Solidworks SustainabilityXpress

Carbon footprint...Carbon footprint...Carbon footprint...

Every now and then we heard about carbon footprint from radio, printed media, tv advertisement and etc....Everyone is started to talk about methods of reducing our carbon footprint recently and then i started to realize how disstructive we are as a human to our mother nature. Everyday we are producing tonnes of carbon dioxide that will caused green house effect and global warming, Scientists believed that reducing the amount of insulating gasses we put into the atmosphere is key to reducing the impacts of climate change.

So how can we help to reduce our carbon footprint? I have some methods to share with you here:

1. Reduce the need to copy and print. When you need to, copy and print on both sides of the paper.
2. Consider car pooling, for work and personal trips.
3. Consider purchasing a Hybrid vehicle, or more efficient car if you must drive a lot.
4. Decrease your meat consumption
5. Buy goods that were produced locally rather than transported across long distances.
6. Turn off your computer when you're not using it.
7. Set refrigerator temperature at 36-38 degrees and your freezer to 0-5 degrees
8. Use the microwave instead of conventional ovens and stove.
9. Replace any incandescent light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFL) or Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs).
10. Design Products in Solidworks....

Yes! design your products in Solidworks with SustainabilityXpress.

Solidworks SustainabilityXpress is a add-in in Solidworks that help you to understand and improve the environmental impact of your designs. It promotes Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This tool will looks at everything that happens in the production, use, and final disposal of the product. This even includes all the transportation that occurs between the stages. Decisions on the material used, how it is manufactured, … can result in vastly different effects on the environment. SustainabilityXpress shows you these impacts and helps you to improve your design.

Solidworks SustainabilityXpress includes ability to calculate:

• Carbon Footprint – production of greenhouse gasses.


• Total Energy Consumed – self explanatory.


• Effect on Air – specifically the contributor to acid rain.


• Effect on Water – which results in algae blooms in coastal waters.


• Find Similar Material tool - search the built-in material database for close alternatives to your current material

To use Solidworks SustainabilityXpress, you need to download this product from Solidworks Lab and then add-in this product from Solidworks add-in tools.

After you add-in, Click Tools > SustainabilityXpress or Click SustainabilityXpress from Evaluate CommandManager tab
SustainabilityXpress will appear on the task pane of Solidwork UI.

Select the material and then the software will displays the part's weight. The Environmental Impact dashboard at the bottom of the Task Pane provides real-time feedback about the environmental impact of your design.

Select the manufacturing process and the regions where the part is manufactured and used.

The result will updated instantly. The pie chart colors represent the parameters used to measure the environmental impact. The size of the pieces represent the percentage contributed by the parameters to the total environmental impact.

You can click previous and next at the bottom of the Task Pane to scroll through detailed reports of the selected material's environmental impact on carbon, energy, air, and water.

So lets help in conservation of the earth resources, tell everyone about this tool and teach them how to use it(i hope you had learned a bit from this post). At least this something we can do to

"Heal the World,

Make it a Better Place,

For you and for me and the entire human race,

.........."

:-)

~ah lau~

Solidworks REAL View

I visited a customer named Kenneth recently and saw some interesting picture on the background image of his desktop. Well, it's a thumbdrive modelled by him in Solidworks. But due the lack of Solidworks Professional Package, he only managed to show his pieces of works in Real View Environment which i personally feel that it's "REAL" enough for presenting his model. So i am going to discuss about REAL View in this post:

Here is some history about Real View in Solidworks:

RealView Graphics, which was released in SolidWorks 2008, is hardware support of advanced shading in real time. By applying appearances and scenes, your models come to life without going through rendering processes such as PhotoWorks. Your system must have a graphics card capable of supporting RealView.

Is your graphics card real view supported?

Please visit this website SolidWorks Web site for a complete list of supported graphics cards and drivers.

RealView vs. PhotoWorks

RealView Graphics differs from PhotoWorks in a couple of ways. For instance, when a model is rendered in PhotoWorks, it must be rendered again after any motion of the model (rotation, zoom/pan). RealView Graphics works in real time and retains the appearances you've set. Below is the summary of comparison between Real View and PhotoWorks

RealView Graphics

- Hardware rendered
- Dynamic image
- Rendered during motion

- Applies to model

PhotoWorks Rendering

- Software rendered

- Static image

- Re-render after motion

- Includes caustics, illumination, etc.

Here is some other samples of Real View image:

Is your version of Solidworks supporting Real View Graphic?

~ah lau~

Transformer

Autobot, Transform!!!

Yea, yea... it's transformer fever strike back... again!

I believe most of you have watched (or going to watch) the latest blockbuster movie-> Transformer 2: Revenge of the Fallen. People will laugh at you if you miss this must-watch movie, "Wah! you so out-dated ar... haven watch tranformer ar!~"

So, to be a "in-date" human being, hereby I would like to share my humble designs for the hero & villain signature logo, Autobot and Decepticon! I believe you can easily identify what features had been used to create it.

~Autobot Vs Decepticon~

Sew saw it and come out with this funny idea, "Hey, why not we just use the flex feature in SolidWorks to bend it & print it as a mask"! Hmm... sound interesting! Now we have this planning to send this models for 3D printing to make it become the real mask!

