Wall thickness analysis tool - plastic part design

[cpretty]

Hi all,

Has anyone seen or heard of a wall thickness analysis tool for solidworks?

As anyone who has designed plastic parts knows, different wall thicknesses in a part are not desirable in terms of moulding (sinks etc), but inevitable in a design due to ribs and bosses etc.

What I would be looking for is a tool whereby areas above a certain thickness (diameter of sphere that fits between surfaces etc) that is user selectable are highlighted. This could then be used to find thick sections, and eliminate them if possible.

I currently do this by continually sectioning parts looking for these areas, and by thinking while designing, but a checking tool at the end would also be usefull, especially for complex parts.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Craig

 

[manxJim]

Yes there is a thickness analysis tool
you will find it on the Utilities menu

Jim

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[Theophilus]

Craig, I can see more usefulness of a tool of this sort if you do lots of work on parts you don't create. But if you create the parts, you'd probably have a good idea where the thicker (cosmetic, structural) walls are and where the thinner (supporting) walls are and have little need for it.

I guess I'm a little sensitive about this whole thing, since SolidWorks has 60% of their software coders held at bay, just waiting for an opportunity to create a new "Wizard", with lots of marketing bling and very little practical usefulness. Of course, I'm angling for them to fix all the good, high-utility stuff they keep breaking from one release to another.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people governed by fear cannot value freedom.

 

[cpretty]

manxJim,

Ahah, now I see that Solidworks Professional has a utility. I am running Solidworks Standard 09.


Theophilus,

I agree and would also like them to get the main application working, but was hoping someone knew of an addon or had created on themselves, and they do.

In terms of creating the part, yes you are in control, and know where they will be, but for complex mouldings (multiple ribs, screw bosses, mounting posts, side cores, moulded threads, clips and flow leaders) it is a challenge to keep on top of it all, especially when you get two ribs meeting a threaded boss with a flow leader going through.


Problem solved sort of, now I need to convince people to spend more money.

Cheers,
Craig

 

[EEnd]

I just tried the following with a simple part and it seems to work.
[ol]
[li]Create a 0 offset surface using the faces of interest.[/li]
[li]Thicken the surface inward by the desired thickness with merge result unchecked. This results in a second solid body.[/li]
[li]Subtract that solid body from the main one and anything left is a region above the desired thickness.[/li]
[/ol]

Eric

 

[Theophilus]

now I need to convince people to spend more money

Good luck with that! Hope they're not too tight with money for tools you can make money with over there.

And, once more, it figures--yet another feature I didn't even know existed (not that I'd make use of it). My plastic parts tend to have lots of complex surfacing, but are generally not too huge otherwise, so it's fairly simple for me to keep track of thicknesses of stuff as I go. Of course, the other thing I often face is the inability to thin out a thick area. If I need a boss somewhere, that's just the way it will have to be--try to minimize the sinks with various tricks, but I do that with all ribs/bosses anyway.

Craig, maybe you can call in your VAR for a demo for a bit extra ammo in making the "upgrade" sale to the pointy-haired boss. If it's something you'd use, it ought to pay for itself.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people governed by fear cannot value freedom.