Razorleaf Corporation » Computer Aided Design Articles

Rand Worldwide Partners with Razorleaf

Jonathan Scott — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:00:19 +0000

Razorleaf is pleased to announce our recent relationship with Rand Worldwide, a global provider of technology solutions to organizations with engineering design and information technology requirements. Rand Worldwide selected Razorleaf to provide Rand’s Dassault Systèmes customers with ongoing phone support for ENOVIA SmarTeam, CATIA, and other Dassault products. Rand’s customers began transitioning to Razorleaf’s support processes late in 2010. Rand Worldwide customers are experiencing a seamless transition for their phone, email, and ProductivityNOW support contracts. Eric Doubell, president of Razorleaf, noted, “We’re excited to offer Rand Worldwide customers access to our comprehensive support team. Since we’re focused on providing support and services, and don’t sell product, we’re able to continue to offer the unbiased advice and very high level of expertise that Rand Worldwide customers expect.” For further information, you can read the full press release, or contact us directly. You can also review Razorleaf's comprehensive support offerings here.

PTC Introduces Creo

Jonathan Scott — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:30:28 +0000

If you’re a 3D CAD user, you no doubt recognize the name PTC, or at the very least, Pro/ENGINEER. But with the recent announcement by PTC Read More...

SmarTeam SolidWorks 2011 Certification

Jonathan Scott — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:41:00 +0000

Wow. For those of you in the SolidWorks – SmarTeam communities, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised if you haven’t read about this elsewhere already. With the release of SolidWorks 2011 early last week, ENOVIA SmarTeam provided the fastest certification they have ever provided for a new version of SolidWorks. In less than one week, SmarTeam had certified SolidWorks 2011 SP0 with ENOVIA SmarTeam V5R20 SP4 (it certainly took more than a week to certify the new version, but this is some impressive scheduling on Dassault’s part). There are some details, and a few caveats, but in general it seems like the SolidWorks and ENOVIA brands are working closer together than ever inside of Dassault Systemes.

Details

SolidWorks 2011 SP0 was officially released on October 18, 2010 and immediately available for download from SolidWorks’ Customer Portal. Service Pack 4 for ENOVIA SmarTeam V5R20 was officially published October 22, 2010 and immediately available for download from Dassault’s support website. Ironically, the version of SmarTeam supporting this latest version of SolidWorks was available one business day ahead of Enterprise PDM 2011 (the new version of EPDM for SW2011). Perhaps Dassault Systemes is trying to send a message about the closeness of brands.

Caveats

There are a couple of important things to note about SmarTeam’s support for SolidWorks 2011, however. Namely, certification is provided on 32-bit SolidWorks for Windows XP only, and on 64-bit SolidWorks for Windows 7 only. Frankly, those seem like the most common operating systems for the two platforms, so it isn’t surprising that Dassault would lead support with these two OSes. The other caveat to note is that this article is hot off the (figurative) presses – there is very little information available yet regarding the performance of SP4 for V5R20. For more information on SolidWorks 2011, take a look SolidWorks’ launch website and for more information on ENOVIA SmarTeam V5R20, please review our article here.

CATIA V5 UUID Uniqueness

Jonathan Scott — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 01:33:57 +0000

