What is SOLIDWORKS API and what can it do?

The SOLIDWORKS API, or Application Programming Interface, allows the automation of repetitive and tedious tasks within SOLIDWORKS. Custom applications using the SOLIDWORKS API can be as simple or as complex as desired, for instance, the API can be used to create simple macros. Macro’s, at their core, are just a preprogrammed sequence of events. Sequences of mouse clicks can be recorded and automatically inserted into a new macro by using the SOLIDWORKS macro recorder. Simply start the recorder and then perform the set of actions you’d like repeated. That will produce a very simple VBA macro that can be replayed at any time.

More functionality can then be added to a macro by editing it in the built-in VBA macro editor. All sorts of things can be added, including logic and intelligence, prompts to the user to send warnings and other information or to gather user input and selections. SOLIDWORKS Standard, Professional, and Premium all come with the ability to use, create, and modify macros.

It is also possible to create more complex applications by using C#, VB.net, or C++. These programming languages can be used to create custom add-ins and stand-alone applications that can launch and run SOLIDWORKS without a user’s interaction. See below for an example of a custom SOLIDWORKS add-in.

Ok, but can you be more specific about what the API can do?

The API can be used for anything that can save a designer time. It can also be used to accomplish things that normally could not be done by SOLIDWORKS. Such as inserting a user coordinate system at a specified X, Y, Z location or setting a file to automatically perform additional actions whenever the model is rebuilt, such as updating a general table. Other interesting ideas are adding a watermark or some visible label to a part model that cannot be deleted or removed. BOM tables can be exported to CSV or Excel. Custom properties can be populated from an Excel spreadsheet. And the list goes on.

It is important to note that SOLIDWORKS macros are based on VBA. This is the same language used by Excel. So, if you have ever made an Excel macro, the concept is the same in SOLIDWORKS. The main difference is that SOLIDWORKS has its own set of API calls (contained within a VBA reference library) that are used to interact with SOLIDWORKS, just as Excel has its own set of calls for interacting with spreadsheets.

Creating your program as an add-in instead of a macro can provide several benefits. For instance, they can be more stable, run faster, and be more reliably updated for new releases of SOLIDWORKS. Also, some things just work better as an add-in. The downside for many is that they take more programming experience to create, and the upfront effort is greater.

When should I consider turning to the SOLIDWORKS API for a solution?

The best use cases for creating an application using the SOLIDWORKS API are:

1. Performing repetitive or tedious tasks.
2. To perform an action or series of actions that are not available inside the SOLIDWORKS or PDM user interfaces.
3. To save money by not having to manually do all of the above every day, one click at a time.
4. Eliminating user error by automating tasks.

You said something about automating SOLIDWORKS PDM?

SOLIDWORKS PDM has its own API, and it’s just as powerful as the SOLIDWORKS API. The main difference is that there are no PDM macros. There are only add-ins and stand-alone applications. This means it must be programmed using C#, VB.net, or C++ (no VBA).

Since PDM is focused on file management, references, and tracking data, most custom applications for PDM also focus on those areas. They can manage file references, check things in and out of the vault, send custom notifications, and manipulate data card properties (and much more).

Another great thing, is that custom tasks can be set up for users to run on-demand or can trigger automatically on workflow transition (hopefully you are familiar with PDM workflows?).

Some add-ins are what I call ‘hybrid’ add-ins. These are add-ins in PDM that are designed to utilize both the PDM and SOLIDWORKS APIs. With these, PDM can automatically open files in SOLIDWORKS and perform specific actions. And it can use the information in PDM to determine which files to process. Information PDM can use include bills of materials, where used lists, file references and data card variables.

This section probably deserves its own blog… there is a lot I could write about here.

Ok, I have an idea! …now what?

Planning out your custom application is one of the most important steps – aside from actually getting it working! The first thing you need to do is describe what you want this program to do and write it down. Writing it down will force you to actually define it as opposed to just having an idea in your head that can change over time. It is very important to have a targeted goal in mind, even for the simplest of macros.

The 2^nd thing you should do is build an outline. Ok, this is something you can maybe skip if you are just building something quickly or it’s only for yourself. Overall, it’s a little bit like writing a paper. Pick a topic, write a summary, then outline what the program should do. Use plain English and write down step-by-step what the application will do. This will also help when a year from now you’re trying to remember what this thing does.

