subject: Solidworks And Sheet Metal Manufacturing [print this page] Solidworks is a computer-aided design program developed and distributed by Dassault Sytemes SolidWorks Corp. This software package is presently in use by over one-hundred thousand businesses around the globe for many research and development, production and design purposes, but SolidWorks and sheet metal manufacturing is where our focus lies.
SolidWorks and sheet metal manufacturing have a solid partnership on a fundamental level. Using this multi-purpose computer-aided design software the possibilities of going from design to manufacturing right away exist in a very real way.
Put simply, SolidWorks is a 3D modeling package that has the capacity to render a virtual environment for trying out designs before being constructed. This can be a real time saver. Engineers don't need to wait for a sample piece to be manufactured, thus time is saved in addition to the cost of labor and materials usually incurred when making a test piece or a mock up.
Building a 3D model with SolidWorks is a pretty easy process. In relation to SolidWorks and sheet metal manufacturing, a 2D representation would generally consist of graphical lines, arcs, conics, and splines. Extra dimensions can be contributed to the basic sketch to define the scale and position of the geometry. Relations are used to determine attributes including concentricity, tangency, perpendicularity and parallelism - although many of these attributes are not used for typical sheet metal fabrication. Using SolidWorks in this way guarantees that the initial test run has a better probability of success as the attributes in the plan can be adapted independently, or by their relationships to other parameters of the sketch, and modifications can be made easily and efficiently.
Design intention is an essential part of the design process too. Intent is how the creator of the product wants it to adapt to alterations and updates. If you take into consideration that updating a design can often mean redoing the whole project (on computer) this is an important asset. SolidWorks will work to any other design features that have been drawn in. For instance, if you were to have a drawing of a suitcase with a handle that is 8" long and raises 3" from the case, changing anything other dimensions, including hight or width, would not affect the pre-programmed dimensions of the handle. As a result, adaptations can be affected more quickly than with other CAD software packages.
Parameters can programmed to determine design intent. These could be either numeric parameters or geometrical parameters. Number parameters include the length of a line or the diameter of a circle. Geometric parameters might be horizontal and vertical lines, concentric s, parallels and tangents etc. One of the many benefits of SolidWorks is in that numeric parameters can be associated with each other. The use of relations is part of what allows for the recognition of design intent.
When the drawing for a part has been saved, it is cataloged and can be reopened at any time, changed, used as a guide for a new design or added with another file to form an assembly drawing.
These extra tools alone increase the usability of the software package in relation to SolidWorks and sheet metal assembly. For custom jobs, having a filing system in place for all finished jobs and the ability to quickly and effectively alter those drawing to fit personal needs is a huge advantage. For newer jobs the ability to quickly sketch, render and produce a sample quickly will help to ensure design efficiency and customer satisfaction.