Given that UUID stands for Universal Unique Identifier, it may seem strange to talk about uniqueness in this context. But it comes up more often than users might like inside of CATIA V5. It isn't simple to determine the UUID of a CATIA V5 file, nor is it easy to manipulate the value. With a little bit of information though, it isn't too hard to avoid some basic CATIA V5 UUID problems. First, let's dig into how CATIA V5 UUIDs can create challenges. When a large design group is collaborating on a complex design, it is not unreasonable to expect some overlap and duplication of work (particularly if they aren't using PDM). For instance, two different people working on the design might each make a washer of the same size for use in different parts of the design. They could even give the washer the same file name, washer.CATPart, and part number. This isn’t a problem in and of itself (CATIA, unlike some other CAD systems, doesn’t have a problem with file name conflicts within assemblies). However, logical problems quickly creep in. For instance, because the parts’ UUIDs are distinct, CATIA’s BOM analysis tool will treat them as two distinct parts and not count them together when aggregating BOM quantities. Similarly, the shared part number won’t create issues until the user tries to put the two files in the same subassembly (of course this is a different issue, but it comes up in this scenario). Resolving this UUID problem can be simple (replacing one file with another), or it can be complex, depending on how many references are created to the part(s) being replaced. Another problem can arise when data is being transferred in and out of PDM systems or between design partners. In these cases, UUIDs can be accidentally modified when they shouldn't be, and downstream systems or interfacing designs go haywire. So with a basic understanding of the potential problems, let's touch on what is known about UUIDs, and how UUID problems can be avoided. When Dassault creates a Universal Unique Identifier, they mean unique. The UUID is based on IDs assigned to your hardware (namely the MAC address of your network card), timestamps, and other factors. That means there is really no chance of ever duplicating a UUID (MAC addresses are coordinated through a central registry meaning that even this component has some level of uniqueness). But what about purposeful duplication/manipulation of UUIDs (like replacing the UUID of one of the washers in the previous example to resolve the conflict easily)? According to Dassault, UUIDs cannot be set by outside software, although there are utilities (like CAT.COMMANDER) that claim to be able to do just that. Let's focus for a moment on when UUIDs are, and are not, generated.

CATIA V5 UUID Generation Events

File -> New: the created file has a new UUID
File -> New From: the new file has a different UUID from the source file
File -> Save As (New Document option checked): the resulting file has a different UUID from the original file
Insert -> New Part/Product: the created Part/Product has a new UUID

CATIA V5 UUID Events that Maintain Existing UUIDs

File -> Save
File -> Save As (New Document option unchecked)
File -> Save Management
File -> Send to Directory
File -> Save All

This quick list describing when new UUIDs are, and are not, generated can't save you from all UUID-related problems, but it can help you avoid certain mistakes. For instance, performing a Save As (with the New Document option unchecked) with the intent of creating a derivative design (with a new part number) can create problems downstream, particularly if the data will be managed in PDM. So keep your wits about you, and watch out for CATIA V5 UUID problems. If you're experiencing problems with CATIA V5 UUIDs and ENOVIA SmarTeam or ENOVIA V6, or have UUID problems during data exchange, please contact us to see how we can help.

SolidWorks EPDM 2011 Launched

Jonathan Scott — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:24:19 +0000

For avid SolidWorks users, this certainly isn't the first announcement related to the launch of SolidWorks 2011. But as you might expect, this article is more focused on the latest release of Enterprise PDM than on the release of SolidWorks itself. It appears that EPDM 2011 will be another solid release of SolidWorks' flagship PDM solution, and that there are a handful of very interesting new capabilities. While the new features listed for EPDM 2011 don't seem revolutionary, there are a few worth noting that every administrator will love:

Updated Menus - there is now a series of pull-down menus at the top of the file view pane
File Reference Repair - this new command allows file references to be repaired with files inside or outside of the vault
3DVIA Composer Support - EPDM now recognizes .smg and .smgxml file types and can view them when the 3DVIA Composer Player is installed
New Functions for Data Card Input - string and numeric functions like LEN, MID, +, and - can be used in Data Card formulas
Design Checker Task - the SolidWorks Design Checker tool can now be run as an EPDM Task and leverage managed standards files (.swstd file types)

And for those of you that want to know more about what's interesting in SolidWorks 2011, here are a few tidbits that seem interesting for the Product Data Management and Design Automation crowds:

Defeature - ability to remove features from models for sharing externally (without fear of losing valuable intellectual property)
Equation-based Suppression - features and components can be suppressed based on the evaluation of equations
Global Variables - global variables can be defined in design tables

Please leave us a comment and let us know what Enterprise PDM 2011 features you're excited about.

Razorleaf at COE 2010 Aero Workshop

Jonathan Scott — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:12:51 +0000

Razorleaf will be speaking at COE 2010 Aerospace & Defense Workshop on October 12, 2010. Jonathan Scott from Razorleaf will deliver “Cleaning Up CATIA V5 Data for PDM or V6” Read More...

