Can't Change Density in SW2005

Just installed SW2005 SP0 on my home machine. Been using SW on a daily basis
since SW98. I just made a new part and the material was aluminum in my
template. I tried to change the density and it wouldn't let me. So I removed
the material. Now it is: "Material <not specified>. I then when into the
"mass properties" tool and hit options and hit the "use custom settings"
radio box and changed the density to .09. Then hit OK. But it did not change
the density, it set itself to .0361273 lb/in^3 (which is the density of
water.) OK, maybe its a bug, so I went into the "Documents properties" >
"Materials properties" and changed the density there and hit ok. Again the
same results - it did not change the density. Of the hundreds of parts I
created until SW2005 that's they way you change and set the density. Why oh
why did they make SW2005 so hard to change the density???? Or is this a bug?
I did look in the help and it stated to change the density as I did.

Does anyone know what's going on?

Thanks,

Dan

BTW, I did make a new material and set the density there and it worked. BUT,
I wanted to tweak the density and I had to wade through the material
properties menus to change it. Instead of a few clicks in SW2004 and before,
its a bunch of clicks to change the density.

 

I'm having the same problem, but it's not consistent. And certainly I
believe it to be a bug, but I don't know if it's specific to parts
created via older part templates which were converted to 2005 format.
And I don't know if SP0.1 fixed it though, since I'm now off of
Subscription Support. Try creating parts via the part template included
with SolidWorks 2005 (and I'll do the same) to see whether it's a
problem that way. Then see if creating a part using a CONVERTED file
template duplicates the problem.

 

I'm not running 2005 yet, so I haven't had a chance to try this.
Still, perhaps a back-door API approach might work.

Free density manager program available at
<http://www.esoxrepublic.com/freeware/>

 

works fine here thru doc properties.

the material editor is primarily for those who wish to employ realview
and/or cosmos works. if you do not intend use either of the previously
mentioned, don't bother with material editor.

out of curiosity, if and when you create a custom material and assign a
color (material editor), do the color palettes appear twice (dull, shiny,
standard, transparent)? would also be nice if when creating custom material
they would automatically alphabetize themselves.

 

Yes! I ran into this too and it drove me nuts! Some files were not affected
but some were. Man, I forgot to submit that one.

Mike Wilson

 

Mike, can we take that to mean the SP0.1 didn't fix that problem?

 

Good question. I just updated a few days ago and haven't had a
chance to check. I'll take a look...

Mike

 

Yep, still there.

Mike

 

Dan,

I e-mailed you the program that I created for a simple density change from
an excel list of materials. The files need to be in the same folder.
Anyway you can check out if the API is changing the property properly.

Corey

 

There was a problem in 2003/2004 with density settings and configurations.
You could sometimes make configuration specific density changes if you did
it through the icon for mass properties, but if you then looked at density
through the document properties dialog it reset the whole part to that
value. Supposedly the ability to have robust configuration specific mass
properties was a 2005 enhancement.

 

Could you post your source? Just curious.

Corey

 

I was managing CAD and some of my people discovered they could change
mass properties on a config by config basis through the mass properties
icon. Later on there were problems with the assembly's weight which we
traced back to this method of setting. A thorough search of the various
methods of setting mass properties including a search of API methods
showed that SW intended for a single part to have only one mass
property at a time. The ability to set it in various configs was an
anomaly and gave random problems. I believe we got an SPR on it, but I
don't have access to the number anymore.

The reason we had for assembly specific mass properties was that we
made the same part geometry out of steel or aluminum depending on the
application.

 

This is an easily reproducible bug...

*) Start new part, make simple extrusion
*) Assign it a material
*) Remove the material

Now, you can no longer assign a density. It defaults to whatever you
had before you assigned the material.

Mike Wilson

 

Thank you.

 

Thanks Corey,

I installed the macro you sent and after you helped me adjust it to suit my
machine I got it to work. It is a great macro! But as others have pointed
out, that once you remove the material from the part, the material density
reverts back to whatever it was before. I had great hopes that your macro
could work around this bug, but alas it doesn't change the density. If I
start a new part from a template that doesn't have a material assigned to
it, then your macro works great it changes the density to whatever I pick.
But as soon as I assign it a material THEN remove the material, the density
cannot be changed either manually or with the macro. I did forward this
problem to my VAR and encourage others to do so. I am sure its a bug.....and
they are probably working on as we speak!!!

Thanks for the macro and all the help you gave me... you macro is definitely
a keeper.

Dan