Re: Real Hack 20 Download Solidworks
Katerine Aldrige
SOLIDWORKS Visualize is a recent addition to the SOLIDWORKS ecosystem of products, and it has the ability to create stunning realistic rendered images. I attempt to be a photographer in my spare time, so I thought I would give it a shot to see what the hype was about as well as attempt to actually create my first photorealistic image.
After installing, I had Jesse Sprague (our resident photo expert) give me the quick run through of the software and I was ready to begin rendering images. I was trying to create a rendering of an electric carving knife but this is where I ran into my first issue. The product does render out nicely but the exported image still has that rendered look.
I started off by creating a countertop and backsplash and then the rest came quickly after that. I created all the cabinets and drawers using the same techniques. I decided to place a wall outlet and block of knives in there as well just to liven up the environment.
I even created some split line circles on the underside of the cabinets so that we could use those as lights. Jesse actually gave me this idea thinking it would add some dramatic effect to the image along with looking more realistic. I added the blue color to the faces so that when the model is imported into Visualize they are grouped together. Once the files are imported into Visualize we can add a Warm light to those faces.
A common question with Finite Element Analysis is how reliable are the results that it produces or how well do the results relate to the behavior of the final product. In this article, the natural frequencies of a modeled bell will be compared to the measured frequencies of the real-life counterpart using SOLIDWORKS Simulation.
Across the first five resonate modes of the bell, the difference between measured frequencies and calculated frequencies does not exceed 4% with better accuracy for higher mode frequencies. This modeled bell could be considered an accurate approximation of the real-life counterpart.
Ryan has been in the GoEngineer technical support team since February 2008 where he most notably provides support for all FEA and CFD software offered by SolidWorks. His most recent accolade is the title of Elite Application Engineer awarded by SolidWorks Corp.
No other program in our lineup crashes while printing.I did a thorough search on the newsgroup hoping to at least hear from
others with this problem but it seems like no posts regarding this
have been made.There is a hot fix that says it addresses this issue. It does not.Our systems run Vista 64 Business.We're on SP 5 of SW2008.If anyone has some insight on this I'd really appreciate it.Thanks,--Matt
Matt,What kind of printer and what driver are you using? Does it crash
100% of the time?I've run into a similar problem using the HP Universal Print Driver to
a HP Laserjet 1320n. The workaround was to use a PCL driver for the
specific printer.Hope this helps.John
John-- Thanks for the reply!We are using 5200tn printers.
It does not crash 100% of the time.It seems to crash even before communicating any large amount of data
to the printer. If it is going to crash it seems to either crash upon
hitting print--immediately, like in a split second, or if you are
lucky enough to get into the print dialog box, when you hit page
setup, again immediate crash.We are not using unified drivers--this is the same answer we have
gotten from our VAR. We have tried PS and PCL drivers with little to
no difference. We are using and always have been using PCL drivers
except when we experimented with PS drivers.This almost for certain is a SolidWorks issue. NO other programs have
and issues with the 5200tn printers.Thanks again, and I'd like to hear more ideas you might have.--Matt
The thing is YOU KNEW WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS with the cube sheet... When you get a part with a thousand surfaces , we have no analytic tool in Mcam other than "Create curves on open edges to guide you as to where the problematic crevasse is ( it usually is that) .
2. Solve your problem outside of Mcam . Solidworks has a system for repairing solids. ZW3d is a very inexpensive system that will patch things up and then there is specialist stuff like Caddoctor , Cadfix and one more but I never remember it's name....
just as I thought . it's the sharp ridges that might cause pain here. I brought it in as surfaces and just a tweak of tolerance from my usual 0.025 mm to 0.05mm made it into a proper solid . So that was easy. Using a larger tolerance for stitching does not make the part any less precise , it is just a precision to use for Mastercam to see it as a solid.
Yea what i do to repair these is what Pulo said, Basically create surfaces off the solid, then find the missing face (this can be the hard part but you might get lucky and maybe its a big easy to find missing face) then fill that missing face by building a new surface, once its airtight with surfaces you can then convert those surfaces back to solids.
