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Newbie Question

Newbie Question

Newbie Question

(OP)
I have an assy. that I need to make prints for so we can have the pieces waterjet and cnc machined. I have never worked up a set of drawings for waterjet or cnc. The company that we are sending it to works in AutoCAD 2000. So my question is, how exactly do I go about giving them the information that they need?

Do I create the drawings in the usual fashion of the three views with details or does it need to be done in another way?

I don't consider myself a newbie, I have been on the CAD seen for a while, but this is very new to me.

Thanks in advance

B. Long
Dell Precision 380
P 4 2.80 GHz
2.5 Gig Ram
Solidworks Office 2007 Sp. 2.2
AutoCAD 2005

RE: Newbie Question

In solidworks you first create the 3-D model with dimensions.
Then you can create the views importing that model into solidworks.
It's not that difficult if you have the solidwork model.

RE: Newbie Question

(OP)
So create th drawings in the usual way. And yes I have the 3-D models already.

B. Long
Dell Precision 380
P 4 2.80 GHz
2.5 Gig Ram
Solidworks Office 2007 Sp. 2.2
AutoCAD 2005

RE: Newbie Question

Create detailed mechanical drawings of all the parts.  I would let the venders worry about creating a drawing for input into a CNC or WaterJet.  IF they want DWG or Native files then that would be upto your company policy for giving out that type of data.

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 3.0 & Pro/E 2001
XP Pro SP2.0 P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
      o
  _`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

(In reference to David Beckham) "He can't kick with his left foot, he can't tackle, he can't head the ball and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that, he's all right."  -- George Best

RE: Newbie Question

You may have to create the dwgs, then save as "DXF" for ACAD 2000 to import.

Chris
SolidWorks 07 4.0/PDMWorks 07
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 04-21-07)

RE: Newbie Question

When you create your solidworks drawings make sure that you main view (DRAWING VIEW 1) is set to the sheet scale. Adjust your sheet scale to make the part fit on the sheet. After you create your dxf file open it and measure it. What you give your vendor may be what he makes. If the geometry is square boxes they can recreate that otherwise you may have to give them the files.

RE: Newbie Question

With parts like that you are just going to output plan views for the water cutting, as DWGs or DXFs.  For the CNC work, you need to find out what file formats the CNC machine can read.  You won't need drawings.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Newbie Question

(OP)
ok thanks

B. Long
Dell Precision 380
P 4 2.80 GHz
2.5 Gig Ram
Solidworks Office 2007 Sp. 2.2
AutoCAD 2005

RE: Newbie Question

For complex parts, you will have better luck using a CAM software that can read SolidWorks parts without conversion. The DXF will work, but you will need different views as others described. Also, exporting to DXF is not a clean conversion.

Chris
SolidWorks 07 4.0/PDMWorks 07
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 04-21-07)

RE: Newbie Question


I would add to Russel67's caution about sheet scale and checking the output, especially if your subcons ask for DXF or DWG files (often plan views without dimension for direct import into CAM software).

The exported output may well open fine with your DWG Editor and measure OK, but it seems that the local settings on the computer it's opened with can scale it too, and any dimensions on it, or freshly created by the user, being associative will scale too! A good plan is to send a dimensioned SW eDrawing and viewer as well as the requested drawings as this eDrawing is a snapshot of your original SW drawing and won't get messed up.

However, there's no guarantee that they will actually open the eDrawings and will go straight to the DXF/DWG, so now I always add a couple of "Check Dimension" to these drawings, but these are not actually "Dimensions", just Text and Arrows that will not change their values and then tell them to make sure that they scale the drawing so that it matches these sizes.

Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.Somerset. UK

SW2007x64 SP3.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 4Gb Ram ATI FireGL V7100 Driver: 8.323.0.0
SW2007x32 SP4.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 2Gb Ram NVIDIA Quadro FX 500 Driver: 6.14.10.7756

RE: Newbie Question

(OP)
SincoTC, so what I could do is add a few dims to the drawing for reference and then in the dxf or dwg explode the dims so they can not change. That sounds good to me.

Thanks

B. Long
Dell Precision 380
P 4 2.80 GHz
2.5 Gig Ram
Solidworks Office 2007 Sp. 2.2
AutoCAD 2005

RE: Newbie Question


Exploded dimensions is a much better way of doing it and that was the method I was originally going to use. I had exported the DXF as 1:1 and opened it in the DWG editor, I then checked the scaling by using >Enquiry > Distance method and it WAS correct. However, when I added a linear dimension it was way too big and I couldn't quickly figure out why the Enquiry method would say one distance and the Dimension something else! So as I was up against it to send the drawing off, I just used text and arrows.

Later on, when I had time to delve deeper, I found that under >Settings > Dimension Settings > Units (Tab) there are a couple of Scaling Options, the "Comprehensive scale factor" was correctly set to 1.00 but the "Linear Dimensioning scale factor" was set to 5.00 in a scrollBox. Quite why anyone would want the dimensions not to show the actual size is beyond me and seems very dangerous, but it probably does have some use (or so the programmer thought).

I'm pretty certain now that this odd setting was probably my fault in not getting the sheet scale correct before I exported the file, but I suspect that it can also get corrupted by default setting on the opener's machine as I have had one Metric drawing that was doubly checked to be correct in all these aspects, but when it was opened on a machine that was set up for Imperial units, came in 25.4 times too big, so be careful or you'll get a shock when the new part arrives!!

Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.Somerset. UK

SW2007x64 SP3.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 4Gb Ram ATI FireGL V7100 Driver: 8.323.0.0
SW2007x32 SP4.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 2Gb Ram NVIDIA Quadro FX 500 Driver: 6.14.10.7756

RE: Newbie Question

(OP)
When I create the drawings to convert to AutoCAD, I add the dims in solid works. When opened in AutoCAD they are imported as dims. So, All I would have to do is place the dims that I see fit and the explode them in AutoCAD.

Thank you every one for all the help.

B. Long
Dell Precision 380
P 4 2.80 GHz
2.5 Gig Ram
Solidworks Office 2007 Sp. 2.2
AutoCAD 2005

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