How to lock Concentric Mate in an Assembly (New in SolidWorks 2014)

Lock Rotation Option with Concentric Mate (New in SolidWorks 2014)

You can prevent the rotation of components that are mated with concentric mates by selecting the Lock rotation option. Also the “-” symbol will no longer appear before the part in the design tree, thus indicating that the part has been fully constrained. We will understand this in detail using the below model.

 

To lock a concentric mate in an assembly:

1. Open the Mate PropertyManager for Concentric mate.

2. In the PropertyManager, select Lock rotation and click OK.

 

Locked concentric mates are indicated by different icon in the FeatureManager design tree as shown below. Green box shows a concentric mate without lock and Red box show with lock. (The inner circle in the concentric symbol is shaded when the lock rotation option is active)

 

 

To lock the rotation for an existing mate, in the FeatureManager design tree, select the concentric mate and click Edit Feature or Select the part to lock from the menu that appears on the screen and choose “View mates,“ a selection window will open with the concentric mate. Simply right click on the constraint and select the “Lock rotation” option.

 

Tip: To lock or unlock rotation on all concentric mates in an assembly, in the FeatureManager design tree, right-click the Mates folder and click Lock Concentric Rotation or Unlock Concentric Rotation.

Note: You cannot lock concentric mates when a referenced component is over-defined.

Delete Feature without deleting the child features - New in SolidWorks 2014

When you are working in your feature tree and want to delete certain feature without deleting child feature is not possible in SolidWorks 2013. Both the parent and child feature will be lost when you delete certain feature.

With the latest realease on SolidWorks 2014 you can delete certain feature without deleting their child features.

Let see how we can use the new feature in SolidWorks 2014.

When you delete a parent feature that has child or absorbed features, you can select which features to delete. As shown below when you select a feature to delete, you get the Confirm delete dialog box.

Before we see the advanced option let us see the other options for the Confirm delete dialog box. As shown below you can select the option to delete the absorbed features. So if you delete the feature the sketch also gets deleted automatically.

 

 

The other option is to delete the Child features. In SolidWorks 2014 version you have the option to delete the Parent feature without deleting the child features.

 

 

The last option is to select the Advanced Confirm Delete dialog box and as shown below, it lets you selectively delete child and absorbed features. The features that you retain might display warnings or error messages in the Feature Manager Design tree. You must manually resolve any errors.

 

What's new in SolidWorks Simulation 2014

With every year's major release in SolidWorks, the enhancements that is made in all modules of  SolidWorks Simulation 2014 (SolidWorks Simulation Professional, SolidWorks Simulation Premium and SolidWorks Flow Simulation) is truly outstanding.

The SolidWorks Simulation 2014 release focus on four important theme:

Boost Productivity with Intelligent Tools

• Automatically convert Toolbox Fasteners to bolt connectors
• New Bolt Connectors Symbol

Benefits :

• Easier Simulation setup time
• Leverage CAD Simulation
• Improve productivity of Product Engineers

Perform comprehensive simulations across consistent solution

Leverage ECAD thermal properties

• Import thermal properties from Circuit Works in SolidWorks Flow Simulation
• Import PCB layers definition from Circuit Works in SolidWorks Flow Simulation

Benefits:

• Streamline product development process
• Enhance the user experience with SolidWorks Solutions.

Import Residual Stress from SolidWorks Plastics

• Import In-Molding Residual Stress (the stress generated before ejection) from SolidWorks Plastics.
• Perform Structural Analysis taking in account molding stresses.

Benefits:

• Provide complete performance test capabilities.
• Consistency of the global simulation tools.

Acheive greater insight with Simulation results

Mirror results about planes of symmetry

• Allows user to mirror results about planes of symmetry (planar,cyclic)

Benefits :

• Ease post processing of Complex symmetrical models
• Facilitate the sharing of simulation results with people unfamiliar with Simulation.

 

Results Comparison Across Configurations

Allow the user to compare simulation results across different configurations.

Benefits :

•  Ease comparison of design scenarios 
• Enable user to focus on his research to best design

Better eDrawings support of CFD results

Save multiple SolidWorks Flow Simulation output charts in a single edrawing.

Benefits:

• Ease Communication with CFD results 
• offer consistency with solidworks simulation

Performance

SolidWorks Simulation Performance Enhancements to :

• Faster file open with Simulation Active
• Large problem with Large problem direct sparse solver - Multi -Core Support
• Direct Sparse solver - upto 40% seep up for in-core problems
• Large speed up in the Interactive Solver (FFE +) - Multi-Processor, Contact convergence