off topic question about why i am forced to change my way of engineering 1

[duk748]

hello sorry about the topic i posted here but i was unsure of where to post this so here goes - all of our engineering dept uses solidworks to create their designs -
i like to layout my parts & assembly in autocad then import my sketches to solidworks thus creating my parts & model - i am getting alot of flack from the others
about the way i work - i am not holding up any projects nor have i been late on a release date - on the other hand i have been early most of the time -
my work is always complete & my designs seem to be well thought out & almost error free - others are complaining that i am just not with the program &
i must abandon my way of doing things & get on board w/ the rest of the class - i thought that the end result was what was important not how we get there -
the engineering takes 1st priority not what cad system you use & the product must be right - maybe i am wrong - would like to here others views on this if you please -
also some i work w/ are "tellling on me to the teacher (read my boss)" about why i work this way & it is starting to impact my work & my morale -
if i am wrong i will "get on board" & be a team player even though i really do not like the team all that much - thank you

 

[IRstuff]

There are a number of possibilities:

> they are just a bunch of sheep that don't like deviants
> your drawings are just not consistent with SW, and they think that's bad
> your drawings are just not consistent with SW, and they're difficult to maintain by someone other than yourself

TTFN
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[Walterke]

Is there a specific reason why you refuse to just work in SW?
Is your method of working future proof? What if your company decides to stop supporting autocad because you're the only one using it?

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[John2025]

One of my Engineers has resisted every change in software we've ever made. He's a fine Engineer and a nice guy, just doesn't like change. I just force him to do it whether he likes it or not. We require consistency and we're not going to support multiple systems. Might sound draconian, but sometimes your employer gets to set the conditions.

 

[SnTMan]

duk748, anybody slightly honest will admit 2D drawing in SW sucks, as compared to ACAD. My product line is, in a limited and disorganized fashion, transitioning to SW for some of our products. Each of us uses a different technique. If your SW models are generally adequate, who cares how you got there.

My own view is that resorting back to ACAD is kind of a crutch and I try to avoid it. At the same time drawing in SW drives me crazy. SW drawings drive me crazy. The kicker is that, after the job is modelled and SW drawings made, we have to produce an ACAD drawing to turn over to the machine shop. Don't ask.

But in the end, if your use of ACAD is causing you uneeded heartburn, well...

Regards,

Mike

 

[KENAT]

How much of the 'intelligence', if any, is left in AutoCad when you port it into Solid Works such that if you or someone else has to make changes it's more time consuming?

When you port into Solid works are you making sure everything is fully constrained using functional dimensions/relationships etc. or do you end up with fairly dumb sketches as the foundation for your parts?

Having got caught up in multi CAD debacles where certain people insisted on doing their own thing and then seeing this cause problems later, (& without being expert on either software you mention so not perhaps grasping some intricacies) I'd be wondering too why you don't just work in Solid Works rather than having the extra step.

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[looslib]

While SW sketching may not be as intuitive as ACad, it does provide a parametric connection between the 2D and 3D model. If you are still fully constraining the ACad imported geometry, theer should be no issues as someone else picking up your design won't see anything wrong. If you are importing a bunch of connected lines and arcs, then they have reason to complain.

Are you willing to take a few hours and learn how to use the SW sketching 2D tools effectively?



"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[dgallup]

I suspect the problem is (as others have commented) that by using imported geometry your sketches are not parametric. Thus you have no dimensioning scheme & no easy way to modify your design. Solid modeling has to be constructed properly to get all the benefits.

I sometimes import 2D DXF into Pro/E when I want to migrate some legacy design. I will create a new sketch for my solid features referencing the imported geometry. Then I delete all the references and give the new sketch a proper dimensioning scheme and proper references to datum planes, etc. So now I have native Pro/E geometry that exactly matches the imported geometry. I can hide and unhide the imported geometry at any time to verify that any changes are intentional. I can even delete the imported geometry and my model does not fall apart. I can use all my section dimensions to drive relations, drawings, etc. the way a solid model should.

----------------------------------------

The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[TheTick]

If perpetually demonstrating a failure or unwillingness to adapt works for you, then, by all means, keep on it. There's no point in becoming adept at new things. Old things are better. They just are. Old things good; new things bad.

