How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
(OP)
I am tring to represent wire mesh in SolidWorks. If I try to do this by using a solid cut that is patterned then there will be thousands of cuts. My system won't handle that. I am a previous Pro/E user and had the same problem then. I never found a solution.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Chris
Thanks in advance for any help.
Chris
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
Do other systems handle this cut? If so, the problem is with your system. You may need more RAM or a better system.
If other systems can't handle this cut, then you may have encountered a limitation in pattern calculations or openGL triangles. You should then report this to your SolidWorks reseller.
cheers,
Joseph
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
But if your system can't handle what you described above you may not be able to handle a few helixs.
Regards,
Scott Baugh, CSWP

3DVision Technologies
credence69@REMOVEhotmail.com
http://www.3dvisiontech.com
http://www.3dmca.com
*When in doubt always check the help*
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
The number of diamond shaped cuts is approx 50,000. If anyone’s computer can do this as solid cuts successfully, then please let me know how.
This is 26ga flattened expanded metal with 60%open area.
It doesn't need to be true features (if that's possible). It is for a presentation of a product concept.
In a 2d package like ACAD it is done with hatching, or fill patterns.
Chris
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
To model the screen using either of these techniques the work is not difficult. However, if you are experiencing long regen times as a result of the many features then I would suggest you make a large screen as its own part and then save it as a parasolid. This will make it a very detailed, dumb, fast part that you can then pull into an assembly and cut to size. (Sort of like the real world. Cool!)
Before we come up with a solution perhaps you can fill us in as to what you require.
- - -DennisD
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
I also have two other parameters controlled by equations within SWX, the intrusion depth and the spacing for the linear pattern. The intrusion depth assures that the wires intrude into each other's space so that there are no disjoint bodies (set to 10% of the wire diameter). The linear pattern dimension is two times the pitch of the first grid. (This is clearer once you see the model.) I used a square mesh so there are a couple of linked values.
I am sending this file to the SWX model library. It makes a large file so I don't want to be e-mailing it, please. Due to its large size I suggest that to really use this file you open it all by itself, set the parameters you want for a given configuration, and then save that part out as a parasolid. Use that parasolid for your application and cut it down as if you were cutting a roll of screen wire. Your modeling will be much faster and you probably don't really need the screen part to be paramtric anyway, maybe just its trimming needs to be parametric.
- - -DennisD
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
I would suggest slappng a thin slab in there and make it transparent - so you can see thru it. Then add your specific purchase data in the $PRP@DESCRIPTION, so it'll show-up right in your BILL OF MATERIALS.
Finite details are real nice to have, but in most cases, detail like this will print as a black blob anyway. I hate to say it, but at the end of the day, most of us are still making pretty pictures with important numbers on them.
Gee, do I sound jaded?
tatej@usfilter.com
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
Also, if you search comp.cad.solidworks newsgroup you should be able to find an example of a wire mesh (they called it a "bowl" I think) fan shroud that was discussed about 1.5 months ago. It might be of some help.
"The attempt and not the deed confounds us."
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
the mesh material that comes with solidworks makes proper looking meshed materials so it should be possible to manage by making a bitmap of your diamond cut-out.
however depending on the complexity of the rendering you need to do, the one limitation is that it will not really look that 3d up close, just like a very thin mesh of foil.
tips to render it properly, turn off the "apply solidworks properties" in the photoworks setup if its on...
and modify you lighting to throw shadows through transparent objects.
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
http://www.mikejwilson.com/solidworks/files/x-ray_vision.zip
The server seems to be quite busy sometimes, so downloading sample parts is sometimes slow.
Jeff Mowry
DesignHaus Industrial Design
http://www.designhaus-i-d.com
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
You can do this with Face curves. Select a face, go to Tools/Sketch Tools/Face curves, adjust the mesh and click okay. Unfortunately you have to do this for every single face you want to be represented as "wireframe".
Now that you have converted (= copied) all faces I suggest that you put all the resulting 3D sketches in a folder (if you havn't updated to SW2003 I'm sorry, you have to leave them in the featuremanger), make another configuration where you hide the solid body so you can only see the wireframes. In your standard configuration suppress all wireframes-sketches (for obvious performance reasons).
I havn't figured out if I can upload an image or example ZIP files here, so I hope my explanation was clear enough.
Bye,
Stefan
--
unofficial german SolidWorks helppage
http://solidworks.cad.de
Shareware, freeware, tools and macros
http://swtools.cad.de
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
I made a square sheet metal part that was about 3/4" bigger than the hole it was up against and had a radius that fit on the inside of the cylinder. Then flattened it out and removed all but 1/4" from all edges. I added 2 more sketches to the front and side. Each contained a .025 dia. circle located with an array of additional fixed circles .075 apart that were extruded to the opposite face. A final cut removing everything outside the diameter I needed creating the finished part.
This was a very fast process and does not seem to take up all that many resources. It looks right unless you are zoomed in very close to the wire. I did try creating the same part with the wire woven in place. The two sweeps didn't take all that long but when I did the first of the 2 linear patterns needed, it took over 2 hours and the memory reported by the Task Manager jumped up to over 789,000k. I didn't bother going any further with it.
Lee
RE: How do I represent wire mesh in SolidWorks?
The link is http://swtools.cad.de/stuff.htm
Bye,
Srefan
--
unofficial german SolidWorks helppage
http://solidworks.cad.de
Shareware, freeware, tools and macros
http://swtools.cad.de