Interface with Mathcad?
Interface with Mathcad?
(OP)
We typically use ACAD LT 2d to draw our transmission towers parts and pieces and wanted to get into 3d solid models to check clearances when we increase member sizes in existing towers. We are evaluating solid edge and solid works and trying to see which one is best for what we need. SW seems to interface with Mathcad to drive some of the dimensions.
The SE salesman says it will do the same. So if we have a Mathcad app that does some calculations, can it drive the inputs for a part in solid edge?
I'm not a Mathcad user, but some others in the office use it and are leaning to solid works. I saw the solid edge demo and was impressed and I am leaning that way.
I'll bet the topic of which is best has been asked and answered many times, but I started here. Any thoughts?
The SE salesman says it will do the same. So if we have a Mathcad app that does some calculations, can it drive the inputs for a part in solid edge?
I'm not a Mathcad user, but some others in the office use it and are leaning to solid works. I saw the solid edge demo and was impressed and I am leaning that way.
I'll bet the topic of which is best has been asked and answered many times, but I started here. Any thoughts?
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I have been called "A storehouse of worthless information" many times.





RE: Interface with Mathcad?
Never trust what a salesman tells you - and that goes for ANY cad system.
bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.
Where would we be without sat-nav?
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
But, both software vendors do take input from MS Excel and MathCAD still outputs to Excel. So you could get to either CAD system from MathCAD using Excel as a mediator, if you really wanted to.
--Scott
http://wertel.eng.pro
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
We are a company divided. One part adopted Microstation for drawing up standards including T-line hardware parts. Another part uses Autocad to produce the tower drawings.
I read that SE will open DGN drawing files while SW will not and both will open DWG files
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I have been called "A storehouse of worthless information" many times.
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
Your method of evaluation looks pretty good to me, although don't just rely on modelling time as a basis.
Also ask them to create and annotate a drawing, then modify the model (possibly changing section profiles?) and update the drawing.
Also look into BOM production.
bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.
Where would we be without sat-nav?
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
The other problem with drawing a transmission tower's members to scale is you have a 3 inch wide member that is 30 feet long. It has 2 bolts on each end, one in the center, and a couple between the center and ends. You have 5 feet of length with no holes then they are 2 inches apart at the ends. We traditionally compress the white space and make the members proportional and exaggerate the width so we can show the bolt gage line. It is a very specialized industry where very few members are at 90° to each other, but it is the greatest example of the minimum amount of steel holding up the greatest load. I'm in the hurricane wind area where we can go 50 years between maximum wind loading so the towers are at 20% of capacity for most of their lives.
Sorry for the long winded lecture, but I'm an Engineer and can't help myself.
_____________________________________
I have been called "A storehouse of worthless information" many times.
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
As well as technically what each software can & can't do you may want to take into account how much market share they have, both globally & locally, and consider the impact that may have on your choice. If one is significantly more popular it may be easier to find experienced users, of course, it will be easier for your current staff to leave once trained etc.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
You can add as many breaks as you want.
Thanks for the background info - it makes it much easier to provide help when we know how you may be using Solid Edge - and other peoples jobs always seem more interesting than your own.
bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.
Where would we be without sat-nav?
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.
Where would we be without sat-nav?
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
So if we had a laser scan of the part can SE or SW do a surface fit between all the 1000's of points? We do something similar on the T-Line where a laser in a helicopter scans the ground and picks up points on the wires so we can get the correct catenary for our line modeling software.
If it weren't too expensive to get a laser scan of a part, it would speed up the 3D modeling.
_____________________________________
I have been called "A storehouse of worthless information" many times.
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
There is, however, software available that will allow you to convert the point cloud data into SE.
One example would be Point Cloud, from Sycode (300 - 400$) (www.sycode.com) - they also have various translators for SE.
bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.
Where would we be without sat-nav?
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
_____________________________________
I have been called "A storehouse of worthless information" many times.
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
If you're looking at scanning stuff and putting the model in CAD and being able to do stuff with it then Solid Edge with its Synchronous Technology may have a big advantage over Solid Works.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
And to KENAT, yes he is an idiot for wasting so much effort on meaningless details but the PC running MicroStation is a workstation class box with double quad core CPU's and four 22" wide flat screen LCD monitors with a bunch of ram although with Win XP 32 bit I don't think the programs can access anything beyond around 3Gb.
_____________________________________
I have been called "A storehouse of worthless information" many times.
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
I've even seen someone put GKN and 8.8 on the head!!
The helix is probably the feature that increases file size and compute times the most.
That goes for any cad system, and has always been the case for 3D.
I was told 20 years ago - don't use a helix unless you have to.
Thin wall (shell) features are another example, but not nas bad.
By the way, I wouldn't take much notice of the times I'm in the UK and this was posted at 5:18pm
bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.
Where would we be without sat-nav?
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
For what you are doing you probably don't even need solid models. STL files or some other point could format would be fine.
As already said never model threads unless you need them to program the CNC (most of them don't need it because they use caned routines for threading). Every cad package has a cosmetic thread feature to give you the right call outs on drawings.
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Interface with Mathcad?
_____________________________________
I have been called "A storehouse of worthless information" many times.