Do's & Dont's from the Real World 5

[TateJ]

I just got a part-time evening gig - teaching SolidWorks at my local technical college. And I'm dang excited about it! I plan to share this site with my students as a valuable resource. My first class is August 23... I'd like to start a list of good & bad practices to incorporate into the class. I want to be able to share what other users are doing & not just my experience.

For example:
-> I have never used an ENVELOPE to select parts in an assembly. I use it as a refernce part for equipment layout & design. Does anybody find it useful as a selection tool?



SolidWorks 2005 SP03.0 / Windows 2000 Professional

 

[ShaggyPE]

TateJ,
Congratulations on the gig. I have often thought that I would enjoy doing something similar.

->concerning your example, I have only used envelopes in a similar situation to what you have described, never for advanced selection.

 

[MMike1]

How 'bout using "unfold" vs, "flatten" with sheet metal?

 

[SBaugh]

That's great to hear TateJ, and sending them the link to this site is good too, but do explain to them, if they ask us to do the homwork for them, they will be redflagged and could be banned from the forum. It's important for students to understand this here.

Best Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[TateJ]

Good point Scott... I'll pass that along too.
And I'll be checking here for "cheaters"

SolidWorks 2005 SP03.0 / Windows 2000 Professional

 

[MadMango]

I've always been disappointed with the quality of SolidWorks users that have come from specialized classes and community colleges. I'm hopeful we'll start to see an increase in the quality of students after August 23rd.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[macduff]

TateJ,
Congrats on the teaching job. I'm sure you'll do well. One point I would like to make. Make sure that you teach them to view past threads before they ask there questions in our forum. LOL!

Good Luck

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Sr. Mechanical Designer
macduff's SW page
Inhouse System
Pentium(4)2.80GHz
Ram 1.00 GB
SW2005 Office SP 3.1
Windows 2000 SP4.0
NIVIDA Quadro4 750 XGL

 

[macduff]

One more thing...welcome TateJ's students!

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Sr. Mechanical Designer
macduff's SW page
Inhouse System
Pentium(4)2.80GHz
Ram 1.00 GB
SW2005 Office SP 3.1
Windows 2000 SP4.0
NIVIDA Quadro4 750 XGL

 

[macduff]

And another thing...A big old star for you for molding young peoples minds.

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Sr. Mechanical Designer
macduff's SW page
Inhouse System
Pentium(4)2.80GHz
Ram 1.00 GB
SW2005 Office SP 3.1
Windows 2000 SP4.0
NIVIDA Quadro4 750 XGL

 

[MadMango]

Many times people learning SolidWorks for the first time at a community/technical college do so because they need the skillset in order to enter/reenter the work force. I feel many of these people probably have ideas of entering the work force as "designers" right out of the gate. They may be disappointed to learn that their first job will be completing redline packages or creating 3D models from 2D drawings by rote.

Some reworld expectations will go a long way in the class, along with a solid ASME Y14.5M-1994 and ASME Y14.100-2000 foundation.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[TateJ]

Boy... those may be lofty goals for a little 3d CAD class... But I see your points & I agree.
I view formal education not as the chance to learn everything there is to know... but an opportunity to get a handle on the basics & remember where to look to figure out the rest. If I can get my students to wrap their brains around the basic concepts of sketching, extruding, assembling & designing to accomodate potential changes, then I will meet my goal.

SolidWorks 2005 SP03.0 / Windows 2000 Professional

 

[macduff]

MadMango,

They may be disappointed to learn that their first job will be completing redline packages or creating 3D models from 2D drawings by rote.

Those would be called Detailers...

I have some issues with this younger generation calling themselves so called Designers. And I agree whole hearted on the ASME drawing standards along with strengh and materials ASTM/AMS standards, and many others...

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Sr. Mechanical Designer
macduff's SW page
Inhouse System
Pentium(4)2.80GHz
Ram 1.00 GB
SW2005 Office SP 3.1
Windows 2000 SP4.0
NIVIDA Quadro4 750 XGL

 

[TateJ]

Mango...

