SOLIDWORKS - MBD

Model Based Definition (MBD) is an add-in tool that helps us to create 3D drafting with all PMI, this tool produces the output in eDrawings®, 3D-PDF & STEP 242 for clear 3D communication which bypasses time-consuming 2D processes and eliminates potential problems.  

MBD tool supports the establishment of document digitalization and control hardcopy utilization.

Creating MBD document for an assembly:

For creating the MBD with the necessary Product Manufacturing Information for the assembly mentioned in the image MBD tool must be activated.

Where to find,

Now the tool is available with plenty of options to work with the assembly.

Activating MBD also adds a 3D Views tab at the bottom with the Capture 3D view option. The capture 3D view option helps to capture the views of the assembly similar to the performance of sheets in the 2D drawing.

Creating Annotation view:

An Annotation view must be inserted with necessary view orientation for capturing each 3D view of the assembly in selected orientation. For this instance isometric is chosen as a view orientation for the newly created annotation view.

After creating the annotation view select activate and orient option from the right-click menu.

Note: It is advisable to create individual annotation view for each view captured via the Capture 3D view option

Creating BOM:

For creating notes & BOM separate notes area must be created for saving it. Now, for this instance a new notes area is inserted with the name of BOM Table and is activated from the right-click menu.

Now the BOM is generated for the assembly and it is positioned near to assembly view area without affecting the visibility of the assembly.

Now select *Isometric from the Annotations then click activate and orient option from the right-click menu.

Capturing 3D view:

After positioning the assembly orientation the current 3D view is captured with the help of the Capture 3D view option and it is saved with the name of Assembled.

Now the 3D view is created with BOM, similarly, we can add notes, balloons, dimensions, GD&T, etc. following the same procedure based on the needs.

Thank you for Reading!!

Linking Materials and Sheet Metal Parameters in SOLIDWORKS

Sheet Metal features in SOLIDWORKS have always been user-friendly. They’ve always been consistent. Also, whenever there is an enhancement to the core Sheet Metal Features, it’s always something useful.

Materials in Sheet Metal are extremely important. If you are choosing between building a part out of Aluminum or Stainless Steel – you aren’t just choosing a material. You’re choosing tooling, bend radius values, and a plethora of other design requirements that are unique to your company. SOLIDWORKS  now allows you to link typical Sheet Metal Parameters to any custom material, so you can use those parameters again and again.

To link a parameter to a Custom Material to a Sheet Metal part, all you have to do is edit that Material – and expand to the Sheet Metal tab.

When you assign a custom material to a sheet metal part, you can link the sheet metal parameters to the material. If you change the material, the sheet metal parameters also update.

To link materials and sheet metal parameters:

1. Open a sheet metal part.

2. In the Feature Manager design tree, right-click Material and click Edit Material.

3. In the dialog box:

a) Right-click Custom Materials and click New Category.

b) Right-click New Category and click New Material.

c) Set the custom material properties on each tab as required.

d) Click the Sheet Metal tab.

Options on this tab are available for custom materials only.

e) Select Thickness Range.

f) Click Add twice.

g) For each row in the table, set the following:

Thickness ranges must be continuous; there cannot be a gap in the range. For example, you cannot define a range from 0 to 3 and define the next range from 4 to 6 because the range between 3 and 4 is not covered.

h) Click Apply and Close.

                                                         *** Thanks for Reading ***

SOLIDWORKS TECH TIP - A simple way to link properties to SOLIDWORKS drawings

1. Creating custom properties in the part file.

          Open a new part document Click New (Standard toolbar) or File > New. In the dialog box, select “Part” or your standard custom part document.

Then open the “File Properties” using the icon as shown in the below image.

           The properties dialog box is opened, and under the “custom” tab we add the SOLIDWORKS part template file properties.

The first row is provided but it is empty so let us start adding the properties
Start with “Property Name” by drop down it shows a pre-made set of items displayed in the list. I select “Drawn By”.

The second column is the “Type” we need to choose how to display the property I select the “Text” type.

Then move to “Value / Text Expression” Here is where we need to enter who drew the model.

