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Exciting news! Early access to SOLIDWORKS 2023 is now available for subscription customers. Test-drive new features and enhancements before the official release and send feedback straight to the R&D team.
Importing files can be a hassle in any CAD or CAE environment. Different vendors utilize different kernels, and while STEP files are nice, everyone has encountered at least one that didn’t quite behave as expected. Starting in SOLIDWORKS 2017, Dassault Systemes introduced 3D Interconnect, a “CAD Translator” that can take native CAD files from other vendors.
SOLIDWORKS Assemblies let you detect interferences between parts so you can clearance them. It shows you where the interference is so you can edit the part within the context of the assembly to ensure a proper fit. You can even use the interfering parts to create perfect cavities that fit the offending parts like puzzle pieces.
3D printing is a proven tool for prototyping, tooling, and production. Almost every industry uses 3D printing to develop better products, shorten production times, and reduce costs. In addition, the flexibility of 3D printing means designers and engineers can be more creative and experiment in ways they otherwise wouldn't be able to.
In this CAMWorks tutorial, learn how to create stock profiles for turning machines. This will also apply to Mill Turn machines as they create the same stock. Similar to how bounding boxes work, bar stock creates stock that is the smallest size of a cylinder the part can fit inside of.
In a previous article, Using Sketched Contours to Create 3D Extrusion in DraftSight, I demonstrated a method for creating a closed contour with a polyline or with sketch entities and the Weld command. Then, using the Extrude command to create a solid body. This method may be used with any version of DraftSight. In Introduction to Basic 3D Shapes in DraftSight, I demonstrated the methods for creating basic 3D shapes using DraftSight Premium or DraftSight Enterprise Plus. For this demonstration, I will use the basic 3D shapes from the 3D Modeling Workspace to create overlapping solids, which I will combine or subtract to achieve the desired shape.
“Work hard at hardly working, work smarter not harder.” We’ve all heard these phrases, but do we do this? Are there any settings that allow us to do this in SOLIDWORKS? You bet there is, and a couple of the ones I recommend in this blog allow users to input sketch entity values and automatically add the dimensions to that entity.
Docking stations are a necessity for many modern workforces. Having the capability to take your workstation home, to the office, or to a job site is mandatory in the modern age of mobile work, and having extra monitors and peripherals at your desk is critical to making the most of most SOLIDWORKS workflows.
Have you ever imported a STEP file into SOLIDWORKS and saw the error Encountered invalid record index? This error occurs because SOLIDWORKS found problematic data in the file.