Notes from Matt's Presentation

Since Matt mentioned it I now feel obligated to post some of my notes from his presentation at last week’s user group meeting. I started to just scan the page I took the notes on but I can’t let just anyone see my ‘creative’ doodles until I get the copy write on them. I hope you all are not expecting much…

1. You can create planes within a 3D sketch. This is how you get the feature count down when competing in a modeling contest. This means you can create the geometry for multiple cuts / extrudes from different planes. Of course all the cuts or extrudes must go in the same direction. The example Matt demonstrated would have been 4 or 5 separate features (the way I model parts) compressed to one.
2. Turn on the View ports when sketching in 3D. Add the 4-viewport button to a toolbar. With the 4 view ports you can start a line in one view, click the endpoint in another view and etc. This a great visual aid when doing 3D sketches for routing.
3. To constrain a point or endpoint, dimension from the 3 standard planes.
4. Create a plane parallel to the screen view. Rotate the view to where you want it. Start a 3D sketch; draw 3 points at random on the screen. Constrain them to be coincident (3 points right on top of each other). Break the relations and then move the 3 points apart. Exit the sketch and create a plane using the 3 points. This works because when you move a point it only moves in x-y relative to the screen view, cool stuff.
5. I was able to ask my question: If 3 points can define a circle and 3 points can define a plane, why can’t a circle define a plane? This is possible in the real world but not straight up in SolidWorks. I would think it would be an option on the reference plane creation dialogue box. But Matt explained that you can do it with 3D Sketches. You simply start a 3D sketch, place 3 points on the circular edge where you want the plane and then use the 3-point plane creation.
6. Matt also talked about the difference between the old ‘layout sketch’ and the new SolidWorks feature, Layout Sketch.
7. We also discussed the mistake that we’ve all made when working within an assembly. Forget to change to edit part mode and just start sketching on a face and expect the resulting feature to be placed on the part at the part level. And if there was anyway to ‘move’ this feature to the part level. That’s all I can say about that!
   

There was much more covered in the meeting these are the things that made an impression on me. I might have gotten more out of it but my sinuses decided to go into convulsions in the middle of the meeting and I was struggling to maintain control with an over used handkerchief I just happened to have in my back pocket. What did you remember and will you share it by leaving a comment?

Base Extrude Sketch Visibility

Base Extrude Sketch Visibility

What’s going on here? Is this a new feature in SW2008 or just a bug and can we really tell the difference between the two?

On both of the installs here the visibility of the base extrude's sketch toggles on by itself. We will turn if off and then a few steps down the road it will back on again. This is really annoying when you have an assembly of several parts and they are all performing this feature (I’m sure it’s not a bug) seemingly at random.

My question to the readers of this is: Are we the only ones experiencing this handy new feature? If not, has anyone found a way to keep this from happening?

After last weeks user group meeting I was left with the feeling that I’ve been missing out on some functionality available in SolidWorks just because of my failure to embrace 3D sketches. I just started reading the SolidWorks Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible; it is my hope that when I get to Chapter 4 a light bulb will turn on and I’ll finally feel comfortable with the concept. How do you rate your 3D sketch comprehension? See the new poll…

3D sketches, Windows 7, and TGIF

First things first, as usual Matt Lombard was exceptional last night. He is the type of guy you want to hang around with just hoping that some of his expertise will rub off on you. The results of our first modeling contest dictated that our members as a whole needed help with 3D sketches, so on the fly Matt changed his hints & tips presentation into a seminar on 3d sketches. This guy is awesome; if he wasn’t married he’d be meeting my oldest daughter! Keep watching this space for more detailed info as I try to make sense of the few notes I took.

A few blogs ago I discussed Windows XP versus Vista. For all you who are still riding on the XP bandwagon (that would be me) you will want to read this:

Keep XP fresh until Windows 7 Arives

The computer and network upgrade process at Byers Precision is proceeding with some urgency now. In the last few weeks we have had a rash of computer and server issues that has led to at least 100 hours of lost work…that we know of. We’ve been in contact with Dell and had one of their 3^rd party evaluators out for site inspection. Our workstations were hand built about 4 years ago using what we thought were quality components, not top of the line mind you but highly rated for their price. But as with all things they break. We had all the info we needed to proceed with an order to Dell when the owner decides that maybe we ought to talk to HP also. The gentleman in charge of putting all this together was very upset to say the least.