HOW TO USE SCHEMATICS FOR CREATING HARNESS IN 3D?

SolidWorks 3D CAD Design software is widely known across the engineering and designing industry. It is this software’s impeccable capabilities that has won it such phenomenal user base. One of the prime offerings of SolidWorks is SolidWorks Electrical, whose schematic design capabilities simplifies the process of developing embedded systems for machines and other applications.

As a useful tool for creating harnesses in 3D, SolidWorks Electricals has helped engineers and designers tremendously. This is the reason why we decided to discuss about using this tool for creating harness in 3D as well as exporting it back to the 2D project.

Assuming that you have already routed a harness between several electrical components, we will herein discuss about creating 2D drawing of the harness.

First, start by opening up the harness in a new window. To do that, right click on it inside the Feature Manager Tree and then, select Open Subassembly or Open Subassembly in Position.

Next, you would need to flatten the route by switching over to the Electrical Command Manager. There, click on Flatten Route and you will receive a pop-up of Property Manager displaying some options. It will ask you to choose between two flatten types, namely, Annotation and Manufacture. First is a simplified representation of the harness. The second is creator of nail board presentation. Feel free to have your pick.

Beyond that you will find flatten options that you can choose to display the connectors as 3D or 2D blocks. Again, pick the option that fits your design the best and move to the next step.

The bottom of the window will show Drawing options. Click on the box and it will turn on. Choose the options that best fit your design. After you have chosen your options and turned off the rest by clicking on the box next to the name, you will be able to flatten the route and create the 2D drawing by simply hitting the green check.

Now, to put this back into your SolidWorks Electrical 2D Schematic, simply hide the sheet format, right-click in the graphics area, select properties and finally, uncheck display sheet format.

After this, when you will switch to the SolidWorks Electrical Drawing command manager tab and select Create Project Drawing you may receive the warning to save your 2D drawing, which you can save by clicking yes.

Though it may appear as if nothing has happened but in reality, as you switch over to the 2D project, you will find a new schematic has been created. Open it to see your flattened harness drawing.

Learn more about it by signing up for SolidWorks Electrical RoutingTraining at FEA Training Consultants.

HOW YOU CAN BRING YOUR SOLIDWORKS DRAWINGS TO LIFE?

It is easy to understand an assembly’s range of motions while working on a SolidWorks 3D CAD design or model. Although one may feel being on a crossroad when communicating this effectively on a 2D CAD environment.

There is no need to worry because the Alternate Position View resolves that efficiently by enabling you to indicate the assembly components’ range of motion. Using the phantom lines, it efficiently utilizes configuration of your model for overlaying one or more views on top of the original one. You can either choose to create these configurations before inserting the view or create a new configuration when you create the view.

Let’s discuss the process. Begin with a drawing view of the assembly. Create an alternate position by selecting view and then clicking on the Alternate Position View from the View Layout Tab which you will find in the CommandManager. Once the Alternate Position View PropertyManager opens, simply create a ‘New Configuration’ or select an ‘Existing Configuration’.

After you click ‘OK’, you will see SolidWorks switching to assembly model with the Move Component Tool being active. At this point, feel free to use options available in the PropertyManager to move/rotate the components in the required position. A quick suggestion: you can also use collision detection for achieving realistic motion/positions.

Click ‘OK’ when your assembly is oriented in your desired way. Next moment, you will find SolidWorks switching back to the drawing, adding the outline of the new configuration to the drawing view.

To learn more such incredible applications of SolidWorks 3D CAD Design you can opt for SolidWorks 3D CAD training with any renowned trainer such as FEA Training Consultants.

HOW TO USE SOLIDWORKS 3D INTERCONNECT WITH SHEET METAL PARTS?

Holding high relevance in the manufacturing industry, Sheet Metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metal working. Its significance is evident in the diligent manner in which sheet metal parts are designed using Computer Aided Design (CAD) Software, such as SolidWorks 3D CAD Design.

With the help of SolidWorks 3D CAD Design, you can not only design solid sheet metal parts but also convert 3D models into sheet metal models directly and put in your bend radius, thickness and k-factor. In this blog, we will discuss how you can use SolidWorks 3D Interconnect functionality with a range of non-SolidWorks files, including sheet metal parts.

First, prepare for the 3D Interconnect by adding bends using Convert To Sheet Metal Feature. Now, to begin, open the required file. Once open, you would require to establish the fact that it is a sheet metal part. Before doing that, it would be convenient to change the measurement settings to inches. Then, convert the part to sheet metal by selecting the command from the tool bar on the left-hand side.

You would need to collect the radius of the bend in order to create right bends according to the pre-defined geometry. As you receive the new version of the file, save it with the old file. All you need to do is place the new file with higher ‘dot version’ in the same folder as that of the original. The software will automatically see if there is a new version of the part in the folder and enable you to use it.

 You will receive an indicator featuring an option to update the file as shown in the above image. Select it and roll back to see the features in it as well as the visual geometry. Then, measure new material’s thickness which would be different than the previous, in most of the cases. Then, finally, override the thickness to the new measured value. Further up, allow other features rebuild by selecting them. Before you close off, clear all the residual bends and recollects. That will do the trick. 

To learn more about designing sheet metal parts using SolidWorks 3D CAD Design, we suggest you sign up for a SolidWorks Sheet Metal Training.