SolidWorks 2011 Assemblies Bible - Matt Lombard [204]
FIGURE 23.33
Charting the motion of the assembly
Summary
If you keep your animation relatively simple, the MotionManager tools in SolidWorks Standard should give adequate results in some situations. If you are using mates to drive motion, be sure to follow best practice recommendations for mates. If you are manually positioning parts, remember to place key points closer together if the motion curvature changes.
If you are making larger animations and the end product is just an AVI file, it is acceptable to break the animation into smaller bits. This makes each part of the animation much simpler to do, and work can even be delegated to other users or other machines for parallel processing. It may also be beneficial to use post-processing to add captions and narration to your movies; a few words of explanation might be valuable to viewers. Movie editing software is available as part of the Windows OS (Windows DVD/Movie Maker), which should be adequate for simple edits and captioning, or you can buy more advanced video-editing software, which may also require more skill or at least some practice for more complex editing and effects.
Part VI: Appendixes
In This Part
Appendix A
Finding Help
Appendix B
What's on the DVD
Appendix A: Finding Help
In This Appendix
Getting SolidWorks Help
Accessing information on SolidWorks websites
Accessing graphics cards and drivers
Benefiting from user groups
Getting support from online forums
Using non-commercial websites
SolidWorks software has been around for more than 15 years now. In that time, the resources available to users seeking help have increased dramatically. These resources take many forms, from personal websites with information from individual experience to commercial online magazines or forums with advanced interfaces. In this appendix, I have assembled some of the more worthy sources of quality information.
It is not the goal of this book to endorse any commercial sites or services, but some of the listed resources are commercial in nature and may feature advertisements, logins, or paid subscriptions.
SolidWorks Help
The SolidWorks Help file contains some information you need to research how functions work. There are topics for which searchability is poor, or that do not appear under expected names, but this is the exception rather than the norm. It is more common to find that some features are poorly documented or not documented at all.
However, some functions, such as sheet metal bend allowances and the referenced documents search routine, are extraordinarily well documented. Isolated topics are surprisingly thorough and extremely helpful.
SolidWorks Help is available in traditional Help files on the computer, as well as web-based help. SolidWorks Web Help was created because it is easier for SolidWorks to keep it up to date. You can access the Web Help by turning on the Use SolidWorks Web Help option in the Help menu in SolidWorks or at http://help.solidworks.com.
SolidWorks Web Help
The SolidWorks Web Help was new in SolidWorks 2010. Web Help was introduced to help SolidWorks keep the Help files updated without having to send out help updates in the service packs. It also enables the use of other search tools and links to online data sources to make finding help that much easier.
You can access SolidWorks Web Help through the Help⇒SolidWorks Help menu selection as usual, but you need to make sure that the Use SolidWorks Web Help option also in the Help menu is activated. The following three sections only pertain to the traditional (non-web) Help.
Contents
SolidWorks terminology has been a sticking point at times in the writing of this book because terms are either unclear or overlap. Still, it is difficult for two people to talk about the software if they are not using the same terminology. The Glossary, found at the bottom of the Help Contents list, is one