Here is an example:

Summary: A SOLIDWORKS Add-in, that on the click of a button, will use the value of an existing custom property as the basis for a SQL query in a custom database. It will then use the returned string to automatically create 2 new custom properties in the currently open SOLIDWORKS part file.

Outline:

1. The installed custom SOLIDWORKS add-in will have 1 icon.
2. The add-in will only run on the currently open and active SOLIDWORKS part file.
3. A configuration file will hold the custom property name, SQL query, and SQL connection string.
4. The user must fill in the source custom property before running the add-in.
5. Clicking the button will read the active document’s custom property value and run the SQL query.
6. The values of 2 custom properties are filled in using the information returned by the SQL query.
7. The custom properties will be created if they do not already exist.

In this case, the application was designed as a SOLIDWORKS add-in and would be written in C# programing language. This would allow for better handling of the SQL query than is available using VBA macros.

As you may have noticed, something like this could also be used for ERP integration. A full solution would need to be able to push information to the SQL database instead of (or in addition to) pulling from it.

But I’m not a programmer, can I just have someone make me whatever I want?

Yes! …provided it is possible. CATI has an amazing development staff that is ready to help. Our developers have been programming custom applications for decades. We would follow the same basic process I’ve already discussed, starting with what do you want to accomplish? Can any of it be done already with out-of-the-box functionality in SOLIDWORKS or PDM? Then we’ll help to refine your need and can get started building it for you.

Any recommendations on SOLIDWORKS API design?

The API is an amazing tool to help your designers and potentially other departments in your organization. The API is not intended to replace your designers, it is intended to increase their productivity. I usually recommend starting with one main goal for automation and then if you need more, to grow it from there. Many people try to put too much into an application at once and the scope can either grow out of control or never get finalized. It is often easier to pick a starting point, use it for a while to figure out if there are any other enhancements you would like made, and then do both the enhancements and additions at a later time.

I hope this has helped clear up what the API is and how it could benefit you. It has so much flexibility, if you are looking for more information, the online help files are available here: Welcome – 2022 – SOLIDWORKS API Help.

Regards,

Joe Phillips
Application Engineer II
Computer Aided Technology

An Integrated System for Engineering and Manufacturing

The goal of a full system is to provide you with a single location to configure a solution, while also providing immediate pricing and a method to turn that into a quote. By nature, a system like this is going to touch multiple groups and needs multiple layers of validation. However, using a full solution helps prevent situations like the one I laid out at the top.

So which systems will this talk to? Well first, a configuration tool needs to have a tie into engineering and manufacturing. Let’s talk about this as it relates to one of my favorite tools, DriveWorks. DriveWorks is an automation solution that links directly to your SOLIDWORKS models. This means that whoever uses DriveWorks can get immediate engineering feedback, without having to rope in a designer. It also means you can get models and drawings with just a few clicks. But we don’t want to stop at configuration. We also need to price out a project. For this, we turn to DriveWorks’s integration with systems beyond SOLIDWORKS.

Tying Into Sales

Every business is different in how they create pricing. Some use simple pricing sheets, others use tools like QuickBooks, and even ERP comes into play. Whatever the system, sales needs accurate pricing to sell our products. Let’s think about how sales get the pricing right now in the scenario at the top. Currently, sales should work with engineering to price out a job. However, when we’re in a rush, we often skip steps that we think we can do just as well. The problem is that we can’t always do that with perfect accuracy.

This is where it benefits you to have an integrated automation solution. We’ve already talked about creating a system where engineers configure models on the fly. Now, we put something like that on a website and tie in pricing so that anybody we want can get an accurate price along with an accurate model. Once again, let’s take a look at DriveWorks.

I made each of these models using the same configurator and notice that the price of the system changed based on the selected motor type. It’s a simple swap, but these changes may not always be standard. This is what a full solution does for engineering and sales. Now we can get an accurate price to our customers instantly, while also knowing that we can manufacture the selections we’ve made without any problems.

How Can Configure to Order Benefit You?

Providing accurate pricing and engineering specifications are two major components of any business. If you do one well while the other lacks, we don’t have a very sound solution in place. What makes a configurator, complete with pricing, such a powerful tool is our team can provide pricing for manufacturable solutions on the fly. This frees up time for your engineers to focus on value-add work and allows sales to engage with more customers than ever before.

Let’s Start Using Configure to Order!

The beauty of an integrated system is that you can start anywhere. Do you have a design that you think could benefit from some automation? In that case, check out DriveWorksXpress, a free automation tool that’s incorporated into every seat of SOLIDWORKS! Or maybe you have a parts catalog and just want to see what’s possible. If that sounds like you, check out the Building Components or Industrial Components demonstration on the DriveWorks Live website.

