Solidworks users
 

I was wondering what machine you run it on, specs, and limitations encountered.

Anyone using 2006 on a non-Dell?
Just wasted 45min. with an almost-unintelligible phone mumbler who had to be asked the price 5 times, and finally told me in order to purchase a Precision380, I'd have to give them "business funds" information and a SS#(????). What are the alternatives?

Re: Solidworks users
 

I run SW 2006 both at home and at work on PC's with AMD processors. My machine at home I scratch built with an Asus motherboard and 1 GB of RAM. I would up the RAM capacity...minimum 512 and put in a decent graphics card but not get ridiculous with that ( I have a $100 gaming card with Open GL). If you are buying something pre-made like a Dell I would stick with the "workstation class" type stuff. Additonal RAM is nice when you start doing surface only modeling and tapping the FEA modules and more intense stuff. If you plan to do simple parts and drawings most decent PC's will run it just fine, but if you have some extra $ I still recommend the workstation/business class stuff.

Typically when the video card gets skimped on or has low on board video memory, dynamically rotating your model on screen gets choppy, slow, etc. Crappy cards often have poor or dated video drivers which is what I have noticed cause the most crashes and hangups with SW. Usually a driver update fixes the issue and be sure to download the latest SW service pack once you have installed your copy.

BGCarrera32, threadjack here, can you turn a SW model into a CNC program? One of my customers is a CNC machinist and needs to run a job for a customer, but doesn't want to remodel the part (they don't use SW). Could be a "consulting opportunity" :) PM me if you can do this.

David,

I'm not BGCarrera32, nor do I play him on TV, but I am a manufacturing engineer and write CNC programs all the time.

Technically, no, you can't turn a SW model into a CNC program. You can, however, import the SW model into (almost) any CNC program and apply the toolpaths. I'm curious as to what CNC software your customer uses, and even more curious as to why he doesn't know how to do this.

Typically, remodeling a part is frowned upon, as it just opens the possibilities for mistakes. Besides, it is beneficial to the machine shop to use the original model, just in case there are flaws in the design. If the shop uses the supplied geometry, the customer can't come back and say "you made this wrong, make me another one."

Not that they won't try.

Jim

Thanks for the info Jim

He mentioned it to me in passing, so I'm not entirely sure of the circumstances. Most of the work is done by him first in Cadkey then sent to the CNC machines. I will dig a bit more if he needs it done.

Thanks

No problem. He should be able to import the file into Cadkey, do his thing with his NC software, and be good to go.

I've used Cadkey (now Keycreator) for years to do this very thing.

Let me know if he needs me to walk him through the process. It's really quite simple, and takes less than a minute.

Threadjack complete. ;)

Jim

BGCarrera32-sounds like good advice. Thx. What kind of card and any studdering? On the Gateway 1.4GHz AMD I previously owned, the motherboard failed twice.


quote: "Besides, it is beneficial to the machine shop to use the original model, just in case there are flaws in the design"

-one of the things I think SW's does (uniquely?) is validation for sloppy model geometry so the final model should be clean, or so I've heard.
The rendering, animation, stress testing, snap-to-fit, 2d blueprint pages, direct export to CNC, etc.. also sound nice.

John,
Many CAD packages do this. I utilize these features with Keycreator just so I get a clean model for machining.

Sorry I wasn't helpful to your original post. Fact is, I've got a copy of SW 2005 that I've yet to install. Maybe the learning curve (for me) is a bit intimidating.

Good luck,
Jim :)