Graphics Systems SolidNotes

SolidWorks Enterprise PDM Tips and Tricks - Faster Browsing with a Preview

How can you make EPDM (SolidWorks Enterprise PDM) browsing seem faster?  Simple, just turn on the bitmap preview for SolidWorks files. Why would you do this? You still want to be able to zoom and rotate in the preview (eDrawings), and you’re not about to give that up right?  Here’s the good news you don’t have to give up your full eDrawing preview.  All you need to do is click on the bitmap preview and wait a few seconds for eDrawings to load.  When you enable bitmap preview for SolidWorks it is much faster than having the eDrawings preview because every time you change the selected file a new eDrawing doesn’t have to load inthe preview window(assuming you have the preview tab selected).  This means that you can now flip through dozens of SolidWorks files in seconds see a quick preview of each one, and then when you find the one you want, just click on it wait a few seconds and there’s your eDrawing ready for you to zoom, pan and rotate to your heart's content.

To enable this option  you will need to right click in the explorer window’s right pane(not the folder view) and you must not be right clicking on a file either.  The white space below the files is good or in the checked out by column is also a good option.  Find “View” in the list and as you guessed make sure “Show bitmap for SolidWorks files.” is checked.

While we’re at it, a few more suggestions are to enable the same option for dwg files and also to enable the full eDrawings UI… if you’ve been using enterprise for a long time don’t worry the UI buttons in the preview are really tiny now not like older versions so they are actually very useful. 

One other minor detail to this trick it must be done per computer per user.  There is no global place to set this by default.  It is a viewing option and each person has to decide if it is right for them.

SolidWorks Content and Weldment Profiles

For SolidWorks 2010 users there exists a small but good assortment of various 2D profiles available to create weldment members from.  The list includes angle iron, pipe, and square tubes in a plethora of sizes. It is a good place to start but you may have not known that SolidWorks provides the user with many more profile choices.  This data is stored in an area in the Task Pane called "SolidWorks Content."

The Content is not exclusively for weldments but also includes blocks for drawings and components for SolidWorks Routing.  To "download" this content to a folder location on your computer, simple hold down the CONTROL key of your keyboard and click one of the library files (such as "Ansi Inch" from the Weldments folder).  SolidWorks will prompt you for a location to store the compressed files to.  Once saved, open a WIndows browser and extract or unzip the file.

Particularly for weldment profiles, SolidWorks needs to know where the profiles are stored.  For example, if you installed SolidWorks with all of the default locations then the default profiles would look something like this...View this photo 

SolidWorks needs only one path for the weldment profiles.  You may either replace this path with the location of the Content you extracted or extract the Content and move it in to the existing location of your weldment profiles.  Regardless, the path folder structure is important.  

The top-level folder is the starting path SolidWorks needs set in the Tools, System Options, File Locations, Weldment Profiles.  The first sub-folder is the Standard (if you've downloaded Ansi Inch then this would be the name of the first sub-folder).  Subsequent folders make up the Type.  And within each of these folders are the actual SolidWorks library part files that host the sketch used to generate the profile along a path. An example path may look something like this...View this photo

Creating new profiles is very easy, then.  Use SolidWorks to open one of these library part files (.sldlfp), save the document as a new name, and modify the sketch as you desire.

As always your Reseller can assist you with this and any other questions you may have regarding SolidWorks' Weldment Profiles.  Additionally feel free to leave me a comment at the bottom of this blog.

Bypass Your Graphics Card

If you have display glitches or similar issues in SolidWorks that you suspect may be due to an old driver or unsupported graphics card, there is a pretty simple way to get some good confirmation. It's a setting inside of SolidWorks iteself called "Use Software OpenGL."

Where do you find it? Tools > Options > System > Performance. You will find a setting to turn on Software OpenGL -- it's a check box. Important: You can only set this option when you are in SolidWorks but you have no documents open. Since you're changing how the graphics are being dealt with, if you have documents open in SolidWorks you can't very well make the switch and hence the option checkbox will be grayed out.

Once you set this to "on", you are telling SolidWorks not to use the graphics card for OpenGL functions -- you're essentially bypassing the card. It's not as fast to work in this mode, but if you have an old graphics card, or one that isn't supported, it might be better to work this way. If you're using this setting as part of the troubleshooting process, you'll know that your problem is graphics card or driver related and can proceed accordingly.

BTW, in case you're wondering, we currently recommend the nVidia Quadro FX580 as our baseline graphics card for SolidWorks users.

Protect Your SolidWorks Serial Number

Have you ever worried that someone who has access to your PC for a short period of time may be able to steal your SolidWorks serial number?

SolidWorks provides an easy way to hide the serial number in the help about dialog while leaving just enough of it so that calls to support can be uniquely identified.  The part not hidden is used mostly for internal communication between SolidWorks corporate and the VAR and referred to as the Seat ID.  The only reason it's only used internally is because by the time you explain to someone what the Seat ID is you could have just asked for the whole serial number and figured it out yourself.  But if both parties know that you’re talking about the Seat ID it's not a problem.

Here's the solution:
1.  Make a new text file (name it something like 'Hide SW Serial Number'
2.  Paste this text into the file:
        Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

        [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\Security]
        "Serial Number Hide"="1"
3.  Save the file
4.  Change the file extension from .txt to .reg
5.  Make sure SolidWorks is closed and Double-click on the .reg file and click Yes when it asks you to continue and OK to confirm the changes have been made successfully

Here's the Result:

Captains Log, Stardate 9160.5

“I have recently discovered the ability to add a time and date stamp after an entry in Notepad.exe. To create this stamp, type .LOG at the top of your .txt file. Make your entry and save the file. When you reopen your .txt file the time and date will be attached to the end of the entry.  Create more entries and save the file. Each time you save the file a new time and date will be attached to the end of the file. A useful discovery indeed. “

Simplify your Windows Explorer View

We all have a lot drives on our computers these days. From Local drives and all their partitions, to optical drives (CD/DVD), and flash card readers (that we can't even use unless there's media in them but for some reason they still show up in the list), to the plethora of network shares our IT department says we "need," even though we only use some of them every other month or so.

Here is an easy way to simplify all that extra baggage in Windows Explorer and see only the stuff you need to:

1. Create a new short cut
2. Browse to the drive or folder you want
3. Choose its' Name
4. Press Finish

(that's the easy part that you probably know)
an alternate to this would be to right click and drag the folder/drive you want and pick 'Create Shortcuts Here'

  

5. Edit the Target to say:
   "C:\Windows\explorer.exe /e, /root, "

    Where <Path> is the full path to the folder
    you want the shortcut to resolve to.

6. (Optional) Click the change Icon button and pick an Icon that makes more sense to you than the default shortcut.

(For the final result see the last picture below)

Notice that there are no other folders other than the C drive for a much cleaner view of only the file you want to see.

 

 

SolidWorks Help, You Really Move Me

Do you see the cute, little, angry viking to your left?

Is he "jumping for joy?" No, he just stepped on a thumbtack and is taken aback.  You would be too if you had just stepped on a sharp, pointy object.  But if you don't see him jumping then you have another problem.

Your SolidWorks Help document is chock full o' goodness. It's a very useful resource beacuse not only is easily searchable, but contains many practical examples. And some of these example are "videos."  You may have seen this icon before in the Help file.

Actually, "video" isn't the best of terms.  The SolidWorks Help document is a Web-friendly HTML document and contains other types of files. Namely "animated GIFs."

A GIF is a type of graphics file, similar to a bitmap (BMP) or a JPEG.  And an animated GIF contains multiple frames stored in the one picture file. But what if you can't see these cute animations actually happening?  What could be wrong.

The first place to check, and the thrust of this post, is maybe not so obvious. Because SolidWorks Help is Web-friendly, check your Internet Explorer settings.  A little dig time in Tools, Internet Options, Advanced, and you'll likely come across this:

Check to see if this setting is checked-off. Once set correctly, you too can quickly benefit from all the wonderfull goodness SolidWorks stores away for you in your Help documentation!