And if you don’t know where to start, CATI is always here to guide you in the best direction for what you need. We talk about these tools day-in and day-out and have years of experience finding the best fit for whatever tool will help you do your job the best.

Nick Sweeney
Applications Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

How Much Can We Automate?

I get it, you do unique work that takes training to understand the ins and outs. That said, we all operate within certain bounds that make it so we can teach other people what we’re doing. It’s not everything, but at least some portion of your job could probably be automated. If you look at a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, “about half the activities people are paid $15 trillion in wages to do in the global economy have the potential to be automated”. That’s not insignificant either, as they conducted the report based on the analysis of more than 2000 activities over 800 occupations.

It is important to point out that I’m not suggesting you automate everything, though my boss does like to throw this image in our Teams chat from time to time.

Rather, find the mundane tasks that make you roll your eyes and look closely at them. I bet you can find something that you spend even 5 minutes working on every day that with a simple tool, could be taken off your plate.

An Automation Example

Speaking of routine things that I don’t enjoy doing, creating legal documents is right near the top. I think law is a really interesting discipline and gave rise to one of my favorite TV shows, but writing terms and conditions isn’t exactly riveting. Therefore, after I wrote maybe three of them, I decided I needed a better way of doing it; enter automation.

Before, it took five minutes per document to make sure I filled in everything correctly and, even then, sometimes I missed things. Since I put the project in DriveWorks, I’ve managed to create over 200 documents in the past year alone, each one taking 30 seconds. On top of that, we’ve managed to cut out our initial review because of the consistency automation gives us.

Now not all of us create documents all day and that may not be a perfect example for what you do, but there’s an underlying message in that. Whether you automate some of your job or all of your job, you can save yourself some time. Automation gives you consistent results faster than you could ever do by hand.

A Few Automation Options

I mentioned DriveWorks, but I should probably explain the tool a bit. At a high level, DriveWorks is a design automation solution. It has full integration with SOLIDWORKS, making it my go-to choice when I want to automate SOLIDWORKS designs. However, it goes beyond just design automation. Instead of stopping at just creating SOLIDWORKS models, it creates drawings, supporting documentation, and even has a customizable user interface. Put all of that together, and you can really get a full automation solution with a single tool.

DriveWorks is my favorite automation tool, but it’s far from the only one. For example, take workflows in SOLIDWORKS PDM. You can equip any workflow with automatic tasks that run every time an action occurs. What this allows you to do is ensure the same thing happens when you want it to happen every time you need it to happen. Printing documents is a great example. As engineers, we understand that some people need paper drawings. However, printing a document is definitely not a “value-add” activity. So, instead of doing a “File, Print” and selecting the printer, why not spend five minutes setting up the PDM Print Task to do it for you?

For those of you that need more dialed in automation, you could look to a custom API. SOLIDWORKS has a documented help file chock full of examples to get you going. And, if you don’t have the patience to write something up yourself, CATI is happy to help you out a custom API solution.

How Can We Get Started?

Automation is a process and it’s important to approach it as such. Additionally, having proper expectations is key when thinking about integrating a new solution. My advice is to start small. You don’t need to create a solution on day one that lets you spend all day with your feet kicked up. Instead, look at the things you do every day. Can you find something that is the same process nearly every time?

If you can answer that question with a “yes”, then you’re on the right path. Now you have a task and can start looking for a direction. If it’s design automation you’re after, you can start by looking at DriveWorksXpress, a free automation tool included with SOLIDWORKS. Additionally, you could look at using the SOLIDWORKS Design Library to automate some consistent features.

If you’re after some process automation, DriveWorks can certainly be a piece of that, but take a look at your data management solution as well. If you’re using SOLIDWORKS PDM, you have numerous tasks you can place in the workflows. You can use the print task to print a drawing packet in just a couple of clicks!

Wrap It Up

We can all automate something that we do every day. Whether that’s setting up a routine on our smart devices when we wake up or creating a 75-part assembly at work, there’s always something. Take a look at what’s around you and the repetitive tasks. If you know the perfect tool to help, perfect. And if you need some guidance or help figuring out a solution, hit me up and let’s talk about it!

Nick Sweeney
Applications Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

How can it improve my design limits?

