Have you ever been working with a drawing in SOLIDWORKS and noticed the balloons showing a yellow question mark (?) or asterisk (*)? There are a few reasons for this, but this blog will cover the most common causes for why these appear in your BOM balloons.
Have you ever needed to reinstall SOLIDWORKS or use SOLIDWORKS on another machine, but didn’t want to lose the customizations, shortcuts, and settings you’ve set? Or do you have an engineering team that you’d like to have all have the same settings? Luckily, SOLIDWORKS has a handy tool available just for that!
If you are running into issues in SOLIDWORKS, the first place to start troubleshooting is in the SOLIDWORKS Safe Modes. There are two safe modes Software OpenGL and Bypass Tools/Options Settings. This article will go over the Software OpenGL safe mode, how to use it, what it’s doing and what the outcome means.
In SOLIDWORKS, using a Sketch Picture can be a helpful way to capture design intent; it allows you to trace your design over a reference image. The Enable Scale Tool option allows the image size to be adjusted to match a reference dimension, using a Scale Tool and numeric input. This article describes this process and how it affects SOLIDWORKS' Zoom to Fit view function.
When working in CAD environments like SOLIDWORKS or 3DEXPERIENCE, you may see terms like CAD Families, Physical Products, and Representations. These concepts are connected, and understanding how they work together can help engineers, designers, and manufacturers manage their data more effectively.
This blog shows two sheet metal hoppers that were created in SOLIDWORKS using a similar process/technique, but completely different features. Now, although there was one very slight difference, which you will see a little later, the two sheet metal hoppers are basically identical. What are these different features that produce these similar results, and how do the two techniques differ? Which one comes out on top? Read on to find out.
While the SOLIDWORKS Tab and Slot feature is primarily intended to be used when creating multibody sheet metal parts, design requirements sometimes involve adding Tab and Slot features within an assembly. This is simple enough when a part is only used once, or the feature is added after all instances of the part are inserted, but sometimes a part needs to be reused.
Every now and then, I need to find a centerline between two complex curves or splines in SOLIDWORKS. This could be used for several reasons, but so far, the most common is for Sweep and Loft features. Let me guide you with step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish this task.
In a previous blog post, Using Sensors to Monitor Surface Area, I had the idea of using SOLIDWORKS Sensors to track the surface area of certain exposed faces of a guide rail assembly. I would then use this surface area information to determine how much stain I would need to apply two coats to my guide rail. Furthermore, if my design dimensions changed, my surface area sensor would immediately update, and I could quickly (and more accurately) figure out the new amount of stain required. The process was as simple as using the Measure tool, selecting all exposed faces, and then using the Create Sensor option within the Measure tool window. This would then track my surface area.