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I got an .rfa file I want to get it into fusion 360 but from what I can google the actual easiest way is to install revit trial and export it myself to some more useful format. That seems a bit overkill.
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Apr 8, 2023 09:48
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I've had to do that before. Revit does but play nicely with others (except inventor, maybe)
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Apr 13, 2023 08:17
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I'm currently being trained in Advance Steel, and AutoCAD Plant, so I'll probably be a master of chemical plants in a year.
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Apr 13, 2023 14:19
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Turns out Alibre will do payment plans for their CAD software. I got popped a free trial and I’m absolutely checking that out.
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Apr 14, 2023 01:55
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I'm asking this on behalf of my brother, as I don't know anything about CAD. His small business uses GrabCAD (they build truck-sized stuff out of steel for the mining industry) but apparently that stops the middle of this year (a free version maybe?) so they are looking for something to move to. Autodesk Inventor and Vault have been suggested, but I wanted to see if there were any other suggestions. They need to share data between their sites internationally, and presumably allow the teams to work on the same drawings and maintain one source of truth. I'm not asking for a complete solution necessarily, but rather some other options out there that might suit them from my vague details. Or perhaps a good vendor to buy Autodesk through if there are good prices to be had (I've no idea. For all I know you can only buy from them.) I did see some posts a few pages back that say Vault is a dog, so that made me wonder what the choices are like. Thanks everyone. These guys are not very IT savvy (I got a call today about them opening a PDF that then started installing updates to Windows!) so they probably read some of the CAD product pages and start getting dizzy. e: to add, it sounds like they are stuck with Inventor, but are looking for a cheaper supplier if they can. Gromit fucked around with this message at 10:30 on Apr 14, 2023 |
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Apr 14, 2023 08:54
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Inventor isn't the worst thing to be stuck with by far.
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Apr 14, 2023 16:42
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Dance Officer posted:Inventor isn't the worst thing to be stuck with by far. Yeah, I've mostly used Inventor. It's decent enough but can start having problems when assemblies get really complicated. You *could* skip Vault if it's just one person doing all the work, but I'd still recommend getting it. Vault is data management system, which allows you to check out files (and lock some users out of them if needed), so that two people aren't editing the same part at the same time. Vault does good for Inventor because you can easily rename and move files, and it keeps all the links in the assembly. If you don't have Vault you have to use Design Assistant, which does not do that stuff, and can easily become catastrophic if you're not doing all that at the top level (and god forbid you use the parts and assemblies on a different project).
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Apr 14, 2023 16:58
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I’d probably go with first party, myself (Not knowing much about the Inventor side)
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Apr 14, 2023 16:59
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As my works Vault Admin, I think Vault is a huge piece of poo poo* *mostly the Change Order and lifecycle state change stuff. Just checking things in and out is fine. That said Inventor has grown on me over time and I don't miss solidworks constantly crashing and corrupting stuff
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Apr 14, 2023 22:11
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simmyb posted:
I did some moderately complicated surfacing this week in solidworks and I'd forgotten how inane it is. Mystery errors, features that break or unbreak with rebuilds for no apparent reason, simultaneously super robust and super fragile when changing upstream features. Only one crash to desktop somehow.
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Apr 14, 2023 23:28
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NewFatMike posted:I’d probably go with first party, myself (Not knowing much about the Inventor side) Fair enough. I figured it was worth asking for the price of a post here. When I first posted I thought he was after a replacement app, but it turns out he was just wanting to know if it was cheaper anywhere reputable. Thanks.
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Apr 17, 2023 04:36
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We just commissioned a machine today that I designed in F360. Really cool to see it go from start to finish and have someone operating it. I worked with two other people who are both machinists/fabricators and it was great to model a bit, animate the movements, let them push and pull slides, and get instant feedback. I sourced so much stuff from McMaster just because I could drop it into the model without doing the create an account, download, unzip, upload, convert dance. I had some serious anxiety that some components wouldn't match, but they did. Every single time. I was curious how other folks are handling revision control in 360? Do I just 'save as' my production models and work off a revision folder?
