By Sakineh Orangi – Simulation Application Engineer at SolidXperts
In SOLIDWORKS 2019, the Remote Load/Mass PropertyManager was redesigned to improve the user experience and it introduced distributed coupling. The Remote Loads/Mass PropertyManager allows us to apply remote loads, remote masses, and remote displacements for static, topology, and nonlinear studies. One of the ways to access the Remote Loads/Mass PropertyManager is to right-click on External Loads in the simulation tree of linear static, nonlinear static, or topology.
We select the faces to apply remote loads, remote masses, or remote translations and/or rotations.
We define the coordinate system used for the interpretation of the location and directions of the remote features.
After this step, we enter the coordinates of the reference node location in a local or global coordinate system.
In the case of the definition of remote force or remote distance, we check the Translational Components and enter the values of remote loads or remote translation in the three directions X, Y, and Z.
If there are any remote moments or remote rotations, we check Rotational Components and then enter the data.
Markforged transformed the 3D printing industry back in 2013 with the ability to create functional industrial parts. While this 3D printing powerhouse innovates with metal 3D printing, we want to take a moment to recognize the powerful features offered by the composite printers that keep them at the top of the FDM world. Here are our top seven Markforged composite features:
1. Fiber
This is the go-to innovation for the Markforged printers – the ability to print with Continuous Fiber Filament (CFF) using Fiberglass, Kevlar, and everyone’s favorite, Carbon Fiber.
Impact:
3D printed parts 8x stronger than ABS with comparable traits to 6061 Aluminum unlocks design possibilities. Lighter parts with low cost and fast production can be a valuable proposition for many manufacturers. This feature single-handedly allows 3D printing to be a comprehensive solution rather than a prototyping tool.
2. Expand Thin Features
What exactly does “Expanding Thin Features” do? Enabling this feature will thicken your part geometry to meet the minimum wall thickness requirements of the printer. It will automatically take any layer that is too thin to print and adapt it to meet the minimum requirements. Easily overlooked as it only takes one click to activate, you can see the part salvaged in the slice views below!
Impact:
This feature really excels at taking parts not designed for additive manufacturing and adjusting their geometry to be 3D-pintable. You need to be careful when using this feature as changing the geometry does not maintain the dimensional accuracy of the original CAD model. The major upside is that the majority of legacy parts can be printed on Markforged printers without any major redesign. This level of automation and intelligence is a huge jump in innovation in an otherwise stale industry.
3. Pause & Remove the Print Bed
The print bed itself is fastened by three neodymium magnets, allowing the user to remove the build plate during any layer. This also means that you can replace the print bed and continue the print from where you left off. This process has a repeatability of 10 microns, meaning there are no issues in continuing the print from the new position.
Impact:
Being able to pause and remove the print bed opens up many design options such as embedding hardware or enclosing secondary parts (eg. LED, magnets, or RFID). The repeatability and consistency of the print bed enables many tricks and are well documented in the Markforged blogs.
4. Adaptive Bed Leveling (X7)
The X7 Industrial printer utilizes a built-in laser micrometer to create a contour map of the print bed with 1µm accuracy. While it will alert you to the bed not being leveled correctly, more importantly, the printer will dynamically adjust the extrusion of the first layer to increase the consistency of your print.
Impact:
The application of the laser measuring system eliminates many of the bed leveling issues that occur with standard FDM style printers. Not only are the parts flatter than traditional FDM printers, but the initial compensation means significantly fewer failed prints.
Bonus: Blacksmith
Check out the Blacksmith AI that takes advantage of the same laser micrometer to adjust the physical part based off of inspection results. The end result is a tight feedback loop that makes extremely accurate parts that become more accurate over time.
5. Turbo Print & Turbo Supports [BETA Features]
The Turbo BETA features allow for support and infill to be printed at twice the layer height of the print. By taking advantage of the support structure, Markforged has increased opportunities to save time and material on your prints.
Impact:
The turbo features allow for faster print times and reduces material. Fundamentally, it shows that Markforged is committed to improving and implementing solutions. They are willing to continuously improve their product, and will continue to add BETA features.
6. Eiger Dashboard
With a versatile cloud based software, there many metrics tracked for your convenience. The Eiger Dashboard allows for both management and users to track printer statistics such author and material usage. Not only does the portal include integrated graphics, but the data is also available as a CSV.
Impact:
In traditional manufacturing, material and time management are a huge part of resource management. Using Eiger, it is incredibly easily track material usage, up-time, and other valuable metadata to make your operation more efficient.
