TMS CADCentre - SolidWorks in Scotland

Gordon Stewart - SolidWorks World 2012 Model Mania Winner

2012-02-27T16:52:00.000Z

Congratulations to our Application Engineer/Instructor and CSWE, Gordon Stewart, for winning a place in the SolidWorks World 2012 Model Mania competition. Completing the challenge in just over 11 minutes, Gordon came in third position out of more than 200 contestants. It's always good to know you're being trained by one of the best!

Here's Gordon heading up on stage with the other winners and the solution to the problem they had to solve. If you want to try the SolidWorks World 2012 Model Mania competition yourself, refrain from watching this video until you've attempted it.

How to try model mania for yourself.

Download part 1 and part 2

Print off both eDrawings. Do not look at the second one yet.

You can examine the first for a few minutes before deciding how you are going to model it up.

Once you are ready, start a 20 minute countdown.

Model up the part as per the drawing. Once you are satisfied that you have finished that section you can then go to part 2.

Once started the clock does not stop. Look at the second eDrawing and you will see the changes that need to be carried out as well as a quick SimulationXpress study.

The time stops when you have the Factor of Safety value from the study.

SolidWorks CSWA/CSWP

2012-02-27T15:20:00.000Z

If you're a SolidWorks user then you'll probably know about the different certifications available. The CSWA (Certified SolidWorks Associate) and CSWP (Certified SolidWorks Professional) titles are proof that you have successfully passed the exam from SolidWorks for the appropriate level. These certifications can give you a step up on the career ladder or allow you to stand out in today's competitive job market. SolidWorks recently announced that certifications have exceeded 50,000!

The exams themselves have a time limit of around 3 hours, testing various skills such as sketch tools, mass properties, assemblies and configurations. You might be thinking that testing and certification could be expensive, but if you have a current SolidWorks subscription then it won't cost you a penny for the first exam. The topics covered for each certification can be found on our website here CSWA/CSWP

Get certified and stand out from the crowd!

SolidWorks World 2012

2012-02-13T16:56:00.000Z

SolidWorks World 2012 is underway! Here are some great links to keep up with whats happening and what you're missing if you couldn't make it this year.

http://sww2012.netvibesbusiness.com/#Overview

http://solidsmack.com/

http://twitter.com/SolidWorksWorld

Have you ever thought about the journey your luggage is making behind the scenes while you travel to SWW12, or anywhere else in the world? Here is a nice article on the different processes you need to take into account while designing a baggage sorting system

SolidWorks Apps

2012-02-08T11:52:00.000Z

SolidWorks World 2012 begins on Sunday. If you're heading over to San Diego, you might want to consider packing the new app in your phone or tablet. With a complete list of sessions, floor plans and a neat badge scanner to add contacts, this could be a valuable tool as you navigate several packed days.

There's also an app available for checking out the different versions of SolidWorks and watching tools like Simulation or 3DVIA Composer in action. Of course, it's not as in depth as speaking with your local VAR about the right design tools you need but it will give you a taste to what's available in the SolidWorks portfolio.

SolidWorks 3D CAD Seminars

2012-02-06T11:03:00.000Z

If you're looking to speed-up your design process and get your product to market faster, join us at one of our seminars to find out how SolidWorks 3D CAD can work for you.

Aberdeen - 6th of March

Glasgow - 27th of March

Edinburgh - 18th of April

“Father of the iPod” to keynote SolidWorks World 2012

2012-01-25T10:48:00.000Z

Just a few years ago, the iPod revolutionized personal electronics worldwide. Tony Fadell, the designer who spearheaded the team that brought the iPod to market, will keynote SolidWorks World 2012, the company’s annual summit of engineers and designers. Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp.’s SolidWorks World event will take place February 12-15, 2012, in San Diego, and focus on the theme of “united by design.”

Known as the “Father of the iPod,” Fadell made his mark via his former positions as Apple’s senior vice president of the iPod division and adviser to Steve Jobs. Today, Fadell is changing the game again as founder and CEO of Nest, a hot startup that’s introduced the world’s first learning thermostat.

Read the full article here

Environmental Sustainability

2012-01-13T09:00:00.000Z

Time consuming and expensive or an opportunity to take the lead in your market?

Environmental sustainability is still perceived as a “scary” statement to many companies considering how to implement this philosophy at a business level. The fear factor generally comes from the view that changing your business model can be time consuming, expensive and uncompetitive.

