Solid Edge Tip of the Week June 27, 2014

Solid Edge - Quickly Access System Information while in a Part or Assembly 

A great tip many users aren’t aware of is a quick and easy way to bring up their system info while working in a Solid Edge part or assembly environment. This is extremely useful when a user contacts support for help and the application engineer needs to know certain information about their machine as well as what version of the software they are running.

To quickly access the information, simply hold down CTRL + ALT + (Double click) Middle Mouse Wheel. This will bring up a window which contains the version of Solid Edge that is installed, processor and memory information, as well as video card information.

Ben Weisenberger
Application Engineer
Ally PLM Solutions, Inc  

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Truck, bus and train seat maker improves design process and ensures customer data compatibility

Freedman Seating designs better with Solid Edge. Moving from SolidWorks to Solid Edge improves the design process while ensuring data compatibility with customers and suppliers. Freedman now has a better ability to meet short lead times as virtual prototyping replaces physical testing. Freedman achieves more design re-use with part count down by 50 percent. 








Learn how http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/success/case_study.cfm?Component=188032&ComponentTemplate=1481

Try Solid Edge for free

http://allyplm.com/solidedgetrial/

Solid Edge Tip of the Week June 20, 2014

Solid Edge - Recognizing Holes and Hole Patterns

In part modeling, holes can be modeled with circular cutouts and conical cutouts. This is a sufficient modeling technique for some situations, but not all. Also, when working with imported files (part copy), holes are generally represented by circular and conical faces. In many cases, the need may arise where all the holes on the imported geometry need to be represented as hole features for downstream applications and to more accurately capture design intent.

The Recognize Holes command can be used to do this and to replace the found circular and conical faces with hole features. The command is available in the part, sheet metal, and assembly environments.

You can either select a single design body to detect hole candidates, or you can also select a single face to detect all hole candidates.

Click HERE to watch this short demonstration recognizing holes and hole patterns.

Ben Weisenberger
Application Engineer
Ally PLM Solutions, Inc 

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Register for Ally PLM's upcoming free Solid Edge webinars or learn more about our world-class training.

Learn about Ally PLM Solutions at http://allyplm.com/

Construction company reduces project plan times from 2 days to 2 hours

Riikku Rakenteet designs better with Solid Edge. Riikku improved product quality with continuous product innovation, significantly reduced material waste and gained a faster time-to-market for expanding business opportunities. The use of synchronous technology was especially important is helping Riikku Rakenteet produce better balcony designs, and do so notably faster.

Learn how

http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/success/case_study.cfm?Component=213360&ComponentTemplate=1481

Try Solid Edge for free

http://allyplm.com/solidedgetrial/

NX Tip of the Week June 13, 2014

NX - Providing a new interface and functionality with NX 9   

NX 9 brings us a whole new user interface as well as new functionality in the software and in particular, drafting. NX provides its users with access to great tutorials if you are new to the software or if you want to learn the new functionality.

To access the tutorials on drafting enter the drafting environment. This is done by going to File> New in the upper left hand corner and selecting drawing in the box that appears:

Once in the drafting environment, select the Web Browser tool found on the far left as shown below: 

Then, you will notice in this menu you have multiple options. You can get an Overview of NX Drafting which includes descriptions on the new functionality in NX 9; or you can access the tutorials. Just select a tutorial image to run it and it displays as well as opening the part file you will use for this tutorial. An example of this is shown below: 

NX 9 provides its users with great options to learn the software as well as to update current users on new functionality in the product.  

Nathan Pfeiffer
Application Engineer
Ally PLM Solutions, Inc

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Register for Ally PLM's upcoming free NX webinars or learn more about our world-class training.
Learn about Ally PLM Solutions at www.allyplm.com

Sheet metal fabricator speeds product development and reduces errors

Vishwakarma Engineering designs better with Solid Edge. The move from 2D to 3D enabled faster product development, eliminated non value-added work, and reduced errors found during the manufacturing stage. The use of Solid Edge’s synchronous technology enables designers to make changes quickly “on the fly” without concern for modeling history.

Learn how

http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/success/case_study.cfm?Component=213326&ComponentTemplate=1481

Try Solid Edge for free

http://allyplm.com/solidedgetrial/

NX Tip of the Week - June 6, 2014

NX - How to Use NX CAM to Determine Shortest Cutter Length  

In machining, a good way to prevent chatter and excessive tool wear is to use the shortest cutter possible.  In NX CAM, there are some useful options to help decide cutter length.  Below are two options you can use to help with tool length selection.

Option 1 - One option to check to see if the cutter is able to reach all areas of the part being machined without the holder colliding is to use verification.  This will display the toolpath in a different color highlighting the areas of the toolpath that creates a collision between the holder and the part.  After displaying the colliding areas, you can decide to use a longer tool or limit the toolpath to the safe areas of the part.

See the steps below to use verification to show collision areas:

1)  Once you have a tool and holder defined along with operation created, select the "Gouge and Collision Settings" in the Tool Path Visualization dialog: 

2)  Select "Check for Gouges", "Check Tool and Holder” and “Display Gouges” in the Gouge and Collision Settings dialog:

3)  Press the “Play” button to verify the toolpath and notice that all of the areas that collide with the part are now displayed in red: 

Option 2 - The second way to know the shortest possible cutter length is to use the “Report Shortest Tool” option.  This will automatically tell you the shortest possible length of cutter needed to complete that operation without colliding with the part.  Keep in mind that you do need to have a holder defined or this option will not be available.

Here are the steps to use the “Report Shortest Tool” option.
 

1)  Right-click on the operation:

2)  Select “Toolpath" and then "Report Shortest Tool":

3)  NX displays the smallest length possible for  a collision-free toolpath:

Chad Varney
Application Engineer
Ally PLM Solutions, Inc

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Steam accessories and control instrument maker increases design efficiency 65%

Forbes Marshall designs better with Solid Edge. Move from 2D to 3D allows company to concentrate on innovative new design work. With Solid Edge’s synchronous technology, Forbes also eliminated vendor mistakes due to drawing management issues, saved 150,000 rupees per month and increased its market share

Learn how

http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/success/case_study.cfm?Component=213164&ComponentTemplate=1481

Try Solid Edge for free 

http://allyplm.com/solidedgetrial/

Maintenance Release for NX 9.0.2 - Now Available for Download

We are pleased to inform you that Maintenance Release NX 9.0.2 is now available for download from the Siemens PLM download server. NX 9.0.2 is an accumulation of fixes built for installation on top of Windows 64 Bit, Linux 64-Bit and Mac OS images of NX 9.0.0.

Select the following link to download this Maintenance Release or to review the README.  Note: A valid WebKey account is required.

Windows 64-Bit:
      https://download.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/unigraphics/maintenance-release/nx9/win64/
 
Linux 64-Bit:
      https://download.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/unigraphics/maintenance-release/nx9/linux64/
 
Mac OS:
      https://download.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/unigraphics/maintenance-release/nx9/macos/
 
Please refer to the README file for Maintenance Release installation instructions.
 

Ally PLM encourages all of our customers to stay current with released Maintenance Packs. Maintenance Packs deliver the most current updates and resolution of PRs to your software platform.  You can find detailed information regarding the PRs that a Maintenance Pack addresses in the “readme” .txt file found with the MP download.

The Ally PLM Technical Support Team is available to answer any questions and provide support for all of your needs; including Maintenance packs.  You can contact the Ally PLM Technical Support Team via email at technical.support@allyplm.com or via phone at (513) 984-0480 Option: 4.