Transformer mask

Will snap some funny pictures to share if succesfully print it & wear it~

Hmm... I'm thinking to give a free 3D mask for anyone who dare to model a Transformer and submit to me. I DARE YOU!~
*hint: you may consider start with a 80' style transformer.

written by charlie
edited by Sew(please don't kill me)

New rendered image for ring (designed by Nelson)

Hi , this is the new rendered ring image from Mr. Nelson~ with a different background and enviroment in PhotoView360, looks more grand compared with the previous one right? ;-)

Solidworks 2010 is coming!!

Solidworks has launched Solidworks 2010 Beta program recently....

What can we expect from Solidworks 2010???

Can we get what we have requested in Solidworks enhancement request?

Let review what are the TOP TEN ENHANCEMENT IDEAS that presented by Solidworks User Group Leader from different region during Solidworks World 2009.

They are:

1. Excel behavior in tables


2. Abort any running command by pressing ESC


3. Add Lock Point for model rebuilds


4. Dual Monitor support


5. On-the-fly equation creation and editing


6. Faster rebuilds on complex models


7. Ability to rename configurations while referenced


8. SolidWorks backward compatibility


9. Clear memory when a file is closed


10. Increase program stability

I am not sure how many of these request will come out in Solidworks 2010 but as a customer centric company, i think Solidworks Corp will try their best to fullfil customer enhancement request.

For Solidworks Customer with current subscription service, you can go to http://www.solidworks.com/ and log in as customer and later download this beta program for testing purpose. (for testing purpose only, not commercial use!!)

*term and condition apply

.

.

~ah lau~

My SolidCat

Have you ever think of design your own pet by using SolidWorks? Here's my 1st try using SolidWorks to model a "cartoon style" cat and i named it as SolidCat! This model is very simple, with some basic features in SolidWorks you will able to get it within few minutes! Let's try to explore and extend the ability of SolidWorks to anything! Miaw!~

Hydrogen Powered River Simple Urban Car Built in Silverstone

The purpose of Riversimple
is to move people Sustainable

Today I saw a new at 3D perspective blog about a company who has built a hydrogen fuel cell powered network electric car, which was unveiled to the public for the first time on June 16, 2009, and a foundation called 40 Fires, which has created a forum to develop energy-efficient cars using an open source approach.

It was so different when you design and engineer your car via a platform/forum of engineers throughout the world all having input into the intellectual property of the vehicle then the vehicle itself will probably look very different - and may even be much much better!!
Through online platform all engineer can literarily co-design, instantly share, mark up each others work, package parts on the fly, …

Riversimple is really bringing us hope for a new world of products and, more importantly, services for sustainable mobility.

let’s enjoy some video clip : http://www.riversimple.com/Default.aspx

Visit More information at : www.aboutmyarea.co.uk

Mustafa Dayal's CAR

Today I have a new design from one of our member in " SolidWorks Malaysia", Mr Mustafa Dayal. Mustafa sincerely would like to share out his design to all of the SolidWorks user in Malaysia or even to all over the world. He had designed Mustafa Dayal's Car ......... nice design. Still remember we are having a sport rim design? If we can join design with Mustafa, for sure we can design our own "DREAM CAR"...........

Dear Engineer, let's join to the team............... "DESIGN A DREAM CAR"......

7 ways to improve your Data Management - The intelligent PDM vault from SolidWorks

Today I just received a white paper from SolidWorks Corporation, topic about “Value your time with better Product Data Management System (PDM) in your design works place”. PDM systems perform a variety of tasks to help collaborate, control, connect, and communicate information throughout an engineering organization. Getting the most out of your PDM efforts starts with the Intelligent PDM Vault from SolidWorks.

As a usual business operation, you store your design and manufacturing data on a network drive for all to use. Because you’re savvy about the need for an administrator to control access while offering the rest of the staff ease of use, you’ve taken a centralized approach and put completed projects on the network. While, today I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you the “PDM system”, with that your engineers and designers can focus more on design rather than administration tasks.

Seven steps to intelligent PDM
1 – Intelligent data relationship knowledge
understands the relationship among parts, drawings, and assemblies.

2 – Controlled check-out
Easy to access a file, by click on check out from the vault, and the system will automatically locks the file so that other users can only view but not make changes to the same file at the same time

3 – Globally known check-out status

While a file is in use, its status is available for all to see.

4 – Absolute overwrite protection
The Vault ensures that another person can’t overwrite the changes that someone else is in the process of making.

5 – Controlled check-in
When a user has completed changes to a file, there is a simple but structured process for checking a file back into the Vault

6 – Intelligent version/history branching
PDM Vault keeps a full history that stores all operations performed on each file, so you always know who has worked on which part, assembly, and project.

7 – Simplified revision nomenclature
Intelligent PDM Vault, file naming can be automatic when you are satisfied with your latest version

Please click no to"Inteligent PDM Vault from SolidWorks" for more information

Sport Rim - Episod 2

After i modelled the first sport rim, i started to get addicted in modeling sport rim. So here is my second design, please give your comment if there are some areas to improve.

By the way, where is your design? Don't let me wait too long! :-)

~ah lau~