On the other hand there are a growing number of companies who view environmental compliance as an opportunity to differentiate themselves. By incorporating sustainable thinking into their business processes, they intend to have a mature product range ready for market by the time environmental compliance becomes a prerequisite.

Learn how many companies are using SolidWorks software to seamlessly incorporate a sustainable design approach into their existing business models with very little disruption.

Read the whitepaper here

EU Machinery Directive 2006/42/EU

2012-01-04T17:02:00.000Z

If you are involved with designing and manufacturing of any products related to machinery within the EU then you are probably aware of the EU Machinery Directive 2006/42/EU. The EU machinery directive ensures that any products developed and designed for the EU market meets a single set of safety standards.

How does this typically affect your company if you are designing and manufacturing for the EU?

Just to name a few requirements, firstly your company requires a comprehensive up to date documentation process which must be maintained for a minimum of 10 years, not forgetting that your products must meet health and safety requirements. If you are creating any type of technical documentation then this also must be natively translated for the intended country in the EU.

Learn how we can help your company to manage regulatory compliance in a controlled and efficient manner with our complete SolidWorks solution.

Incorporate risk assessment at an early design stage, shortening your overall time to market and saving you money.
Ensure your business processes consistently follow the correct workflow to meet the directive

Automatically update technical documentation and reduce translation costs.

Read the whitepaper here

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2011-12-23T11:00:00.000Z

The time has come for us to finish up for the holidays, enjoy time with our families and celebrate the season. Any customers on subscription should expect to see a little present of SolidWorks 2012 on their desk in the New Year.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hogmanay!

The SolidWorks Snowman by Alec Chaddock

Training News

2011-12-21T10:35:00.000Z

At TMS CADCentre, we are committed to continuous improvement of our customer support and training on all SolidWorks products. To make it easier for you to choose the training class required, we've redesigned our training page and increased our events.

Our updated training page gives you the freedom to search for a class that suits you and check the status (full or open) before you register on-line.

Since 2005, we have conducted nearly 300 classes in various locations throughout Scotland. The classes range from Essentials to Flow Simulation. Whether you're an advanced user or new to SolidWorks, we have an education program to suit you.

Try out the new page by clicking on the picture below

Solar Ships And SolidWorks

2011-12-20T10:39:00.000Z

One of our recent blogs featured an article on how SolidWorks was being used to recreate a famous battleship. Following on this topic, we thought you'd enjoy reading about solar powered boat design using SolidWorks Flow Simulation to increase speed and stability by analysing how the craft cuts through the water.

Important: SolidWorks SNL Upgrade Reminder

2011-12-15T16:21:00.000Z

Here's a quick reminder as we are entering the main upgrading season for the new release of SolidWorks.

For networked licenses you need to ensure that the server is upgraded first. A 2012 License Server will still allow designers to use older versions of SolidWorks, so the server upgrade can happen before the main upgrade process for all the client machines.

Please contact your reseller for further support on this key issue.

Tis the season to be jolly after all, so don't let this ruin the festive mood.

SolidWorks Software Helps Bring a 30 Year Dream to Life; Re-creation of U.S.S. Missouri

2011-12-13T09:05:00.000Z

Donn McKinney never served aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, but has had a soft spot for the historic battleship since he was a child. McKinney’s dream is to see the ship in action, and how the vessel served its country from World War II to Operation Desert Storm. With the help of SolidWorks® software, a 30+ year dream may soon become a reality.

To read the full article click here

SolidWorks Simulation - Structural Loads

2011-12-08T15:24:00.000Z

As we baton down the hatches here in Scotland preparing for 90mph winds, I thought it would be interesting to see how tools contained within SolidWorks Simulation assist engineers in predicting structural failures due to severe weather conditions. Most of us have seen the Tacoma Narrows footage of "gallopin gertie" rolling and swaying before collapsing during a storm in 1940:

This event caused engineers to think about other factors that may affect the building of bridges including vibration and harmonics. Now if you're in the business of bridge design or other structures that are load bearing, you might want to have a look at the capabilities of SolidWorks Simulation Premium here

Here are some examples of the data you can collect:

The Movember Squad - Final Report

2011-12-05T13:30:00.000Z

We are delighted to announce that TMS’s The Movember Squad have raised a grand total of £195. Together with the efforts of over 850,000 Mo Bros and Mo Sistas around the world, it has been a record breaking year for the movement in raising awareness for prostrate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

The office is looking a lot cleaner shaven this week, although Chad has taken the loss of his ‘tache ‘Lemmy’ particularly badly as his upper lip is left all alone and freezing in the sub zero temperatures now being experienced.

