Detail in Drawing Views 1

[red351cobra]

My company is getting ready to switch from AutoCad to Solidworks. Right now we are using Inventor V5 as a middle step and creating our models and then exporting the geometry to Autocad to dimension.

One thing I have noticed is that on larger assemblies Inventor doesn't show all the lines or sometimes things that should be hidden are visable. This is causing problems when doing machine layouts and bringing over the geometry. The machine looks odd and takes a good bit of clean up to fix some of the lines so the layout looks presentable to a customer. This only happens on larger assemblies...full machine drawings. Why this happens is a post for another time, but my question is has anyone ever seen Solidworks do this.

I have a decent amount of experience with Solidworks but have never created a full machine assembly and I want to make sure that we won't run into this problem when we switch over.

After we switch we will still be doing some layouts in autocad because some of our customers request it.

Thanks for the help.
Matt

 

[JMirisola]

Anything is possible in SolidWorks, so you could, possibly, see things (or not see things) when you should. Often times it's a graphics card issue, but there are times when SolidWorks simply become obstinate and doesn't properly behave. With SolidWorks 2008, large assembly performance has been improved, so strange sightings should lessen.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 3500M

 

[red351cobra]

Thanks for the quick response

Little things won't be an issue at all. In Inventor we could see large cabinets from the wrong wide of the machine. It was almost like every line was shown. Very weird.

Thanks
Matt

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Contact a SolidWorks VAR to arrange a demo, and make sure they load one of your large assemblies to show SWs capabilities. Don't expect perfection though, especially as the model will have gone through the conversion process.

I'm curious though, why would you export back to AutoCAD to detail drawings? Can Inventor not even create decent DWGs? One of the main benefits of 3D/Solid CAD is having associativity between model and drawing. You lose that by exporting to ACAD.

When setup correctly, SolidWorks can create DWGs and DXFs fairly well. You should have no need to export back.

 

[red351cobra]

I started working here about 6 months ago and no one was using inventor. It was on the computers, but everyone was still using AUTOCAD, blahhhh.

Anyway, I started using inventor to do my machine designs and since we haven't officially switched away from autocad and so everyone can use what I have created I and one other younger engineer design in inventor and export to autocad. It's definatly not the ideal way to go, but until we officially make the switch I can't do everything in inventor.

I'm basically using it as a scratch pad.

I would still rather do that than do everything in AUTOCAD so atleast I have some certainty that my parts will fit.

I can't wait until we get to switch completely to Solidworks.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

If the ACAD users weren't even attempting to use Inventor, you are going to have a very steep uphill battle to show and convince them that switching to SolidWorks will eventually make their jobs easier. They will use the excuse, "I'm quicker with ACAD" and use it whenever possible, and consequently will never get up to speed in SW; and then they will blame the program.

In some extreme cases you may even have to remove ACAD from their machines.

 

[fcsuper]

One method to handle this is to find the one person in the department that is interested in expanding his career by learning and becoming THE SolidWorks user. If the company has molded parts, the mold expert would be a very good choice. Also, require that anyone new who joins already know SW well.

It will take a long time, but the others will either leave or jump on the bandwagon, as long as the company supports the effort.

Another approach is just to do it piece meal. Require that one area much be in SolidWorks and does not even use ACAD format at all, even in communications. Implement Edrawings. Use this as a wedge to get the other areas of Engineering.

These are just a couple of ideas. There's many methods to try.

Matt
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
sw.fcsuper.com
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group