With DriveWorks Solo you’re setting up once and creating all of your configurations from there. Doing this increases your modeling accuracy and reduces errors in outputs. The days of worrying about whether you have hit the limit of your design tables or configurations are gone because DriveWorks Solo is replacing that functionality with a better-suited solution. DriveWorks Solo’s project designer tool allows you to not only write the rules that control your models but also set up a very user-friendly interface. See Figure 1 below for examples. The user interface is rules-based which gives you greater control over how your models and drawings are configured. See Figure 2 below.

Fig. 1  User interface examples

Fig. 2  Rules builder interface

So if you are experiencing the challenges of managing complex configurations or design tables and want to know more about how DriveWorks Solo works and how it can help reduce your design time and more.

Blog Author:

Nick Pusateri
Application Engineer

The Problem with Chrome/Edge and Viewing a PDF

I’m a big fan of Google Chrome. It does a nice enough job with security, it’s easy to use, and I can connect to my Google account. But recently, I got a question from one of our DriveWorks customers. Their administrator was trying to set up a project that would let users view a PDF generated by Autopilot without having to leave the project.

My thinking was that you could use a Web Frame control and just set the URL to be “file://NewFilePathGeneratedByAutopilot“. I’ve seen Chrome do that before to open a file, surely it can do it again. Nope. Turns out, Chrome blocked it and I couldn’t fix it. So I tried a different web browser, Edge. No dice. Then I got desperate and tried Internet Explorer and it worked!

Clearly, I needed to do some research. Thanks to some digging from our support team, we had an answer. Microsoft and Google started blocking “file://” URLs sometime in the last few years. The biggest reason for it is security reasons. Someone could post a harmful document and that URL leads you right into it. Because of this, it seems we need a workaround, or maybe just a different method.

A Better Way

We had to think of some options. The first would be that we could just have everyone use Internet Explorer and that would let anyone view the file. But what if someone didn’t want to use it? Or what if they have a device that doesn’t have Internet Explorer? Okay, then how about some kind of extension for Edge/Chrome that unblocks them? I think we’re getting closer, but that’s still a client side resolution and we can’t ask every user to install an extension.

Then we had a thought. DriveWorks Live shows documents when you run through the projects. Let’s take a look at how they do it?

Very simply, we have a function in DriveWorks called FsGetUrl. What FsGetUrl does is it retrieves a URL for a given file. Then you can take that URL and use it to display files in a web frame control or as a hyperlink to let users download a file directly from your project.

It’s easy enough to do and the results are everything you could ask for. Now you can give your users access to real time PDFs, created using DriveWorks Live.

Final Thoughts

This does extend beyond simply a PDF. While they are one of the more common file types, you may also want to give a user access to a rendering in PNG form. You could also view an HTML file the same way.

FsGetUrl can’t display file types like SOLIDWORKS Parts, Word Documents, or Zip files. However, you can use the hyperlink method to allow the user to download his or her files right from the interface.

Lots you can do, all with one simple function.

~Nick

One of the most important diagnostic tools in DriveWorks Professional is Model Insight. This tool is an essential tool for understanding how DriveWorks generates your model. Maybe more importantly, you can dig into any errors that may occur when generating the model. Model Insight uses the Queued method of model generation and allows you to step through every action taken by DriveWorks when generating a model.

With Model Insight you can:

• Review processing order for dimensions, features, custom properties, etc.
• Check the time it takes to execute each operation.
• See where a particular operation is not giving you the results you expect.

Now that you know what Model Insight can do, lets next find where to the tool is in DriveWorks Professional and see how it works. Before we learn how to launch the tool, we first need to be aware that there are three different settings you can set the Model Insight tool to. You can use the “Minimal” setting for a first-pass run to see if there are any issues generating models. The “Normal” and or “Verbose” settings give you way more info on why your models aren’t generating properly or at all. See Figure 1 below. To launch Model Insight, you first need to be in the “Test Mode” option inside of the Specification Explorer which can be found in the Administrator tool. Test Mode lets you review project rules within a specification. You will notice the Test Mode option in DriveWorks 18 SP1 has a drop-down arrow to choose different specifications that are hosted within your current specification. See Figure 2 below.

Fig. 1 Model Insight settings

Fig. 2 Test Mode option

Once in Test Mode, you’re able to test each DriveWorks task that can be analyzed from the tab strip under the Command Bar. DriveWorks tasks that can be analyzed are Form, Navigation, Constants, Variables, Documents, Tables, Calculation Tables, and Model Rules. Let’s next choose the Model Rules option and from there choose either a part or an assembly icon under the Models column of the interface to run the Model Insight tool with. Note, you can’t choose a drawing because you use Model Insight for parts and assemblies. See Figure 3 below.

