Novedge Pulse™ of CATI

(Modeling Methodology - Defeature) In one of our previous articles we talked about reducing the level of detail in our parts and subassemblies and one of the questions we have been asked is what features and tools that SolidWorks provides [more...]

(Modeling Methodology - SolidWorks Image Quality) SolidWorks has the capability to display designs vividly with extremely high Image Quality and while this feature allows for a model with extremely high resolution, in general, they are not needed for everyday modeling [more...]

(Modeling Methodology - Envelope) The next tool that we are going to look at for reducing the level of detail in our parts and subassemblies is Envelope. Both parts and assemblies can be set as an Envelope when inserted into [more...]

CATI's monthly contribution to the SolidWorks Blog was posted this week. This month I chose to write about how section views have changed with SolidWorks 2013. The article is based upon a some common questions that we get into our [more...]

Some issues that come into support are not very easily resolved. To help isolate where to start looking for a solution, there is a program called SolidWorks RX. According to the Home tab of SolidWorks RX, this program can be [more...]

eDrawings – Invalid file type I ran across this recently with a customer. On 1 machine, they could not open Pro/E files. An error occurred – “File type not supported”. It took us a while to get to answer. It [more...]

(Modeling Methodology - Top Level Mates and Flexible Subassemblies) When an assembly is opened, all of the mates at the top level of the assembly are calculated as well as any mates that are involved in flexible sub-assemblies, you can [more...]

Are you getting these.. Instead of these?? Then you have some settings to pay attention to. Mostly this issue shows up in your SolidWorks file open menu or even in Windows explorer. There are a few things to check, by [more...]

(Modeling Methodology - Level of Detail) There are many opportunities to display minute levels of detail with SolidWorks. Displaying this high level of detail while working with large assemblies or very complex geometry will be detrimental to performance. We have [more...]

SolidWorks 2013 has 2 new FeatureManager Design Tree features. One of those features is the Feature Manager Design Tree Favorites. The FeatureManager Design Tree Favorites feature allows the user to add features to a new folder called "Favorites" to a [more...]

(Modeling Methodology - RealView Graphics) SolidWorks has the capability to display designs vividly with RealView Graphics. While these features allow for a very pretty and realistic model in general they are not needed for everyday modeling. RealView Graphics and Shadows [more...]

Have you ever tried to save time by copying an existing sketched based cut extrude only to find out that when you pasted this new copy that the orientation was flipped around 180 degrees from the original? If so, I [more...]

Recently on support I got a call from a customer that was having an issue with errors in the title block. When they opened a drawing, the title block had errors in it. Hopefully, you haven’t seen this issue before [more...]

Making changes is an integral part of the design process. File location and name changes happen all the time. Often times, these changes occur in parts that have references to other models. When such a change is made and this [more...]

(Modeling Methodology - SolidWorks options set to optimal) SolidWorks, like any other advanced software application has configuration options to allow users to tailor the environment and the functionality to their needs. These options can be adjusted to provide maximum performance [more...]

I while back I was speaking with about the raspberry pi, a credit sized computer that runs a Linux OS with the purpose of teaching you about programming and building your own electrical projects with motors, sensors, and other forms [more...]

(Modeling Methodology - OS Visual and User Settings) This test we can put in the category of "every little bit counts". In this category falls the visual settings from the operating system. This is one of Adrian's favorite settings and [more...]

By: Jim Krivoshein Goal: Chamfer one side of a slot. Understand why chamfers don't stop as expected. Background: Chamfers have an option (Tangent Propagation)similar to Fillets. Desired chamfer should only be on one edge of a slot, but achieving this [more...]

At my previous employer we went through a very minor title block change on our SolidWorks drawings. I spent close to a month on the task opening each file and modifying it. I now know a much faster and hands [more...]

Chances are that you may have heard about or seen 3D printing. In recent months, it has been in the news, on TV shows, and even in the President’s State of the Union Speech. 3D printing is now a mainstream [more...]

(Modeling Methodology - Files stored in an older version) All of the tests that you will see in the upcoming articles we are shifting from hardware to modeling methodology. In all of the modeling methodology tests we change one aspect [more...]

The SWUGN Technical Summit is coming to the Chicago area on Tuesday, April 30th, 2013. The SWUGN Technical Summit is a one-day learning and networking event hosted by the SolidWorks User Group Network and features technical presentations by local SolidWorks [more...]

There will be a time when you need a specific piece of information about a weldment to be called out. Whether it’s a custom properties that you create or an existing one like Angle1, it can be linked to a [more...]

CATI's monthly contribution to the SolidWorks Blog was posted this week. This month I chose to write how to get free SolidWorks Certification Exams. The article details how customers who have an active Subscription Service Contract can access several of [more...]

(Hardware Testing - Graphics Cards) Now we reach the crux of the matter. What makes a difference in Graphics performance with SolidWorks? We discussed in our first graphics article (FSWPC-13-#7a) that while some of the graphics related functions were fairly [more...]

Join us on April 22, 2013 from 2pm-3:30pm Central Time for this virtual training event. There is no cost to attend this presentation. This is a lecture style class covering how to upgrade your SolidWorks Workgroup PDM server, web viewer [more...]

Customers constantly have to send SolidWorks files and other large files back and forth to each other. Many use email to do this. SolidWorks itself has the File – Send to menu to help in this process. A list of [more...]

(Hardware Testing - Graphics Cards- Hardware Comparison) Continuing with our discussion on graphics performance with SolidWorks; in this article we will explore our analysis and findings related to comparing different levels of graphics cards. The cards tested and compared were [more...]

Solidworks 2013 SP3.0 is now available. Log into the Solidworks customer portal to begin your download [more...]

Firewalls of course help keep the bad things out, however they can also stop other traffic that you DO want. The built in Windows firewall is no different. By default it will not let traffic though to connect to the [more...]

Well, not quite yet. 3D printing continues to garner lots of press and attention. It truly has become a way to leverage 3D data generated from many different sources. The medical product industry has embraced additive manufacturing and continues to [more...]

(Hardware Testing - Graphics Cards-SolidWorks Functionality) If you have followed our efforts over the years to isolate performance factors you know that we have always had difficulty in breaking down the specifics of video cards as well as video related [more...]

Renaming files can be tricky and if you don't take the right steps it can damge file references. Here is an easy way to change all part numbers in a assembly to all new numbers. One method is to use [more...]

Several people have noticed that they are not getting the correct values or are not able to measure distances in a part as they could in the past with the measure tool. This issue has been resolved by toggling a [more...]