CAD Forum

josh

Hi folks, Based on the discussion here (https://www.cadforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=2657 ), I’ve created a macro for exploring all the notes in a drawing. This macro will list all note annotations in the drawing by sheet and view. You can explore all the notes on all sheets of a drawing without actuall...

josh

Will the flexible circuit be completely free in the air other than being clamped on both ends? And it’s all assumed to be elastic deformation, right? You’re not pre-forming it with creased bends? And you’re showing it the same width all the way across too. All the shapes I’m seeing so far have small...

josh

See if this macro helps with your workflow... Please note that it's not super debugged. But you can browse and edit notes anywhere in the drawing without actually activating the sheet. The Property Linked Text box shows you the full actual text that is stored in the note, along with any formatting/b...

josh

Sooo... Would that be just for notes? If not, what other annotations would be included?

josh

What sort of functionality/actions/behavior would you expect from listing up annotations in the feature tree? It would not be difficult to write something or other macro-wise to find/list/etc notes and annotations, I'm just trying to imagine what workflow would be improved by picking them from the f...

josh

If you do end up going with the wire mesh method, the further away you can get your camera the less distortion you'll have. If you can manage a long distance, high resolution, and high optical zoom you should be able to get pretty minimal distortion.

josh

That setting works for me. I've always vehemently hated that auto-flipping function. Maybe you need to check this box too? image.png I can’t imagine a scenario where this flipping would be a beneficial function for anyone. I have an assembly that’s right I’m adding a new mate on a new component. “Oh...

josh

Dwight wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:58 am If I change an assembly component to a different configuration, I am peeved that Solidworks flags the component as changed.

What do you mean by "flag as changed"? But, that said, you changed it. Why would it not flag as changed?

josh

It's not so much of a "workaround" as it is just the normal way. In the beginning, none of the "during creation" Property Manager Pages allowed equation entry or any other sort of linking. Everything had to be linked after creation. They started several releases ago to implement ...

josh

Thanks, I find as you said that the "User Specified" option does work. I was using the "Document Name" option (see image), which *should* make both part numbers match and operate the same as doing "User Specified", but apparently it doesn't. I *think* it used to work i...

josh

Format the cells. Change to "general".

josh

Okay everyone thinks .. this is exactly what we have been telling you all the time.. but for me example a part behave different selection wise if it have a cosmetic thread or not is a flaw and not a needed feature. Even Matt is pointing out that a consistent behaviour is important element in a soft...

josh

I admit that I have missed instant2d and instant3d, will explore those for comparison. But the fact is that both product is so called midrange cad system. One of them have still to this date a non responsive modelling environment, in other word is forcing end user to constant give a command for reb...

josh

I watched the whole video. I didn't see much in the way of shortcomings. Mostly minor differences and personal preferences in the interface or the steps used. Some of the complaints could be solved by changing settings, using Instant3D, etc. Looks like creating section views in SW is less than half ...

josh

I like to add optional arguments that don't do anything. Like: Sub NotMain(Optional NotMeDummy as Long) This will keep the execute button from calling them, and also prevent some user from mapping the macro button incorrectly. Multiple options for start routine are actually useful sometimes. It allo...

josh

I wrote a macro several years ago for tolerance analysis that creates configs of your part (leaving the default untouched) for MMC and LMC based on the tolerance applied to the dimensions. It does this by changing the dimension value to the tolereance limit, then analyzing if the part volume grew or...

josh

I knew this was gonna be spam when I started reading about how "great" the swamp was...

josh

These settings (particularly the circled one) should let you import the parasolid as a multibody part.

You probably want to set this option for the export as well:

josh

So... Just one point. Seems to me that a triad makes no sense with "offset". With offset you can select multiple different faces that point in different directions. By definition offset goes normal to those faces. What would you do with a triad in that case?

josh

Million thanks. Seems that I'd forgotten the step mentioned above (attaching the note to view) Thanks. If you can remember this issue ahead of time before you create the note, you can create it within the boundary of the view and it will already be attached to the view. But then you have to move it...

josh

Your note doesn't belong to the same view as the balloon. Grab the view and move it. See, the balloon moves, but the note doesn't. You need to attach the note to the view, then you can group them.

josh

As many times as I’ve picked a sketch or edge to define the direction of the Move/Copy, I never realized you could pick two vertices or sketchpoints to define both the direction and magnitude! Thanks Glenn!

josh

Yes, grouping is buggy as crap. I wrote some code a while back to do some custom grouping for annotations, and I had to write a whole routine that would fix the relative positioning for all my custom groups after they got blown up. Changing view scale was the biggest culprit, although there were a l...

