I just got the program 2006 office. I am self-learning (slowly) Any good resources online? Could anyone give me a walktrough on the commands they used for a spaceframe (I've extruded a tube thus far)? Thanks

The forums at MCADCentral helped me along, I'm using Pro/E however.
They do have a section for Solidworks, so if it is anything similar it's worth checking out.

http://www.mcadcentral.com/solidworks/forum/default.asp

I'm doing the same...

Weldments are what you want for the chassis. The programs tutorials are very very good. I would suggest going through them all...

I've been working on some surface designs this evening for the middy I'm 'modelling' for fun.



[Edited on 21/6/06 by SeaBass]

Not sure I'd agree about using weldments....I've found them to be...let's say "not quite perfected"...just yet at least......powerful feature, just not always predictable IMO.

I've produced the chassis using weldments so far with custom tube profiles... You have to be pretty careful with the intersections but otherwise seems pretty good to me. I've not come to manufacture anything yet though...

What specifically do you find 'unpredictable'??

yeh weldments are bad, after 5 years of using this at work stay away from them.

depends on what u want to do, if u want detailed drawings of each chassis part u need to daw them up as parts, 1 part for each member. then creat your assembly from those parts. its much longer to do but is the correct engineering way to do it.

if u just want to creat the chassis so u can work 'around it' then just draw it up as one part. qiucker but actaully harder as u will need to creat planes all over the place for each extrude u do.

seabass, what part of that rendering did you design?!

[Edited on 17/6/06 by ned]

is there a command for making new planes? how do you splice and cut intersecting tubes? These are probably very basic questions, but I'm just looking for a point in the right direction so I can get started. Thanks

Yes,

Not got SW in front of me at the moment, but seem to remeber its third menu in from the left and under reference?

Theres points, axis's and planes in the same part.

quote:

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Originally posted by tigris
is there a command for making new planes? how do you splice and cut intersecting tubes? These are probably very basic questions, but I'm just looking for a point in the right direction so I can get started. Thanks

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If one was to try and self-learn Solidworks say three evenings a week, how long would one be likely to take before he could do chasis designs and skins? I do have decent conventional drafting skills, and there's a current copy on Solidworks sitting on my computer. I did one of the tutorials and it seemed reasonable (Which is to say about 3x easier than autocad).

I would say that after nine hours of playing around, you could do a chassis. Try modeling a couple things around the house. After you do that, try making simple assemblies that have some movement.

I agree with the folks that suggest making each tube its own part, rather than drawing the chassis up as one whole bit.

--HTH, Chris

quote:

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its much longer to do but is the correct engineering way to do it

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I take issue with."THE correct engineering way"

Say's who?

Surely the purpose of drawings are to communicate the intentions of the designer to the machinist/fabricator in such a way that the parts get made in a clear, accurate and timely fashion?

So ANY method that achieves this is "A" correct engineerig method?

Just my thoughts....

Has anyone used this program?

http://www.touchcad.com/

They seem like a low-budget operation - originally for boatbuilding, but they seem to have some nice features for doing surfaces. Check out the online video of designing a car. The guy basically mocks up a rather pretty 3D model from scratch in about 10 minutes!

Here's a nice rendering on their site:

http://www.touchcad.com/Images/sevenfront.jpg

[Edited on 22/6/06 by kreb]

I'm with you Alan. I've been using Solidworks for a bit over a year now, easy to use, but weldments does need careful attention when doing joints. OK for simple stuff though.

Try doing a yacht hull in Solidworks surfaces if you want some fun. I've given up and gone back to Rhino! Oh for Catia again!

Cheers,
Syd.

CATIA good.

Until you need to do a drawing, especially of a big assembly. The drafting workbench really lets the package down.

Or until you work with a customer who insists you use a 5+ year old release!

No probs with extracting drawings with v5 r16.

Cheers,
Syd.

oops looks like i have upset a few here. wasnt my intension to do so.

i agree that the object of an engineer is to cuminicate what he/she wants in the form of the drawing, however i dont think this has much to do with how good they are at engeering. Things like drawing and therfore part control is, if an Engeering Change Notification (ecn) is needed after a part is in production u need to rework part and drawing and if its not easy to do as the engineer didnt bother to think of such possible future problems then they have now turned a easy job into a bad one.

engineering isnt just about making parts as a one off, its about the control of future alterations also.

regards to the OP, i think u can knock parts up after a few weeks of using SW. But like Cad, u can do the same think in so many ways and this leads to the learner to get confused on what they are doing/looking at.

U will only learn the best method of each task after a few years of using it because its only when u need to go back and alter your part will u find out u have shot yourselfe in the foot and its going to take ages to make a small change.

tip, try not to use 'tangent mates' in your assemblys, this slows down your pc alot and also creates errors in the models. so many times has it crashed at work due to tangent mates. argh

@ Sid:

R16 is better at generating views from large assemblies, but there's lots of rough edges to the workbench in general. According to our catia reseller, this is because Dassault think the future is CNC machining parts direct from 3D models, so they ignore any change requests to the drawing workbench. Shame for the 99% of the industry that still has to work from 2D drawings.

Don't get me wrong, Catia generally, and even the drawing functions, are still far better than any of the other packages I have used, but this high quality makes the things that don't quite work stand out.

@ Mooron

I entirely agree. It's easy to produce a 3D model that is geometrically what you want to be. The 'proper engineering' way of doing it is to produce a model which someone else can pick up at a later date and easily change because you've thought about the design intent of it and constrained it appropriately.

@ tigris:

Sorry, this has nothing to do with your original question! Solidworks is the only one of the 'well known' packages that I have never been anywhere near.

I'm a one man band doing contract work involving frogs. With that in mind, Catia is a breeze.

I still do most of my work in 2d, A'cad 12!!

Cheers,
Syd.

And what about using SoliWorks + cosmos to study the chassi and optimize it?

[Edited on 6/7/06 by sforma]