7. Eiger Internal View
With the Eiger “slicer”, users can view the internal features of your part in both 2D and 3D. These views also include the thermoplastic structure, infill, use of fiber, and removable supports. Additionally, the slicing view includes a live slider, which reflects print time and material usage by layer. The best feature when using the internal view is the ability to add and adjust fiber layers (blue sections).
Impact:
When enabling fiber usage in Eiger, the standard automation of fiber reinforcement does an exceptional job. However, the ability to control fiber layer placement gives you, the user, the option to add strength to the part without overcompensating with fiber or increasing unnecessary part cost. With clever orientation and fiber layouts, you can create very strong, yet cheap parts! Need bolt holes strengthened to resist shear stress? No problem! Want to take advantage of beam bending theory to reduce cost? Takes only a few clicks. This adaptability and maneuverability in the internal view make this one of the highest impacts features with the Markforged printers.
So there you have it – The key features Markforged composite printers have to offer. Even though FDM style printing is a known quantity, Markforged has managed to innovate on key features that keep the technology fresh.
SOLIDWORKS Electrical Integration for SOLIDWORKS PDM is a free product that will be available to customers using SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2D and SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional.
SOLIDWORKS Electrical Integration for SOLIDWORKS PDM is being released with SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2018
The most important functionalities of this tool are:
• SOLIDWORKS Electrical users will obviously be able to store their projects in SOLIDWORKS PDM from within SOLIDWORKS Electrical.
• Allow the work-sharing between users.
• Variable mapping between both products so that key electrical metadata can be made available in SOLIDWORKS PDM.
• Electrical components libraries will be pushed and synchronized to SOLIDWORKS PDM
• “Where Used” information will be available.
• This product will also manage electrical deliverable files, such as PDF and DWG.
• It will also publish an advanced electrical Bill of Material (BOM) to SOLIDWORKS PDM.
Installation, administration and users guide will be installed in the installation folder of SOLIDWORKS Electrical integration for Professional SOLIDWORKS PDM 2018.
Once SOLIDWORKS Electrical integration for Professional SOLIDWORKS PDM 2018 was installed in SW Electrical, you must define some parameters in the administration of the tool.
You will beforehand have created a folder structure in your PDM vault to host your 2D SW Electrical projects, and logs, as well as a Library folder for synchronization of SW Electrical.
In the tab General Settings:
Choose your Vault and the library folder in your vault.
In the tab Log Settings:
Define the folder of logs inside the vault, as well as its options.
In the tab File Structure:
According to SOLIDWORKS Electrical document types, you can make some Mapping.
To start the collaboration of SOLIDWORKS Electrical integration and SWPDM.
Since you are Project Manager:
Unarchive and open your SW Electrical project
(Files *.tewzip)
Work on your project as usual, when ended.
Make a synchronization of your library towards PDM,
by using Synchronize Libraries.
And make Check-in:
As asked, select the parent file of your project.
A table showing all the files which will be archived will appear, click Add.
Let the process make the creation of all the objects of your project (it can take some time).
Once the process is completed; you will notice that the structure of your project SOLIDWORKS Electrical was duplicated in PDM. by adding a folder BOMS.
and creating a .pdf file of your complete drawing package.
SOLIDWORKS Electrical
Local PDM view
SOLIDWORKS Electrical
Local PDM view
You will also notice the creation of all your drawings in .dwg format.
All the PDM tabs will be accessible. You can even design a specific card for your SOLIDWORKS Electrical projects.
As well as file cards which will inherit some properties of their folder card.
In the folder BOMS; you will find all the bills of material for your project. It will be possible for you to open and export your BOM throw Excel such as any other BOM in PDM.
By choosing a file of a BOM (Click + right button of the mouse) to obtain the options such as: Browse to, allowing to go to the localization of the library parts.
This new tool will allow better collaboration between your electric and mechanical engineering departments. If you have any questions just contact one of our Xperts.
On the same subject, take a look at the video produced by SOLIDWORKS:
Any questions? Need help? Ask one of our experts.
Whether you’re ready to get started or just have a few more questions, you can contact us toll-free:
Conditional notifications can be used during a transition to notify different groups or users according to certain criteria:
– Types of documents
– Data card variables
These notifications can be sent in a predefined or dynamic way.
Here is the methodology for conditions according to SOLIDWORKS document types (file path):
Following the release of SOLIDWORKS, users can now import third-party files as graphical 3D meshes rather than solid or surface bodies. Previous releases were limited to the mesh file types *.stl, *.obj, *.off, *.ply, *.ply2. Changes for 2019 also include the addition of a ‘Graphical Body’ check box from the ‘Open’ dialog.
Importing as a graphics body can be very useful for manual remodeling or taking specific measurements. Additionally, importing as a graphics body utilizes significantly fewer resources when opening large or complex files.
To access this feature, follow the steps below.
Import as a Graphical Body can be accessed with File > Open (Ctrl + O) or Insert > Component > Existing Part/Assembly within an assembly.
Using the file format drop list, select any third-party format such as Autodesk Inventor (*.ipt) or ProE/Creo (*.prt)
Unlike importing mesh files, users are no longer required to enable the Graphics Body through the options menu. SOLIDWORKS now includes an “as Graphical Body” check box below the file explorer. Select the check box and click ‘Open’.
The Inventor Part (*.ipt) is now imported as a Graphical Body. Notice the feature tree displays the part not as a surface body or solid body – but as a Graphic Body.
By Ghyslain Lacombe – Application Specialist at SolidXperts
When creating a toolpath, the result can sometimes not be the one you want. In the following example shown in video and screen captures, there is a steel island in the center of a cutting.
How to correct the default toolpath in order to remove the steel island left by the initial toolpath?
1- Region to be machined:
As you can see, the customer wants to machine this region:
2- Result of the initial toolpath:
The result of the toolpath leaves an undesirable steel island: How to correct this?
3- Edit the function: Z Level:
The operation parameters are as follows:
4- In this case, you must change the method from constant to scallop to be able to eliminate material that cannot be machined with the other process.
5- The result still leaves an unmachined region because it is necessary to increase the precision:
6- It is then necessary to reduce the scallop and the minimum cut amount to be able to remove all the material.
7- The result shows that the machining is now complete:
Therefore, depending on the kind of workpiece, you must determine the machining method to use and adjust the number of passes and the scallop for machining to be complete.
As with video games, there are hidden shortcuts in the SolidWorks software. Today, we reveal some of these different combinations to help with your part, assembly, and drawing creation.
Let’s begin with a reminder of the main requirement to have an efficient network communication with the PDM server:
Be able to ping the PDM server by his hostname and his IP address.
The ping latency should be under 30ms on a LAN and 100ms on a WAN from a workstation client to the PDM server.
The ports TCP_3030, TCP_1433, UDP_1434 need to be opened on the windows firewall of the PDM server
To validate these requirements, here some steps that can be done:
Run a constant ping of 1500 bytes to the PDM server
Start > Enter “CMD” and select “Command Prompt”
From the new windows command prompt, enter:
> ping ARCHIVESRV –l 1500 -t
1.2.2 If the server replies well you will always obtain multiples lines with positive reply from the server.
1.2.2 Network issues will generate some line like “impossible to reach the host” or “request time out”, then you need to investigate on the network cards, the wires, the switches, the routes.
Latency of 100ms occurs in a WAN environment where the server and the client are not in the same office and a VPN is set between the two sites.
1.2.3 If the ping is failed using the hostname, try with the IP address, if that works then you know that you have a DNS issue.
Run NSLOOKUP to know the DNS server used your network and to confirm that it can translate the name of the PDM server to get his IP address
2.1 From the command prompt windows,
enter:
> nslookup you got the name and the IP address of your DNS server (dc.zzz.local 192.168.1.10)
>> ARCHIVES you got the IP address of ARCHIVESRV (ex: 192.168.1.11)
If you can resolve the name of the server but cannot ping by his name:
Restart the Windows DNS client service on the user’s workstation
Clear the DNS cache using the command: ipconfig /flushdns
Run a TRACERT to know the path taken to communicate with the PDM server
3.1 From the command prompt, enter:
> tracert ARCHIVES
Each line represents a hop, either the destination server directly, either the gateway of a VLAN or firewall or tunnel VPN or the ISP. The more lines you got, the more the latency can be impacted.
Run Telnet to check if the ports are well opened
4.1 Start > Type “Control panel” > clic on “Programs and features” > choose “Activate or inactivate Windows features”, look for and select “Telnet client” and then OK.
4.2 >Telnet ARCHIVESRV 3030
4.2.1 If the port 3030 is opened you should obtain a new window opened with a cursor flashing.
4.2.2 If the port is not opened you will get the error message “Impossible to open a connection to the host using the port 3030”.
4.3 Repeat the previous steps but with port 1433 and 1434.
With 25 years of experience and more than 250 certifications, SolidXperts teams can help you become true 3D experts! An additional question? Need information?
