Whats new in SolidWorks 2016? - Weldments

SolidWorks Weldment has been a valuable addition to any structural shape.  Structural sections come in stock sizes and weldments make assembling them into functional parts easier and faster.  SolidWorks has been steadily adding functionality to weldments throughout the years to help designers be more efficient.  Let’s find out what’s new for SolidWorks 2016.

Consider the following bus shelter modeled in weldments:

The three top members are still missing therefore we can use the Structural Members feature in weldments to add the parts.  

With Structural Members feature selected you may navigate your library to find the correct structural member to apply to the top of the bus shelter.  New to SolidWorks 2016 is an improved sorting algorithm that will display the sections listed in descending order.  This will avoid time wasted simply searching for the right tube size.  Furthermore, two of the most recently used sections will appear at the top acting as a dynamic favorites menu, therefore there will be no need to keep searching for the same tube is it is a common size for your part.

Once you create your sections, you will also notice that SolidWorks now provides a more descriptive text for the structural member created.  In previous versions we were left with a generic text but now we have an idea of what size the member will be at a glance.  In 2015 SolidWorks introduced the endcap feature for weldments.  This new release builds upon that endcap functionality.

When end caps are created they may have a designated thickness direction such as external or internal.  New to SolidWorks 2016 is the ability to further customize the end caps by specifying an offset distance.

In addition, SolidWorks has added a few shortcut hot keys to increase user speed.  By pressing and HOLDING the TAB key, any structural member highlighted by the mouse cursor will automatically be set to hide.  This allows users to hide structural bodies very quickly.

To undo the hide, users may press and HOLD:  TAB + SHIFT.  Hovering the mouse over where the structural member used to be will make it reappear.  

The new functionalities added to SolidWorks 2016 Weldment was designed to make modeling and designing more streamline, consistent and efficient.

SolidWorks SheetMetal - Edit Flange Profile

What's New in SolidWorks 2016?

SolidWorks Sheetmetal - Edit Flange Profile

SolidWorks sheet metal has been a very useful tool in creating parts that require flattened patterns.  The flat patterns are the shapes used to cut out parts that when folded form the finished product.  One of the most common tools in sheet metal is the edge flange.

Consider the following sheet metal part:

We want to add a flange to cover the front of this part, therefore we can use the edge flange tool.

When we apply an edge flange to the selected edge, an extension is created perpendicular by default to the original sheet.

This is adjusted by selecting a reference face for the flange to be set parallel.

When creating a flange it is important to consider the flange position.  This means where the bend occurs, in this case we can the bend to be on the outside.  This elevates the flange as to not cause interference with the two pre-existing flanges on the side.

Normally to extend the flange outside of the square shape a designer would need additional sketches.  

However SolidWorks 2016 brings a new functionality called “Edit Flange Profile”.  By selecting Edit Flange Profile it allows the user to manipulate and modify the sketch shown.  This includes the blue undefined lines as well as the black fully defined lines as shown below:

Applying the sheet metal feature allows for the edge flange to be created without any additional sketches required.

The new Edit Flange Sketch functionality is designed to help designers be more efficient and therefore safe time when modeling sheet metal in SolidWorks 2016.

To learn more, or to get started with SolidWorks contact FEA.

SolidWorks Simulation 2016 - Intermittent Fixtures

What's New in SolidWorks Simulation 2016?

When a designer runs a simulation, basic parameters such as material, contact sets, fixtures and external loads are essential in defining the problem and achieving accurate results.  New to SolidWorks Simulation 2016 is the concept of intermittent fixtures that adds additional functionality to yield accurate results. 

