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More DriveWorks 8 Revealed

Paul Gimbel — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:00:20 +0000

OK, so we’re not WikiLeaks (so PLEASE don’t launch a Denial of Service attack against us) since we’re pulling this information from the Philip Stears blog Read More...

DriveWorks 8 Rules Engine Secrets

Paul Gimbel — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:56:37 +0000

Yes folks, you’re hearing it here first (unless you read the Philip Stears blog, in which case you’re reading it here second). Philip, lead developer at Read More...

DriveWorks 8 Revealed!

Paul Gimbel — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:04:27 +0000

OK, so maybe not all of DriveWorks 8 is being revealed, but in his blog, Philip Stears (lead developer at DriveWorks) is starting to leak details Read More...

Selecting or Customizing Variants in TactonWorks

Paul Gimbel — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 13:00:06 +0000

There are two extremes when driving components in design automation systems: on one end of the spectrum, you can allow users to only select pre-defined components (Configure-to-Order) and on the other end of the spectrum, you can let users create their own parts by driving the dimensions and features of the parts with infinite flexibility (Engineer-to-Order). Which of these models is TactonWorks following with variants? Are we just selecting variants, or are we customizing them, or are we doing both?

TactonWorks lets users select variants and customize those variants as well. When setting up the automation, the author can drive certain features/dimensions with pre-defined values in the associated variant table, or s/he can use a value of “unspecified” on feature values to indicate that they are to be provided by the end user or driven by other constraints.

Let’s take a road bicycle as an example. When selecting brakes for a new bicycle configuration, the user is likely choosing among COTS (Commerical Off The Shelf) components, so they will simply be selecting a variant. However, when driving the overall size of the bicycle to get just the right fit, the system might ask the user to customize the length of the structural members. Of course, certain aspects of the aluminum tube used to construct these structural members would be fixed (or at least pre-defined), take for instance the wall thickness of the tube and perhaps the outside diameter. In the case of these structural members, the user is customizing a variant (perhaps also selecting first – if there are multiple choices for tube OD and wall thickness) because the length would have been left “undefined” and would be infinitely adjustable.

So there you have it. In TactonWorks, you can both select and customize variants in your design. This should provide enough flexibility to keep your TactonWorks applications useful (providing enough guided selections to reduce the number of options) but still powerful (able to model any feasible scenario). If you have questions about TactonWorks variants, about Tacton in general, or about what design automation could be doing for your business, contact us – we’d love to help.

Microsoft’s Free XML Editor

Paul Gimbel — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:02:46 +0000

XML is the wonder of the modern programming age. Its plain text can represent objects with properties and attributes to capture complex structures in a simple text file. And it’s even fairly easy to understand. Just look at it. It’s logical. But as logical as XML is, when you look at an XML file in production, it’s huge, convoluted, and impossible to grasp in one glimpse inside of Notepad. Lucky for us, our friends at Microsoft have come up with an answer in their free XML Notepad 2007 tool. After installing XML Notepad 2007 (you can download it from Microsoft’s site or from Codeplex), the tool is simple to launch and use. In Windows Explorer, simply right-select any XML file and choose the option Edit with XML Notepad. The interface is intuitive and an easy way to view and edit XML files. One tab provides a tree view that allows you to collapse and expand each section to drill down quickly. Another tab provides a preview of the file, once the specified XSL transform has been applied. Copy, paste, search, replace, and other standard editor functions are there along with XML-specific menus that let you insert elements, attributes and so on. An error list window at the bottom of the editor warns of any problems in real time, and a dynamic help window displays the xsd:documentation for nodes as they are selected. And perhaps best of all, elements are color-coded based on element type, making the content easy to scan visually. XML is becoming more and more important when working with software. And this free tool from Microsoft is a great way to work with XML. Download it and try it for yourself. Oh yeah, and did we mention that it is Open Source (for those of you looking for a good code base in creating your own specialized XML editing app). If you have other XML editing tools that you think are great (we like Notepad++, too), leave us a comment and let us know about them, please.

Microsoft’s Free XML Editor

Paul Gimbel — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:02:46 +0000

XML is the wonder of the modern programming age. Its plain text can represent objects with properties and attributes to capture complex structures in a simple Read More...