Before we click Model Insight, I recommend moving the Administrator tool to another screen. Then, put Model Insight and SOLIDWORKS on another. Doing this will let you see what is being generated inside of the SOLIDWORKS interface.

Fig. 3 Models Rules interface to use Model Insight

Next will click the Model Insight option and from there another window pops up which is what we will use to find any errors in our DriveWorks projects. See Figure 4 below.

Fig. 4 Model Insight interface

The Model Insight tool has many commands to choose from. See Figure 5 below. Before clicking on any of the commands we recommend first creating a Pause Point (red dot) on an operation. Simply left-click in the gray column of the Model Insight interface. Creating a Pause Point allows the model generation to pause at a chosen operation. After creating a Pause Point, click the Run command to start the interactive model generation. It will run all the way up to your Pause Point and stop.

From there, you’ll notice on the right-hand side the amount of time it took for that task. Also, you’ll see a colored circle with a check mark in it. Green means the operation was successful. Yellow indicates a warning that something did not run right and red means an error occurred. A grayed check mark means you’re skipping that a step. See Figure 6 below.

Fig. 5 Model Insight commands

Fig. 6 Using Pause Point, Run, and Step Into commands

When you run the tool all the way to the end you will see how many successful generations occurred versus how many warnings or errors that may have occurred. See Figure 7 below.

Fig. 7 Model Insight indicator

Knowing ahead of time whether or not your models will generate properly is a huge advantage using the Model Insight tool. Its great to know ahead of time where to even start to look in the generation process if something did go wrong. Using the Model Insight tool will ultimately make you more successful at catching errors ahead of time so you can get you production models and drawings done faster and more accurately.

Nick Pusateri

Application Engineer

www.cati.com

Why Formatting Matters

Some people don’t care about the formatting of their text. That’s not a big deal. However, I mentioned earlier that your systems might care. Or, what if you have customers entering data and you want to make it easier for them?

This data lives in different formats. Email addresses need to have a username and a domain. Without either of those things, you don’t have a valid email address. It might make sense to have someone enter an email address and validate it with DriveWorks rules.

Numeric values are another subset of formats. If someone gave me 10000000, it would take a second to know what I’m looking at. Compare that to 10,000,000 and it’s easy to see the difference. So, with the groundwork set, let’s see how DriveWorks can help us.

Validate Formatting

DriveWorks has some pretty sweet validation rules. If you haven’t checked out the DriveWorks Tech Stack, they have a nice section about validation rules. Validation rules ensure your formatted text is what you want it to be. Here’s just a sneak peak of what you will see.

You can validate information like file names, folder paths, and email addresses. This is important because if a customer gives us an email like the last one, our CRM system likely won’t accept the values. It also means that we won’t have invalid file and folder names, ensuring that our files will save correctly.

Use DriveWorks to Format for You

One function that doesn’t get much attention is TEXT. TEXT lets you format data as it comes in. That’s a great way you can format things like percentages, dates, and currency. The TEXT function receives your inputs and formats according to the format you set up.

But sometimes data needs to be a specific type to go into your system. A great example is a SQL database. SQL lists each field as some kind of input. This might be something like a character value (char) or numeric (int). If your users aren’t providing the data in the exact format you want, you’ll notice data not populating in your tables. One great way around this is to use functions such as STRING or NUMBER, which will transform your data into another format.

Formatting Phone Numbers

Recently, some of the DriveWorks guys at InFlow were trying to figure this problem out. How do you format a phone number using DriveWorks 18? Simple, we said, it’s just formatting text with DriveWorks, nothing crazy! Little did we know, there’s a catch with how the text function works. Turns out, if the number it’s working with exceeds 999,999,999, the formatting goes out the

window. So now what do we do? Well, there’s more than just “TEXT” at our disposal.

In order to make the formatting work, we had to separate the text. Phone numbers are typically (123) 456-7890, so that’s doable. The Left and Right functions let you grab sections of text and use that instead of the full length. And by using those, along with text, this was the result:

Dialing it in

We all know that formatting is important. It’s how we keep track of information. Not only that, it’s how our systems track information as well. Now we can port our data into any system. Whether that’s SQL, Excel, or anything else, we’re ready to add information. And better than that, clean and accurate formatting ensures a great experience for our customers.

