Measuring Geometry: Measure Command

Starting off with the basics, the measure command is a wonderful tool to grab some measurements from imported geometry. When it comes to straight pipes/tubes, it’s easy to grab some edges of the geometry, choose “minimum distance”, and get your value.

Creating a 3D Sketch

Unfortunately, as soon as we move on from straight tubes, this technique doesn’t work as well, so we had to get more creative. Utilizing a 3D sketch, you can convert the edges of each section of tubing and give yourself the major points of the path.

Measuring Geometry: Lines & Arcs

Then, by adding in some more sketch elements, you can connect them together using straight lines and tangent arcs. Pull up your measure tool, and now you’ve got a centerline to pull measurements from. Additionally, you can derive both a bend angle and an arc/chord length as well.

Measuring Geometry: Planes & Dimensions

Now there is still another angle to derive, and this is where things got interesting. In order to calculate the angle of rotation, some additional reference geometry would certainly come in handy. Utilizing the centerline we created in a previous step, we can select end points of lines to create planes that are parallel to those lines. Once created, we can use smart dimensions to pull the angle of rotation off from those planes.

In my student’s case, all he really needed as far as measurements is what I’ve shown here. I didn’t want to stop here, I wanted to make sure he had every tool in his arsenal that he could; I made sure to mention that there are a few add-ins available for SOLIDWORKS that are designed specifically for tubing. If this is all you’re doing every day, shortening the process via any means possible is always welcome.

Let me know if you guys want to see more about working with tubing in SOLIDWORKS, and hopefully, this article will help save you from any trouble that may result from measuring imported geometry.

Brennen Sands
Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

Let us look at the setup for the model. We have a series of periodic loads that are applied in real life over 24 hours. These loads vary in duration as well as temperature depending on the time at which the loading is applied, during that 24-hour window.

For example, the load is periodic and turns on and off at a set time of 101 seconds on, and 6 seconds off. The load is applied at the first hour at 450 degrees C. For the second hour 50 degrees C, and 650 degrees C and so on.

To create a manual time curve to define this series of events would be tedious. It is better to use the periodic application of the load and divide the overall 24 hours of real time run into multiple projects at given temperatures. We can divide the 24 hours into sections by transferring the boundary conditions as an initial condition in the subsequent run.

To apply the periodic load, go to your heat source (or given boundary condition) and choose dependency. Dependency allows the user to adjust the loading via a time, goal, or parameter dependency. In this case we will use time and add the time curve to reflect 101 seconds on and 6 seconds off. Choosing periodic repeats this cycle.

In this case the heat source is 50 degrees C for 1 hour. Doing the overall 24 hours in a set of stages per hour allows the user to vary the temperature and reuse the periodic loading. Run the first hour project to completion. Clone the project naming it per the second loading condition. Edit and adjust the heat source (or boundary condition you want to vary) and change it to the new temperature.

The next step is crucial to continue the run from the end of the first study. Edit the General Settings by right mouse button on the “Input Data” folder and choose General Settings.

Go to the “Initial and ambient conditions” section

At the pull down to the right of Parameter Definition choose “Transferred”

Browse to the previous study. And choose OK

This simple pull down allows the user to start the new subsequent study from the previous studies ending thermal, velocity, and pressure mapping. These two SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation options, Periodic loading, and Transferred Flow parameters allow a user to setup and run a long duration set of studies with varying inputs over time.

For more information reach out to your friendly CATI account manager. Check out the CATI YouTube page, and additional Simulation Blogs on the CATI blog.

Robert Warren
Simulation Specialist, Elite Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

First, a brief word about ideal and real gases.

Gases are a continuum of molecules that are constantly in motion, colliding with one another and the vessel they are contained in. This interaction and the resulting pressure within the contained gas is related to the amount of energy in the collection of molecules, which can be determined in one of two ways – treating them as either an ideal gas or a real gas.

Ideal Gas

As the name suggests, an ideal gas represents the behavior in a way that simplifies the calculation by considering the collisions as perfectly elastic with no intermolecular attractive forces.

The relationship between pressure (P), temperature (T) and volume (V) of the gas is characterized by the equation:

PV = nRT,

where “n” is the number of moles and “R” is the universal gas constant.