Dassault Publishes V6R2011

Jonathan Scott — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:01:02 +0000

Dassault Systemes delivered the first real release of V6 back in 2009 with V6R2010. Since that time, the PLM software provider has been releasing new iterations of V6 twice a year. The most recent release, V6R2011, shows increasing maturity in a number of areas such that parts of the product which were only “preliminary” in previous versions are now fully functional for production use. There are highlights to all brands in the V6 portfolio, but let’s focus on some of the changes in the brands most relevant to Razorleaf clients: CATIA, 3DVIA, and ENOVIA. V6R2011 of CATIA brings several new innovations, and applies some advanced concepts and capabilities (like functional modeling) more broadly across the CATIA portfolio. An abridged list of the most interesting new CATIA features includes:

Generative Drafting Associative EBOM – The BOM on the face of the CATIA drawing may now be configured to reflect the EBOM in ENOVIA. It seems the tight coupling of CAD and PDM are bringing interesting features to the table.
UVR Visualization – UVR format replaces CGR format as a locally optimized representation of 3D models to improve performance and enable larger scale visualization.
Functional Modeling – CATIA Live Shape has made a big hit in the part design world with its ability to build parts in a free style manner without icons and without a Specification Tree. This capability has now been added to a number of areas, including sheet metal with the new Bend Part Design.
Systems Design – With the acquisition of Dynasim in 2006, Dassault jumped into systems engineering in a big way. Dymola has been further integrated into CATIA Systems and enhanced through a number of new Modelica libraries for complex systems.
Life Like Humans – No more robots with stiff joints, the new human builder is extremely life like with movements that are almost graceful – check out this video to see for yourself.

Although 3DVIA is a brand with a number of products, our focus is on 3DVIA Composer and related products. It seems that there was not a significant amount of development done with 3DVIA Composer for the V6R2011 release (at least not as significant as with CATIA), but there are several new 3DVIA Composer features, including:

Replace Geometry – The geometry of an actor can be replaced with that of another actor in the same model, making it easy to swap parts without having to redo other steps (like alignment, property changes, etc.). All views and animations are preserved.
Selective Updating – Views can now be updated with selective attribute changes. For example, you can update all your views (or just certain views) with the color and position change of a selected actor.
Linking to Views – 2D Image panels can be created and linked to views; making animation storyboard creation a snap.
Magnetic Lines – Magnetic lines are a new way to align annotations (like balloons) in 3DVIA views. The feature does a great job of “guessing ahead” to make clean and neat view creation simple.
Paper Space Navigation – Panning and zooming is now enabled within paper space.

Although ENOVIA V6 may be the most mature product in the V6 portfolio (owing to its legacy as ENOVIA MatrixOne, ENOVIA VPLM, and ENOVIA SmarTeam), Dassault has still made significant enhancements to the platform, specifically around Microsoft support and the extension of core capabilities (like BOM):

Infrastructure – Live Collaboration Server is now supported as native 64-bit for Microsoft Windows, and a new monitoring agent is available to monitor availability and performance of the various ENOVIA application layers.
Program Management – The integration with Microsoft Project has been enhanced for advanced synchronization capabilities, and non-working time is now supported in the calendar for automatic date calculations.
BOM Management – Mass update and edits are now possible from Part search results. Inline EBOM editing has been enhanced, and a number of new features and version support has been added in the various X-BOM components.
Mechanical CAD Data Management – It seems that Dassault is more fully integrating the DNA of ENOVIA SmarTeam into V6 through its improvements to usability for non-CATIA integrations. Other small enhancements will ease the transition from legacy systems, such as the ability to manually input starting revisions.

Organizing CAD Models for Design Automation

Paul Gimbel — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:00:45 +0000

The purpose of a design automation system is to control different aspects, or parameters, of your CAD models. These could be dimensions, features, component instances, and Read More...

Dassault Announces Beta of DraftSight

Jonathan Scott — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:00:15 +0000

DraftSight, a new 2D drafting program from Dassault Systemes, is available in public beta for free, and to enterprises for a small fee (to access extended Read More...

SolidWorks Event Wrappers

Paul Luc — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:00:44 +0000

The SolidWorks API (Application Programming Interface) is immensely powerful. In fact, if something is doable within SolidWorks, the chances are good that there is a corresponding Read More...