josh

Yep... Biggest drawback of that is currently (well, for me with 2022) Move/Copy Body is a bodgy feature that doesn't actually have live dimensions that can be configured. You have to edit the feature to change the stroke, and suppress/unsuppress different ones for different stroke amounts, etc. If I...

josh

That's a good point too, @ellundo . There are definite performance benefits to this as well both in file I/O and rebuild. I do that any time I'm not looking for the vendor assembly to be capable of movement in my assembly.

josh

Sooo... You finally found the option that I mentioned above, which you even quoted?

josh

set selected object = a Vertex object and use GetPoint

josh

Solidworks Sucks in sheet metal. They know it and that's why they have an option to bypass the error you mentioned. 0 clearance is different with intersect. We are manufacturing several thousands of these kind of brackets and it's absolutely possible. If we have a clearance between two flanges, how...

josh

Gold star for you sir! Way to dig back through the archives! You may want to inform whoever told you there is no workaround and rub it in their face...

josh

So... Just the time savings of double-clicking a file in Explorer vs going to Tools->Macro->Edit and viewing in the VBA editor? I don't think you're going to find anything more efficient than mapping Edit to a SW shortcut key. I've not tried it myself (Maybe AlexLachance has verified?) but I'd be a ...

josh

I'm not sure what you mean by "Document all your macros for future usage"...

Why not just take the .swp files themselves? What is the value of having access to the code if you don't have SolidWorks? It's like having a set of car keys but no car.

josh

I still don't see what you're doing with the direct math on the transform elements. You're taking the sqrt of an expression that could be negative.

.Normalize will normalize a MathVector.

josh

I don't understand what the math is supposed to be doing... For an arbitrary transformation matrix there's nothing there that keeps you from trying to take the sqrt of a negative number, which of course returns an error. Your cylinder params already give you a vector. Why not just multiply that vect...

josh

Just curious... What are you trying to do here? It's not often you need to do direct math with the individual elements of a transform...

josh

Ah, that would work - nice workaround. Unfortunately that's not a great solution for us, we have thousands of assemblies from over the years (been using SW since 2000). We would have to manually add this dummy part to all of those assemblies - and any new assembly going forward. What format do you ...

josh

Place a single "dummy" empty part in each assembly/subassembly. Give it the custom properties that you want to show in the BOM for that assembly/subassembly. Make a "Parts Only" BOM instead of indented.

josh

Well, this is pretty interesting. I finally took a minute to try it out for myself, and also it looks like some more detail has been posted over on the other referenced forum. It looks like the other poster was unintentionally ending up with an equation type when his input value was interpretable as...

josh

If I'm reading all this correctly, the type "equation" does not actually exist. You read the type of an equation with API and you got "30" At the cadoveflow link, the OP used "30" to create their property, and they ended up with an Equation type. This should clue you in...

josh

Yeah. There really is no way to get it to 2 references for the 1 direction (which is what you need) as far as I know. One thing I thought of was to use a 2-direction pattern and then select the un-needed instances to skip, since that would allow you two "up to" references. But I still did...

josh

Here is sort of a way. But I agree...sketch pattern may have been better I'm not sure this works... Spec is for the edge of the bottom-right and upper-left rectangular holes to be 10mm from the nearest edge, no matter what size the plate is or what size the rectangular holes are. image.png image.pn...

josh

I think one struggle point of sketch patterns vs feature patterns is the fact that sketch patterns aren’t always fully locked in by default. When you make a feature pattern, and you check that box, the yellow preview immediately turns into hard, fully defined geometry. Ain’t nothing moving around. W...

josh

If you're going to be pointing people to this advice, then there should be a tempering voice here . You should work to understand both and how they work, and use them when appropriate. I do agree that feature patterns are better most of the time, but sketch patterns have their use. Understanding bot...

josh

This is quite clever. I like it.

I'm pretty sure you can actually create a derived standard in your Toolbox browser and edit the diameters there so that you can pick this type of hole anytime. You can then modify your calloutformat.txt file to properly call out your holes automatically.

josh

josh

Late to the game, but... Turn on Zebra stripes?

josh

You might have better luck figuring out what condition of the document is causing the message and preventing it by removing the condition.

josh

Why are you wanting to use SelectByRay? It's pretty dependent on lots of stuff about your model view, geometry, etc. Typically this kind of thing is done by the user pre-selecting the desired face and then running the macro.

josh

. . . and then there's one of my biggest pet peeves. Most of my drawings have anywhere from two to eight detail views. I always use the "with Leader" option. And I have had to change it from the default every stinking time for 13 years. Easy fix... Just change your base detail view standa...

josh

Here’s something for you to play with. As I mentioned before, the way that you set up your original pattern basically maintained spacing between your adjacent circles by putting each one further from the center. The fact that your spiral is not compact is what allows your holes not to run into one a...

josh

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