Real Gas

The calculation of real gases more accurately captures the performance of the molecular interaction by modifying the ideal gas law. There are several methods to do this. In SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation it is done by implementing the modified Redlich-Kwong equation of state. A description of this formulation can be found in the Flow Simulation help file by searching for “Real Gases”

Notice from the list of “Real Gases” below that there are multiple predefined materials that were also shown in the “Gases” category, plus multiple common refrigerants.

Let’s see the difference between the two property listings for methane. For ideal gases, the physical properties are explicitly defined. The “Table” designation indicates that the properties are temperature dependent. For real gases they are predicted through the state equation using the range of pressures and temperatures listed.

Real gas can change phase (liquid, vapor or supercritical) based on the temperature and pressure conditions. Vapor and supercritical phases are valid areas of inclusion in the Flow Simulation solution and are shown in the phase diagram below (copied from the help file.) Areas 10-12 indicate the valid areas (vapor or supercritical); if conditions fall outside these regions (areas 1-9) a warning is issued within the solver monitor window. In other words, the program can not directly represent liquid-vapor phase change, nor can it represent the gas at pressure and temperature conditions outside the min/max ranges.

During post-processing, you can check the expected phase of the material for the conditions in the simulation through a cut plot. When the plot parameter is set to “Real Gas State”, the color bar is replaced with a schematic phase diagram indicating the meaning of colors shown on the plot.

For more information on this important topic and a complete technical description of real gas behavior in SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation, please consult the help file on the subject of “real gases”. Using this set of materials in your projects, I think you’ll find an increased level of accuracy for certain problems that simulate industrial and chemical processes.

Kurt Kurtin
Sr. Product Manager, Simulation
Computer Aided Technology

Whether you call it cornhole or bean bag toss, bags or sack toss, we can all agree on one thing: the game where you throw bean-filled pouches at a hole on a board has Americans interacting with family members and avoiding political arguments since 1974!

Here, in Minnesota, we affectionately call this game, “bags”. I’ll refer to it as such from now on. I’m not here to talk about how to play bags, but you can find rules here. We’re here to talk about how SOLIDWORKS design, costing, and rendering tools helped my stakeholders – in this case, my boss – approve decisions faster.

The Pitch

Our local office – located in beautiful Eden Prairie, MN – needed an entertaining space. The office is paired next to vacant patio that overlooks Lake Smetana to the east, and 494 to the south. What better way to spend an afternoon in June throwing bags with my colleagues? How can I make these to align with our corporate branding? The obvious answer was to make it myself. But I needed two things: a buy-in, and a budget.

Fortunately, SOLIDWORKS does both – easily.

The Design

Probably one of the easiest projects I’ve ever taken on is designing a bags platform. Let’s look at the official requirements for it:

• Hole diameter is 6”.
• Hole is centered, 9” from top.
• Board is 4’x2’x1/2”.
• Board angle is approximately 10-degrees.

One workflow I’ve been enjoying storing these parameters as global variables under Tools> Equations. This way, I can call out any of the unique measurements to the design. It also makes it easier to link values on the fly by building equations.

The design will be made up of weldments and sheet metal. This allows me to get the nominal dimensions for the framing, legs, and board. My custom weldment profiles included several standard sizes of lumber members. To learn how to customize weldment profiles, visit here. My cut list is more descriptive than a standard BOM because it features the cut lengths of members. This can also be used to extract part costs using SOLIDWORKS Costing. We’ll get to that later.

The “sheet metal” component cut list property description has been modified to include the bounding box length and width.

The Buy-in

It’s time to take the design a bit further. If my boss has any chance of approving this, I will need great visual supports. Insert: Visualize.

SOLIDWORKS Visualize helps create hyper-realistic product renderings using the same CAD SLDPRT and SLDASM files. It’s more robust than other rendering options in SOLIDWORKS like Photoview 360. It’s also not the easiest to learn. Therefore, adding appearances directly within SOLIDWORKS can save time.

The appearances tab applies 2D cosmetic textures to faces, features, bodies, or parts. We can apply these and import this model directly into Visualize.

The first pass seems good at first, but a closer inspection shows that some of the model face patterns are going in the wrong direction.

This just won’t do. How will my boss be wooed into agreeing for an office “bags” set? Luckily, SOLIDWORKS appearances can address this issue quickly.

I can fix some of these faces by accessing some basic appearance controls in the PropertyManager,. First, I’ll RMB (right-click) the face where the pattern isn’t matched.

I will select my “face” filter on the mispositioned face. It may be necessary to re-apply the wood appearance.