Consider the following slide-clip assembly:

We can use a 2-D simplification of this model to run the simulation analysis as shown below:

  This simulation is setup to slide the clip into a locking position, then holding it in the locking position for a few moments before applying a lateral force to unlock the clip and slide it out.  The displacement over time curve is shown below:

The clip slides in over 0.5 seconds, hold in the lock position momentarily before retracting to its original position.  The lateral force is applied after the clip is in the lock position.  The lateral force is applied to the point as shown below:

It is not necessary to have the lateral force active throughout the simulation.  It is only required after the clip has moved into in the lock position and before it is about to slide out.  With intermittent fixtures, designers now have the ability to turn a fixture on and off.  

In this case we have the fixture deactivated from 0 seconds to 0.6 seconds before it is activated to move the point in the lateral direction.  After it has moved the point it is turned off at 0.77 seconds and remains off for the rest of the simulation study.  Turning a fixture on and off is useful to help avoid artificial stresses applied to the model and to ensure accurate loads applied. 

We know with confidence that the simulation has been performed correctly and that the stresses seen through each time step is correct.

SolidWorks 2016- Sweep Feature

The Sweep feature has been a common tool to create a profile and extrude it along a sketched path.  

With the release of 2016 version of SolidWorks there have been significant functional upgrades:

Consider the following handrail and spindle assembly:

The spindle is incomplete.  To make changes to the part we need to first right click in the part (since we are currently in assembly) and select edit part. 

Now we can edit the component.  To complete the spindle we want to select the Sweep Boss/ Base feature from the features menu.

Once the Sweep feature is selected you may notice that there are two radial buttons under Profile and Path:

The first radial button is Sketch Profile, which is the original sweep that requires two profiles to complete.  

The second selection is Circular Profile which allows you to select a path and SolidWorks will fill in the sweep with a default circular profile.  

This is a very handy tool and a big time saver since many applications require sweep of a circular profile.  The designer no longer has to create a second circular sketch.

However, in this case we want to use the square shaped profile therefore we select the Sketch Profile and fill in the Profile and Path.  Please note that there is a new Bidirectional option that will allow sweep to be applied in both directions upwards and downwards.  

Once the sweep directions are set, the designer may apply additional options such as twisting in the profile.  In this case we have set the twisting to be a full revolution downwards and an opposite full revolution upwards to complete our spindle.

By applying the sweep function and patterning the spindle across the frame we have a completed rail assembly.

The improved functionality to the sweep function is meant to help designers streamline the design process.  

SolidWorks Simulation 2016 - Contact Sets

Contact Sets - New in SolidWorks Simulation 2016

When a designer is putting together an assembly there may be a few missed mates which will cause the part to be free and unrestrained.  Usually the designer will need to go back and find the missing mate to fully restrain the assembly.  This is a similar concept to contact sets in simulation where a designer must define contact sets or the connection conditions between elements.  This was typically a difficult task that involved looking through the model to find the missing contact set. 

Consider a crane tower as shown:

We will setup a simulation study for this crane tower where it is fixed on the ground and experiencing horizontal and vertical loads at the top.  

Before running the study, the designer now has a new tool to help check for free moving bodies.  This tool is found by right clicking Connections then selecting “Find Underconstrained Bodies”

With the new tool selected, the designer may use the tool by selecting “calculate”.  This allows the software to run a simplified analysis to find whether there are under-restrained bodies.

The results return by isolating and clearly highlighting bodies of interest and showing all modes in which it is under-constrained.  In this case, Body 1 is shown as free floating and can move in every direction. 

This is a problem for the simulation analysis.

Upon closer inspection it was determined that this crane tower was originally modeled with a small gap between the elements to account for welding and tolerances. 

Usually the designer would need to create individual contact sets to account for the gap, however also new to SOLIDWORKS SIMULATION 2016 is the ability to accommodate small gaps.  This option is found under Connections> Component Contacts > Global Contact > Edit definition

Under the component contact option, the designer now has the ability to include “Non-touching faces” by selecting a gap size to treat as bonded.

This is one more tool to help designers be more efficient and effective when using SolidWorks Simulation by spending less time finding missing contact sets and more time analyzing the results.