"What do you mean it doesn't fit!"

The designing phase of a project is a dynamic and creative period in creating a new product. SolidWorks has always paid close attention to the designer, and they understand the controlled chaos in the designing/brainstorming phase. SolidWorks 2009 now offers what are called sensors. Sensors were added to SolidWorks to more or less set ground rules and design criteria, to aid a designer in keeping within certain goals. If a part must be designed to fit into a small area for example, the designer can set a sensor to monitor the overall area, length or volume that the part occupies, to save them from having to remember the constraint while designing. 

Sensors can be applied to a myriad of different properties in a part file, overall volume, surface area, mass, and overall length. This is not limited to part files; sensors are also available in assemblies, and FEA analysis to notify a designer if parts are interfering, or of certain levels of stress, strain, and displacement have occurred during the course of a physical simulation. If used correctly sensors will add a great deal to the efficiency of the most important phase of the design process.

Add it in!

We're all familiar with SolidWorks Add-Ins such as COSMOSWorks, PhotoWorks, or Third Party items such as DriveWorks. But did you know that some productivity softwares, such as MS Excel also utilize add-ins? It's true. Furthermore, you might realize that you are already using one! If you don't know, allow me to show you- in MS Office 2007- where to go. So, start up Excel... go ahead...

At the bottom corner of the Start menu for Excel, you'll note the Options button.

Note the "Add-Ins" category. By selecting this you can see what add-ins are available and which are active or not. Some add-ins are loaded when you install some other piece of software. Others are additional content for and through Microsoft Excel that need to be downloaded before using. (You can select the images to make them larger)

Here to the left, I clicked "Go" from the previous screen and you can see I've chosen one of the add-ins provided to us by Microsoft. This particular add-in allows me to perform histograms, covariance analysis, and random number generation among others.

So what?  What could this possibly have to do with SolidWorks. Well, quite a bit if you frequently work with Design Tables or use third-party SolidWorks add-ins such as DriveWorks. Both of these examples heavily rely on Excel. For example, if we used a design table to capture important dimensions of a part and the MROUND command to round up the values for displaying within the part drawing, we would be concerned if whether the Excel Add-In that contains that function was installed lest the design tables fail to round the values accordingly.

This problem, like others with Excel, can often be abrogated by simply insuring that you are using the most recent version of the tool. This however isn't always available as an option. So, as a friendly reminder from another SolidWorks user who has been bitten in the backside by Excel, please be sure to check your add-ins. (especially if your company is upgrading from one version to another) And who knows? You might find that useful command you were looking for that you never thought Excel could do!

If you are a DriveWorks user then setting up Excel shouldn't be something new. Along with Add-Ins, you also have macro and security settings to consider. But this, as the expression goes, is "another episode."

Keeping Dissection Data local

The new dissection functionality in SolidWorks 2008 is great for allowing the user quick access to the underlying feature and sketch data in their design files without having to store them in a library. A big plus is that the dissection information is not stored in the SolidWorks files themselves, which keeps them from becoming bloated with what is essentially "cache" data. Instead, SolidWorks stores them in a directory on the local drive:

C:\Users\{login}\AppData\Roaming\SolidWorks\Dissection

This can be a performance issue if you are using Roaming Profiles on your Windows network, because everything under the AppData\Roaming folder is copied to the server, and downloaded to the client workstation each time they log in. If you use dissection a lot, you can easily get tens of gigabytes of data in your dissection folder, which will make your logins very slow and cause your IT staff to call you names.

The solution is to make your dissection folder truly local to your workstation. Go to Tools > Options > System Options, and look under the Search page. You will see a place to specify the folder your dissection data is kept -- just make a folder outside of the Roaming section of your profile and it will stay home.

Of course, if you log in from a different workstation, your dissection data won't be there, because it's not part of your Roaming Profile; however, you can easily re-construct it simply by working with SolidWorks. Unless you spend a lot of time working on multiple machines, the trade off is very much worth it.