Let’s point out a few things in the Appearances PropertyManager. The first, labelled “1”, is the “tack”. This will allow you to continuously apply appearances without having to RMB again. The “Mapping” tab allows users to control the mapping style, direction, and scale of the appearance. The “Axis Direction” allows you to change the angular reference direction. Lastly, rotation is what allows you to re-position the texture.

Make sure to select all the faces that you expect to have the same grain direction before applying the mapping controls. For more information, visit this SOLIDWORKS help page.

The rotation can be manually defined with number keys, left-clicked on for 45-degree incrementation, or click-dragged for 1-degree incrementation. Since the board angle must be 10-degrees for the regulation-size bags board, I’ll type in 10 degrees. I may have to use 170-degrees to get pattern rotation in the other direction.

I’ll continue this process until I have the expected grain directions.

Launching Visualize

Visualize Standard is free for members with active subscriptions with SOLIDWORKS Professional or Premium. To learn more about the benefits of Active Subscription, click here.

There are a few settings to know when importing your Visualize project. The first is the Part Grouping. Since this model is built through multi-body design with weldments and sheet metal, I’ll enable component/part/body/appearance as the part grouping. This allows me to apply a unique appearance to each body.

I’ll also make sure to enable “Monitor File”. This ensures the Visualize model will update according to any changes saved in the SOLIDWORKS model. If I forget to scale or rotate an appearance, I won’t need to use Visualize tools to modify it.

Once I re-mapped the bags board to the correct grain direction, I decided it still wasn’t enough. So, I modelled some bean bags and applied a burlap appearance. Of course, I colored them according to CATI colors. I also added the stone tiles that appear on our Eden Prairie office patio.

Wow, we now have an image that excites by showing the purpose of the board. This is just one of those powerful stories we can tell through Visualize. But, it’s just about to get a little more powerful…

While the board toss image rendering was good, I really had to knock this out of the park. How would my boss be able to tell how much enjoyment and office comradery this would bring? The answer: Import human.

And since I didn’t have a CAD model of myself, I decided this articulated robot from GrabCAD might do.

Oh, would you look at them having the time of their life? This clearly depicts the intended use of the product, which is what model rendering can illustrate. Now that’s a convincing sales pitch. Most of us might know already how to play this particular game, but could the same be said for your product? Does it communicate purpose in a professional manner?

And, is this enough to allow your stakeholders to buy-in? How do they know how much they need to buy-in? That leads us to the second necessity: the budget.

The Budget

All products need to fit within certain budget constraints. One incredibly helpful tool is SOLIDWORKS Costing. I’ve written a few blogs on the tool in the past: Costing template editor, Cost optimizing with Weldments I, Part II. It will help me get a total cost approximation for each board.

SOLIDWORKS Premium Costing allows assemblies to be evaluated. Assemblies include the option to price for purchased components like hardware.

A quick browse through the local lumber website can help get data to optimally build this.

First, I’ll evaluate the cost of the part. This is an example of what SOLIDWORKS Professional can provide.

Now, let’s look at the cost of the overall assembly, which includes a secondary board, and purchased bean bags. This is meant for SOLIDWORKS Premium. I already own some extra hardware, so I’ve added the hardware to “No cost assigned”. Purchased parts can have custom property “price” added in the file properties.

SOLIDWORKS Costing also tells me that it’s best to use 8ft members, instead of 12ft lumber, to be most cost-effective. This is the power of SOLIDWORKS Costing.

Results

Now, I can deliver both necessities for my proposal: the buy-in, and the budget. I’ve created both a visually appealing graphic with aesthetic design intent, and provided the overall cost of the product, within just two hours.

I can now go to my boss, propose the final design, and give him a budgetary estimate of under $100 to complete the project.

And that’s the story of how I convinced my boss to let me build America’s favorite game of — as he calls it– “Cornhole”.

Here’s the finished product! A simple laser diode engraver did most of the heavy lifting. I also got to try out my new Milwaukee jigsaw, which was thoroughly enjoyable.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a highly valued startup that wants to render excitement and intrigue to your stakeholders, or whether you’re just trying to convince your wife to build that backyard hangout you’ve always wanted, Visualize brings to life what standard CAD modelling cannot. It’s included with active subscription for SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium.

SOLIDWORKS Costing is included with SOLIDWORKS Professional (Premium for assemblies.) This tool will help you calculate in-house manufacturing costs for budget approval. It can also determine the “what if’s” of material procurement and manufacturing processes that optimize your lean product manufacturing. I used it to make sure I was wasting less, with 8ft instead of 12ft boards.