 

[drawoh]

duk748,

My experience of AutoCAD and SolidWorks was that the transition was far more involved than it was to go from a drafting board to AutoCAD. SolidWorks is a design tool. AutoCAD is a drafting too.

I do not see what you can do in AutoCAD that you cannot do in SolidWorks. Maybe the stuff you design is easy to describe in 2D.

--
JHG

 

[duk748]

hello again & thank you for the replies - i always make sure that my sketches are constrained & that the models i create are parametric so the detailing is quick & accurate - i am just faster at creating block parts in acad - i like to
work on several parts together at one time along w/ the complete machine in the backround as an outline only -
our "stuff" is really very simple weldments & machined blocks - nothing very fancy or complex at all - new is not bad it is just a comfort level - thank you again

 

[mcgyvr]

Propose a simple "challenge"....
You do it your way, and let the other guy do it his way.. See who's better/quicker,etc...

 

[Tmoose]

Not so much on topic, but in a recent interview the cad/IT manager (it's a small company) gave me a solidworks test. I got to choose from among 4 or 5 smaller than a breadbox part drawings to create a model. Supposedly the test had been administered dozens of times previously.

I picked one interesting part, and had a go. After a few minutes I stopped to study the drawing again, and then said something like " I must be blind, because I do not see that the threaded holes in the array are dimensioned."
The CITM looked at a drawing then kind of back pedaled with " they're usually M10 blah blah blah."
I should have just made the model with threaded holes the size of manhole covers.
I didn't want to work there anyway.

 

[TheTick]

Every time I took a CAD skills test, I included a list of corrections and omissions.

 

[mcgyvr]

We actually leave a dimension or 2 out as part of the "test"..

 

[MikeHalloran]

In about two years I came to prefer SW to AC for modeling and design.

I still hate SW's drawing tools.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[berkshire]

I think this comes back to A-cad being a drafting tool, and the OP having the ability to draw a complete machine layout.
Solidworks, and the Program I use, Geomagic design, do not let you do this as easily, because they want you to draw components, then assemble them.
One of the good, and evil things about A-cad, was that you could edit a dimension on a drawing, without changing, the lines, thus losing the parametric connection. But at the same time getting a revised print to the shop faster, even though it was no longer to scale.

B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[KENAT]

duk748, I haven't used SW in anger but is there not some way to do a 2 D layout if you so desire in say the assembly as a sketch then create parts in place/context or whatever the term is? While I don't often do it as such our 'solid' software allows this kind of thing.


"One of the good, and evil things about A-cad, was that you could edit a dimension on a drawing, without changing, the lines, thus losing the parametric connection"

Our 'solid' program allows this but does kindly underline the not to scale dimension (though there is an option to turn it off). That said, in most cases I'm not convinced this is much quicker than doing it properly.

One think about our alternate Solid Program is (at least with the required effort if you so choose) you can get a pretty nice drawing out, certainly better than I ever managed on Pro E and better than most SW drawings I've seen. (Don't mean to plug alternate software just responding to what others have said.)

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[jlnsol]

duk748

Have you ever used part templates in SW? I suggest that you invest a few hours in making your own part templates of parts that you use often in your machines, like: a shaft, a round tube, square tube, retangle bar, square bar, rectangle sheet metal plate, sheet metal ring, revolved shaft, revolved stepped shaft etc etc. Place these in a separate directory and point in tools-options-document templates to that folder.
Make sure you give all these .prtdot files the right custom properties with them already. If you now start a new machine, your sketching will be much less, since you can use your library with part templates. Just select the right part template and only modify the dimensions quickly. Maybe you now can even work directly in an assembly! Your sketching will now only be for adaptations (holes etc) to existing parts. When generating the drawings the bom can be filled quickly with the right properties that you have given to the part templates. Don't tell your SW collegues that you do it this way;-) I am quite sure that you finish your design now even faster that with your ACAD-convert-SW-method !

 

[duk748]

hello again & i am really surprised that this topic has led to so many replies - but i am truly very thankful for all - mr. berkshire has it right in how i feel - i am old school in making an assembly layout 1st & then taking parts from the layout to make the model - we create almost every machine as a custom product - our customers very greatly & the 20+ years i have been here i cannot tell you when we have used at least 50% of an existing machine so a new or almost new layout is needed in the beginning & i can do this faster in acad then sw - i will take all this to heart & try to change the way i work - have a great holiday & thank you