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.
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