What is DriveWorks Professional?

DriveWorks Professional is your design automation tool that brings everything together. Whether you’re connecting to other business systems, hosting a website, or just sharing the project with your coworkers, DriveWorks Professional is a great tool for you. But the licensing for DriveWorks Professional works a little different than with Solo and Xpress.

Instead of having a standalone licensing that sticks with SOLIDWORKS, it comes in modules. So what are these different modules? Well, first is DriveWorks Administrator. The Administrator tool is where you set up everything in your projects. This is where you create your forms, set up your models, create reference tables, and develop your project workflow. This is a required module if you want to develop a project.

The next module is DriveWorks Autopilot. The best description of Autopilot is that it’s an engineer in a box. Essentially, it sits behind the scenes and generates models and documentation. There isn’t any manual intervention and everything happens automatically.

There are 2 more DriveWorks Professional modules I want to hit on very briefly and I’ll put them together. Those modules are DriveWorks Live and User. These are the two modules that give you a window into the DriveWorks projects. They allow you to run them and request (or generate) any models, drawings, supporting documentations, etc.

The modules are mix and match, so you only purchase what you need. The only required one is Administrator.

How does DriveWorks Professional expand on Solo and Xpress?

Did you make a “configurator” that customers could use? What if they went to your website and decided they wanted to make their own cabinet? Well, with DriveWorks Professional, you unlock that ability. Your customers can log into a portal that you design. Once they’re there, they can pick and choose from a list of options that you’ve set up. And now that they’ve decided they like the design, they can place an order. All of that happens in a single interface, making sharing your projects a breeze.

Speaking of the interface, DriveWorks Professional enhances what your users can do. You can include things like a 3D Preview to give your users a live, 3D image of their models. Additionally, you can run macros on forms to get information from other locations. What other locations you ask?

Another great way DriveWorks Professional expands on Solo and Xpress is with the integration of external data. We talk to a lot of people that keep their data in other systems. Often, that system might be an Excel file or an SQL database. Regardless of what you use, DriveWorks has several ways that we can try to integrate with them.

I could go on an on, but there are several ways that Professional expands upon what exists in Solo and Xpress. For a comprehensive list, check out this DriveWorks feature comparison matrix.

Where do I start?

Unlike with the Xpress and Solo versions, there isn’t a free trial of DriveWorks Professional. However, all is not lost. Everything that you learn from DriveWorks Solo and Xpress applies with Professional. So, instead of starting with Professional, you can get a start with Xpress and Solo. That way, when you decide to make the move up, you are well prepared for using the tool.

And just like with Solo, all of the work you do in Xpress and Solo can be ported into DriveWorks Professional. This means that you can not only learn with them, but also get a jump on your projects. On top of that, you can take your forms and enhance them in Professional. Additionally, you can start working with that data outside of DriveWorks that you’ve been needing to reference. All of that can start as soon as you make the move up to Pro.

Where can I look?

Much like DriveWorks Solo, signing up for the DriveWorks community is a great place to go when looking for information about DriveWorks. It contains information regarding resellers, user group meetings, licensing, webinars, and more! For DriveWorks Professional, you can find lots of information on the DriveWorks Resources Page. The resources page is a great place to start. It also has links to DriveWorksXpress and DriveWorks Solo resources if you are still researching the best tool for you. As always, please reach out to your local reseller for any additional help or with any questions you might have!

What’s next?

Now that you’ve learned how you can use DriveWorks Professional, let’s go through your next steps. First, make sure you get in touch with your reseller. DriveWorks Professional goes through them and they should be your main point of contact regarding the tool. Once you’re ready and have decided DriveWorks, the first step is typically to decide exactly what needs to be automated. Derek mentioned it last week, but I want to also suggest taking a look at a blog on the DriveWorks website that’s all about getting ready for a DriveWorks implementation. It’s a great resource to help you get started.

As always, be sure to contact InFlow Technology if you have any questions or need any help.

~Nick

Have you checked out InPOD? InPOD is the official InFlow Podcast. Each week, Nick Sweeney takes a dive into a topic that our customers might need to learn more about. This week, we review the different kinds of licenses and some of the benefits in DriveWorks. Check it out!

What Is DriveWorks Solo?

DriveWorks Solo is design automation software that lives along with SOLIDWORKS. It allows design engineers and product designer to quickly and easily create and configure custom products inside SOLIDWORKS. Use DriveWorks Solo to reduce the cost of custom designs, respond quickly to sales inquiries, enhance product quality & reduce repetitive tasks.