             The Last is the “Evaluated Value” this will be the value shown once the property is called upon.

             Auto Populating Properties like material, and weight have their own Value / Text Expression auto displays what material is added in the model. By selecting the drop-down list on the Value / Text Expression.

For Example: Here, I add some of the common properties used by the ISO standard company as shown in the image.
Finally, click “OK” to add the property.

If we want to add, edit, delete, or change the position of the custom properties list by clicking Edit List on the top right corner of the properties window as shown in the below image.

We can also edit the custom properties list by using Notepad by finding the custom properties file path shown in the Option> System Option> File Location> Custom Property File from the drop-down list as shown on the image.

Then browse to that location and find the properties.txt file and you can easily add, edit, delete, or change the location of the properties list.

Then save the part file as a template file as shown in the image. Once you save the custom template file save it to the local disk other than C: It is best practice because once the system got corrupted or crashed the local disk c: is first got cleared.
So save the part template files (*.prtdot) in a separate local disk it can be safe.

Now need to map the custom template folder to the SOLIDWORKS file location as shown in the image. Option> System Option> File Location> Document Template from the drop-down list and click Add to browse the folder location to add.

It shows a prompt Would you like to make the following changes to your search path? click OK.
Note: If you are in the user login it needs the administrator name and password to make the change.

When you open the new part you need to select that particular document template for your pre-loaded custom properties.

Once you opened the custom part document template it shows all your added custom properties as shown in the below image.
Now we link the part document custom property to the drawing document

2. Link custom properties in part file to drawing file.

Open a new drawing document Click New IMG (Standard toolbar) or File > New. In the dialog box, select “Drawing” or your standard custom drawing document.

There no properties were linked to your drawing document as shown below once you opened the SOLIDWORKS standard sheet format.

Editing drawing sheet format by clicking the sheet format tab on the command manager tabs and then clicking the edit sheet format icon.

You can edit the size of the title block boxes and If needs to insert a company logo you can insert then if the text boxes were needed, click Title Block Field. 
There you can add multiple text boxes for the values, text, or custom properties of the files been added.
When you are in the sheet format editing window you can see the $PRPSHEET followed by the attributes entered or linked to the custom properties as shown in the below image.

            If the $PRPSHEET is used to link the custom properties of the part or assembly file once the model were inserted here.

            When the $PRPRSHEET is not available in some of the fields then we need to add the text boxes and then you can fill them manually or link to the custom properties of the part file or assembly file.

             By clicking the Text box fields it shows the options in Property Manager by clicking the link to the property under the text format it opens the Link to the property window.

               In the Link to Property window select the Model found here radio button and select the desired property under the Property name drop-down list. Then click OK

                Then you can see on the drawing sheet the drawn by name which is selected and updated on the below image for your reference.

                 The below image shows that other text boxes were linked to the custom properties and updated to the drawing files sheet.

                Now, we need to save the drawing sheet format by clicking File>Save Sheet Format as shown on the below image.

                Once the sheet format is saved, we need to map the sheet format folder path by clicking Options> System Option> File Location> Sheet Format(*.slddrt) from the drop-down list and click Add to browse the folder.

                 Now we need to save this drawing file as a drawing document template by clicking File> Save as>Drawing Template(*.drwdot) from the save as type and click save.

Here, I saved the drawing document template to the location where the part document template file is stored location. Also, that folder is already mapped for the document template on SOLIDWORKS.

The below image shows both the part and drawing templates.

             Now open the part document and design one simple model and changed the custom properties in the part document as shown below and saved the part file.

Now I make drawing from the part file and choose the custom drawing document template and place the views of the model on the drawing sheet.
Now you can see the custom properties which are entered on the part file are reflected on the linked properties location on the drawing file as shown in the below image for your reference.

*** Thanks for Reading ***

How to Overcome your collaboration barriers with 3DEXPERIENCE cloud solutions?

Effective benefits of Cloud Collaboration - THE 3DEXPERIENCE PLATFORM

3DEXPERIENCE is a cloud-based platform, easily accessed with a browser which has curated solutions for persons from each department in an organization ranging from design, simulation, and manufacturing to governance/Management.

