SolidWorks World 2012 in San Diego

Here is my speaker schedule for this year. The rest of the agenda can be found at https://solidworksworld.wingateweb.com/scheduler/user.jsp?ts=1322620872067

What’s Old with SolidWorks 2012

Category: Modeling Essentials

Subcategory: General

Session Type: Breakout Session

Presentation Level: Intermediate (1-3 years' experience)

Date: February 14, 2012

Day and Time: Tuesday, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Attendee Benefits: With every new release it is hard to keep up with all the new features. We’ll focus on using existing tools in your daily workflow to increase your productivity, developing your skills, and expanding your knowledge of the SolidWorks toolset.

Abstract: I didn’t know you could do that, is that new? When did they put that in SolidWorks? This is a look at existing tools that you may have overlooked, not had time to keep up with, and use as often as you could.

Best of SolidWorks Tips and Tricks 2012

Category: Modeling Essentials

Subcategory: General

Session Type: Breakout Session

Presentation Level: Intermediate (1-3 years' experience)

Date: February 15, 2012

Day and Time: Wednesday, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Attendee Benefits: There will include something for everyone; parts, assemblies, and drawings. We’ll break down and simplify some very creative ways to use common SolidWorks tools with emphasis on why we picked various tools and explore alternate methods to solve problems.

Abstract: Experience a fast paced session of tips focusing on how to use SolidWorks 2012 in the real world. These will not be found in the help file, they come from years of learning, teaching, and using it daily in a small dynamic design environment.

Customer Appreciation Nights

If you live in or are visiting the San Diego area, I would like to invite you to attend one of our TriAxial Design and Analysis Customer Appreciation Nights scheduled for every Thursday night now through August of 2011.

We will be serving great food and refreshments starting around 5pm at our offices located at 4817 Palm Avenue, Suite K, La Mesa, CA 91942. 

The summer La Mesa Car Show will be going on simultaneously right outside the door and throughout the neighborhood. Make yourself at home, meet the staff, see our offices, and help us celebrate 15 years of success.

RSVPs aren't needed, but if you let me know, I'll make sure you get fed and don't leave thirsty.

I look forward to seeing you,

Phil

Use SolidWorks to Make a Template for Cutting a “Fishmouth” into a Round Tube

SolidWorks can readily be used to create space frames consisting of round tubing or pipe members.  The SolidWorks weldment commands will trim the tubular members where they intersect each other.  When a round tube intersects another round tube the resulting end of the intersecting tube has a shape referred to as a “fishmouth”.  See Figures 1 and 2.  The fabrication of the “fishmouth” end of the tube can be problematic.  In a production environment special machines can be used to create the “fishmouth” shape.  One method is to use hole saws in a drill press while clamping the tube in a special vise.  Another method uses a machine with a sanding belt passing over a roller with the same radius as the desired radius of the “fishmouth” cut.  And most exotic of all are computer controlled laser cutters that rotate the tube and translate the laser head to create the “fishmouth” cut.

                But what can you do to create the “fishmouth” cut if you only want to create a few cuts for prototype work without the expense of special equipment?  SolidWorks can come to our aid by allowing us to make a template that is used to mark the end of a tube with the shape of the cut needed to make a “fishmouth”.  The steps are as follows.

1.  Make the round tube frame in SolidWorks using the weldments commands.  Trim the ends of the tubes with the Trim/Extend command.  See Fig. 1
2. Expand the Cut List.  For each tube that requires a “fishmouth”, right click on the body in the Cut List and select “Insert into New Part”.
3. Open the new part file.  See Fig. 2
4. Make a cut through the part model to create a very thin wall for the tube.  See Fig. 3.
5. Make a longitudinal cut through one wall of the part model.  See Fig. 4.
6. Use the Insert/Sheet Metal/Bends command and select one of the two outside longitudinal cut edges.
7. Select the sheet metal “Flatten” command.  See Fig. 5.
8. Make a SolidWorks drawing at 1:1 scale of the flattened pattern. See Fig. 6.
9. Print the drawing and cut out “fishmouth” flat pattern drawing.
10. Wrap the pattern around the tube, orienting the pattern as required, and tape in place.  Trace the edge of the pattern onto the tube with an indelible marking pen.  See Fig. 7.
11. Cut out the “fishmouth” shape with a cutting torch and dress the cut as required with a die grinder.

           - Kendall

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4Figure 5Figure6

Figure 7

Product Specifications

When a company or inventor is considering a new product, one of the crucial steps is conveying the concept to a team of engineers and designers so the concept can be turned into a set of engineering drawings and plans for manufacture.  Failure to communicate the concept in an effective manner will lead to unnecessary repetitions in the design and review cycle to approve the engineering design.

