Ok, Expain in simple terms

I need to work from work and home.
If I design some assembly at work I want to bring it home and work an it.
Sounds simple enough!
But It does not seem that solidworks allows this to happen.
WHY not?
At work the drawings are kept on a server know as //x:/design projects
2003/*.*
If I copy this folder and try to work on it at home it totally fucks up!
Why?
Why can't the assembly file include all of the information needed to
re-create the assembly at home?
I can't even send the assembly drawing to outside manufacturers!

I have got to the stage of contacting our solicitors to sue for my company's
wasted time and the wrong information supplied by our VAR and Solidworks
Corp, Regarding Solidworks Office Professional.

The option of working from work and home was paramount to the usage of
Solidworks.
Toolbox stops this from happening.

The option of sending Parts, Assemblies and Drawings to our outside
manufactures was Paramount.
Again toolbox stops this from happening.

The ability to create sheet metal drawings was paramount to the usage of
Solidworks.
Again the sheet metal part of the Program is rubbish, even our VAR cannot
make sense of a simple sheet metal part that I have sent to them.
This involves one base flange and four edge flanges!

The ability of adding weldments to simple box sections was paramount to the
usage of Solidworks.
Again solidworks is unable to do this!

The ability to make a round vessel and weld the seam is unavailable in
Solidworks.
This is our main business for *$£"sake!

The ability to use both metric and imperial measurements with in one drawing
was paramount as we use both!
Ie: 22mm to 1/2 inch adaptors for pipework drawings.
Solidworks does not allow both!

All these points was conveyed at the meetings we had with our VAR and we
were told that Solidworks could handle them.

I really do feel that Solidworks, in it's present state, is an incomplete
program, aimed at the engineering community and not at all aimed at the
sheet metal or any other industry as I was wrongly mislead to believe!

I would love to be proven wrong, because I like the Solidworks interface,
but so far our VAR is unable to do this!

The pretty pictures look great, but unless I can convey to our outside
suppliers, our managers and our own production team, our design concepts,
what is the point?

 

"I really do feel that Solidworks, in it's present state, is
an incomplete program, aimed at the engineering community
and not at all aimed at the sheet metal or any other
industry as I was wrongly mislead to believe!"

Thank you for posting the truth. IMO, more people need to do
the same on a frequent basis in order for SolidWorks Corp.
to get the message and make the needed changes that have
been put off for many years.

You are one hundred percent "dead nuts on" in what your
wrote above. It is for this very reason that so many small
machining job shops have dumped SolidWorks or have picked up
other tools to get the job done.

When it comes to dealing with imported geometry SolidWorks
one tool fits all approach (FeatureWorks) can be a massive
waste of time. Further, there are no tools in SolidWorks
that allow one to be able to properly modify imported non-
native surface geometry or NURB curves. Non naive surface
geometry and NURB splines are basically treated like illegal
aliens by SolidWorks.

Also, I have no idea how someone doing industrial design and
creating items with aesthetically pleasing lines would be
very happy with the tools SolidWorks gives users especially
if they were previously using a tool like Alias

To sell SolidWorks as a robust and capable industrial design
tool is to say the least misleading. Someday it might be. It
certainly isn't now.

I have no doubt you were lied to. Get mad and do something
about it. This post of yours is a good start.

jon

 

To copy the assembly structure with all it's parts (except drawings) is
easy.

1.Open the assembly you wish to take home.
2. Go to the "File" menu and select "Find References"
3. Select "Copy Files" from the "Search Results" dialog box.
4. If you wish to preserve the directory structure from the server select
"Yes" from the "Preserve Directory Structure" dialog.
5. Select the drive or directory you wish this copied structure to be copied
to.

This works great to get assemblies home but lacks because you still have to
manually copy the drawing files to this new location. I use this method all
the time with good results.

If you're using 2004 I've found the new "Detached drawing" option a good
solution to send drawings to vendors since it makes a drawing that is
detached from the model and will open without the model as long as the
person opening it has 2004 as well. I don't know if the free SolidWorks
Viewer program will open it as well.
Hope this was of some help.

Dave H

 

Ok,

I have run into the same issue with toolbox that you have. I had to
copy the default part files in solidworks to my assem dir to fix this
so I could send the parts out. The confugurations for your fastners
are custome made at the time of insertion and are stored in the s/w
install dir, thus by default tying you assem to that machine. It is
very shitty and the above method was my work around. It may have been
fixed in 2004 but I haven tried.


As far as sheet metal features go it is excelent. I create very
complex bend and geo only using the native 2004 s/w featurs and I can
do every thing the 3rd party apps claim cant be done. Mind you that
this knowledge came at much sweat and frustation, oh, and dont rely in
the s/w help or tutorials to guide you in complex shapes. But know
that with experince amd some tricks any shape can be done (asuming
your workin with a tradinal press break or roller, not fancy stamp die
shapes.)

