Cool new feature

[dammerel]

Hi all
Now here is a cool feature!
I could see this saving time

SOLIDWORKS 2015 Sneak Peek: Treehouse: http://youtu.be/Iuy-sJNwapw

 

[Lew_Merrick]

I guess my question is, Why?

I do this all the time with Configurations. I recently designed an injection mold set-up "generic system" for a client. The carriage that is the interface between the mold set and the molding machine are common parts. The actual mold components have common features, but come in: direct inject into the part, inject into the part through a gate, and inject into the part through a sub-surface sprue configurations. Having thought the design through clearly, it was merely a matter of creating the needed configurations for the main mold parts, assembling them into a configuration-driven set of sub-assemblies, and linking them together at the top assembly as a set of (3) configurations. When the overall mold design assembly is opened (unpackaged from the archive), the desired configuration set is opened and unneeded configurations are deleted and everything given a Save As to the new Project Folder and renamed accordingly. An accompanying text file provides the cheat sheet for which parts get renamed and which do not and provides a place to identify the new part, sub-assembly, and assembly names and ID's for overall record keeping.

The U-Tube video from SW is neat, but it is only a GUI overlaid on the process without as much information as would truly be required for such an approach to work consistently in the real world. In recent months I have done the same thing for: injection mold sets, railroad bogies (also called trucks), roller chain sprockets (I am finishing off a library of ANSI B29 sprockets right now), pneumatic & hydraulic cylinders, and gauge tooling. My take on this is that it is the thought process that is important and that a GUI won't do a lot to assist in that.

 

[RocketNut]

WOW I want it (drooling 8) )

 

[TylerDurden]

Agree with Lew... plus, the demonstrated example might be easier to do with a Save-as, then delete just the bits that need to be changed. :-\

 

[MikeHenry]

Looks like it could be handy for users that don't live and breathe CAD all day long, but the devil's in the details.

Personally, there are a few other enhancements that are much higher on my wish list.

Mike

 

[RocketNut]

What I like the most is the graphic TREE picture. This feature of just showing the tree would be extremely helpful when doing HUGE/COMPLEX projects that require a lot of sub-assemblies and/or parts. Constituents is great but on some projects the tree is hard to see or figure out. If was graphically shown as SW does then it would be extremely easy to spot any problem it that might be causing problems in the final project.

Rocket_Nut

 

[JST]

I can't see the video, but perhaps they are trying to tap some of the "Autocad Inventor" crowd.

As for other ways to get that........It's all very well to use "configurations", but that feature is ONLY available on the top level GD product. The rest of us cannot get it.

And, having used SWX, I am not that impressed, with a certain exception oor two which drive me crazy in AD/GD

1) In SWX, if the constraint doesn't work, you hit undo and try again, all right there in the same window done in a second. AND IT UNDOES THE WHOLE OPERATION, including movements. In AD/GD, you close the window, mouse over, select the constraint, delete it, mouse up, undo, select constraints, mouse down, and resume work. Yes, the quick constraint has an undo function, but I find it less nice to use than the regular version. And straight "undo" may not do what you expect.

2) In SWX, constraints and parts addition do not seem to fling parts to the far reaches of the galaxy. In AD/GD, the parts come in appearing nearby, but actually may be metres away from where you think. And applying constraints may fling them even farther away. Some of that is inevitable, but it is annoying to need to find, and then collect the parts from way way off screen.

That said, I don't like a number of other things in SWX, so aside from being a recognized pro tool, which nobody can complain about if you use it, it isn't totally wonderful.