SolidWorks Toolbox and the access database questions 1

[mechanate]

Hey guys,

So I've been poking around for a little now and have failed to turn up a good source of information for this. The SolidWorks toolbox doesn't contain every nut/bolt/whizbang out there so I've been looking into expanding it under my own standard. I've gone ahead and copied a standard as a base, added a test part, a simple castle nut I've downloaded off of McMasters website, and am now trying to poke around and figure out how to get it to behave like the rest of the parts in the "standard" toolbox installation. I don't want to repeatedly add a bunch of parts into the folder, what I want is one castle nut that I can drop into an assembly and then select different configurations through drop down menus. I've added mate references to the castle nut part and understand that I need to add some equations into the part to control the size and geometry. Where I'm stuck is going from these equations to the access database. How do SolidWorks toolbox parts work in conjunction with the access database and how can I add my own tables into the access database to control my own parts? Any help at all is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Nate

 

[pietje]

Since you got no replies yet and I feel like sharing today, I thought I might tell you what we do.. It may describe a method that not everybody on this forum finds efficient and smart, but it works well for me and my colleague. So be warned...

When I wanted to start our own toolbox, because I had some wishes concerning properties and control, my colleague told me not to mess with the access database... don't know why exactly, but it appeared to me that he tried it in the past and had bad experiences...

What we did is that we just ripped/copied the toolbox parts that might be of interest for us (+-25). We then created every single configuration and inserted a (MS Excel) 'design table'. After that we placed the resulting part in our own toolbox directory, not the sw-toolbox directory. When we want to use it in an assembly we simply choose the right config and voila..
It is a little bit of work in the beginning, but we are happy with the result..

Once and a while we add stuff that we design ourselves, by making different configs of a part using a design table. When parts are complex and demand too much time to model, we simply download and save the different parts in the toolbox too. Most of them have non-sw origins and are often difficult to manipulate as you want to, so no configs can be applied easily/swiftly. Just name them smartly to keep them arranged and therefore end up with tidy directories.
When you don't want single parts in your directory though, you could even think of importing all different files that are f.e. 'castle nuts' as bodies into one part and let them show up in their own 'configs' by surpressing all but one body for every config. You might end up with rather large files though... I never really tried this method, because we 'like it a little bit messy'

THere.. I couln't answer your main question unfortunately, sorry.. Maybe a good search on this forum will pay out; there should be a couple of threads out there that discuss toolboxes, making your own parts and ripping the sw-toolbox.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

The Hole Wizard and Toolbox database can be easily customised;

http://www.vimeo.com/686269

 

[EEnd]

Adding different fastener types to the toolbox is probably outside of the set of changes intended to be made through manipulation of the toolbox database. I believe those changes are limited to things like custom sizes, materials and part numbers.

What you are looking for is probably most easily accomplished with configurations and design tables. You would have a castle nut part file which contains a design table that specifies the defined sizes.

Some people even do this with the toolbox fasteners. They use the toolbox to generate the base part and then include the sizes that they want as configurations of that part.

Eric

 

[mechanate]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses, unfortunately none really address my question. I went ahead and did a little more poking around and basically have tried to copy a current database part in the hopes of dissecting how this thing references. Being completely new (as in never having opened) to access though, I feel a little blind here. Anyway, I've gotten as far as being able to add a new category, castle nuts, into the toolbox browser, as you can see in one of the screen shots. However, when I drag this into my assembly, I get the error shown on the second screen shot. I'm not sure how referencing and everything works within access, but I'm pretty sure if I figure that last little bit out, I'll have a way to add new parts directly into the toolbox browser, complete with a drop down menu...I hope. Any thoughts on what the error means or how to address it? Or, is this something I should take over to a Microsoft Access forum? Thanks!

Nate

 

[mechanate]

Sorry, I don't know how to do multiple screen shots with one post, here's the error I'm getting.

 

[mechanate]

Alrighty guys, so it is possible. If anyone is interested I'm going to retrace my steps here and see if I can't come up with some sort of logical flow chart as to how I got to this point. It's still a little messy, and I'm still toying around with relationships and everything, but I do now have a "castle nut" section (purely as an experimental nut) within toolbox which brings up a menu, take a look at the screen shot and you can see on the upper left, the hex nut actually resides under castle nuts. I just used the current ai part files to try and figure this thing out, now comes the fun part of trying to refine everything and come up with an actual linked castle nut file

 

[mechanate]

Well, no interest so far in customizing the toolbox access database and inserting parts into the actual toolbox menu. I'll keep posting though just in case someone looking for the same type of SolidWorks customization happens across this thread. Here's a (sloppy) model of my castle nut with available configurations and its own configuration names drug in from the actual toolbox browser, not a design library. I've also created my own toolbox menu (which I named my companies name) which sits below ANSI Inch at the moment. Now I just need a standard for a castle nut to insert proper dimensions. Maybe someone knows the ANSI standard that castle nut dimensions follow? I think it's B19 or something like that, not sure though.

 

[Venom5sc]

I am very interested in learning what you have done. I have a few ACME style pieces I would like to do the same with.

 

[shaneca6]

If you aren't completely hung up on what the toolbox parts look like, you can always create files for each configuration. We do this so that we can control CAD data inside of EPDM rather than allowing the users to have a free for all in the solidworks toolbox. We have a video that shows how this is done but every time I try to upload it, I get an error. Maybe the file is to big.

We create the toolbox parts and give them our own names and assign materials and custom properties such as BOM description, ERP Description, and weight. This is a great way to generate a more accurate BOM.

If anyone knows how to attach a wmv file...let me know!

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

shaneca6 ...

Use the ...or upload your file to ENGINEERING.com link in Step 3 of the reply box to upload the file. If it's too big, try ZIPping it first.