CAD Atomic Blog

Solid Edge ST5 introduced a new “Slot” feature to make creating slots much more efficient than past methods.  You may have overlooked this feature in ST5 and future versions due to its nested button location on the ribbon, so I thought I would reintroduce this useful feature. Prior to the new Slot feature, one would have to use the Cutout command and then create a sketch of the slot’s profile by hand or by using the Symmetric Offset sketch command.  If the slot needed to be counter bored for a head of a fastener, then additional sketching and features were needed.  The new Slot command simplifies this process greatly. The Slot command is located under the Hole fly-out menu.  It is available as both an Ordered and Synchronous feature. Invoking the command produces the Slot Command Bar that contains the typical command steps and option button that we are familiar with from other features (Ordered shown). The Option button produces the sta...

Often when placing dimensions on drawings, the projection lines of some dimensions will cross the projection lines of other dimensions as shown below. Solid Edge provides a function to automatically create breaks in one extension line where it crosses another. This function is called "Add Projection Line Break". It is accessible from the Shortcut Menu when you have a dimension highlighted. The result is shown below. If you wish to remove the projection line break, highlight the dimension, invoke the shortcut menu, and select "Remove Projection Line Break".

Whenever a new version of Solid Edge is released, there is always a multitude of new/enhanced features and I’m usually asked by someone what my favorite one is.  You cannot imagine how hard that is to answer when your looking at hundreds of potential favorites in a given release.  Usually though, I find that it is the simple little things that seem to be my favorite. In ST7, I would have to say my favorite new feature is the Quick View Cube. This control sits in the lower right corner of the graphics area and will turn translucent when not in focus of the mouse, however when the mouse is in close proximity it will solidify and the individual control points will become visible.  The Quick View Cubes purpose is to give the user quick access and transitional control to common orthographic and isometric views with a single click of the mouse.  Now this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I have watched many a user rotate a model with either a 3D Connexion device ...

If you are not familiar with the Solid Edge Replace Part command, it is an Assembly based command used to do what the name implies… replace a part or sub-assembly with another part or sub-assembly. In past releases of Solid Edge, the Replace Part command was a solo act that had the ability of replacing a single part or sub-assembly occurrence or all occurrences of that selection with a user specified replacement part or sub-assembly that already existed. With the release of Solid Edge ST5 and subsequent releases, the Replace Part command was actually expanded into 4 different Replace Part commands, each with their own specific capabilities. Replace Part Replace Part is similar to the previous Replace Part command in that it is used to replace a part with one that has already been created, however it was expanded to allow not only the selection of a single occurrence or all occurrences of the selection, but also allows a user to select different parts and/or specified num...

Solid Edge ST7 introduced a new feature called 3D Sketch, but 3D sketching in Solid Edge isn’t exactly new… Solid Edge has had a couple of add on packages for several years called XpresRoute and Harness which both have a 3D sketch tool included, but it could only be used for those modules. Also, all of the 3D environments in Solid Edge have had the Keypoint Curve and Curve by Table features which are also a form of 3D sketch but work by defining points to run a curve or sketch elements between, and of course you could always create a couple of intersecting 2D sketches and generating the 3D intersection curve between them but occasionally you would run into situations where a sketch would have to double back on itself causing issues with the intersection curve generation. So what is new about the ST7 3D sketch? ST7 3D Sketch is a new environment that creates a “3D Sketches” node in Pathfinder and each 3D Sketch created becomes a feature underneath it.  It contains some of ...

QUESTION: You have a group of users using Solid Edge, you ask them to all use the same settings for consistency, but there are so many that it's tedious to keep track of and not everybody agrees with all the setting choices so some don't comply... What's an administrator or team leader to do? ANSWER:  Use the Solid Edge Administrator tool! The Solid Edge Administrator tool allows someone to create an Options.xml file that will control various setting such as User Templates, Hole Table information, data management settings, etc...  There is actually a long list of items it controls.  You can set defaults that the user can override if desired or you can lock the settings preventing the override. Once and Options.xml file is created and located on a network share, have every user reference it in their File Location options, and all setting controlled by the Options.xml will be automatically set. The Solid Edge Administrator tool is not m...