What are the benefits of using 3D Technical Publications?

Benefits of 3D

• Better visualization – "Seeing is Understanding"
  
• Leverage existing CAD data from engineering
  
• Dynamic, Interactive Content – click through assembly steps
  
• Graphical selections – select on a part to view its metadata, select on a BOM item to highlight the part
  
• Less text needed – if "a picture is worth a thousand words", a picture you can move is worth many more.
  

Common Features of 3D Tech Pubs Software

• Multi-CAD Import
  
• Lightweight model creation
  
• Rendering with texture mapping
  
• Basic Kinematics
  
• Annotation & Markup
  
• Related BOM and Part Attributes
  
• Animations
  
• Output to PDF, html, xml, etc
  

Uses of Technical Publications

• NC Documentation / Setup Sheets
  
• Assembly Instructions
  
• MRO Documentation
  
• User Manuals
  
• Training Materials
  
• Product Data Sheets
  

Technical Publication Formats

• Many options exist to output standard text and graphic formats – CGM has often been preferred for graphics since it is vector based
  
• Many authoring tools can output html or other formats, but they may require proprietary viewers (usually free) for advanced 3D content
  
• AVI files aren't as interactive as specialized 3D viewers and can lead to very large files
  
• Many tools can now output 3D PDF data that can be viewed by anyone with the current Acrobat Reader – There are some limitation of using PDF w/ U3D
  
• XML shows some promise as an intermediate format between systems, but requires adoption of standards
  

Summary

• Many tools are now available to create 3D interactive technical publications and training materials
  
• Most of these applications have their own viewer software
  
• Using 3D PDF or html for final content makes a proprietary viewer less of an issue
  
• Models for use in publications should ideally be generated as lightweight representations directly from the engineering data in the PLM system
  
• There are detailed standards that may need to be adhered to – especially in Aero & Defense applications
  
• The S1000D standards are not comprehensive. They still require each company to define their own business rules.
  

 

 

 

Solidworks Weldments Tutorial

I found this tutorial to be very helpful: Solidworks Weldments Tutorial

How do you open a Unigraphics NX part file in Pro/Engineer Wildfire?

I recently installed ProE 5.0 as well as Unigraphics 7.5. When trying to open NX files in ProE you may encounter the error message to "select the Unigraphics (*.prt) filter". Where do you find this Unigraphics part filter in ProE? Simply follow these steps:

Go to the tool bar
Tool->option-> type in the find box INTF3D_UG_INSTALL_DIR -> add/change-> select that directory where ProE was installed then click ->YES ->APPLY-> OK

Next, go to Open File
Filter in type GRAPHICS
Now select the UG PART
Click Open
Now the file should open!

Surfacing in Solid Edge

Welcome to our second edition of the Ally PLM Lunch Bytes. Our topic we cover in this edition is surfacing. These videos show many good examples of how to use the surfacing tools in Solid Edge.

How do you find and use dynamic mirror in SolidWorks?

The Dynamic Mirror tool is a sketcher tool that allows you to dynamically mirror geometry as you're sketching it. To use dynamic mirror, you first have to find it as it probably won't be on your sketch toolbar to start out with. First, hit the 'S' key then right mouse click on the menu and select customize. Go to the 'Commands' tab and select 'Sketch'. There you'll see the Dynamic Mirror icon. It looks like the mirror icon but with a little lightning bolt symbol. Simply drag and drop the dynamic mirror icon to either the 'S' menu or to the sketch toolbar and you're all set!

How do you create a title block in ProEngineer?

There are two primary methods to bring a title block into a drawing in ProEngineer. To insert a title block into an existing drawing:

First, open the existing drawing: File/Open/directory/filename. The existing drawing appears. Now, clean a space for the title block by selection of a view (mouse left button click). The goal is to get enough space for the title block in the lower right corner. Next, use the new placement of the views and the space for the title block will be ready.

Using "Sketch" tools, select the "Line" tool and draw a title block. In this method, the form is fully defined by a drafter and should comply with the rules adopted by the company or client. To finish drafting, click the middle mouse button somewhere in the area of the drawing.


 
To fill in the title block simply hit the "Insert Note" option of the main menu. Next, select the type of notes in the Menu Manager (Default options: No Leader, Horizontal, Default justification – Make Note). In the actual title block, similar to regular notes, we can fill the lines with letters, numbers and symbol. Notes can be modified by a right mouse button click and select option "Properties" in the menu.

Note properties window appears. Bookmarks: Text & Text Style. Select the bookmark with the Text Style window. We can change here the font, letter height, line thickness, width factor between the letters.

Text parameters can also be modified, for example, height of the letters: from 0.156250 to 0.25". The note can also be moved in the drawing area into any other position (Left Button click & hold). This title block is used only once, in this particular drawing, and cannot be used anywhere else.

How do you render an image in Solid Edge?

Do you need to know how to render a 3D model into a marketable high-quality image? Well, check out the videos below for all you need to know about the rendering options in Solid Edge!