Modeling Printed Graphics

[cbhausen]

I am new to Solidworks but have extensive Pro/E experience. Is there a SW2001 Plus feature or function equivalent to the "cosmetic feature or "datum curve" of Pro/E?

My product design workflow often requires development of a silk screened graphic early on. This graphic is then "bracketed around" later so the geometry must be "referencable."

I have explored drawing-to-sketch and it works great for getting the entities onto the sketch plane but leaving these entities as a sketch means they are visible all the time, regardless of display settings, view properties, etc. I wish the graphic to display properly if obscured by intervening parts. Pro/E cosmetic features act like stand-alone sketches in SW, but converting these to datum curves in Pro/E accomplishes the proper display of these entities.

I have not found a way to convert the sketch to a "zero-thickness" boss or datum curve equivalent. Think of my dilemma as trying to place hand tool images on a pegboard.

I am also trying to keep all data in SolidWorks so I tried saving drawings to TIFF but the results are crude at best and when inserted onto a sketch plane, the background shows and extends off the part. Am I missing something?

Any help from others who have gone down this road is sincerely appreciated!

 

[MadMango]

Look into Extrude and Text (or Text and Extrude) in SW help. This may result in better results than Sketch from Drawing.

Once you get your sketches in your model, you can Suppress the sketch in your Feature Manager. That will get rid of it if you don't want to see it.

You can also try extruding your text to some miniscule height, like .0001. Then it will be a feature. "The attempt and not the deed comfounds us."

 

[cbhausen]

MadMango:

Thanks for the reply. I have explored these options and they work okay for text if I don't mind "engraving" what are typically silk screened sheet metal parts. However, this really slows things down if you have a lot of text and doesn't solve the problem of graphic outlines of objects which sometimes have intersecting and disjoint contours This geometry is always visible as long as the sketch is visible or unsuppressed and it doesn't matter whether the sketch is inserted at the part or assembly level.

My goal is to make the sketch geometry visible in assemblies as a printed graphic and have it display properly if covered by bracketry, etc.

Pro/E does this as long as the geometry is inserted as a "datum curve." This geometry can be practically anything and is inserted at a coordinate system origin the user specifies. It is brought in as an IGES file usually.

 

[cbhausen]

To clarify, cosmetic features in Pro/E display properly in all but shaded mode, where they are visible all the time. In drawings and assemblies, their display is realistic based on display mode, intervening parts, etc.

 

[MadMango]

I see your problem more clearly now. I think the only way you will accomplish this in SW is to use the add-in of PhotoWorks. The price might not justify the end results however. "The attempt and not the deed confounds us."

 

[cbhausen]

MadMango:

I have SW 2001 Plus so I have access to PhotoWorks but I have not yet investigated the decal functionality. Will decals show up only in rendered scenes or can they be saved on a part and show up in detail drawings?

I have sent in an enhancement request re. this issue. Any other ideas out there? Thanks again.

 

[SBaugh]

No, Decals can only be seen when Rendered.

Regards, Scott Baugh, CSWP
credence69@REMOVEhotmail.com

http://www.3dmca.com

http://home.insightbb.com/~scott.baugh/

 

[meintsi]

Am I missing something or are you making this harder than it needs to be..........

.tif file decals are easy to insert and viewed as if they were nothing more than a painting of the side of the part zero-thickness geometry) which can be hidden behind other features depending on the actual view.

There is a bug here in SolidWorks though....

After starting a sketch, use the insert picture ICON, do not use the INSERT<PICTURE command from the menu. For some reason they do nat have the same effect. The image can then be placed any where you want at any size you want on the current sketch plane /surface.

Editing the sketch, you can double-click the image to drag the image and resize it. The only drawback being you can't dimension direrctly to the image itself.

I think this is what you seem to be describing but I may be wrong.

Hope this helps you out.

 

[cbhausen]

meintsi:

Thanks for the info. I tried this as well but vector graphics (like a SW drawing) look terrible when exported to .tif. I am trying to keep these images in vector format if possible--this is ideally to be camera-ready artwork. The sketch itself works great if I am willing to put up with it always being invisible or hidden with no in-between.

 

[meintsi]

But why can't the &quot;camera&quot; software create your .tif image for you. That's what we did here, using adobe photoshop to create some of our label images.

 

[cbhausen]

meintsi:

To make a long story short, we extract silhouette images of instrumentation (hand tools, basically) from CAD data, arrange these on a sheet metal surface, and design bracketry around this layout. Once these images go from a vector format to TIFF, they become unusable for referencing bracket locations (unless the designer &quot;eyeballs&quot; things.) We may just have to live with the sketches &quot;showing through&quot; any brackets covering them.

Shame, too, since SW does so many things so much easier and faster then Pro/E! This Pro/E &quot;cosmetic feature&quot; equivalent is at the top of my wish list.

 

[cbhausen]

How responsive is SolidWorks when it comes to enhancement requests? Do they usually get back to you one way or another?

 

[BBJT]

You should receive an automated response telling you that they received your enhancement. I have seen it take up to a few weeks before I received the response. BBJT CSWP