SOLIDWORKS PDM licenses must be released by SOLIDWORKS in order to be activated on a server.
Contact SolidXperts Technical Support to have your PDM Standard license released.
-Telephone: 1-877-824-3379 or 1-877-876-5434, ext. 150
-Email: support@solidxperts.com
The installation files for PDM Standard can be found on the DVD or in the SOLIDWORKS Portal.
Software Installation
2.1. Run ‘Setup.exe’ as an Administrator
2.2. Choose which Server Products to install
Install SOLIDWORKS PDM Server Components
Install SolidNetWork Licensed Manager
2.3. SNL Server Options
Enter your license numbers into SolidNetWork License Manager
SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard licenses are floating. The available number(s) must be entered in this field, separated by a comma.
2.4. Component Installation Summary
SOLIDWORKS PDM server – Edit
Validate and/or edit the options for:
Server Product: Choose SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard
Features to install:
Archive Server
Server Database
Client
SQL Server:
Choose the previously installed SQL Express instance
Enter the SA username and password, chosen when installing SQL Express
2.5. Validate the information – Install now
Archive Server Configuration
Once the server component installation is complete, the Archive Server Configuration tool starts automatically to continue configuration.
3.1. You must change the location of the archive server files so that they are located on the disk intended for the data (as prepared in the first section “Server Preparation”).
3.2. Choose a password for the default Admin user
3.3. Choose a password the SA user will need to connect to SQL.
3.4. Keep administrators only for “Administrative access” and keep the default options for “Attach access”.
The Archive Server configuration is complete.
License Activation
4.1. Start SolidNetWork License Manager
4.2. In the “Server Administrator” tab, choose “Edit”
4.3. Choose “Select All”
4.4. Choose “Activate/Reactivate” your product licenses
4.5. Validate the information of your License Server
The ports are: 25734 and 25735
Create a Safe
5.1. Start the PDM Administration tool
5.2. Right click on the server name – Create a new safe
5.3. Enter a name for the safe
5.4. Keep the default values for the location of the archive files.
5.5. Select the SQL instance created for PDM Standard installation, leave the suggested name for the database.
5.6. Add the License Server: Enter Port 25734@”name of your server”
5.7. Choose a default language
5.8. Check the default password (the password used will be the one set when installing the PDM Archive Server).
(Uncheck the option and choose a new password if you do not want to use the default password)
Seamlessly transition from SOLIDWORKS Desktop to 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS, and experience a new dimension of design and collaboration. With secure cloud data management, increased collaboration capabilities, and reduced IT administration, 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS empowers your team to work smarter and faster.
Option 2: Upgrade to SOLIDWORKS TERM w/Cloud Services
Opt for SOLIDWORKS TERM with Cloud Services, a flexible and convenient option that combines the power of SOLIDWORKS with the benefits of cloud-based solutions. Say goodbye to traditional licensing hassles and welcome easy deployment and automatic updates for a seamless design experience.
Promotion Perks:
This promotion covers both Standalone and Network licenses (SNL), making it suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Take advantage of the promotion price and add as many new licenses (3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS or SOLIDWORKS TERM w/Cloud Services) as you need on the same Purchase Order, with no limit on extra seats.
Enjoy the promotion discount for 3 years, whether purchased annually or upfront.
Even after the promotion period, you’ll continue to benefit with a 25% discount on successive years.
Option 1: For licenses <1 year expired( Pay 2 Years Forward Upfront )
Get back on track with SOLIDWORKS CAD w/Cloud Services. By paying upfront for the next two years, you not only regain access to the powerful features of SOLIDWORKS but also enjoy cloud services to boost collaboration and efficiency.
Promotion Perks:
No need to worry about backdating and penalties. We’ll waive them for you!
Regain access to your design projects and continue where you left off, without any interruptions.
Option 2: For licenses >1 year expired ( Pay 3 Years Forward Upfront )
If your license has been expired for over a year, we understand the urgency to get back in the game. With this option, you can secure SOLIDWORKS CAD ALC w/Cloud Services.
Promotion Perks:
Our team is here to support your reintegration process, and we’ll waive backdating and penalties for a smooth transition.
Take advantage of the comprehensive SOLIDWORKS suite and unleash your creativity with the latest tools and features.
Once SOLIDWORKS Electrical integration for Professional SOLIDWORKS PDM 2018 was installed in SW Electrical, you must define some parameters in the administration of the tool.
5.11. Click on “Finish” to create the safe.
