Wiley SolidWorks 2009 Bible Part 14 pdf

1024 Appendixes Part VIII FIGURE B.5 The Update Error warning TIP TIP The Don’t ask me again toggle is a nice option if you find these messages annoying. The one caveat to this is that the setting often only pertains to the current session of SolidWorks. After SolidWorks is closed down and restarted, you may see the same prompt again. Messages that are permanently dismissed are listed and may be retrieved at Tools ➪ Options ➪ Advanced. n Maximize document on open: This option causes all of the new windows in SolidWorks to be maximized within the SolidWorks window, even if the actual SolidWorks window is not maximized. Default is on. n Use shaded face highlighting: When the model is shaded, any selected face turns entirely to the selection color (green by default). If this option is turned off, then only the edges of the face are highlighted. Default is on. n Show thumbnail graphics in Windows Explorer: This setting turns the small SolidWorks icons in front of the filename shown in the Windows Explorer detail view into a very small preview of the part. This option creates a performance issue because the thumbnails take longer for Windows to process than the standard file type icons. See Figure B.6. If you are using the Vista Operating System, you do not have the opportunity to turn this option off, so you will not be able to see the standard icons for parts and assemblies if the part has a preview stored in the current version. Default is on. FIGURE B.6 Thumbnail graphics in Windows Explorer 1025 Tools, Options B TIP TIP If you want to display the preview of the part in Windows Explorer, then it is probably better to use the Views ➪ Thumbnail setting in Windows Explorer rather than the SolidWorks setting. The SolidWorks setting creates small icons that are barely distinguishable, while the Windows Explorer setting shows icons that are clearly visible, as shown in Figure B.7. FIGURE B.7 Using the Windows Explorer setting in Windows Explorer TIP TIP In Windows XP, you can set the size of the Windows Thumbnail icons in the Windows Registry at [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer] ThumbnailSize = 32. Use a value between 32 and 256. Larger sizes will affect load time. In Windows Vi sta the thumbnail size can be set right from the Views menu in Windows Explorer. CAUTION CAUTION Editing the registry can be dangerous to your operating system and potentially to your hardware. Undertake this sort of change with extreme care and only if you understand what you are doing. n Use system separator for dimensions: This setting establishes the character used to separate decimal values from whole number values. In Europe, a comma is most fre- quently used, while in the United States, a period is used. This setting depends on the Windows setting that is found in the Windows Control Panel. Deafult is on. When the setting is on, SolidWorks uses the default Windows setting, and the box to the right where you enter the separator character is disabled. When the setting is off, the box to the right is enabled. n Use English language menus: This setting is active only when SolidWorks has been installed in a language other than English. English is always available, regardless of what language was installed. n Use English language feature and filenames: Again, this setting is active only when a language other than English has been installed. This setting does not change the dis- played names of existing documents and features; it only controls the default names assigned to new documents and features. n Enable Confirmation Corner: All SolidWorks functions that use the Confirmation Corner (triangular area of the upper-right corner of the graphics window containing the green check mark and the red X) should also have a green check mark icon in the Property Manager or on the right-mouse button menu. Turning this option off could save some interface space, although it is not recommended. Default is on. See Figure B.8. 1026 Appendixes Part VIII FIGURE B.8 The Confirmation Corner n Auto-show PropertyManager: This option automatically shows the PropertyManager for items such as sketch entities and dimensions. If this setting is off, then you need to man- ually select the PropertyManager tab to access settings for these items. Default is on. NOTE NOTE Starting in SolidWorks 2009 you can detach the PropertyManager from the FeatureManager area and float it in the graphics window, or dock it to a number of places. It can even be put on a second monitor. n Automatically edit macro after recording: This setting saves you from manually open- ing macros so that you can edit them immediately after recording them. Default is off. n Stop VSTA debugger on macro after recording: VSTA stands for Visual Studio Tools for Applications. n Enable FeatureXpert: This option enables the Mate, Fillet, and Draft Xperts. The Xperts are intended for two purposes, either for novice users or for situations where a large number of entities are involved and you want the system to sort out errors automatically. Default is on. n When rebuild error occurs: The available options are Continue, Stop, or Prompt. Continue ignores the error and rebuilds what is can. Stop causes the rebuild to stop at the first error and allows you to correct the error before moving down the tree. Prompt asks you what to do if there is an error. Default is Prompt. n Custom property used as component description: The available options are any cus- tom property. This setting affects which custom property is used in the Save As and Open dialog boxes. You can use the drop-down menu to replace the word Description and the value that follows it with any custom property name and value, as shown in Figure B.9. NOTE NOTE This does not apply to the Description used in the BOM. n Show latest news feeds in Task Pane: When SolidWorks starts up, you can see RSS feeds (blog entries) in the Task Pane. You can get back to these on the SolidWorks Resources tab of the Task Pane. Default is on. n Enable performance feedback: Performance feedback is data about how you use SolidWorks, how often it crashes, and what was happening when it crashed. This feedback is in the form of an e-mail, and works best with Outlook. Default is set during installation. 