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May 3, 2023 01:32
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I recommend filenames containing a mix of dates, “rev ###”, “_final_rev_updated”, etc. just go with what you feel each time.
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May 3, 2023 02:53
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withak posted:I recommend filenames containing a mix of dates, “rev ###”, “_final_rev_updated”, etc. just go with what you feel each time. Ah, you must be one of my coworkers. I am especially fond of _final_v2, _final_final, etc all stored in a SVN repository. Note that it absolutely forbidden to have _final actually be the production version. The production version should be call something like _testing.
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May 3, 2023 05:13
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ZincBoy posted:The production version should be call something like _temp.
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May 3, 2023 05:28
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ZincBoy posted:all stored in a SVN repository. I would quit any job that tried to make me use SVN for cad again. My current one did until the whole ME group said fuckit we're using google drive.
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May 3, 2023 05:41
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I had really thought modern CAD, or big orgs anyway had something like automatic versioning to take it out of the hands of humans. Does make me feel better about my own manual versioning (of docs in general). We've talked about automating it somehow but never found a fitting product.
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May 3, 2023 06:31
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They do, usually a pdm system of some sort. Just usually not free/included in the base license in the same way fea or cam or cfd aren't.
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May 3, 2023 06:51
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I'm glad to see my method is on par for industry standard.
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May 3, 2023 13:00
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You can absolutely mangle it even with a PDM system Ours stores revisions chronologically, but doesn't sanity check the revisions on an up-issue so you can do fun stuff like bounce from letter to number revisions and back, or go straight from revision 1 to 99* in one up-issue You can also skip revisions which is handy when something in the database becomes horribly corrupted and you need to abandon a haunted revision of a model in-place *I've never been brave enough to find out how high this can go, and judging by the rest of the software it will probably overflow and implode the entire db if I go too far
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May 3, 2023 23:39
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Lol I'd gently caress with it to get 69 as my first release every time. Can you do that for me please?
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May 4, 2023 04:03
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simmyb posted:As my works Vault Admin, I think Vault is a huge piece of poo poo* The lifecycle state stuff in vault is a huge piece of poo poo, dont use it. You're better off controlling revisions and release states by just controlling drawing releases in my oponion. Only thing I set up was a two state "lock /unlock" cycle life so we could lock standard parts and part templates to stop them getting checked out inadvertantly, which works well. We no longer have people unable to update a parts order properties becsuse some guy in the states booked it out by accident and then went on holiday. Honestly yeah, I think solidworks has better modelling tools but inventor is a lot more stable, I think ive had maybe three crashes in three years of using it. Vault is also better than solidworks pdm in my opinion. Solidworks pdm is just.... Seemingly insane on how it tracks part history and how theyre used.
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May 4, 2023 08:13
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Lmao SOLIDWORKS PDM training *still* kicks off with describing the informational section as a library card catalogue. It’s not a bad descriptor, it’s just that I’m in my 30s and on the trailing edge of people who have ever had to interact with one. At least starting in July every new SOLIDWORKS license will come with the online connected 3DX PLM system which is totally ready for prime time 
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May 4, 2023 14:19
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jammyozzy posted:You can absolutely mangle it even with a PDM system I'll put a dollar on 255
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May 4, 2023 16:39
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shame on an IGA posted:I'll put a dollar on 255 254. Counting starts at zero, donchaknow
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May 5, 2023 01:20
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I'm taking some SolidWorks classes and the first issue I've encountered is with UI scaling. I'm on Windows 11 with a 4K laptop on a 13.3" screen, so I have to run it at 300% scaling. I also have a larger, hi-viz mouse cursor. The mouse cursor is covering up all the pop-up tooltips in Solidworks, and even if I size it down to the tiniest, I still am having a very difficult time clicking on endpoints/midpoints. It feels like I have to get within an exact couple pixels and if I don't hold the mouse completely still while clicking I'll fail to make a closed rectangle or whatever, which is just slowing me down a real lot. Any recommendations or guides? I'm afraid if I start making tweaks (if there are any) to the stickiness of the UI, things might get worse. And there's probably a lot of ways to go about it (Windows OS DPI scaling vs in-program options) which might not mix well.