Rule Efficiency in Design Automation

Paul Gimbel — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:17:12 +0000

One of the biggest complaints about design automation is performance. Companies are outraged that the tool runs for a whole hour to complete a process that Read More...

Swapping Models in SolidWorks

Paul Gimbel — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:11:49 +0000

Design Automation is very powerful when creating unique “same as, but” models for new jobs. But in many cases, people are doing configure-to-order (CTO) just as much as they are doing engineer-to-order (ETO). Configure-to-order means utilizing standard components and using the automation to determine the logic for which component, or which size of a component, to put in an assembly. Configuring an automated design sounds simpler, and in many ways it is, but there are a few things to note and some design automation best practices to follow when planning to swap models in SolidWorks. And these tips apply whether you're using DriveWorks, TactonWorks, or virtually any other design automation tool for SolidWorks. Mechanical Design Automation tools for SolidWorks utilize the standard Replace Component functionality to allow users to swap out a component in the master model for the component of their choice. But the tricky bit with Replace Component is getting SolidWorks to reconstruct the mates on the newly inserted part. We are frequently posed with the question, "how can we make sure that the mates resolve properly?" The key is consistency. All mates, or assembly constraints, have references within the components that are being mated. Whether those are planes, faces, axes, or some other form of hard or reference geometry, SolidWorks records a pointer to them in the definition of the mate. If SolidWorks sees the same reference in the new part, the mate will resolve every time. So the answer is simple. If a user mates to a plane named “Mate Plane” in the master component, and they have a plane named “Mate Plane” in the replacement, the mates will resolve, right? Not so fast!! This is the most common faulty assumption. The name of the reference is a "pretty" name for users. As far as SolidWorks is concerned, that name only exists in the user interface. SolidWorks has its own internal identifier for the geometry reference. If there are two planes in different models that were created differently, at different times, they are almost certain not to have the same internal identifier, regardless of they are named. And they will not resolve when replaced. So the design automation best practice is to always use the same references in every model. Front/Top/Right are always good bets as they are in every model and they always have the same internal identifier. What if models don’t have the Front/Top/Right planes in the same place for each of the models to be swapped? Well, change them. Yes, it could potentially be a lot of work. But consider it a tax for not being able to anticipate the unique CAD modeling needs of design automation. So if you’re designing models now, take the replacement requirements into account. Design everything around your default planes. If that is not possible, for example if you need to mate to an axis, create the reference geometry first. Create a starter part with the reference geometry that you need, then do a File -> Save As to create all of the derivative models. We have yet to meet a component that we could not model with these methods. And the result is 100% bulletproof component replacements. Think your CAD models can’t be made swappable? Drop us a line. We love a challenge.

SolidWorks Assembly Mates for Design Automation

Paul Gimbel — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:30:20 +0000

When creating your SolidWorks assembly master models and preparing them for automation, a lot of decisions need to be made in developing the best mating schemes. Read More...

DriveWorks Service Packs Released

Paul Gimbel — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:16:15 +0000

DriveWorks recently published service packs for its DriveWorks 6 and DriveWorks 7 platforms, one for each major version (DW6 SP8 and DW7 SP4). With the release of these service packs, the transition from DriveWorks 6 to DriveWorks 7 as the platform-of-focus becomes increasingly clear. There are no major enhancements in DriveWorks 6 Service Pack 8 as DriveWorks spends “the vast majority of [their] development effort” on DriveWorks 7. Service Pack 8 for DriveWorks 6 does have a few new minor enhancements including:

Updated table editor
All copied files writeable to allow Enterprise PDM (EPDM) Check In
Unneeded annotations in drawings deleted, not just hidden
Support for Microsoft Excel 2007 (.xlsx) table import

Service Pack 4 for DriveWorks 7 includes some new goodies as well, including:

“Pervasive Filtering” now even more pervasive
Support for SolidWorks helix features
Updated DriveWorks Data Manager UI
Support to install and uninstall plug-ins

For those of you who have not made the leap to DriveWorks 7, and are curious about what would be involved to make that move, please contact us. We would be happy to give you insight into the migration process, and what specific challenges you might need to address.