The product development process will be improved if design goals are clearly stated, the relative importance of the various goals is rated, and an engineering specification written.  One way to convey the design goals is to use a list of design attributes and then rate the importance of each attribute.  The act of writing down the attributes forces one to clearly identify the goals and rating them gives the engineers and designers important information about their relative importance.  The final product concept can vary significantly based on this design input. 

For an example, consider the design of a coat hanger.  The attributes that are important for a coat hanger include: strength, low cost, esthetics, ability to hold pants (as well as a coat), the lack of a tendency to crease pants, and tendency to rust.  Consider Chart 1 that one customer might produce for their rating of coat hanger attributes on a scale of 0 to 4.

The Chart 1 data would likely result in the wire coat hanger in Fig. 1 below.

Another customer who was more concerned by the crease left in his pants might produce Chart 2.

 

The resulting hanger design has a cardboard tube added to the wire hanger as shown in Fig. 2.

If one was more interested in the esthetics of the hanger and wanted to avoid the possibility of rust then Chart 3 might result and Fig. 3 would be the resulting plastic design.

When esthetics is even more important but pants are of no concern then Chart 4 might result in a wooden hanger shown in Fig. 4.

And lastly, if esthetics and the ability to hang pants are both very important then Chart 5 and the hanger of Fig. 5 might result.

Obviously very different coat hangers result when the ratings of product attributes vary significantly.

Once the design team has a clear understanding of the design goals and then writes an engineering specification, various design tools can be used to start the design process.  Brainstorming sessions can lead to product ideas.  Engineering hand sketches are a good way to start to communicate the physical concepts.  Eventually 3D CAD is used to create computer generated models of parts and these CAD models can be further enhanced with photo-realistic renderings.

Furthermore, a thorough understanding of various materials and manufacturing processes is crucial to a successful design.  The material selection and manufacturing processes must match the design requirements.  Some processes are best suited to low volume production and others for high volume production.  At Triaxial Design our design team is well versed in metals manufacturing processes including castings, extrusions, machining, sheet metal fabrication and welding.  We are also knowledgeable about plastic parts fabrication using injection molding, vacuum forming and casting.

But before the detail design can begin, the all important first step of communicating the design goals must take place.  A listing of design attributes and a rating of their relative importance is a helpful method for that first communication.

- Kendall

Why and How; Engineering

If we set the way-back machine to late 1978, we encounter Yours Truly, somewhat freshly emerged from the oven in which I had been the figurative bun, and steadily progressing to being the fellow I am today.  My parents would tell you that one tendency I have always possessed, from a pathologically early age, is the desire to question why.  They learned early on that asking me to do something was pointless if it didn’t include an explanation as to what the goal of the project was, and unfortunately for them, I was always more than willing to make the requested job as efficiently as possible.

Flash forward several decades, and I’m again asking why.  Why, I wonder, do I do what I do?  Why do I get a thrill out of engineering?

I paid for my education with hours adding up to days adding up to weeks, months, and years managing a movie theater.  As soon as I could, as soon as I’d obtained the skills necessary to approach the broad concepts of design, I seized upon the first opportunity that presented itself; as it happened, a co-worker mentioned that his friend required some design work and, ahem, didn’t I go to school for that?

The next step is meeting with his friend, a mid-level manager at a regional group entertainment company.  They include face-painting for children, and are painted into the sad corner of having to use this faulty and costly airbrush to do so.  Their goal is to design something equivalent that they own the rights to, and if at all possible, isn’t quite so costly or pathetic.

On having a look at what they’re using and how they’re using it, it immediately becomes clear that I have an obligation to help.  For reasons unknown, the designer of their current airbrush has elected to use a bizarre combination of 2 springs (one compression and one torsion), two shear pins of differing sizes, three cast and four machined brass pieces all held together with metric fasteners in an otherwise standard configuration.  It was, for want of a better term, nightmarish.  The end result was large, costly, difficult to use and near impossible to repair. 

Over the course of two weeks in my spare time, I managed to pare down the function of this device to its essentials.  My end result was demonstrated to the upper management of my associate’s company to the tune of many a dropped jaw and expression of wonderment.  I halved the weight, dropped the machined part count to 3 from 7 and purchased part count from 8 to 6.  The per-unit cost halved and, best of all, they owned the rights to the design. 

Flash forward to a few months ago, and on a jog through beautiful Mission Bay Park, I come across a gathering being tended by the above-mentioned company.  Sure as you’re born, they’re still doing face-painting, and with some creative infiltration, I am able to catch a glimpse of the hardware they’re using. 

Sure as you’re born, it’s my design.  It’s lasted 8 years unchanged, still in operation, and a quick Q and A with the fellow using it tells me it’s perfectly fine and nobody has any complaints with it. 

So, back to the question:  Why?  That’s why.  This world is full of things that could stand to be a little better, and I’m fortunate enough to be able to do my small part toward this betterment.  Here’s to you, Engineering.  You rule.

-James