We had good fun growing our Mo’s, and even though in some cases a personal stylists’ advice would have been useful, The Movember Squad maintained their collective stiff upper lip throughout the month,

We’d like to thank everyone who supported us and this important charity & those who gave generously to help us get a great total.

Until next year!

SolidWorks World 2012 International Intrigue Contest

2011-12-02T16:00:00.000Z

Are you a SolidWorks user 21 or older residing outside of the United States?
Do you enjoy design, international intrigue and rubbing elbows with some of the most accomplished designers in your field?
Would you like to attend SolidWorks World 2012 and take home a new set of tools or tips for better and more efficient design engineering?

If so, we have a mission for you.
SolidWorks is seeking stories from users based outside the United States—we want to know why you want to come to SolidWorks World 2012, what the benefit would be for you and your business, and what you hope to achieve with the knowledge you would gain at the show. The more intriguing the post, the more likely you are to be chosen, so make sure you include details such as whether you like your martinis shaken or stirred, and if you’ve ever designed a camera ring, a flying car or a shoephone.

The winner of this contest wins a full SolidWorks World 2012 conference pass, as well as a hotel room for three nights and round trip airfare to and from San Diego, California.
So what’s the catch? We’ll also be asking the winner to write a blog post after the show, to be posted on the SolidWorks blog. We'll ask you to cover show highlights, favourite sessions and your #1 takeaway—in other words, we’ll also be making the winner a SolidWorks World celebrity!
If you qualify for this contest, tell us why you should be the winner in the comments section below. Be sure to tell us what country you live in, as well as:

Why you want to attend the show
What the most significant design challenge is in your region
What you hope to learn or do at SolidWorks World 2012
What session is of the most interest
Who you most hope to meet

Don't wait too long—the contest ends on December 15, and we'll pick a winner on December 16. You can click here to read the full terms and conditions of the contest. In a nutshell, you have to be 21 or older to enter, and citizens of the USA, Brazil, China and Quebec aren't eligible (sorry). If you work for Dassault Systemes, or a DS/SolidWorks reseller or partner, (or have any immediate family members who do) you can't enter. Residents of some countries may require a visa to enter the United States. You can visit the SolidWorks World website to learn more.
Don't forget, you can still save $100 if you register before January 20. And if you pay for two registrations, we'll throw in a third for free. And, as always, CSWPs save $100. You can see all of our registration deals at the SolidWorks World website.

This message will self destruct in 10 seconds.

Download SolidWorks World 2012 International Intrigue Contest Terms and Conditions

SolidWorks Holiday Gift Guide

2011-11-25T15:08:00.001Z

SolidWorks just released their Holiday Gift Guide featuring products developed in the 3D design tool. Here's a couple of them from the list:

Cool Gear EZ-Freeze Pure™ Filtration bottle

The EZ-Freeze Pure water filtration bottle provides an easy solution to finding cool, refreshing, and clean water on the go. Water flows through the patented filtration system, reducing chlorine taste and odor, while simultaneously keeping the water cool. SolidWorks was instrumental in the design procedure, from the early stages of concepts to the final tooling of the product, ensuring parts work and look their best.

ESS Crossbow^TM

Designed in SolidWorks, the ESS Crossbow eye shield has re-defined performance and utility for eye protection. The Crossbow’s Tri-Tech Fit^TM frame ergonomics offer universal comfort and stability with zero pressure points. A great stocking stuffer for anyone who wants to take a few risks while protecting their eyes.

You can find the full listing here - SolidWorks Holiday Gift Guide

SolidWorks Costing

2011-11-22T13:30:00.000Z

One of the new additions to SolidWorks 2012 is the Costing feature contained within the Premium and Professional versions. This tool will generate costings for sheet metal and machined designs within the SolidWorks environment.

Costing helps you calculate sheet metal manufacturing and machined parts costs by automating the process of costing estimation. You can make design decisions based on how much the part will cost to make, package and paint - enabling you to get a more accurate quote to your customer faster. Custom templates can also be modified, based on manufacturing or supplier information, to ensure the accuracy of the module data.

Call or email us for more information or to arrange a demonstration TMS CADCentre Contact

SolidWorks 2012 Launch - Aberdeen

2011-11-17T15:00:00.000Z

Our final launch event was held at the Holiday Inn next to the AECC in Aberdeen this morning. Hosted by Scott and following in the success of our previous two events, our customers in the Granite City came out in force to see SolidWorks 2012.

Many thanks to everyone who attended our SolidWorks 2012 Scotland tour.

Please feel free to leave any comments below.

SolidWorks 2012 Launch - Edinburgh

2011-11-16T15:30:00.000Z

A full house and a full schedule of new SolidWorks features again today! It was Peter's turn to host the event at the Best Western Hotel in the capital city. Lots of familiar faces, and some new ones, came along to learn about the changes in the "best ever" release.

We're off to the Granite City now for our third and final launch of SolidWorks 2012.

See you there!

SolidWorks 2012 Launch - Glasgow

2011-11-15T11:04:00.000Z

We were at the Campanile Hotel next to the SECC in Glasgow today. Great turn out for the first SolidWorks 2012 Launch event. Jim and Alex made the formal announcements while Andy from SolidWorks did a great job with the technical presentation.

Next stop, Edinburgh for part 2 of the SolidWorks 2012 Scotland Tour!

SolidWorks Premium - Electrical Routing

2011-11-14T13:05:00.001Z

Putting power into your designs

SolidWorks has a wealth of tools for designing machines and control systems, but how do we make them go?

As a mechanical engineer I always felt a them and us relationship existed between the 'clankies' and the 'sparkies'. We design an amazing system, but do not take into account where all the cabling is going to go. In addition you go to the shop floor and there always seems to be a huge amount of cabling left over at the end of every job.

How can we design better? This is where SolidWorks Premium comes to our aid with SolidWorks Routing. SolidWorks Routing allows us as designers to quickly and easily lay out the cabling, tubing and piping in our designs. A future post will take a look at the pipe work and tubing, but here we'll focus on the electrical tool set.

SolidWorks Electrical Routing allows us to place all our cabling into our systems:

This includes ribbon cables which can be folded as below, or flexible to follow a more complex route.

Alternatively you may need to use standard 'off the shelf' cables. The image below shows a standard 300mm long CAT5 cable. All that's required is to place the connectors and SolidWorks will then do the rest ensuring that the drawn cable is exactly the correct length.

Or you may well need something far more complex. Here we see a cable loom that connects to a number of different ports on a few key components within this control panel.

SolidWorks Routing has given me the tools to place the components and link them through the various clips to generate a finished model. Then the question arises as to how we get this made. Here again SolidWorks Routing has the answer. From a complex three dimensional route we can generate a simplified flattened harness board layout.

This is a 1:1 drawing of the cable run. We have dimensions marked on it giving the length of each segment, but also you can see a large number of tables as well. These tables are inserted automatically. Let's see what they are.

The first is the Circuit summary. It lists the wire type, ID, Colour, length and what component it goes from and to:

Each end connector also has a table beside it listing the wire ID and which pin it connects to:

Finally we see the bill of materials for this route. Besides listing the components it also lists the total length of cable/wire required to finish the job.

Another side of electrical routing that we haven't shown is electrical conduit. We can place our rigid/flexible trunking in the systems. This also gives all the same great level of detail listing the lengths and junction boxes required to get the job done.

SolidWorks Electrical Routing gives us the tools to ensure that we only order what is required for any particular job. We can give the electricians accurate and precise measurements for them to work to. We can make sure that we leave suitable clearance for the cabling. Saving money on material, time on ensuring cables are the right length, and pain by ensuring that all members of the team can get the project finished.

3DVIA Composer

2011-11-11T10:21:00.001Z

We've all bought items that include assembly instructions or lists of spare parts in the box. The usual fold out sheet with multiple lines of text and confusing 2D drawings. I have to put my hand up and say that on several occasions I've managed to put the drawer rail on upside down or used the wrong screw size.

Wouldn't life be so much easier if you could see the correct orientation in a visual language that everyone understands? Gone would be the 5 booklets in English, French, Spanish etc and your recycling bin wouldn't be overflowing each time you bought a new gadget.

If you are a technical writer, chances are that you probably rely on the engineering team or designers a lot more that you need to. While you navigate between several illustrator packages and word processors, you might receive the updated CAD file you've been waiting for to include in the latest manual for the small design change done last week. And if you didn't receive the file yet, it's time to email or call the CAD people, again!

Well, the good news is that 3DVIA Composer can do all of these great things and you don't even have to be a CAD expert to use it. Explode views from the native CAD file, include bills of material, create a publication, record a video of the assembly instructions and even post this media on your website for easy customer access.

3DVIA Composer can also be used as a sales and marketing tool with web players available to showcase your new product or allow product customisation. How about getting your product to market faster? Since you're working with the CAD data directly in 3DVIA, when the design is updated, so are your technical documents. That means you can start writing the assembly instructions before the product design has been completed!

Click on the link below to take a look at how 3DVIA can work for your company.

Popa - The iPhone Camera Revolution

2011-11-10T12:53:00.001Z

Recently, one of our customers has been getting a lot of press due to a fantastic new product that could be a revolution in the way we use our iPhones.

Meso Design, who are based in Paisley, teamed up with Beep Industries to design Popa for the iPhone 4. Popa is a device which fits directly onto the phone to give you the feel and functionality of a digital camera.

Designed in SolidWorks, the product is available now for purchase through the thisispopa.com website. You can also read about some of the Hollywood interest the team has been receiving by clicking on the links below. Congratulations guys on another innovative product developed using SolidWorks!

Paisley Daily Express

The Gazette

The Movember Squad - Progress Report 1

2011-11-09T16:38:00.002Z

This is our first progress report on The TMS Mo Bros – otherwise known as The Movember Squad.

Definitely showing signs of a 3:30pm shadow/stubble at this stage! Like the proverbial tortoise in the race with the hare (hair?), obviously not wanting to overperform too early, we’re going for the steady growth approach over the 4 weeks rather than a sprint start.

Sporting the following ‘looks’, in order of appearance:

David (The law won’t recognise me now) Boslem

Gordon (I’ve really lost my razor) Stewart

Scott (I’ve not decided where my mo’ ends & beard begins yet) Berry

Calum (It’s called Jazz, man) Fischer-Keogh

Alec (Really officer, does the guy you’re looking for have a moustache like THIS?) Chaddock

Jim (The Fugitive) McLauchlan

Inspiring Product Design Articles

2011-11-09T15:09:00.002Z

I've been seeing quite a lot of websites displaying very creative and inspiring product designs recently. I'm not sure how successful they have been in the consumer market, but they certainly make you think about what's possible when you put your mind to work.

Even though the vast improvements in design and rendering tools have made some of the ideas easier to digitally prototype and faster to share, I take my hat off to the people that came up with some of these designs:

cool-gadgets-for-creative-offices

bizarre-and-unusual-product-designs

Still time to register for the SolidWorks 2012 Launch

2011-11-07T09:56:00.000Z

The SolidWorks 2012 launch events are fast approaching. Our Glasgow event on the 15th of November will kick off an exciting 3 days for us filled with meeting customers, TMS CADCentre news and of course the updates in the new release.

There's still a few days left to register so if would like to join us in either Glasgow, Aberdeen or Edinburgh, click the banner below and we'll see you next week.

SolidWorks Premium - Simulation

2011-11-04T11:07:00.001Z

SolidWorks has a fantastic range of tools that allows us to design a vast array of products. A key question in the design process is will the product work?

Is it strong enough?

With SolidWorks Simulation embedded within SolidWorks Premium, these questions can be answered quickly allowing the design to progress along the right path.

How often is a product designed, with many man hours expended only for it to fail when it's sent to be analysed?

It takes time to export the files out so that other tools can test and
then this needs to be repeated each time a new test is required.

SolidWorks Simulation is built-in.

It's just an extra tab on a toolbar. Here is an example:

I am part of a design team working on a bench
mounted mitre saw and have designed a new
Yoke component. Is my design any good? Can
it withstand the forces it will experience during
operational use?

To get the answer we set up a
quick study. The values I used
were from a previous test:

We removed any parts that were already tested to
ensure that the results were calculated even quicker. The study looked like the image below:

Running the analysis only took a minute, but the great thing about SolidWorks Simulation is that it does not tie up SolidWorks during the calculation. We can still use SolidWorks to progress other areas of the design or other projects.

