Novedge Pulse™ of Chris Schaefer

Many SolidWorks users, for various reasons, stay with an older version of SolidWorks. Some SolidWorks users keep more than one version of SolidWorks to accommodate customers and partners. To keep your older SolidWorks at its peak performance consider updating to [more...]

SolidWorks Hole Wizard is pretty complete when it comes to industry standards for hole sizes, but what happens when you want a hole size that isn't in the list? Not a lot of people are familiar with SolidWorks ability to [more...]

Example of a long feature tree If you've ever built a part or an assembly with a long feature tree, you can understand that sometimes that feature tree can be a little difficult to work with. There isn't really a [more...]

This month I have a couple of quick shortcuts to share when working with assemblies. I used these in my SolidWorks Assembly Modeling class last week and everyone in the class wanted to know how I did things so quick [more...]

Every once in a while in this space, I like to depart from the usual technical tips and tricks and think back to not the tool but the reasons for its use. We need to learn the tools of our [more...]

If you're a CAD Admin and have network SolidWorks licenses at your company then this is for you. You may have noticed when working with the SolidNetWork License Manager that there is a tab called "License Order". Most people don't [more...]

There have been times when I wanted to show a section view with the crosshatch in a different color than the default black. Here is what the default view looks like. Here are the steps to get a different color [more...]

SolidWorks 2013 has some very nice enhancements for bend notes. To start, bend notes can now be controlled directly from a selected view’s PropertyManager. Bend notes can also have more information added beyond direction, angle, and radius. Simply click on [more...]

If you have a firewall and need to download SolidWorks or SolidWorks Service Packs, try the following settings: From the SolidWorks Knowledge Base Solution ID# S-054044 The following procedure has been successful used in some cases without disabling the firewall [more...]

SolidWorks Simulation employs the use of what is known as the "direct stiffness" method for calculating the displacements and, ultimately, the stresses we want to get from structural analysis. You may have seen, during the solving of your latest analysis [more...]

I’ve been reading a bit lately about transactive memory. It’s a theory that basically states that in any organization, the group mind may know something in its entirety although individual members will only know either certain things or how to [more...]

With facilities in the USA and China, Prince Industries, a manufacturer of hydraulic valves, found communication between plants difficult and were not able to properly manage their revision control process. With the implementation of SolidWorks Enterprise PDM, Prince resolved these [more...]

One of the great things about SolidWorks is that each new release is chock full of new functionality and improvements. The challenge of knowing where the settings are located that govern the behavior of all that functionality, unfortunately, becomes larger [more...]

A question I often run into, “Is SolidWorks Simulation accurate?” If you mean “Does SolidWorks Simulation perform its mathematical operations like a calculator?” Yes. It does that well. If referring to whether or not it predicts product performance correctly…well…that depends [more...]

Has your company updated their logo? Is the company logo in all your drawing title blocks? How do you update that logo on all your drawings? There are two ways to accomplish this depending on if your original objects are [more...]

Now that you’ve installed your SolidWorks and have it just as you want it……………. Back Up Your Settings! Sometimes bad things happen to good people, if you have SolidWorks issues it’s nice to be able to restore your settings. Or [more...]

Have you ever wanted to take a drawing view and make it into a standard block that you could use in layout drawings? You have a part model, but you only want a 2D “picture” of it? SolidWorks 2013 has [more...]

How much time do you spend going from blog to blog, site to site, or checking your twitter feed to get the latest SolidWorks info? SolidWorks introduces my.solidworks.com; an aggregated site that pulls tutorials, tips, and news from across the [more...]

You’ve been following the media. You’ve subscribed to all the blogs. You’ve even upgraded to SolidWorks 2013 and have been using it regularly. You know that this latest release brought hundreds of new features and enhancements. But…how many have you [more...]

Ever go to create a drawing template and wind up confused on the difference between a sheet format file and a template file? Well for most users there's really no reason to worry about the sheet format file because in [more...]

I have been asked in the past how to change the color of a specific component in a drawing view (Hidden Lines Removed display style only, this does not change the color of the component in Shaded or Shaded With [more...]

One of the more important and yet challenging aspects to using Finite Element Analysis is constructing a usable model. This model, whether found natively in a CAD package, imported from a CAD package, or constructed within a dedicated FE package [more...]

The more stuff I have around on my desk, the harder it is to find anything. Like my keys, or my wallet, my glasses… SolidWorks projects can be like that as well, especially when it comes to assembly files. You [more...]

SolidWorks Extrude has a great hidden gem to save you time when you create your models. Let's look at a typical example: We need to extrude part of our model 2mm away from another face. In this case we don't [more...]

So close…yet so far. This should look perfect, but it doesn’t. What’s the problem? It is not uncommon, when portraying liquid in a glass, to create the liquid as a second feature in the part file. Perhaps you even used [more...]

Often times we get customers that call in confused about how to read the license counts shown in the SolidNetWork license manager; i'm gonna try and clarify how this works because it can get confusing... On the license manager you'll [more...]

3DVIA Composer is used for a variety of purposes, and while shop instructions and end-user instructions are the most common applications, many people are making graphical assets for marketing purposes. You can create more realistic images if you take advantage [more...]

And the votes are in! Thank you for all the submissions and participation! I think it's safe to say that if Santa is ever in need of some concept designs, he'd have options. Winners received the highest cumulative scores and [more...]

Any basic introduction to SolidWorks Simulation will include a brief lesson on using split lines to your advantage. The first common use of the split line is to give yourself a specific, localized area to apply a mesh control. This [more...]

When creating a linear pattern of a feature, there are some options for the number of instances you might not be aware of. One direction only: Select an edge that represents the direction you want the pattern to go. Key [more...]

“I am not going to make that mistake again!” cried Sal. “Oh, you mean moving or updating your SolidWorks installation without transferring your license first,” asked Sol, “like last year?” “Yes,” admitted Sal. “I know there’s a way to do [more...]

Celebrate with Graphics Systems this season and enter our SolidWorks Design Contest! Santa and his sleigh have long been the source of debate. This year, design your own version of Santa's ride and be able to validate the big guy's [more...]

SolidWorks Design Studies are a means to automate the creation and execution of multiple studies (static, natural frequency, linear buckling...). They are also the basis for design optimization studies from SolidWorks Simulation Professional. Optimization studies allow the user to drive [more...]

SolidWorks 2013 has a great new set of behaviors with thin feature extrusions. In the past, if you wanted to work with open contours, only one open contour was allowed. In SolidWorks 2013, multiple open contours can be extruded as [more...]