1027 Tools, Options B FIGURE B.9 The Description custom property is shown in the Save As dialog box. Drawings page The Drawings page has many general settings that affect the display and default settings used on your computer. If you want to affect specific geometry or data types, then you may want to look on the Document Properties page. Figure B.10 shows the Drawings page of settings. n Eliminate duplicate model dimensions on insert: Prevents duplicate dimensions when Insert, Model Items is used. This setting can be overridden by the Eliminate Duplicates toggle in the Model Items PropertyManager. Default is on. n Mark all part/assembly dimensions for import into drawings by default: Model dimensions use a setting called “Mark for drawing” to determine if a dimension should be inserted when using Insert Model Items. This option marks all new dimensions with the Mark for drawing option by default. Default is on. n Automatically scale new drawing views: This option automatically scales new drawing views, based on the size of the view geometry relative to the size of the sheet. Default is 2X. n Show contents while dragging drawing view: When moving drawing views, it is often useful to see the view geometry. The downside of this option is obviously system perfor- mance, particularly on large assembly views. The alternative is to only show the rectangu- lar view border when dragging. Default is on. 1028 Appendixes Part VIII FIGURE B.10 The System Options ➪ Drawings page n Display new detail circles as circles: No, you are probably not the only one to whom this sounds like double-speak. A detail circle refers to any closed loop that is used to cre- ate a detail view. This option displays the loop as a circle, regardless of whether it is drawn as a hexagon, rectangle, ellipse, spline, or any other closed profile. Turning is off enables it to be shown as it was drawn. The behavior of this setting is affected by the Document Property drafting standard in use. Default is off. n Select hidden entities: This option allows you to select edges that have been manually or automatically hidden by moving the cursor over them, and using the right-mouse but- ton menu. Default is off. n Allow auto-update when opening drawings: This option rebuilds drawings and associ- ated models when you open the drawing. Default is on. n Disable note/dimension inference: When placing or moving notes and dimensions, inference lines help you align to other notes or dimensions. Default is off. n Print out-of-sync water mark: Detached drawings that have not been updated since the model was last changed can be printed with a watermark to make sure that users know that what was printed was not the latest available version. Default is on. 1029 Tools, Options B n Show reference geometry names in drawings: Reference geometry, such as planes and axes, may be assigned names that are important, or may just have generic default names such as Plane1. This option allows you to control whether or not these entities are shown on drawings. Default is off. n Automatically hide components on view creation: If an assembly component is not visible when a view is created, then it will be set to hidden. This helps to reduce drawing rebuild times. Default is off CAUTION CAUTION This option can leave parts hidden when they should be shown, for example, when using exploded and section views. n Display sketch arc centerpoints: This is the same as the setting under the Sketch head- ing. Sketched arc centerpoints (not edge centerpoints) can be shown or hidden using this setting. This setting only applies to drawings. Default is off. n Display sketch entity points: This refers to endpoints, ellipse, parabola, and spline con- trol points. When these points are off, it can be difficult to tell where the ends of sketch entities are in a chain of entities. Troubleshooting sketches can also become more difficult when the points are turned off. However, some people find the display of the points to be distracting. This setting only applies to drawings. Default is off. n Save tessellated data for drawings with shaded and draft quality views: You can use tessellated data in View-only mode and in eDrawings. If this data is not saved, then the viewer and eDrawings will show blank views where shaded or draft quality views are called for. The setting has no effect on high-quality drawing views. Tessellated data increases drawing file size significantly. Default is on. BEST PRACTICE BEST PRACTICE Best practice for this setting is to turn it on. There is a constant trade-off between file size and performance (speed). Reading large files is slow compared to reading small files, but reading data is faster than re-computing the data. n Automatically populate View Palette with views: The View Palette is located in the Task Pane, and you can use it to quickly drag-and-drop drawing views onto the drawing. Default is on. See Figure B.11. n Show sheet format dialog on add new sheet: When starting a new drawing from a tem- plate without a format, SolidWorks prompts you to select a sheet format. Default is off. n Override quantity column name on Bill Of materials: The default QTY column in the BOM can be difficult to manage, so SolidWorks offers the option to create your own col- umn for quantity. Default is off. n Detail view scaling: This option controls the default scale at which detail views will be created. This is most commonly set as shown. Default is 2. n Custom property used as Revision: This option controls which custom property is used to drive the Revision Table. If it is blank, a property called Revision is used. Default is blank. n Keyboard movement increment: You can nudge drawing views and annotations by press- ing an arrow key on the keyboard. This setting controls the distance. Default is 10mm. 1030 Appendixes Part VIII FIGURE B.11 The View palette TIP TIP SolidWorks tends to display many default values as “.39 in” or some multiple vari- ant. This is because SolidWorks thinks in metric units, and .39 inches corresponds to 10 millimeters. Display Style The Display Style page sets the defaults for display style, tangent edge display, and display quality, as shown in Figure B.12. These values apply only to newly created views, not views that already exist. n Display style for new views: This setting applies to newly created views. It does not affect existing views. Default is Hidden Lines Removed. n Tangent edges in new views: Edges between tangent faces display using the selected style. The Removed option does not typically work well with parts without sharp edges, although it would be a good way to display an image of only the silhouette outline of a part. Default is Visible. 