more planted to get any amount at all.

What am I?

Design or Modeling

I’m often asked if I’m a designer. My answer is always the same, NO! Just this morning the new estimator here at Byers’s asked me that question and I in turn asked him if he had read the quality manual yet. In which you will find my job description:

Identification of organizational structure and acquisition of resources which are necessary to achieve objectives. Meeting established goals for value and quality. Experienced in currently utilized CAD/CAM software and knowledgeable in current PC software and operating systems. Interacts with engineering staff. Duties include: generating necessary documents to meet the objectives. Responsible for documentation of prototypes, new designs, and technologies. Assists Sales with providing applications to assure customer satisfaction.

In other words my job is to document new designs…not generate new designs. But then I ask myself, do I design anything? I am usually given a drawing of a sheet metal part or assembly supplied by our customer. The design as far as function has already been done. But when I model the sheet metal parts that will be fabricated into the customer’s design I have to make decisions as far as how many pieces will be welded or fastened together to end up with the final product. I tend to make these parts self fixturing by using tabs and slots or Cleko clamp holes, does this qualify as design? Maybe it’s manufacturing design?

What about when the welder comes in and asks for a weld fixture to hold the parts in tolerance while he welds them together? I guess that is design, maybe not of a product but the tool used to make the product.

When you have been doing sheet metal for so many years you can generally look at a customer’s drawing and immediately see the individual parts that will be required to fabricate his design. Other times I will pull out my sketch pad and do a dirty sketch in an isometric view of how I picture the fabrication, there will usually be many eraser marks on this sketch as I refine the way I will end up modeling the parts. When I’m happy with the sketch I then fire up SolidWorks and start modeling the parts. Sometimes as individual parts brought together in an assembly file and other times only the main ‘wrapper’ will be drawn and located in an assembly file and then I will go into top-down mode to model the remaining parts. During this stage of the process is where my initial thoughts and sketches are further refined.

The final step is the documentation. I lay out the drawing views just like the customer’s drawing and dimension in the same manner also. This makes it easy to check my model against his design.

I guess my job does include some design elements but the final outcome of my work is a fabrication of someone else’s design.

Help! I’ve fallen down a hole wizard hole and I can’t get up!

Help! I’ve fallen down a hole wizard hole and I can’t get up!

What is going on all of a sudden with my hole wizard holes? We first discovered this problem a few weeks ago. Here is the situation: We use the legacy hole option with in the wizard, why? Because it seems (based on our limited knowledge) that it is the easiest way to make a hole of a certain known diameter. We have been using the legacy hole for all types of holes such as c’bore, c’sink, etc. The only time we venture from the legacy hole is for threaded holes and if we need to know the proper clearance diameter for a given bolt. No fooling around with number or letter sizes; just type in the diameter you want and BAM! You have a hole. We have used the Hole Wizard in this manner almost since B.S. (Before SolidWorks) and it has worked great except the annotation will sometime include the quantity of hole but most times not. Then the problem started, my co-worker would make a change to the hole diameter and the flat pattern would not update correctly. Move the hole and the flat updated, change the diameter and nothing. We tried everything we could think of to no avail. The only work around was to edit the hole in the flat pattern configuration as well as the default configuration. One hole…two edits!

I posted to the SolidWorks Corp. user forum and got some suggestions from who I would consider a SolidWorks expert but none of the solutions worked. When I uploaded the files in question he was baffled as well. I finally emailed my VAR for some tech support and although very understanding he wasn’t able to pin point the problem either. We met up and discussed the situation some more at the SESWUW. The tech support guy told me that the ‘Legacy’hole was just that…there for legacy purposes and ‘maybe’ not fully supported. This actually made sense to me but now that I think about it, it doesn’t explain why we were just experiencing this all of a sudden. Since that time I’ve ran into the same problem on my install of SolidWorks also. It is true that I can change the hole to another type as a work around but should I have to?

Okay I typed all that to get to this: If I can’t depend on the legacy hole, can someone please advice the best way to model a hole, up to next, of a pre-determined diameter, that might or might not be a ‘standard’ size? And oh by the way I do know that I can check the ‘custom sizing’ box to enter the size but then the hole feature is named something that has nothing to do with the hole I want. I’m thinking that I must have fallen asleep during this portion of my SolidWorks training. Tell me what I'm doing wrong...Please.

Here is the link to the SolidWorks Forum from which you can grab the files to take a look at if you want: Hole Wizard Question

PIctures from SouthEastern SolidWorks User Workshop

Here are the low quality pictures I took at the SouthEastern SolidWorks User Workshop. I didn't get permission so if I didn't catch your best side just let me know and I will remove the picture.

Here is Tony Cantrell the event organizer.

Here is Richard Doyle the SWUGN leader talking to Tony.

This is Darren Henry doing his Weldment Session

This is Matt Lombard showing us how to conduct a session while waiting on a SolidWorks update to install.

This is Philip Thomas the dumb solid expert!

Rodney Hall impressing the ladies!

Matt watching Rodney impress the ladies...

I promise this is the last time I will post cell phone pictures.

Southeastern SolidWorks User Workshop: Day 2

Southeastern SolidWorks User Workshop: Day 2

I apologize for this being a day late. My excuse is that my brain shutdown last night at 5PM due to overload. The second day of the workshop was very intense for your friendly neighborhood blogger.

