Automated Drawing Generation of Specific Components

[Joni82]

Hello,

I am currently working on a project to help a New York based furniture design office to switch to SolidWorks. The office has a library of parts (wooden boards and aluminum pipes) with custom dimensions, from which different furniture products can be assembled. Since they work with two different manufacturers (wood and metal), two different drawing files have to be generated from the assembly, stating the different configurations and quantities of each wooden/ metal part used.

In an assembly with 3 different pipe types for example, the drawing sheet should show a front view of each different configuration of the pipes with its dimensions, as well as the quantity of each of these configurations used.

The drawing sheet for the wooden boards should directly be prepared for the CNC routers. Each part ought to be shown from the top, ideally with regards to the grain direction of the board. In the assembly, parts are used in all different orientations, so I am not sure how the drawing could automatically detect which side to be “top”. When creating the parts themselves however, all parts have been created with regards to grain direction.

Since the drawings are likely to always be submitted in the same format, an automation of this process would be extremely time saving.

I would highly appreciate if you could think of a way to automatically generate different drawings based on the material properties of the components used?

 

[ejc]

Have you checked out Drive Works?
This add-in program might work for what you are describing.
I've tried it out, seems liek alot of up-front work, but much easier once it's set up.
The drawings can be set up with different views, so it will always know what way is "up" regardless of how it is used in the assembly.

ejc

 

[Joni82]

Thanks for your quick reply, ejc!
I have heard good things about DriveWorks, but the company that I am working for is not willing to purchase a license. And I am just temporarily working for them as a student, so there is no point for me to buy it myself. I am hoping to find a macro that can do the same thing. However, I will do some more research as to whether or not its worth purchasing it.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

http://offer.driveworks.co.uk/(S(iidd5245zedxzhjffhpulv45))/Default.aspx

SW07-SP3

 

[ejc]

Beat me to it Corey.
And I might be wrong, but I heard rumor that it may be incorporated in 2008...

 

[ctopher]

... or setup drawing file templates for each dwg type.

Chris
SolidWorks 07 3.0/PDMWorks 07
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 03-13-07)