So, what are you waiting for? Get started by taking formal training through CATI, informal training through MySolidWorks, and start getting comfortable with the “yes” you’ll start receiving on your product development.

Best wishes and happy designing!

Jordan Kleinschmidt, CSWE
Application Engineer II
Computer Aided Technology

‘Compare Geometry’ is a free tool within the SOLIDWORKS Utilities Add-In and is available at all levels: Standard, Professional, and Premium.

Open each of the two files in question, then navigate to Tools>Compare>Geometry and the Compare Tool will open in the Task Pane on the right side of your screen.

Under the Reference document dropdown, select the In-Work file from the list. Do the same for the Modified document dropdown choosing the other open file. If configurations are being compared, select the ellipsis icon to the right of the dropdown as highlighted below.

Selecting the ellipsis icon will launch the SOLIDWORKS File Explorer which allows you to browse for the intended file and specify the configuration before choosing Select. Otherwise, SOLIDWORKS cannot open the same file twice by traditional means, regardless of alternate configuration selections.

With each of the two files now selected, we will choose the ‘Geometry’ option in the ‘Items to compare’ section of the Task Pane for this example. If both files are oriented the same, the ‘Align parts’ checkbox does not need to be selected. However, sometimes an extrusion direction could be flipped from the sketch plane which changes the relative position between the two models in 3D space. Misaligned models may cause inaccurate results. Reference Coordinate Systems can be created and used for each file selection if necessary.

Select ‘Run Comparison’. Once the geometry has been processed, both parts will be tiled horizontally, and the next page of the Compare Tool displays graphical results for Volume and Face comparisons. Here, I have the original imported ‘.x_t’ file on the top and the modified version below.

Orienting one model (translate, rotate, zoom) will orient the other in unison for a true apples-to-apples comparison.

Selecting the volume comparison option enables Hide/Show for both added and removed material between the two models, as well as the common volume. Unique colors will be added to both models to easily pinpoint the geometric differences. More than one option can be used at a time.

Volume Comparison:

Material to Remove: 1

Material to Add: 1

Common Volume: 1

Alternatively, using the face comparison option allows Hide/Show for unchanged, unique, and/or modified faces between the two models.

Face Comparison:

Unchanged Faces: 0

Unique Faces: 10

Modified Faces: 3

Selecting the Options/Settings Icon at the top of the Compare Task Pane allows you to change the applied colors for each graphic option. Additionally, linear units, decimal places, rounding, and angular units can be specified for a Results Report along with position and angle tolerances.

Selecting the Save Icon at the top of the Compare Task Pane will prompt you to choose a save location and file name. The saved report will generate geometric data for: Face and Volume Comparison, Mass Properties, Model Check, and Modified Faces, as well as Jpeg’s of Model Views.

The Compare Geometry tool can be taken a step further by incorporating the geometric changes into the Reference/In-Work file; saving you time and effort to make any necessary changes. If this feature is desired, select ‘Keep bodies on close’ and then specify which of the two files you would like those geometric changes to be applied to.

Once you close the Compare tool in the Task Pane (provided the ‘Keep bodies on close’ option is selected, the comparison data will be saved to the intended file as a separate Solid Body and represented as its own line item in the Feature Manager Design Tree. Expand the ‘Compare Volume’ folder in the Design Tree and each subsequent folder to reveal the new Solid Body. These additional Solid Bodies are also represented in the Top-Level Solid Body Folder higher up in the Design Tree.

If additional bodies are added to the model, the geometric volumes can be merged by using the Intersect or Combine tools.

Lastly, the Compare Geometry tools allows for the comparison of Bill of Material (BOM) tables. This can be performed between two SOLIDWORKS assemblies or drawing documents associated to the selected files. This utility locates all BOM tables in the documents. Excel-based BOM comparison is not supported.

SOLIDWORKS Compare Utility also supports Documents, Features, and 3D PMI. For additional information on Comparing Drawing Documents, please see this blog: https://www.cati.com/blog/solidworks-utilities-compare-drawings/

Additional information can be found on the SOLIDWORKS Help site: https://help.solidworks.com/2022/english/solidworks/sldworks/c_compare_overview.htm

Gabriel Rodriguez
Application Engineer I
Computer Aided Technology