Maxed Out? Declutter Your Configurations and Equations with DriveWorks Solo

As a SOLIDWORKS user, you likely appreciate how easy it is to create parts and assemblies. But what if you want to make that process even easier? Maybe you’ve noticed that your assembly was pretty much the same, but still a little different, and started to leverage the use of Configurations.

“Amazing! Now all I have to do is create a configuration of the same assembly and configure its components, dimensions, and features as I like!” Presto! No new assembly needed. Combine this with a design table and you can create configurations of various shapes and sizes faster than Usain Bolt can run the 100-meter dash. But what do you do if what started out as a tremendous help started to become a burden?

What if when you started your Configuration tree, it looked like this:

But now it looks like this:

And perhaps that your design table started off like this:

And now, looks like this:

The consequences are that now, your assembly file is much larger than you wanted, you are running into issues referencing the correct configuration in your drawing, or maybe you’re having issues with your design table no longer functioning properly.

Maybe you thought, “I’m going to work smarter not harder. Instead of having a giant design table and tons of configurations, I’ll create one assembly and drive all of its parameters by equations.” This would mean just having one assembly file allowing you to “dial up” a new configuration and pack and go as needed.

Fast forward six months and your initially simple, equation driven assembly have become more of an engineering textbook with a SOLIDWORKS file attached. What began with just a few equations now has enough to significantly slow down the file. So you’ve maxed out design tables, configurations, and equations… now what?

Well, there’s hope; and it’s a tool that works with any seat of SOLIDWORKS that will not only replace the need for configurations but can also handle all the needed for configurations but can also handle all the needed parameter manipulation and engineering calculations so that SOLIDWORKS is not bogged down. That tool is DriveWorks Solo.

What is DriveWorks Solo?

DriveWorks Solo is a Design Automation tool that allows one engineer to automate their job using a form to configure their design. DriveWorks Solo lets you drive dimensions, features and custom properties, swap in replacement models, create and control drawings, and also lets you drive the file names and locations of your new configurations.

In my recorded webcast below, I show you not only how DriveWorks Solo operates, but I  take an already “maxed out” assembly and show you to how easy it is to convert its rules to the DriveWorks environment. During our time together you will learn:

• – How to make sure your models are ready for the tool
• – How DriveWorks Solo will get you past the technology glass ceiling of slowness and limited SOLIDWORKS automation capability
• – How to transfer already existing equation logic into DriveWorks

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About the Author

Aaron Winthers has been working at Fisher Unitech since 2014. As an Application Engineer Specialist, he works to assist companies in implementing design automation throughout their organization. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree, concentrating in product design, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Aaron is a Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert with other certifications in Data Management, Composer, Model Based Definition, Training, and Support.