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May 5, 2023 21:32
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Zero VGS posted:I'm taking some SolidWorks classes and the first issue I've encountered is with UI scaling. I'm on Windows 11 with a 4K laptop on a 13.3" screen, so I have to run it at 300% scaling. I also have a larger, hi-viz mouse cursor. The mouse cursor is covering up all the pop-up tooltips in Solidworks, and even if I size it down to the tiniest, I still am having a very difficult time clicking on endpoints/midpoints. It feels like I have to get within an exact couple pixels and if I don't hold the mouse completely still while clicking I'll fail to make a closed rectangle or whatever, which is just slowing me down a real lot. This is what we’ve been recommending in ~*~the biz~*~ for a few years now. There are some weird edge cases where it may not work out (e.g. using DisplayLink USB-A docks) but give this a shot. https://www.goengineer.com/blog/solidworks-display-scaling-solutions
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May 5, 2023 21:37
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NewFatMike posted:This is what we’ve been recommending in ~*~the biz~*~ for a few years now. There are some weird edge cases where it may not work out (e.g. using DisplayLink USB-A docks) but give this a shot. Thanks! I'll try that out. Yeah at 200% scaling in Windows I have to squint, but at 300% pretty much everything in Solidworks breaks. Like to get to Options I have to click the Tools menu then click a "down" arrow 10 times to scroll down the menu and find options. It's demented. It's ironic, I'm trying to carve an acrylic chassis to turn a 17.3" laptop panel into a portable display, but before I can make it with CNC routing, I have to learn the tools on this tiny display. Edit: that helped but I'm still running in to this scenario:  If I draw 4 lines to make a rectangle, the "slop window" for them automatically becoming 90-degree angles is like single-digit pixels on this 4K screen. If I try to close the shape into a rectangle, it seems like there's "the node you're hovering the cursor near is orange" vs "the node you have the cursor directly over is orange but with a small black outline on it" and I'll miss or flinch and it becomes an open shape (I zoomed in above) All of the nodes in sketch are like, comically tiny. Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 22:24 on May 5, 2023 |
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May 5, 2023 22:00
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Hmm I just got to my campsite, so I’m kinda SOL on doing a ton, but I’m wicked happy to poke at it Monday when I’m back at my desk. In the meantime, I have a few suggestions: For both of these, undo the changes from the earlier post. For one of them try 100% Windows scaling, and in your Solidworks customize menu change to large icons. The workaround for 4K screens from when I was doing tech-support a few years ago, was to set the windows display resolution to 1080p. You’ll still get anti aliasing from the smaller pixels. I’ll see if there’s anything newer fixes wise, but I follow this thread closely and you’re welcome to DM me to get a zoom set up when I’m done camping 
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May 5, 2023 23:24
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If you had starlink, you could be on a zoom call right now.
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May 6, 2023 04:03
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If it is every once in a while, I use zoomit sometimes to get those critical clicks. CTRL-4 is the live zoom mode: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/zoomit
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May 14, 2023 20:37
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I'm a newbie in FreeCAD who made this thing: The cutouts are all centered on each side, the same height, the same width, and overall just the same shape and position on their relative sides. I manually specified each one in this case, but I can't help to wonder if there's some FreeCAD magic to specify the shape once and make the cuts on all the sides from that master shape. I would assume I could then tweak the master shape if I ever want different parameters. As it stands, the only things I really figured out from screwing around beyond just doing sketches with shapes and constraints are: 1. Datum Planes, which I used to create the sketches on each of the sides. They're just not visible right now. They seem clumsy for doing the sketches. Is that a normal way to do something like this? 2. The spreadsheet editor for specifying dimensions as named entities I can tweak. It's much better than mashing in the dimensions every time. I also would need to specify a few different versions of this part, but with different heights. I figure there's some magic to do that easily too.
