Develop3D Live 2014 – 15h April – Registration Open!

DriveWorks is proud to announce that we will once again be Silver Partners at this year’s Develop3d Live. DriveWorks will be at the event at Stand 34 showing off the very latest version of our ‘Configure & Automate’ Software, DriveWorks 11. Delevlop3D is the leading magazine for the 3D industry, tracking the development of essential technologies from product development through to fabrication. Introduced in 2012, Develop3D Live hosted at Warwick University, in the UK has been an outstanding success with industry experts from around the world sharing their experience along with the fantastic Develop3D editorial staff. If you couldn’t make it to last year’s event why not come along this year.   Check out Glen Smith DriveWorks CEO’s talk from last years I am sure that this year will be even better, featuring some great keynotes and as ever some fantastic workshops. So book your tickets now to avoid disappointment! To learn more and register for Develop3d Live visit http://www.develop3dlive.com/   

DriveWorks Solo – What can I do in 30 days?

DriveWorks Solo is a powerful Design Automation Add In for engineers using SolidWorks. It is used by design engineers across many industries to reduce repetitive design tasks and automate the generation of new models in SolidWorks. DriveWorks can also help companies respond quickly to sales enquiries. DriveWorks Solo can be downloaded and used for 30 days to automate a SolidWorks Model or even just part of your SolidWorks Project. If you are new to DriveWorks then you might be wondering, how do I use DriveWorks Solo? And importantly, just what should I do with my 30 days? Follow the DriveWorks Training Tutorial The first thing that you will want to grab along with your Trial copy of DriveWorks Solo is the DriveWorks Solo Training Guide. In this guide you will be given all the instructions you need to create a new project, in this case a wooden door! With your DriveWorks Training Guide at your side and your copy of SolidWorks and DriveWorks Solo installed you can begin. Start by creating a new project. This is a simple process that is fully explained in the Training Guide (page 12), but if you would like a more visual guide to creating new DriveWorks Solo Projects then check out the YouTube Channel. Check out our YouTube Channel  Our How To Video Clips are really useful for any SolidWorks Engineer that wants to see what’s involved in Design Automation. We have several playlists guiding you through how to set up a new DriveWorks project and provide a great reference point for your first 30 days. Click the photo below to access the DriveWorks YouTube Channel Attend a Getting Started Webinar Our Webinars provide a valuable overview of what’s involved with automating the generation of new designs using DriveWorks Solo. For the beginners, there is the DriveWorks Solo Head Start Webinar which covers: • How to capture the parameters in your design that you want to control • How to create a good looking and intelligent user interface to specify your products • How to build rules that link the form inputs to the captured parameters that control your designs Click the title above to register for a Getting Started Webinar. DriveWorks Solo Training Sessions If you are looking for some more in-depth training then each …

SolidWorks Secret tip – Save time with DriveWorksXpress

If you design and sell products which are slightly different for each order then you could be saving a huge amount of time with this simple tool built in to SolidWorks. DriveWorksXpress is a free design automation tool found free in every seat of SolidWorks and should form a part of any SolidWorkers armoury. With SolidWorks at your fingertips it’s possible to automate drawings, parts and assemblies with just a few simple steps. The first thing to do is to open up your version of SolidWorks 2011 or newer and open the SolidWorks Tool bar and open DriveWorksXpress. Once DriveWorksXpress is open you can go ahead and create a new project, your project will be comprised of your SolidWorks model and the rules that you will create for it. Now your database is open, you can begin to add your models and start capturing the assemblies and parts. With your assembly or part captured, now you can learn how to capture and drive a specific dimension for automating. It is also possible to automate features of your DriveWorks models as is shown in the video above. Now you have captured the features, it might be worth capturing some custom properties which can beuseful for linking annotations to drawings this allows you to drive the text that will be added to your drawing borders or notes. Capturing a drawing allows you to create new drawings variants from your SolidWorks Drawing files. The video below shows you how to import a drawing and then create a rule linking this to new part or model variations. Now we have captured and created rules for our model and drawings, it is time that we move on to creating the form that you will need to fill in to create new variations. With DriveWorksXpress this process is a simple one with our simple form designer. Below is a playlist with all the videos you will need to create your form allowing you to capture the information to create a new variation.

Models On Your Mobile

Following on from last week’s mobile article, we thought we would run through just a few of the ways that you can access 3D models on your mobile device.

3D Printing – What’s next?

Anything that can turn your meticulously made models in to a real 3D product without great big machines is certainly cool in our book. We love the idea that it is possible to use DriveWorks to automate the design of new parts printed by a 3D printer.

DriveWorks Configurator – Global Customised Products 24/7

Going global is a big step for any business, see how DriveWorks can help you get from local to Global.

3D Scanning : Create 3D models in minutes

Find out how 3D scanning might make 3D printing and model creation easier

New – DriveWorks Solo Sample Project – Metal Toolbox

Read about our new DriveWorks Solo Sample project and see how DriveWorks Solo can help create beautiful easily customisable products with ease.