All DriveWorks Solo licenses are available as Fixed licenses that can be activated on individual machines. Access DriveWorks Solo by using the add-in inside of SOLIDWORKS. From here, you can access the administration tool to configure your products and user interface. Once you create a project, use the add-in to run projects and generate the SOLIDWORKS files based on your inputs!

How Does DriveWorks Solo expand on DriveWorksXpress?

Let’s talk about how it expands on what you can do in DriveWorksXpress. It all starts with the user interface. DriveWorks Solo is a standalone application, accessed from the SOLIDWORKS task pane. Once you access the administration tool, you can create custom forms that your users interact with.

Another great way Solo expands on DriveWorksXpress is the ability to use tables. Remember last week when Nick said that Xpress makes the use of VLookups and Lists impossible? Well, DriveWorks Solo lets you use simple tables to store tabular information. Now you can quickly write rules to define the color of your models without memorizing the RGB codes!

One final way Solo enhances your ability is by giving you more control with your drawings. DriveWorksXpress is a fantastic tool to create basic drawings. However, what happens when your scale needs to change? DriveWorks Solo gives you the power to modify the scale of your views and the locations of your dimensions. This keeps your drawings clean and ready to go after making your models.

Where Do I Start?

For licensing information, reach out to your local reseller to see what kind of license is right for you. To find a local reseller, check out the DriveWorks Reseller Page.

Before purchasing any licenses of DriveWorks Solo, a 30-day trial license is available by request! We recommend that, before starting any trial, you understand what DriveWorks is capable of and how it works. You can download and try DriveWorks Solo FREE for 30 days at the DriveWorks website. Free online training, getting started webinars, how-to videos and more are available in the DriveWorks Community to help get you up and running quickly. In addition to joining the DriveWorks community, your local reseller may provide technical training or have access to more information that may prove helpful during your trial.

If you are continuing development with a DriveWorksXpress project, you can simply choose the existing DriveWorksXpress project to open within DriveWorks Solo, and then continue with your configuration based on what you already have. With DriveWorks Solo, you now have access to more information to help you deliver a better configurator to your team!

Where Can I Look?

Signing up for the DriveWorks community is the first place to go when looking for information about DriveWorks. It contains information regarding resellers, user group meetings, licensing, webinars, and more! For DriveWorks Solo, you can find lots of information on the DriveWorks Resources Page. Use the information on that page to get you started down the right path. It also has links to DriveWorksXpress and DriveWorks Professional resources if you are still researching the best tool for you. As always, please reach out to your local reseller for any additional help or with any questions you might have!

Where Do I Go Next?

Usually the first goal with DriveWorks is to define what product you would like to automate. Then, you create the project to do just that. Check out this fantastic blog outlining the first steps to take when starting your first project. Although it primarily references the professional version, the same principles can be used for DriveWorks Solo.

There are lots of ways that you can configure one of your projects with DriveWorks Solo. Eventually you may find yourself simply outgrowing the product. As you create and advance your projects, there may be additional features to help control what can be done and when. DriveWorks Solo project can be carried over to the next level: DriveWorks Professional. Finally, additional features and modules are available with Professional. Use them to expand how you can control your project, user experiences, or even 3^rd party data.

Keep an eye out for the next part of this series, “Everything You Need to Know: DriveWorks Professional”.

What is DriveWorksXpress?

DriveWorksXpress is a tool you can find inside any SOLIDWORKS license. The tool is available to students and working professional alike. Along with the tool being easy to access and make money with, it’s also easy to learn. Have you ever used a function in Microsoft Excel? I don’t mean anything complex, I mean a rule like “If(A1>A2, “+”, “-“)“. Now that isn’t too complex. All I do is compare cell A1 to cell A2 and then show the difference with either a “+” or “-“. That’s how simple DriveWorksXpress can be.

Using DriveWorksXpress can quickly give you models and drawings. A big topic within the SOLIDWORKS design automation space is design tables. Design tables are great tools for quickly creating and manipulating assemblies. But the main point where design tables fall short is with the drawings. If you need a drawing to go with your model, then design tables will only go so far. DriveWorksXpress expands on that ability by generating both models and drawings in the same shot.

Everything you need to know

Let’s get into the reason for this piece. I want to help you learn everything you need to know about DriveWorksXpress. This isn’t a tutorial on the tool, but rather a guide to help you find everything you could need to learn. By the end, you will know how to activate the tool, what learning resources are available to you, and what you should do when you have a grasp on the tool.