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May 18, 2023 08:19
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I use CAD for survey and mapping applications. Automap3d sucks rear end.
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May 18, 2023 19:12
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I’m not a FreeCAD person, but most tools are the same or similar, so I’ll try to help:Rocko Bonaparte posted:I'm a newbie in FreeCAD who made this thing: You should be able to create an axis in the middle of the part, then circular pattern 4 instances 90 degrees apart of one cut set to “through all” or “Up to next” or something. Make that axis probably from the intersection of two mid planes if you haven’t centered your part over the origin. quote:As it stands, the only things I really figured out from screwing around beyond just doing sketches with shapes and constraints are: In most CAD like this you can sketch directly on the face of a part to create a feature, more on this later. quote:2. The spreadsheet editor for specifying dimensions as named entities I can tweak. It's much better than mashing in the dimensions every time. It generally is, spreadsheets like this are generally for design automation. quote:I also would need to specify a few different versions of this part, but with different heights. I figure there's some magic to do that easily too. In many tools these are called configurations, design families, things like that. A Google for “FreeCAD part configurations” Should do it. I would also strongly advise against using FreeCAD. The “more on this later” from above is basically that FreeCAD has a lot of problems, and One Very Big Problem (the topology naming problem) which severely limits design complexity, even if you do your best to design around it. There’s basically a maximum number of features you can do to an area of the part before it just breaks. There’s a form of FreeCAD that alleges to have solved this (Thunder something?) but it doesn’t solve the other problems, which largely boil down to the problems involved with making this kind of thing as a FOSS project. OnShape is my go-to recommendation for CAD and I’m starting to move my personal projects vv there since my day job is staring at SOLIDWORKS all day. If you’re just 3D printing, you’re not missing much. It’s a very easy interface to get started with and makes a lot of sense on top of having built in e-learning, where the alternative for everything else is university of YouTube. If you like FOSS for FOSS reasons, that’s a fine priority to have, but there’s better free options out there. You’d really have to twist my arm to find a particular reason to recommend FreeCAD over OnShape, Fusion 360, or Atom3D or even the SOLIDWORKS Makers Offer (last two being paid options).
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May 18, 2023 21:52
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Another way to model that for simpler editing is to do a cross shaped cut from the top edge down through all 4 sides at once (or from the bottom up if the cut is always flush with the inner face). Use sketch constraints to make the lines equal length, etc.
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May 18, 2023 23:39
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How do I share a sketch across different features in Solidworks? For example, say I have a sketch with a couple shapes, some contours will extruded, and some will be cuts. I want to draw it all on the same sketch because it makes sense for some reason, maybe the constraints or symmetry work out better, or whatever. Is there an easy way to do this? Or maybe some fundamental reason I shouldn't be trying to do it?
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May 18, 2023 23:56
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Right click and Show Sketch on the sketch under the feature, then when you're in a sketch for the other feature you can Convert Entities or whatever off of it. Overall sketch visibility has to turned on too.
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May 19, 2023 01:08
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Reusing the sketch after making it visible is what I typically do too. There's also a slightly more advanced option caked 'derived sketch' you should check out: https://www.javelin-tech.com/blog/2017/06/solidworks-derived-sketches/
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May 19, 2023 01:24
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I reuse sketches a lot when I'm creating a placeholder for purchased components that don't have cad or have too complex cad. I sketch the drawing and dimension it like the vendor's specifications so other users can confirm it quickly. Then I build features from that sketch until I have enough for the team to work with.
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May 19, 2023 01:37
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Thanks for all these suggestions! I learned about Convert Entities and Trim Entities a little while ago. They are super useful.
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May 19, 2023 04:53
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