My first session of the day was Matt Lombard's presentation on Curvy Stuff. For someone who does sheet metal 99% of the time this was definitely uncharted territory. But I do have to say that I learned a lot and it makes me want to continue my studies in SolidWorks surfacing. Matt took us through the modeling of a pasta scoop which happened to be in his kitchen utensil drawer. We learned about projected curves, boundary surfaces, spline on a surface and the awesome fill surface. I have never used the fill surface command but it must be a really great tool since Matt was the first of two presenters to tout its usefulness.

Next I was in Steve Ostrovsky’s presentation on drawing templates and formats. Even though I knew the material fairly well Steve did point out some things that I could do in a more efficient manner than how I’m doing it now. This class was a hands on lab which invariably has problems with some of the participants not really being at the level of expertise that the material is geared for. I really feel for presenters when placed in this situation. But Steve did a great job of keeping everyone on track. On great tip I pick up here was how to do multi-line custom property descriptions on the drawing sheet format.

After the lunch break I attended Philip Thomas’ presentation on dumb solids. If you’ve ever sat in on one of Philip’s presentations you know what I mean when I say…WOW! Philip is hilarious and educational at the same time. He started out with a very informative history of CAD. Check out CADAZZ.com for some of the information he presented. Why the history lesson? It is necessary to know the history in order to understand the state of CAD interoperability today. We have different kernels, different philosophies and different ways of doing things among the various CAD software companies and even within the same company (Catia, SolidWorks). Philip pointed out that the difference between smart solids and dumb solids is just the amount of information embedded with the solid. He showed several examples and various ways of tackling the errors that the dumb solid might have. I picked up on some ideals that will help me the next time I get a Pro/E file I need to work with in SolidWorks.

And if one class with Philip wasn’t enough…I then attended his presentation on Keyboard Shortcuts. This session was more laid back that the previous one. Philip's Presentation came down to these pointers:

1. Quit banging on the keyboard – get a mouse with as many programmable buttons as you can remember and then program them.
2. Undo is Great – But cancel is better! – when you really mess up a sketch DON’T release the left mouse button, press and hold the right button, now release the left button and finally the right button. You sketch is back like it was before.
3. Wrap will split multiple faces in one go and there other ways to extrude text.
4. Don’t forget Cut-Sweep Solid.
5. The ‘parametize’ tool is very powerful, use the Dim Expert.
6. Make your presentations look good with RealView.
7. Know when to Eject! He gave us a .bat file that ends all SolidWorks processes.
8. Personalize – use the API. Philip showed us some really cool things that can be done with a little bit of VBA programming and Excel.
   

Thanks to all the presenters for sharing their knowledge with all of us attendees. I hope to someday make you proud enough to say, “Look at that guy go! I taught him everything he knows”.

All and all the 1^st SouthEastern SolidWorks User Workshop was a great success. I certainly hope that this will become a yearly event. Tony, I’m giving you a standing ovation as I type.

Pictures may be coming next…

Southeastern SolidWorks User Workshop: Day 1

Southeastern SolidWorks User Workshop: Day 1

Let me say first off that the location is ideally suited for this type of event. Thanks to Midlands Technical College for hosting the event. Tony Cantrell has done a great job on the organization of the event, thanks Tony. And thank you SolidWorks Corporation for the briefcase (but I wish I had chosen the backpack).

The day started more or less around 7:30 with a breakfast that included grits, biscuits, gravy, eggs, sausage and bacon. It looked and smelled awesome…I had already eaten so I can’t review the taste of the food. One of the great things about these events is the people you meet and the things you learn from them. I met Mary who in recent days has been trying to learn AutoDesk Inventor in order to complete a project that the customer requires in that format. Listening to her grief over Inventor makes me appreciate SolidWorks even more. I also met a man who teaches SolidWorks at a local High School. From this conversation it is evident that SolidWorks is really trying to have a positive effect on education.

At 8:30 we all gathered in an auditorium for the general welcome session. Tony said a few words and turned the program over to Richard Doyle. Richard did his SolidWorks community presentation going over all the available content on the Customer Portal. He went over some of the content that is on SolidWorks Labs page of which the new Blueprint Now sounds interesting. It allows you to edit DWG files online; I will check this out for a future blog.

The next session I attended was entitled 3DConnexion Space Pilot. I’ve been using a 3D controller since 2000 but I’ve been experiencing problems getting used to the new Space Navigators we bought to replace our no longer supported SpaceBall 4000FLXs. I was hoping to be able to get some pointers or ask some questions about the configuration of the new devices to be more like the old controllers. There was two things wrong with this session…the presenter was a no show and there wasn’t Space Pilot anywhere in sight. But Tony filled in quiet well and I did manage to win the drawing for one of the Navigators.

The lunch buffet consisted of a nice salad, turkey, beef patties, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans. I can state that what I ate was very good. There might have been some dessert also but I tried not to notice that.

Session #2 for me was weldments which was excellently presented by Darren Henry. He started off with a PowerPoint but quickly got away from that and actually showed us all that you can do with weldments and how to do them. Since 3D sketches are a prerequisite for weldments I picked up much needed education on those also. Thanks Darren, good job.

The last session of the day was Drawing Tips & Stuff by the overworked (but seeming to love every minute) Richard Doyle. This presentation was full of things that I will be able to apply as soon as I get back to work. I ended up with a page and a half of notes, which is a lot for me. My TIP OF THE DAY comes from this session: When you have a note that mistakenly got attached to a drawing view, in other words the note moves when the drawing view is moved, simply select the note, Ctrl-X, make sure no view is active and do a Ctrl-V. Your note is back and it is not attached to anything.

I'm excited and looking forward to tomorrow's session. I'll let you know how that goes.