Once the analysis is complete we can generate vast amounts of data to interrogate the result. Here we see a Factor of Safety plot looking at the performance of the part measured against the yield strength of the material used.

In this test the minimum is over 7 (The load could be increased sevenfold and the part would still not fail) so we should reduce weight in the part. A quick model update and we can run the test again:

The minimum is now just over 2.5. This is an acceptable value for this project so we can now finish the design sure that this part will withstand the operational loading.

This is just a small example of how SolidWorks Simulation can help the engineers and designers to ensure that they are not only designing better looking products, but also ensure that they are fit for purpose. It all happens within the same familiar design environment and there is minimal additional skills required to get some truly useful and detailed results.

To see a video of Simulation in action, click here

The Movember Squad

2011-11-01T11:44:00.001Z

Prostrate cancer causes more deaths in men than any other cancer other than lung cancer.

In November, there’s the chance to raise awareness of this disease by taking part in Movember. This is a worldwide event that takes place throughout the month, and all you need to do is grow a moustache! How easy is that?

We've set up a TMS team – “The Movember Squad” – OK it only took several seconds of deep thought to come up with the name!

You can visit the teams page and donate here

SolidWorks Premium - CircuitWorks

2011-10-28T10:24:00.001+01:00

One of the main challenges facing Product Designers today is where to start in packaging a new design around a PCB. More often than not you’re left in a position where you have to reverse engineer a 2D layout provided by an Electronics Engineer. While being frustrating, this is time consuming and no guarantee that the components you’re interpreting are the correct size or position when converting to a 3D assembly.

With SolidWorks Premium you can let CircuitWorks do all the work for you.

CircuitWorks will allow you to open most 3^rd party ECAD software files (IDF, PADS, and ProStep) so to review the PCB design and all components populated both sides. Filter tools allow different layers to be activated or hidden to aid better understanding of the layout.

Subtle design changes can also be applied to the PCB’s components such as an increase in the height of a resistor.

But what we really strive for is to create that all important 3D PCB assembly. Simply instructing CircuitWorks to ‘Build Model’ will generate this. Drawing from its vast component library, resistors, capacitors, and microchips are all imported into SolidWorks.

Within minutes you are presented with a tangible and editable assembly that leaves you with the boundaries to model an efficient, aesthetic and compact enclosure.

Alternatively, should your packaging design need to drive a change on the PCB, make the change in SolidWorks and then save the layout back to an ECAD format. By doing this, SolidWorks demonstrates how it can provide total collaboration between the Product Designer and Electronics Engineer.

For more information on SolidWorks Premium, give us a call or click here

CAD Hardware

2011-10-24T15:47:00.002+01:00

If you are a CAD user then you'll appreciate some of the items we've added to our new hardware selection. To get the most out of your system and CAD platform you could upgrade to a more powerful graphics card or start using a 3D mouse. We also have the Wacom Cintiq tablet available for the industrial and graphic designers out there.

Click on the 3D mouse to view the CAD Hardware page and give us a call to order.

SolidWorks Premium

2011-10-24T10:52:00.000+01:00

Over the next few weeks, we're going to start running a weekly article on some of the functionality contained within SolidWorks Premium. There are many new tools contained in the Premium version when you make the upgrade from Professional, and we want to make sure you know all about them.

Even if you're not using SolidWorks Premium at the moment, this information will be useful to your future plans and what tools you'll need to speed up your processes, verify your designs and stay ahead of the competition.

Stay tuned...

SolidWorks 2012 - Launch Events

2011-10-13T08:37:00.002+01:00

With over 200 enhancements, new capabilities and automated processes, SolidWorks 2012 is the "best ever" release! The SolidWorks community, as usual, have been eagerly awaiting this release and chances are you've probably read a blog or two about it recently.

Join us at our events being held throughout Scotland to see for yourself what all the buzz is about. Register to attend by clicking one of the links below and get a sneak peek here.

