Does any one know well about MoldWork???
Sum Wong
I would like to know does MoldWork include the design of core and cavity
of the part in the mold? Or I have to first prepare the core and cavity of
the part before using MoldWork?
Thanks for your concern
jk
do not have tools for creating the core and cavity. Their
program takes over after the mold designer has developed those
components.
From that point on, however, it looks like a very helpful
product. It seems to automate much of the rest of the mold
design process.
As an experienced mold designer myself, I can understand why
they do not attempt to aid in the core and cavity creation.
Every part that I design a part for has it's own problems that
need to be solved. I approach each job with what I feel to be
the best ideas gained from my experience. I cannot imagine how
these could be automated.
After saying that, I must add that I saw a session at this same
conference which did deal with creating cores and cavities. It
was given by a very knowledgeable person named Cholly Nachman.
He is in the process of developing a program which will run
inside of SolidWorks for aiding in core and cavity creation. I
still think that the person using it would have to be an
experienced mold designer. It would seem to speed up the process
quite a bit, though.
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jk
of mold design. There is a lot more involved , however. One has
to place cooling lines, ejector pins, decide on whether
interlocks are required and which style to use, hold everything
together with bolts, and show all of this in the proper size
mold base.
All of this can be very tedious, but is quite necessary. The
actual size of your cavity and core blocks is often determined
by having to fit in water lines and still have room for bolts,
for instance. MoldWorks will be used for this part of the
process, and seems to do so quite well. (it better do it well
since it is quite expensive.)It contains native SWX files for
all mold components and mold bases, fasteners etc. a program
like MoldWorks would enable a mold designer to do his/her
complete design in a solids environment. One example would be
the placing of an ejector pin. When you place the pin into
location, MW will not only put the pin there, but will also
place all of the holes in each appropriate mold plate
automatically. Same for bolts, and other components. It also
seems to allow for the user to build a library of items which
aren't in the oroginal catalog of components and link them to
machining details for future use.
I currently am modeling my core and cavities in SWX and
exporting 2-d files to another software. Once in a 2-d
environment, I complete my mold design there using my personal
library of 2-d mold components. This is tedious and can be risky
since it would be possible to make changes in the 2-d design
which are not reflected in the 3-d model. My goal for the next 3
months is to make a transition to doing all of my mold designs
in solids. To do this I will need new hardware and a library of
solids mold bases and components. There are some companies
marketing components libraries other than MoldWorks. Two that
come to mind are Cimlogic and SolidParts. These are much less
expensive, but do not contain all of the functionality that
MoldWorks does.
Another problem that I am having with this issue is that my
customers all prefer to use mold bases from a company called
Hasco. Neither CimLogic or SolidParts currently supply libraries
for the Haco American catalog. ModWorks does. There is another
company called IMOLDWORKS which also has the HASCO US catalog,
but I think they are still in Beta. The folks from IMOLDWORKS
did not have a demo ready at the show, but seemd to be offering
much of the functionality of MoldWorks.
Sorry for the long reply, but I hope I have answered your
question. I do not use MoldWorks yet, but have a demonstration
copy. I am in the process of evaluating it now.
Reply to Jon B.:
When I spoke to Cholly last month he was still working on his
core & cavity package on his own.
Jon Banquer
>core & cavity package on his own.
Nice to hear.
Doesn't R&B automate parting line /core / cavity separation
in their product for Microstation Modeler ?
It will be interesting to see if other companies enhance their
mold add on's, or if new companies come to market with products
to automate core / cavity separation and parting lines. With the
new hybrid surfacing abilities of SW 2K, one would hope so. I don't
think SolidWorks Corp. wants to deal with specialize mold issues
(Perhaps, rightly, so)
Hopefully, this can be done at a more reasonable price than
CornerStone Technologies ( I think that was their name) did
for Cadkey. You ever use or see their product ? Don't hear
much about it.
jon
Kevin Wisher
I hope to have the Hasco American Library ready for SolidPartners in about a
month or so. I'll keep you posted on my progress. I also will have a Library
of popular secondary components from Progressive in the next version. Are
you familiar with Progressive in your region?
--
Kevin W. Wisher
K.W. Design
www.solidmold.com
David V.
URL, PRICE AND MORE.
Kevin Wisher <kwde...@solidmold.com> wrote in message
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Henry Mägi
mould with nonplanar partinglines?
SW98 had error 0.11mm between partingline endpoints on two faces.SW99 is
better:only 0.03mm.
Still not enough.
Would be interesting to,if Cholly is using for splitlines some else routine
than SW-s own.
Henry
Jon Banquer <jbt...@mpinet.net> wrote in message
news:69v2bscvejrimvvv8...@4ax.com...
Kevin Wisher
SolidWorks, including my mold base libraries.
--
Kevin W. Wisher
K.W. Design
www.solidmold.com
David V. <davi...@ida.net> wrote in message
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jk
line. I'm glad that you chimed in. As far as the Progressive
catalog goes, that's great news as well. I've been using more
and more items from them over the years. Their unilifters are
especially handy. I also like their angle pins, side locks and
those rapid tooling inserts.
Feel free to contact me if you want any specific input on any of
these issues.
As far as MoldWorks goes, I haven't had time to do their
comprehensive tutorial yet. The thought of paying $3995 for the
functionality of MoldWorks vs under $1000 for a good parts
library is the main decision I have to make. For a 1-man
operation like mine, it's difficult to justify the expense.
That was my problem with the Cornerstone product for Cadkey as
well. I never tried it, but did try contacting them several
times to check it out. I found them to be on the arrogant side,
and could never get a demo version to try. Theirs was $7000 and
that always seemed to be really out of this world.
Jon Banquer makes an interesting observation about whether the
enhanced surfacing in SWX2K will foster any development of third
party core/cavity separation tools. That issue is definitely
worth watching. I don't think that software solutions will ever
replace mold design experience (at least I hope not :) ), but we
can use any productivity tools that work.