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Solidworks Users?


Alex Dark

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Just started a new job where im using solidworks a hell of a lot. Looking to try and optimise our design times, but cant really work out exactly how to go about this.

Im designing hydraulic cylinders, so i have to draw / extrude the tubes and rods then drag and drop the pistons/headbushes/backends etc into the assembly ( this is assuming ive already drawn them, ive got a fair catalogue now ) then dimension and annotate the drawings - usually taking me about 1hr 20mins for a full set of drawings ready to be machined.

This could all be made so easy with driveworks express, and ive had a look at the video below.

Its a pretty heavy undertaking so some guidance would be appreciated! Seems like its just lots of rules that need to be implemented ( e.d depending on which headbush, the thread depth and clearance depth has to change .... or .... with a different style of cylinder a different piston could be used.

The end goal is literally to have a form to fill out like:

Cylinder type:

Stroke

Closed centres

Port sizes

Pin hole dia.

Then solidworks could generate a model and all relevant drawings automatically. To do this though literally everything would have to be linked, and each model would have to have some characteristics assigned to it surely?

Any help would be massively appreciated....

Alex

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There are ways of setting parameters on a database to a stock model and when the parameters change the model will automatically update to requirements. However I think that method uses a single base model as opposed to a catalogue like yours.

I'll have a ponder on it.

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If its something that could be driven through driveworks then why not ask if it can be implemented? IIRC driveworks was developed by ntcadcam (the reseller we got our solidworks from who also developed pdmworks) and they're normally more than happy to visit to demo/advise. Could driveworks be applied to more products within the company? If it's only the one range (hydraulic cylinders) then it might not be worth it.

Failing that, are you working from a fixed range of bores (for example) whereby you have a standard assembly model for each diameter and then adjust the cylinder rod and body length to suit your requirements. It should be possible to generate a new assembly model/drawings very quickly by adjusting only a few dimensions; of course you will need to make sure everything is all linked together properly.

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