Glasgow - 15th November

Edinburgh - 16th November

Aberdeen - 17th November

SolidWorks Success Story - Henry Technologies

2011-10-10T13:48:00.001+01:00

DS SolidWorks Helps UK-based Manufacturer

Use Advanced ‘Green’ Design

To Maintain A Technical Advantage

CAD And Fluid Dynamic Software Enables

Henry Technologies To Keep Costs Low

While Producing Environmentally Friendly Products

The company uses SolidWorks 3D CAD software to design refrigeration safety valves that meet stringent European Union (EU) standards for refrigerant loss. Also SolidWorks^® Flow Simulation software enables the company’s staff to perfect designs before they go to production, anticipating failures or problem areas when fixing them still costs virtually nothing. Henry Technologies developed a new line of pressure relief valves to outperform inferior products that don’t meet the same level of EU regulations.

“European standards restrict the amount that the pressure in a refrigeration system can drop – the amount of refrigerant it can lose – and if we can design to that spec we have a competitive advantage over products that are lower cost but technically inferior,” said Henry Technologies Design Engineer Jordan Gronkowski. “It’s good for the environment and it can also save customers a lot of money because some European countries tax refrigerant heavily and they need to minimize loss.”

“We invested in Flow Simulation as a testing tool. Prototyping is quite expensive only to find out that something doesn’t work,” Gronkowski said. “We use the software to simulate different levels of pressure depending on how widely the valve is open. We test the compression of the spring and the way the components interact, as well as the strength of the parts under pressure. We can test through the software very quickly and efficiently, much more so than with physical prototypes. To produce a physical prototype means having a machine down for anywhere from two to four days to program the new components. With corrections and iterations, that can easily stretch into a week. On the computer, we can do the same testing in a few hours.”

Follow Henry Technologies on Twitter and Facebook here

SolidWorks Seminars in Scotland

2011-09-30T09:59:00.000+01:00

If you're interested in learning more about SolidWorks, come along to one of our events in Edinburgh or Aberdeen. We will have a limited number of PC's available for a hands on test drive after lunch. Click on the links below to find out more information and register:

Aberdeen - 5th October 2011

Edinburgh - 2nd November 2011

Flexible Coils

2011-09-28T15:35:00.000+01:00

Every now and again someone asks me a question that gets the grey cells jumping. How can I ....?

This time my colleague Mike was asking about bent coils for a PVC tube. A lot of users out there know about the helix command that allows us to create straight coils e.g. for heat exchangers, but what about something more complex? A coil following a complex path. How can I create this?

Well you need to use some of the flexibility with the sweep feature. This is a really powerful tool that can create truly complex parts with a single feature. So where to start with the bent coil?

STEP 1: Draw the spline for the hose

STEP 2: Draw a line. This will be the radius of the coil

STEP 3: Use a swept surface. One of the options for sweeps is how the sketch will follow the path. The advanced parts course goes into this in great detail and shows just how powerful the command is, but for this example I selected twist along path and chose 10 turns.

STEP 4: I selected the edge of the new surface and the end point and created a new reference plane. Preselecting ensured that all the default options would be used. I also ticked to set the origin on the curve

STEP 5: Create a sketch. Here I used just one circle that matched the OD of the tube I was after

STEP 6: Sweep. I selected the Thin Feature option to specify a wall thickness. Thin features are a great way to create tubes and thin plates with the minimum of sketching.

STEP 7: Delete surface. Use the delete body command to delete the 'construction' surface.

That's it. A little more work than a straight coil, but you can create some really intricate designs with this one.

Gordon

SolidWorks Enterprise PDM - Is it for you?

2011-09-28T09:43:00.000+01:00

In the 3+ years I've been working with SolidWorks, a question keeps surfacing about where SolidWorks Enterprise PDM is positioned and the minimum number of users to justify it's deployment. The answer to the latter portion is 1 or more!

SolidWorks Enterprise PDM is a tool which allows you manage your data and much more. Most companies out there require an approval process before changes are finalised or manufacturing begins. If your company is ISO certified, this process should be documented and ready to be audited at any time. Ask yourself "how do I know my manger received my design change?" or, if you are the person in charge, "why is it taking so long to make that change I emailed last week?". Maybe you should send another email or call them to check. Wouldn't it be so much easier if you were notified?

Key things you should remember about EPDM:

Easy for everyone to use, not just CAD users
Flexible to suit your requirements. Do it your way.
Search feature (to avoid scrolling through thousands of files)
Review, approval and change requests within the EPDM environment
Control all file formats
Track Document history and changes made
Protect designs from theft or accidental overwriting

Ensure the right people get the right data at the right time

All of which equal time savings and increased security for your product. Check out even more reasons why you should use SolidWorks EPDM by clicking below