1. Activate DriveWorksXpress in SOLIDWORKS

So as I’ve mentioned, this is a free tool, included in every seat of SOLIDWORKS. Great, but where can you find it? Open SOLIDWORKS, then go to Tools, followed by Xpress Products, and finally, DriveWorksXpress. SOLIDWORKS then takes you to a screen to enter an activation code. You get this code by logging into MySOLIDWORKS and requesting the code.

As soon as you enter the code, DriveWorksXpress is active and you can begin automating. There are a lot of tutorials out there that will help you learn bits of information for DriveWorks. However, let me take this chance to pull some of that information together.

2. Get Started

Again, this isn’t a tutorial of the DriveWorksXpress tool, but rather a fishing guide. I want you to be able to fish and know where you can find information to help you along. With that in mind, let’s talk about our first resource for DriveWorks knowledge, the DriveWorks YouTube Channel. Many of us prefer video over reading a “How To” page. We get a quick tutorial and in an easy to understand format. The information is easy to absorb in video format and we can watch the practice instead of reading the theory.

The videos provided on the page aren’t anything revolutionary. However, they’re a great way understand the capabilities of DriveWorksXpress and to get started using it. They show you how to find DriveWorksXpress in SOLIDWORKS, how to write configuration rules, and so much more. I highly recommend starting here to get some baseline information and understanding of DriveWorksXpress.

3. Learn to Write Rules

Now that you understand what DriveWorksXpress is, let’s talk about using it. Rules are the backbone of DriveWorks. When I describe the tool, I use the words, “a rules based engine”. That’s very much on purpose because that is how I think of DriveWorks. Everything that we do has rules to it. This is true of engineering, driving, cooking, you name it. Nevertheless, it always surprises me when people ask, “what kind of rules can I write?” You can write pretty much any rule you want. However, there is something you need to remember.

DriveWorksXpress doesn’t have tables available to it. So what this means is that a List function or a VLookup isn’t going to work the way you think it will. In fact, it won’t work at all. But that doesn’t mean you can’t write incredible rules in DriveWorksXpress.

Here is a pro tip – if you don’t know how to write a function in DriveWorks, try getting the same results from Microsoft Excel. Why does this work? Allow me to explain.

When DriveWorks first came out, it was based on the Excel rules engine. This means that many of the functions you find in Microsoft Excel also exist in DriveWorks. And if you’re stuck and don’t know what function you need, make sure you check out the DriveWorks Help File. There are great pages in there that walk you through each function that you might need.

4. Get Certified

Everybody loves getting a new certification. It’s bright, shiny, and is something we can proudly display on our desk or our wall. And if that certification is free, that makes it even more worth while! DriveWorksXpress has a fantastic certification available to anyone that wants it. Yes, anybody can access this certification because DriveWorksXpress is a part of any seat of SOLIDWORKS. Overall, it takes about three hours to run through the class and certification itself. You’ll go through a simple example of using DriveWorksXpress to automate the creation of a simple assembly.

The certification course walks you through the example. But not everyone wants to sit and go through a PDF on their own, so there are alternative training courses available. But it’s important to remember that every course has the same goal. We want you to walk out of the course understanding what DriveWorksXpress is and how you can use it to benefit your business. The tool is easy to learn and provides immediate return on investment as soon as you create your first model.

And the best part? You get a fancy, new certificate once you finish, as well as some additional information and sample projects that you can try out. Use this knowledge and apply it to what you do today. Is there an assembly that you make again and again, but design automation could improve that process? Is there a parts library that you want to create on-demand but haven’t found the right tool for the job? DriveWorksXpress lives in SOLIDWORKS and provides a quick, easy-to-use, automation solution.

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve learned how you can use DriveWorksXpress, let’s go through your next steps. First, start using the tool and start making money with it! The tool is free, easy-to-use, and there are tons of resources that I outlined throughout this post. Of course, no matter how many resources I give you, you may still need more. You might needs tables. You could need to connect to your PDM and ERP systems. Maybe you need to create a website for your customers to access. Luckily, DriveWorks has three levels to the product, Xpress, Solo, and Professional, so there are other options.

Regardless of why, be sure to check out the DriveWorks feature comparison to determine which direction you need to go. And, as always, be sure to contact InFlow Technology if you have any questions or need any help.

Happy automating!

~Nick