NEWSUG Meeting Minutes

November 16, 2010, 5:00 p.m.

Fox Valley Technical College, Appleton, Wisconsin

While this report generally covers the meeting events, those

events have been arranged into a logical sequence and refined
with the purpose of making them helpful, rather than precisely
representing the presentations as they happened.

25 people attended this meeting.

Click on these links for easy navigation:

Announcements

Tips and Tricks –SolidWorks Templates

Efficient Assemblies

Weldments - Part 2

Next Meeting

Announcements

Jobs: Bob Braun is an informal employment clearing house. When he hears about a job
opening, he sends a blind copy of the opening to everyone on his list of candidates. If you have
an employment opportunity or an employment need, send a note to Bob at bobb@execpc.com.

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Tips and Tricks– SolidWorks Drawing Templates – Bob Braun

Drawing templates include document setting details, title block, drawing borders and imbedded
links to the part and assembly models. They complement model and assembly templates.
SolidWorks has two distinct drawing templates. In this presentation, we learned about the
differences between the two drawing templates.

I. .drwdot – Drawing template

 Use to start a drawing
 Includes notes, revision tables and other drawing objects
 Create with File | SaveAs
 Cannot overwrite existing template

Steps to create this type of template:

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 1. Create a drawing with the options, title block and other drawing features you
want.
2. Under the Options dialog box, identify where the document templates are kept for
your system.
3. Under the File menu, select SaveAs.
4. In the Save as type: drop down, select Drawing Templates (*.drwdot).
5. Insure that the path matches the path for where your system keeps document
templates.
6. Save the file with a meaningful name, like “B-Size”. Note that you cannot
overwrite existing templates. If you want to replace an existing template, save
the template with a new name and later use Windows Explorer to rename the
files and delete or archive the original.

II. .slddrt – Sheet format template

 Use in an existing drawing
o Change sheet size
o Use for second sheet border and title block
 Create with File | Save Sheet Format
 Can overwrite existing template

Steps to create this type of template:

1. Create a drawing with the options, title block and other drawing features you
want. Note that drawing features, like note and revision block will not be saved
with the .slddrt. Only items in the “Sheet Format” will be saved.
2. Under the Options dialog box, identify where the document templates are kept for
your system.
3. Under the File menu, select Save Sheet Format.
4. Make sure that the path matches the path identified in step 2.
5. Give the file a meaningful name. Note that you can overwrite existing files with
the same name.

We will have a presentation on making title blocks and drawing borders in September
2011.

Saving Templates:

In current SolidWorks versions for both drawing template types:

 You can save a SolidWorks drawing in the template format
 The model will be automatically stripped out
 Generic linked features, like model custom properties in notes will reestablish when the
template is used

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Efficient Assembly Practices – Eric Tipler

Here is Eric’s excellent presentation with pointers on how to make your assemblies run
faster:
Working Efficiently with Large Assemblies

You may also want to review Eric’s earlier presentation on this topic from February 2009
(recorded in NEWSUG notes).

Remember this easy reference chart showing why you want both a full-detail default
configuration and a simplified configuration in your models:

A summary of the Simplified modeling method

(each model has 2 configurations):

Part Model
“Default” Configuration:
Has unsuppressed features:
1. Stamped text/numbers
2. Lots of fillets/chamfers
“Simplified” Configuration:
Has suppressed features:
1. Stamped text/numbers
2. Lots of fillets/chamfers

Used to make the detailed part drawing with its Used in assembly models
dimensions and notes.

Subassembly Model
“Default” Configuration:
1. Uses either “Simplified” Part(s) or
“Default” Part(s) if detail is needed
2. Must show all parts for the BOM
Used to make this subassembly drawing with
its BOM.
“Simplified” Configuration:
1. Uses “Simplified” part(s)
2. All internal parts (not seen anyway) are
suppressed
3. Fasteners are suppressed
Used in upper level assembly models

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Weldments, Part 2 – Steve Baumann

Here is Steve’s excellent presentation on advanced features in weldments:

Weldments-part2

He covered the following topics:

1) Custom Profiles

2) Pierce Points – for orienting the profile extrusion to the extrusion path

3) Inserting a part

4) Example of As-Machined Vs. As-Welded Configurations

5) Relative View – to isolate a weldment body for dimensioning clarity

6) Sub-weldments

7) Cut Lists

1) How to get materials into cut list properties

2) How to use dimension names to fill in cut list properties

8) Additional Resources

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Next Meeting:
The next meeting will be February 8, 2010 at FVTC.
The main presentation topic will be: Importing 2D Designs into SolidWorks, and Linked
Features, Creating Parts within an Assembly, Design in Place.

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