Mostly we call ourselves whatever it says on our company business cards...

Can a 38 yr old still be part of the "younger generation"?

SolidWorks 2005 SP03.0 / Windows 2000 Professional

 

[alexit]

If first job wasn't with slide rule and T-square they call us "younger" generation round here...

 

[macduff]

TateJ,
I didn't mean to insult anyone by my comment and I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I'm just upset by several interviews I made at our company about 6 months ago. Some of the younger (and older folks too ) ) had stated on there resumes that they were Senior Designers and had no clue about industry standards and practices.

Have a good day, and the best too your students!

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Sr. Mechanical Designer
macduff's SW page
Inhouse System
Pentium(4)2.80GHz
Ram 1.00 GB
SW2005 Office SP 3.1
Windows 2000 SP4.0
NIVIDA Quadro4 750 XGL

 

[TateJ]

Not offended at all... just friendly banter


SolidWorks 2005 SP03.0 / Windows 2000 Professional

 

[drawoh]

TateJ,

I have started using the envelopes to indicate optical apertures. These should not appear in the BOM, and envelopes do not appear in the BOM.

I tried to use the envelope as a selection tool once, and it did not work very well for me. If I have related components such as a screw, washers and nut, I place them in a folder together.

DO List

Make sure you understand how your parametric models are going to update. Try to anticipate the changes you make as your design progresses.

When you create new parts while doing top-down design, start the fabrication drawing immediately. I cannot tell you how many times I have applied tolerances to fabrication drawing earlys on, said "oops!", and went back to re-think interfaces at the assembly level.

This is a major advantage of 3D parametric CAD. Back in the days of AutoCAD and drafting boards, I left fabrication drawings for the very last. Then I said "oops!".

JHG

 

[SolidsMaster]

Back to the question.....

Make sure you avoid using super complicated sketches. So many users I've seen, try to cram everything into as little sketches as possible. I've even seen the initial sketch is the full part, and then they convert entities off that. The reason they said was to edit everything at once....these type of files can never handle change.

Up front thinking is key to the parts performance and changability.

I'd also do alot with Parent/child relationships, many people still don't understand it.

How about some filename and configuration convention too.

and the list goes on...

John

 

[ShaggyPE]

Also, on the real world list.

This is something that I think we all take for granted, but is something they do not typically teach in the schools:

1. Build assemblies logically, the way they would be built in the real world. Use sub assemblies if they will be built that way.
The first job I had after school, had a product line that was manufactured using subassemblies. However the SW models were a disgrace. The top level consisted of no subassemblies. Only parts and mates. We did however have drawings of the subassemblies. The drawings were made by creating a configuration in the top assy and hiding all but the necessary components for that subassembly. We had many subassemblies and all of them were illustrated this way. Often duplicates of part instances were present in the assembly. An example would be a hinged door where you want a configuration showing it open and another showing it closed: the proper thing to do would be to have one instance of the hinge and one instance of the door. The configurations would simply look at a different configurations of the hinge, an open or closed hinge. This company would have two hinges, one open and the other closed, and two identical doors, one attached to hinge 1 and the other to hinge 2. Making an auto BOM of this assembly would be a nightmare. In general poor modelling practices abound.

2. File management. The semester long class I had that taught the basics of solidworks made zero mention of file references or the proper way to rename files. It wasn't until I was at this first job that I was forced to learn about such things as well as the proper way to copy assemblies without mixing up references. Unfortunately (for me) there wasn't anybody at that job who was familiar with these methods (as evident by their poor modelling practices in the above story). I learned about these techniques by reading the helps and simply by trial and error. It would have been nice to have at least been exposed to the proper methods.

 

[halfmark]

I have been resposible for teaching new employes the,"basics" of Solidworks at my company. The one thing I found to be a big help, is to be sure that the automatic sketch relations are turned off. This makes the individual create the relations neded to fully define a sketch, and there by better understand how the relationships interact.