Structural Steel Toolbox; WTF;Over?

[MikeHalloran]

Say I want to make a detail part, say of a rolled shape like an angle.

I open a new part, select an extruded feature, pick a sketch plane, pick the Structural Steel Toolbox, select a shape, say L angles, select a size, say 3x3x3/8, and press 'Create'.

At that point, SW generates a sketch of what looks like the correct part at the correct size, partially behind the dialog box, all in grey. So far so good.

Then, before I can press 'Done', the sketch changes its proportions and goes all green. So I press 'Done', and then I 'smart-dimension' the part.

Guess what? It's not 3x3x3/8! It's 1x1x1/8!

If I try to override the smart dimensions, the shape goes crazy, like the center of the internal fillet radius is tied down.

Some days it happens like that, some days I get what I want.

I think I've caught it in similar chicanery on other shapes, too. ... but again, not always.

What am I doing wrong?



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Theophilus]

I'm not sure what's wrong, but you might be running a version of SolidWorks newer than v2007 ;-)

What I do is go directly to the Toolbox tab, select the profile I need, the length, and then select Create Part (like I do with nuts, screws, whatever). Seems to work properly for me, even in v2009.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Sorry; I'm using 2009.0.0.

I'll try it your way and see how it goes.

Thanks.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[engd]

I get the structural steel to work correctly by:
1. select a plane
2. Create the profile using the menu Toolbox: Structural Steel then click done.
3. I then have a sketch that is the correct profile and just needs to be edited to set the location and orientation.
4. Finally extrude as needed.

If I try any other order (such as start with extrude, start in a sketch, etc) I get a "default" size profile with no dimensions. This is the way it has always worked for me in prevous versions of SW also (currently on 2009sp2).

 

[MikeHalloran]

Well, there's another sticky note for my monitor.

Thanks.


I hate fragile software...



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA