Silkscreening in SW2005

[laelow]

Does anybody have the same problem I do, I'm trying to make silkscreens in solidworks 2005, and I couldn't make it work. So for now I export to AutoCAD and make silkscreens for now, most silkscreen consist of a company logo, some text, and other warning text and pictues on the chassis. If anybody can help me with dumping AutoCAD I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Theophilus]

Silkscreening? I would think a graphics program would go a lot further--something like Adobe Illustrator or maybe Photoshop. CAD applications are a strange way to approach this.

What do you need for the final output to the screener?


Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reality is no respecter of good intentions.

 

[ctopher]

We make the solid part then a dwg from it and save as DXF. All silkscreen vendors we use say it works for them. Also, with SW2005 you can have DWGEditor... works like ACAD and you can "dump" ACAD.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP0.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

 

[J-C]

What are the requirements for this? Trying to figure out why Acad can do this but Solidworks cannot.

I've created labels and such containing logos, text, etc. While Acad is easier manipulating 2d elements, Solidworks has closed the gap some.

Jason Capriotti
Smith & Nephew, Inc.

 

[laelow]

I'm trying to keep everything parametric, within solidworks.
Ctopher, I like your'e idea about making a part and where I have a logo, or a picture, I'll just use cut on the part. I'll try that today and get back to and tell you how it goes.

Thanks guys.

 

[ctopher]

It works the best for us. I found out a couple years ago that most silkscreening companies re-create the artwork themselves anyway. If we can send them DXF, they can import for reference. I send them the DXF file and a dwg (without the format) indicating size,colors,etc. We have not had a problem since. Good luck.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP0.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

 

[Standing]

We keep everything parametric, within SolidWorks. I cut the text into the metal. Put that part into an assembly, even if it is itself, must of the time we have Pems in the part, that make it an assy. Then on the silk screen sheet fill in the text with hatching. I can hide the part and Pems, the text will stay, leaving the text hatch and dimensions to corners.

Bradley

 

[ctopher]

I leave hatching off. Vendors sometimes have issues with it when importing DXF.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP0.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

 

[Standing]

Chris,
We send our Sheet metal vendor our SolidWorks models and he exports the silkscreen data from SolidWorks into his software that they use to create artwork.


Bradley

 

[ctopher]

If the vendor has SolidWorks, all the better. I wish they all did.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP0.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

 

[laelow]

THANKS GUYS ! I like it, I used the Tools -> Sketch Entities -> Sketches Text, it worked perfectly, and for all the connectors I used the convert entities button. Thank-you again for all your help.

Lyle

 

[Standing]

Our sheet metal vendor buys one seat of all CAD software that his customers use. He has Pro-e and SolidWorks that I know of. He told us on our tour of his plant that the small cost of software saves him more dollars in time, than not having it. He also reduces errors from working with drawings. He does check all his finish parts to the drawings.

Bradley