I use to design plastic parts. There is a lot of dimensions that I want my molder to check on the first parts.(I have not the time to do
3D control). For the moment I use an excel spreadsheet to manage that and all the steps of making good parts :-). I use a macro I found on the web to export on my sheet all the dimensions. My sheet then partially (sob) and automatically fill the generals tolerances. I send it to my subcontractor who fill it with his measures then send it back to me. With a macro I could see all the dimensions that are not in the good range. I think that a tool like this fully integrated with all the ISO general tolerances and GDT could be of interest. You could even add statistical analysis to manage several mold of the same part...
Sorry. I was just throwing out some suggestions on general strategy, using specific things that came to mind at 3:30 in the morning after editing a part for 14 straight hours - I apologize for not knwoing if the off-the-top-of-my-head ideas are already in progress at SW (though I have to say, Hooray for SW!).
The point was not to piss anybody off with specific examples, but to illustrate a general business principle - don't try to do the things that your competitor (SW) has shown a record of interest in. Instead, try to find their weakness - exploit the parts of the market they have apparently shown they are institutionally incapable of applying effort to, and attack that with gusto. I stand by that. The problem for you is that SW, much to its credit, hasn't drawn a line and said they aren't interested in pursuingmuch. As far as specifics - they were just ideas
I do this every day right now, manually. I just thought it would be swell to automate the process.
When I have made a change in a model and everything blows up, you have to remember that I only fouled up the copy of my model in memory. The copy of the model on the hard-drive is still in the last saved condition - is still good unless I saved over it, which I am not likely to do in the middle of a catastrophic blood fest.
All I would like is an 'oh sh**' button that automatically copies that pristine file on the hard-drive, changes its name and pastes it back into a reference/comparison directory (what I do today in an 'oh sh**' moment). Then, instead of having two windows of SW open side by side (which I currently do), I would like to just RMB a feature in error, click the 'oh sh**' comparison box, and have a second smaller window open that shows the old dialog settings in the feature tree, the old sketch or screen selection, and maybe a shot of the model after the feature completes. All the macro would do is create then open the reference part in SW, roll to the right feature, and tile vertically/horizontally/or float a pane on the screen. I do not need the whole feature tree for the reference part chewing up screen real estate, and I don't have to waste a lot of time scrolling thought the feature tree. The best part is that I can prevent myself from accidentally adding new features to the wrong (reference) model - right now I change the model color, or open up a completely different session of SW and change the background color to help me keep track and insure I don't accidentally continue working on the reference part. Simply adding a routine to the macro that drops a big construction graphic (or a red X) as a tiff in the background of the 'oh sh**' recovery part would prevent that.
The oh sh** macro could be smart and, in the event the working model on the hard-drive/network was saved after the critical error, it could resurrect one of the backups for comparison (another pain in the ass, automated away)
I think it would be worth a few bucks, especially when bundled with other power repair tools that I (perhaps stupidly) theorize SW might steer away from because its competitors might exploit the perceived weakness?.
Saving intermediate steps - I don't think I'd want that because of the file size and system resource issues. I do that today, anyway, using SW techniques (copy and paste sketches, type in the old value for dims in the note area to maintain a revision history, etc)
Great points. I do enjoy getting a perspective on the issues that people face in industries that I have not given a ton of thought to. I really appreciate your response, and perspective.
Ed's "oh sh**" button sounds great . Surfcam will allow you to open it multiple times. I can pull the same name file from another folder and compare the two and even copy items in and out to each other.
An add in that has been barely touched is surface manipulation tools. ShapeWorks has a great start. However, the more I try to push it, the more it crashes. The surface editing tools that Rhino 3d, alias studio tools, and the animation software's 3ds max, Maya, lightwave, should be in the surfacing tool of SolidWorks. Visi software runs the same parasolid kernel as SW and they offer that capability.
the addin that good ol' bob z. needs is this: bob z. wants an addin that either flashes the screen for a second or two or better yet plays a 'chime' or a 'beep' as soon as a rebuild is complete. bob z. is currently waiting on a rebuild and would really like to take a nap...
bob.z will be happy : I just implemented his wish in my free "RedLight" add-in : It now plays "tada.wav" if rebuild took longer than 10 secs. RedLight 's main purpose is to prevent bob.z from taking 3 naps when 1 would be enough. bob.z and friendz can get "RedLight" from
formatting link
should tell his boss to click the "Donate" button on that page to make me happy too.
I'd like to have this for my clients, who are often stuck in 2d. Exported dwg's of a complex assembly are such a mess, they're not much more useful than a pdf. Only one complaint with your idea: I'd rather have the parts in blocks than layers.
Wow, $20,000. Now I know how my clients feel! Some people in this thread have talked about "running in front of the (Soildworks) bus". Maybe for a few hundred $ we could find the bus driver and convince him over lunch?!
For now I guess I'll have to kow-tow to the Pro/E users in the office and ask them to create the drawings.
I did a quick test with a drawing - assigning various parts to layers and it sort of works...
It may be possible to write a quick app/macro that takes a model, inserts an isometric view into a new drawing file, assigns all parts to a layer, then saves the drawing as a dwg. Maybe if I get some more time I will play around with this. It would be nice to have this feature without having to make a drawing manually. Just providing 3 views of a complex assembly in
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.