If you get this problem often i think others mentioned some other cad systems that do a good job at this, you can certainly get this task done in mastercam but if you get it very often and really want an easier solution I have used SpaceClaim and it does an excellent job and at this task since spaceclaim specializes in model repair.
But to them, and everybody reading this, I share my own personal view on this type of modeling in SOLIDWORKS: challenging yourself to create art inside SOLIDWORKS is one of the most rewarding ways to spend time in the software.
And in the course of our daily work, we tend to use the same SOLIDWORKS tools over and over. After a while, the challenge of using the software becomes more to do with dodging bugs or dealing with file management than actually experimenting with the toolset.
3D printing is unique in its ability to create complex, full color shapes with minimal skill and labor. Although there are limited materials available and real limitations to size, like SOLIDWORKS it is an excellent tool for art.
The first is that real, tangible parts add another layer of satisfaction to your efforts. Viewing your design on a flat screen simply cannot match the sensory experience of holding a 3D object that has texture, weight and other physical properties.
The second is that designing shapes that are printable create challenges that are similar to our standard use of SOLIDWORKS. Design for Manufacture (DFM) is a familiar requirement in our work and carrying this constraint over to our art encourages us to carry out our projects until the very finish.
Art is no different. The adversity of following rules encourages growth, and ultimately helps create an association between the skills we learn through art with the skills available to us in our work.
And last, or perhaps in conjunction with the above, you always have the option to delve into photorealistic rendering of your art in SOLIDWORKS Visualize. Basic rendering skills can help you decide if your art is ready for manufacture, before spending valuable time and money in that pursuit.
Art is commonly inspired by the images we see, and the Sketch Picture tool is an excellent way to carry that inspiration into SOLIDWORKS. You might use it to replicate an entire scene, or simply mimic a shape that caught your attention.
Here, I have used a composite curve to shape the top of my island. I needed the crest of the island to follow the curve of the land, and to rise up like a sand dune. The shape of the top surface was critical to the rest of the design, and the sketches required minor tweaking as details were added to the island.
I wanted the text in the island to appear like disturbed sand, similar to how a castaway might use the beach to send a signal skyward. This meant the height of the raised text needed to consistently follow the curve of the island.
One quick tip: if you intend to 3D print your project in color, you may benefit from using a slight negative offset to begin with. This creates a small amount of intersection between your solids that could help small features adhere to the rest of the part.
In the image above, all three of these faces were created with Move Face. On the island, the outside surfaces were pushed inward so that they were not touching the outside surface of the award. The gray detail on top of the island is what would eventually become the grove of trees; this surface was pulled outward to create the illusion of a canopy.
I gave life to this model with the help of custom appearances. Both the sand and the trees are JPG files I found using Google Image search. By adding a File Location to your Appearances menu, you can create a space that it easy to drop images in for testing.
If you plan to 3D print a model you have added appearances to, you may need to use a non-native file format like 3MF. Be sure to check System Options > Export > 3MF > Include Appearances to ensure the file prints as expected.
Experiment with the scaling, rotation angle and mapping style to achieve the look you want. To perfectly replicate your vision, you might need to edit the images in Photoshop or GIMP, or create your own entirely.
That uncertainty led me to leave it for last. I trusted that I would find a way to make it work, especially if I had already invested hours into the rest of the award beforehand. I use this strategy often!
I started with some low poly rocks downloaded from TurboSquid. There were three or four in the bundle, and they came in STL form. As I began opening and scaling them in SOLIDWORKS, I realized my solution: asymmetric scaling.
The letters were assembled by roughly arranging the rocks how I wanted, mating two points to a surface underneath the dark brown dirt, and then slowly rotating the rock into its final position. At this point it was locked into place by mating a third point to the surface. Voila!
So, I decided to put this to a test. I created the model assembly shown here. Though these are not real world parts, they are created and assemblied using real world techniques, with details I would normally use, even to the degree of adding material to each component.
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