Virtual Components that are not In Context!

My apologies for the belated blogs. Work has been extremely busy and I have been travel training for 3 weeks straight. That being said I found an interesting concept in one of my recent Advanced Assembly training sessions.

You can make virtual components that are not in context to an assembly. This concept kind of blew my mind at first... because virtual components only exist inside of the assembly...

I had actually done this a manual method once or twice by creating a new component at the assembly level and then deleting the in place mate that is created.

But a new method has actually spawned an interesting workflow. A head designer for one of the companies that I recently trained mentioned that he was looking for a way to do conceptual machine design, without necessarily creating all of the part files in specific hard drive locations. He wants this functionality because he spends alot of time creating folder and sub assembly structures for machines that MIGHT get built. Not to mention all of the parts need internal ID numbers.

So we figured out this interesting workflow: If you create a new part in a new assembly file, you can click in space and SW will create the Virtual Component without the In Place mate reference. It also does not put you in Edit component mode. If you right click open the new Virtual Component SW virtualizes a part file, where the part can be drawn from scratch on it's own refernce planes. When you toggle back to the assembly the Virtual Component updates and reflects the changes. If you continue to repeat this process, you can create all of the Virtual Components bottom up, and they will only exist within the assembly. Hence the ability to quickly create machine concepts without the cumbersome task of file structuring and internal part numbering, until it gets to a production stage.

This does have a few draw backs; first and formost: All of the parts would be Virtual. Which means that backups of the Assembly are even MORE important. Secondly, it does cause the need to externalize the files and create a file structure when the machine goes from concept to production.

I don't think that this is the best workflow for every company, but it certainly something to consider if you find yourself creating designs that never see the light of day!

EMSWUG Meeting 3/27/08

All things considered I thought the meeting was a success. I would like to thank Dan Bovinich for putting the meeting together and Automation Alley for hosting the event. It is a fantastic facility. I thought I did pretty well considering it was my second public speaking event ever. (And my second time using PowerPoint) Dan Bovinich will be posting a link to the Powerpoint next week. I hope everyone found the presentation informative and interesting. I am assuming that they did, despite the fact that everyone left in a hurry due to the weather. If anyone has any questions or would like a follow up, please feel free to contact me.

btw... I tryed to post the animations but I'm running into some difficulties with the compression. As soon as I have them worked out I will be posting manufacturing simulations here as well.

Thanks,
Mac

Blog Online!

So I finally got a blog started today. Which is great because it's one more way to touch base with the technical community.

First I would like to thank Dasi Solutions for the opportunities they have provided me in my technical career. Second I would like to thank Jason Raak from Rock Solid Perspective for indirectly influencing me to get this blog started. http://www.rocksolidperspective.com/.

The first thing to discuss is the launch of Forever Inventive Enterprises, my contract Design Company. I have started an office from my home that will be designing in Solidworks (when I'm not Training and Tech Supporting SW at work) I will be designing: Progressive Dies, Four Slide Tooling, Multi-Slide Tooling, Weld Fixturing, Custom Motorcycles, Custom Guitars and Bass, and anything else you would like me to. Feel free to Contact me at ForeverInventive@yahoo.com.

The second thing I would like to discuss my future at Dasi Solutions. I currently am Training all over the state in Essentials, Sheet Metal, Weldments, Drawings, Advanced Parts, Advanced Assemblies with Routing and Advanced Surfacing on the way soon. On top of that I am trying to create new classes specifically for the manufacturing industry. I am developing a Progressive Die Design Class and writing a manual for the class. I intend to look into developing many more specific manufacturing based classes as well. Probable topics include: Manufacturing Simulation(Animation for processing), Weld Fixture Design, Multi-Slide Tooling and an Advanced Sheet Metal class. If your company would be interested in any of these types of classes please contact me at John@Dasi-Solutions.com.

As an FYI: I will be presenting my Progressive Die Design at the EMSWUG meeting on March 27th 2008. Here is the link to anyone that is interested in attending: http://www.emswug.com/

Please feel free to contact me for anything SW! I will continue to post blogs and update this site about my endeavors, trials and training for all that are interested. Thank you.