1031 Tools, Options B FIGURE B.12 The System Options ➪ Drawings ➪ Display Style page n Display quality for new views: Draft quality views are created when the model is light- weight, and are typically used for large or complex assemblies to improve performance. Default is High Quality. Area Hatch/Fill This page allows you to set the defaults for hatching and area fills, as shown in Figure B.13. FIGURE B.13 The System Options ➪ Drawings ➪ Area Hatch/Fill page 1032 Appendixes Part VIII n Area Hatch/Fill: This setting determines the default hatch, scale, and angle for newly created hatch fills. Default is ANSI 31, scale:1, angle:0. Colors You can establish color schemes for various items on the interface by using the settings shown in Figure B.14. FIGURE B.14 The System Options ➪ Colors page n Current color scheme: By default, SolidWorks installs with several color schemes, and you can make your own custom schemes and save those as well. You can use this drop- down menu to select a color scheme. NOTE NOTE Starting with SolidWorks 2008, the default color scheme is Blue on installation. For long time users, this changes the selection highlight color from green to a glowing blue for RealView users. The Green color scheme is closest to what the 2007 and prior settings were. n Entity colors: Figure B.15 shows the list of entity colors that you can change. Some col- ors stand for multiple entities that may not be listed. CAUTION CAUTION If you change the background to the same color as another object, then you may not be able to see the object. SolidWorks does not automatically change text color if it set to the same color as the background. [...]... color, rather than having all of the parts use the same color The wireframe color can be related to the shaded color for a part through a document-specific setting, Document Properties ➪ Colors ➪ Apply Same Color to Wireframe, HLR, and Shaded This setting is only available for part documents TIP n Use Specified colors when editing parts in assemblies: When editing parts in the context of an assembly,... in assemblies: When editing parts in the context of an assembly, you can specify that the colors of parts being edited and parts not being edited to the colors specified in the object color list for Assembly, Edit Part and Assembly, Non-Edit Part Default is off You can change the transparency of the parts by selecting System Options ➪ Display/Selection ➪ Assembly transparency for in-context edit TIP... turn, makes SolidWorks think that the parts have changed In this case, when you exit the assembly, SolidWorks will prompt you to save the parts, even though they are read-only and cannot be saved There is no way out of the loop, other than to just answer No to each prompt to save This option can help keep you to avoid getting into that loop Default is off n Allow multiple contexts for parts when editing... significance to SolidWorks such as samples that install by default with SolidWorks, files already open in SolidWorks, and recently opened SolidWorks documents n Show in File Explorer view: File Explorer is the Windows Explorer–like part of the Task Pane, as shown in Figure B.46 Notice that it has a folder for documents that are currently open in SolidWorks, as well as a recent documents list The panel will disappear... that you can see how the parts fit together Pushing the slider all the way to the left turns off the animation Default is Fast n Update mass properties while saving document: Solid mass properties take some time to compute, and can slow down rebuilding and saving times, particularly for larger assemblies with many parts However, if you have BOMs or notes on drawings linked to part or assembly mass properties,... model edges, then SolidWorks prompts you to allow it to automatically convert edges to sketch entities as shown in Figure B.19 The software closes the sketch in the direction of the arrow, and allows you to reverse the direction in which to close the sketch Default is off n Create sketch on new part: If you create a lot of new parts, then this may be a useful option Default is off 1035 B Part VIII Appendixes... to create a new document include imported parts, split parts, and mirrored parts The Always Use these Default Document Templates option means that the above listed templates will be used automatically If they are not available, then automatically generated default templates will be used (these are the original templates that exist with a new installation of SolidWorks) The Prompt User to Select Document... prompted to select a template for each part that is generated In imported assemblies with a lot of parts, it may be wise to opt for the automatic setting unless you need to specify different templates for different parts Default setting is Always Use These Default Document Templates Create a Library folder that includes items such as templates, blocks, library parts, and features, forming tools, and... isolate parts in an assembly, this hides and shows parts The hide/ show fades in or out, and this controls the speed Default setting is 50% Backup/Recover The Backup and Recover options have changed significantly for SolidWorks 2007 Figure B.43 shows the new settings FIGURE B.43 The System Options ➪ Backup/Recover page n Save auto-recover info every: This setting allows you to specify that SolidWorks. .. Auto-recover information is only used if SolidWorks crashes The next time you launch SolidWorks after a crash, it will offer you the chance to open the recovered files The auto-recovered files are shown in the Task pane If SolidWorks exits normally, then the auto-recover information is deleted at the end of the session This setting can degrade performance, especially of large parts or assemblies, because it . for part documents. n Use Specified colors when editing parts in assemblies: When editing parts in the con- text of an assembly, you can specify that the colors of parts being edited and parts. the preview of the part in Windows Explorer, then it is probably better to use the Views ➪ Thumbnail setting in Windows Explorer rather than the SolidWorks setting. The SolidWorks setting. 10mm. 1030 Appendixes Part VIII FIGURE B.11 The View palette TIP TIP SolidWorks tends to display many default values as “.39 in” or some multiple vari- ant. This is because SolidWorks thinks in