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Tips for improving workflow.


spittle

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Here is a work in progress drawing produced in solidworks from a model I'm working on, it's basically a building with some pipes running inside. Most of the model objects are switched off as this drawing is focussing on the concrete slab details.

 

I'm wondering if anyone can give me some tips on ways to improve it.

 

I have drawn a few sketches over the drawing as I felt trying to model them may take longer.

 

I'm happy with most of it but would like to improve:

 

- the grid lines - they're currently drawn on. In my model I have a sketch in plan of the grid lines, and also I have some planes inserted, but I haven't worked out a method for displaying these in a section view.

I would like to show a grid line that should be in Section E-E but currently I can only think of drawing it and dimensioning it off the recess cut out for a door. the problem with doing this is if the door moves, the grid line will be in the wrong place.

 

I'm trying to eliminate the need for checking the drawing as far as possible.

 

- the levels - this is my main issue - these are all inserted manually but I'd like to be able to get a bit cleverer and have these update when the model changes.

 

 

The other entities that are sketched over the top of the drawing rather than modelled are:

 

- The screed (concrete that ensures water drains towards the gullies) - I've not worked out how I'd model something like this yet.

-The ground

-The dashed line indicating the 1200g Visqueen Damp Prove Membrane (you can see the note). I think this should work ok as I've just offset some of the edges from the model.

 

Any tips would be appreciated, I've attached a zip of the drawing.

SlabDetails.zip

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its not really what i do but ill try to help. what do you mean by levels? for your hatch and things. i would draw your ground as a solid and do a section view of your drawing. You can insert the hatch this way and it will be attached to the drawing and not a separate sketch.

hatch.jpg

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Hi, cheers for the reply. I was literally just thinking about displaying the ground when i checked here.

 

For this model, the earth is pretty flat around the building so I'll prob use that method of modelling the earth, a problem will arise though when the ground isn't level all arond a building. It would be good if I could use AutoCAD Civil 3D to create the earth but as it creates a mesh rather than a solid, I don't think it's the solution.

 

I'm thinking of using 3DS Max to eather create a Terrain object - not tried yet but noticed a tutorial on here. I also thought I could use a Civil 3D Surface mesh and then extrude the faces in Max and then I'm hoping I can export it as some kind of solid, rather than a mesh.

 

The 'levels' are my main issue though, they are the vertical heights above sea level. They are indicated by the black triangles.

 

I'm thinking maybe I can stick a plane at level 0, and somehow link some dimensions to some text but it seems rather complicated to use this method and I'll have loads of dims everywhere. Plus my viewport boundary boxes are gonna end up being huge.

 

I noticed you can insert a UCS but as far as I can see this is not something to provide a solution to this problem.

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You can show sketches in section views by RMB “show” the sketch feature. That will show the whole sketch.

 

You can model a surface where you know you will need it in the section. You must check the show surface option in the section properties.

 

Drawing a sketch line in the drawing… making it coincident to the model grid sketch should make it associative.

 

You can define materials with specific section hatch patterns. So if you model the ground… set the material as ground… section will display the hatch pattern defined in materials.

grid part.jpg

grid surface.jpg

grid sketch.jpg

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you can model the terrain in solidworks. If you do a surface or mesh in autocad and you close all sides. you can import it into SW and create a solid off that pretty easily as well. The SW surface modeling is pretty powerful. If you have data from your surface(point cloud) you can bring that into SW as well.

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Def some good responses, thanks guys, some more investigation on my part needed.

 

Regarding the ground profile, I have access to Contours, points, or I can model the surface in Civil 3D, but I'm not sure how to close this surface.

 

I'll post my findings after a bit of investigation.

 

Thanks again.

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Like Shift said, import the surface into SW. You don’t have to enclose the surface, you can extrude up to the surface… if it’s completely knitted without gaps.

 

You can model terrain in SW. I did this by tracing an elevation map and lofting between elevations. I cut out my property and applied a jpg to it. I’m sure specialize terrain programs can do a better job faster… but it can be done. And it’s a solid that can be cut or added to a piece at a time. The textured area is 40 acres… modeled full scale. There is a distance limitation, I forget, better check that out if doing something big.

Cedar Ridge.jpg

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Yeah this stuff is gold, I think I'll try using contours and then loft between them.

 

A further thought - Say you have building consisting of an assembly sunk into your earth. Is there a simple way to cut the area of earth out where the building is? Or would you need to trace around the building and do an extruded cut? Or perhaps a boolean?

 

If I use 3DS Max, I'm able to add my structures, then 'render to texture' an Ambient Occlusion map for my ground surface which comes up black (shadows) where ever my structures are. I can then use this map as a mask to make areas of the surface transparent where structures are.

 

The benefit of this is the building can me moved without having to do any more modelling.

 

I guess I can practice more tomorrow.

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if you draw your foundation you can create a new sketch using convert entities and just extrude cut it from your land contour. im sure there are other options as well

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I've been trying this morning to use a surface create in AutoCAD Civil 3D and then loft up to it. The problem is - when it is imported into Solidworks, it comes in as loads of faces rather than a complete mesh.

 

I've tried exporting to 3DS Max, welding all the verts, and optimising the mesh and then re-importing to AutoCAD, where I can then re-save it as a dwg to import into Solidworks.

 

This still throws up the same problem.

 

Any thoughts?

 

For my current project, I have some contours I can use but in most cases I'll be using points from a survey so if I can find a solution using a Surface that we will already be creating it will save a lot of time.

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open it solidworks and dont import it. When you open the file you will have several options, check import to new part(at the bottom). You will have a few menus asking about layers and things, on the second menu make sure you click the 3d box below the preview window and see if that works for you.

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Did you export as an iges?

 

you should be able to make all the surfaces into one single surface with the "KNIT" tool.

 

I'd like to see that mesh, could you post it?...as an iges.

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