As far as tranfering sheetmeat objects, every different app (i.e.,
inventor, pro-e, SE, etc...) seems to interpit foreign sheet metal
differently. Even with feature works I still have to clean up
otherwise acceptable sheetmetal parts befre s/w will prperly recognise
them. Also keep in mind that sheetmetal geo that isd valid in 2004
may not be valid geo in 2001 etc.. when sening a parasolid. It is
bullshit that they dont let you save out to earlyer versions, they say
its technicly infeasabel but I think its just to force upgrades.

But still, I get the feeling some of yor probles are probably the
result of an unsuportive vendor, and not inherent in Solid Works.


I hope you resolve your problems because SW has made my job much
easier.

 

Gosh Pete,
Most of what you've listed is pretty basic stuff, and the other users (not
including Jon B., of
course) have filled in most of the techniques.

With any software, you will need to put in a little effort to get into your
learning curve.

I think your only legitimate gripe would be with your VAR, who either
doesn't have the guts
to clue you in, or doesn't know how to use the software themselves. Either
way, change VAR's.

Check out the help files, tutorials, etc, and maybe even take some training.

good luck.

bill

 

It is possible to make a cylindrical sheetmetal part with a minimal gap that
will unfold into a flat pattern. In 2003 I know that the weldment tools are
terrible. Do you have to show a weld. It seems in the drawing you could
add a weld callout or even at the part level you could add this note. You
draw an arc with a gap between ends of something like .001" then do a
sheetmetal extrude. You can also draw sheetmetal cones if you wish just draw
the two ends just as you would for the cylinder and use sheetmetal loft
between the 2 sketches.

We use sheetmetal more than 75% of the time and it has been plenty
efficient.

Regards,

Corey Scheich

 

Work at home: Must take all referenced parts home.structure). Zipp it all up and bring it home.

Assembly drawing to outside vendor.create PDF (preSW2004), or simply use eDrawings. I send only PDF's to
vendors unless we are collabotating and both have SW, in which case
....
Use - File\Find References\Copy Files

Sending Parts, Assemblies and Drawings to our outside manufactures.zip them up, send them off). I personally send only PDF's to vendors.

Sheet metal part of the Program...sheet metal part, see Help Topics.

Weldments.I am not sure if this has changed in SW2004 (haven't looked yet).

Use both metric and imperial measurements.
Keep it simple, venting and ranting is one thing but your inexperience
with the product is what is really frustrating.

 

This post was after training, looking through the help files and the
tutorials!

No mention was made, in the training, about working from home or on another
stand alone machine or the problems involving Toolbox, weldments and sending
assembly file drawing to outside manufacturing.

The training was just following the books supplied for the training
sessions, all which I have at home.
None of the problems are mentioned in these books. I would love to follow
the learning curve, but Solidworks only seems to have dead ends!
Leaving only this newsgroup to get any sensible answers, without the common
VAR response, " It can't do that!"

I have built a full assembly with over 400 parts, with no big problems so
far, so I think I have learned quite a lot so far, even working weekends to
try to learn more.

Come on be fair, if my VAR can not sort these problems out, what chance have
I got on my own?
That is why I am using this newsgroup!

Maybe I will be as good as you are, "one day", but until then I would just
like some help.


It's easy to be wise, once you have learnt something!

 

Accepted - and that's the spirit of this group. It doesn't matter where you
have come from and how long you've been using SW, this group is full of
people that will do their darndest to help, if you ask for help and not yell
and complain. Not to say an occasional rant is out of place, but it's the
attitude that's important. If you want help and want to learn, people here
are volunteering their own time to accommodate you.

WT

 

Thanks for all of the positive Reponses, many have read my post properly
and have responded with helpful comments and suggestions.

I think that what has come out of this post, is that the training is still
not comprehensive enough to cope with real world situations.
and that the help files need to be written with some thought for the
beginners,(even after training).

There have been many responses saying what I need to do, but only a few
explaining what I need to do in detail, there is a big difference!
So many thanks to those that took the time to explain, this has really
helped.

I try to help others if I know the answer or have a suggestion.

It's easy to be wise, once you have learnt something!

 

Sounds like a bad VAR. Start checking around into any other VARs in your
area. Figure out which one is the best and then switch VARS when you renew
your support next year.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems

 

Sounds like a bad VAR. Start checking around into any other VARs in your

there's probably a significant variation among the help folks at your
current VAR. If you can find one that's better than the others, just go out
of your way to only work with him/her. Waiting on hold or leaving messages
might slow you down a bit, but a correct answer tomorrow is better than any
old answer today....

If all else fails, you might also consider shopping for a new VAR now. I
suspect that (as a sales inducement) replacement VAR-X might be willing to
give you some number of months of support--take you on now, on the promise
of becoming your VAR when renewal time comes around. As things go, it'd be
a relatively cheap way for them to gain a new customer

 

Jerry,

I agree with you about switching VARs when you are not getting the support
the you think you should be getting. But, I switched for a different reason
that I think everyone should consider. My old VAR was very helpful when I
ran into a problem. They were a little slow sometimes but not outrageously
so.

The main reason I switched was because I found one that offers 24 hr.
support. Since I do work at home from time to time, I figured that in
itself would be worth it. They do a very good job also.

Seth