Before knowing what’s new in recent 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS, let’s quickly run through a few capabilities in this powerful cloud collaboration environment - 3DEXPERIENCE. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform has cloud design and collaboration capabilities in close integration with SOLIDWORKS to carry out Product Data Management (PDM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) activities.

Connect your SOLIDWORKS or any CAD data with the 3DEXPERIENCE cloud platform to securely save and manage them from anywhere, anytime with any device. Below listed are a few of the general benefits of cloud-based collaboration for SOLIDWORKS.

· Create several tailored dashboards to serve your needs in a single place.

· Save and manage access, revisions, and product lifecycle of your Designs or Non-CAD data on the cloud.

· Real-time collaboration of ideas, designs, tasks, and people with other teams like simulation and manufacturing in a unified environment with the cloud as a single source of truth to eliminate duplicates.

· Conduct design reviews from anywhere using 3D markups, issue management, and change management with a whole track of what and when anything has happened during the product lifecycle.

· Compare your designs with previous revisions and make custom approval routes within the organization.

·  Plan your project with work-breakdown tasks, milestones, and dependencies with Gantt chart UI.

·  Browser-based design tools for parametric and sub-divisional modeling (Digital Clay modeling).

·  Generate and manage part numbers, product structures, and BOMs digitally.

Thank you for Reading!

                                                                                                             

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NESTING OF NATIVE OR IMPORTED CAD MODELS IN SOLIDWORKS

LOGOPRESS

LOGOPRESS is a die design software, which automates a variety of processes, including Blanking, Strip layout, Nesting, Tool design, and drawings in addition to unbending and flattening even "Complex" parts. This included LOGOPRESS die simulation even allowing the die to simulate the tool positioning and interference checked during the operation in the press.
With a Gold-certified SOLIDWORKS Partner Product, LOGOPRESS work as an Add-in inside SOLIDWORKS so you can use the power of 3D modeling capabilities to speed up the design process.

BLANK FLATTEN

LOGOPRESS BLANK Flatten option allows us to quickly and easily predict the theoretical blank of 3D-formed parts. The Finite Element Analysis includes minimizes the development time in the press.
Therefore, we can Flatten our models in the following FEA conditions including Blank Prediction, Meshing, Thickness Variation, Stress & Strain Results, Bounding Box Info and Contour points mapping. This mesh is fully automatic but its size can also be adjusted if the user wishes to do so. There is no need to be a mechanical engineer with finite element analysis skills to handle the LOGOPRESS BLANK module because it is very user-friendly.
 LOGOPRESS BLANK can also be used to flatten various applications, such as Aerospace, Leather (Shoes) Composites, cloth, plastics, adhesives, leather, inflatable objects, packaging & Shipbuilding. Note: Native SOLIDWORKS models as well as imported models can be used.

Key functions:

• Manage native and/or imported data
• Manage solids and surfaces
• Material thickness management
• Customizable material database
• Choice of the "stamping starting area"
• Allow defining pinched/locked areas
• Thinning and thickening information
• Stress and strain information

LOGOPRESS NEST

In the manufacturing industry, nesting refers to the process of laying out cutting patterns to minimize raw material waste. It automates the calculation of the ideal distribution of the cutting patterns to avoid waste. The process involves the analysis of the parts to be produced at a particular time. This has the advantage of minimizing tool movement for Sheetmetal products and maximizing how many pieces can be fabricated in one session.

LOGOPRESS Nest is completely integrated with SOLIDWORKS which is quick, and simple to use. Either a multibody component file that was made in SOLIDWORKS or that was imported from another CAD system or an individual SOLIDWORKS Part or Assembly file can be easily Nested after setting some logical parameters that allow extreme flexibility it will quickly nest the parts per the options that you set.

Key functions:

• Multiple nesting options and strategies included
• Supports either multibody parts or parts within an assembly
• Set sheet size to nest on or set only width
• Angular control of parts
• Option to allow parts to flip upside down
• Flexibility in setting clearances between parts
• Ability to set quantities for each individual part
• Automatic report generation

THANK YOU FOR READING!