I find this tool very useful when using VX's sketcher. It saves a lot of time that would be wasted trimming and deleting geometry.
Does SolidWorks have a trace tool that can be used in sketch mode ?
From the VX on-line help:
"This command create a trace profile from existing sketch geometry. Trace profiles are handy when you want to use only a specified perimeter (profile) of interconnecting geometry as the basis of the sketch. The Trace profile is parametrically constrained to the underlying geometry. The underlying sketch geometry however is ignored and not used to drive features."
Yes it does, it's called "convert edge". They can be either 2D planer (projected), or 3D. You can choose whether or not you want them linked to the underlying geometry or not. You can also use silhouette edges, surface to surface, or surface to solid face intersections, and several others. All can be driven, driving, or free standing.
The owner of Black Drag Any CAD/CAM system that does not use the "THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE CONCEPT" will not be tolerated.
As a result, what we at Black Dragon Heavy Industries refer to as "SaladWorks", was removed from all of our machines worldwide. The CD's were sent to our world headquarters in upstate New York and presented to the owner in his penthouse lair. As this happened quite sometime ago, my lack of knowledge on the current state of mediocrity and poor performance in "SaladWorks" is far from up to date and should be summarily noted.
Since both you and I agree that major forces in the market like "SaladWorks" and MasterCAM offer us the opportunity for gainful employment, because they are so prominent, I though I would try and find out how "SaladWorks" is progressing. As your recently pointed out to me money can be quite important. However, I must confide in you that I personally can't see using "SaladWorks" for my own stuff or recommending that someone else adopt it, now that I have started down the path of VX seamless, unified, hybrid modeling enlightenment.
As you must know by now, the owner of BDHI himself has personally decided to learn, and probably will be spreading the "Heavy Metal" in regards to Cimatron Elite.
Most likely "Heavy Metal" would be his choice of words... as I would lean more toward the more traditional choice of the word ...gospel. Truth be known I'm a fan of "Heavy Metal" as long as it includes a large dose of Hammond B2 with the required Leslie cabinet.
As for myself, I have been charged with properly evaluating VX for BDHI and this will be an on going project. Again both Jim Scully's and your input is very much appreciated.... a little more detail next time would be helpful, Jim. :>)
Hopefully much progress will be made as I try and get to the bottom of what CAD/CAM systems can receive the official "Swiss Army Knife" BDHI stamp of approval.
Thanks again for the input and I hope we can do lots more specifics soon.
Jon Banquer
Director CAD/CAM research and testing for Black Dragon Heavy Industries at out isolated, remote desert testing station... somewhere near Phoenix, Arizona.
Presenter of the "Toss It" lecture at the upcoming SaladWorks World 2006.
SaladWorks World 2006 is sponsored by Black Dragon Heavy Industries... the universally acknowledged world leader in everything that the head of BDHI feels is important.
Could you please do the same in describing the "Select Contour" tool in SolidWorks. What is the difference between the "Select Contour" tool and what Mark described as the "Convert Edge" tool.
Maybe "Select Contour" is the 2D tool and "Convert Edge" is the 3D tool ?
This .pdf describes what SolidEdge is doing about trying to handle large assemblies. Wonder how well it really works ?
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"Support for massive assemblies contains one of the most technically fascinating ways to automatically simplify assemblies. Using patent pending algorithms, Solid Edge determines and eliminates interior and small parts from large assemblies, thus producing a very lightweight assembly as an alternate representation of the precise assembly, improving display time and thus usability drastically. What makes this so usable is that, at any time, the associated precise form of the assembly can be used instead of the simplified version, if desired."
The author then goes on to give a test example that sounds impressive. Would like to hear / know more... as I might have a need for handling large scale assemblies at work very shortly.
'Convert Edge' is exactly that. It allows you to convert existing edges to sketch geometry, which is not what your description of the Trace Tool seems to describe.
'Select Contour' allows the selection of arbitrary closed regions of a sketch to be used to create features. Multiple regions may be selected, multiple features may be created from a single sketch using various selected contours. Imagine two concentric circles in a sketch. Without contour selection, an extrusion created with the sketch would result in a tubular solid. Contour selection allows the same sketch to be used to create three different possible extrusions. If the inner contour is selected, a round prismatic solid is created with the diameter of the smaller ciricle. If the contour between the circles is selected, the 'standard' tubular solid is created. If both the inner and outer contours are selected, a round prismatic solid is created with a diameter that matches the larger circle.
SW2205 comes on one Terabyte octuple layer near UV laser DVD. When installed it takes up 10 Terabytes of permanent storage and will run in
30 Terabytes of RAM, but with prices so low this isn't a problem. For moderate sized problems a 256 processor liquid helium cooled system is just adequate, but for really large assemblies like the continental United States a 1MProcessor machine with 1 Petabyte of memory is suggested.
SW2205 comes with the usual neural interface that takes the place of all outdated physical input and output interfaces which allows people in PVS to become contributing members of society again. The annoying bug in SW2204 which caused the users brain to CTDT when SW did has been eliminated (well at least nobody is complaining about it).
SW2205 does come with a holographic trace tool in the Persistent Bundle.
And the really good news is that it still costs $3,995 or Euro 39,95.
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