DriveWorks

DriveWorksXpress Hands-on session at SolidWorks World 2012

At SolidWorks World 2012 one of our DriveWorks Applications Engineers will be holding a  DriveWorksXpress Hands-on session!

If you have SolidWorks, then you already have DriveWorksXpress. It's the design automation tool included in every seat of SolidWorks. Learn how to exploit this valuable tool to create multiple variations of your SolidWorks parts, drawings and assemblies automatically.

 

Everyone who attends this session will not only learn how to automate repetitive tasks using rules to reduce design time and minimize errors, but also get a FREE copy of the BRAND NEW Little Book of Rules DriveWorksXpress and DriveWorks Solo Edition.

 

This session takes place on Monday February 13th 2012 and is from 1.30pm-2.30pm.

If you have used Design Tables or microsoft excel to do any automation then it's well worth taking a look at DriveWorksXpress. 

We look forward to seeing you in San Diego!

 

Getting ready for SolidWorks World 2012

What's the next big event? SolidWorks World 2012!

With the Christmas decorations now all packed away all of us here at DriveWorks are getting really excited about SolidWorks World.

 

 

This was us last year in San Antonio - Texas. Now we are looking forward to setting everything up in the stunning Sales Pavilion in the San Diego Convention Centre.

 

 

 

 

 

Do make sure you stop by our booth - NUMBER 324 - Have a chat get to know our team!

For anyone that wants to learn how to use DriveWorksXpress, one of our Applications Engineers will be running the DriveWorksXpress hands on session on Monday Feb 13th.

Don't forget DriveWorksXpress is included in EVERY seat of SolidWorks so it's certainly a presentation not to be missed!

We look forward to seeing YOU there!

DriveWorks at SolidWorks Design Innovation Events

DriveWorks will be at the CATI SolidWorks Design Innovation Summit on the following dates

Oct 4th 2011 - The Wisconsin Auto Museum & Schauer Arts Center, Hartford IL.

Oct 5th 2011 - Harper College Wojcik Conference Center, Pallatine IL.

 

 

 

 

 

Click the link for more information or to attend a DriveWorksXpress hands on session at these events http://www.cati.com/events/design-innovation-summit/cati-design-innovation-summit.php

Addtional  DriveWorksXpress events are being held as part of the SolidWorks 2012 Summit on

Oct 11th - The Wisconsin Auto Museum & Schauer Arts Center, St Louis, MO

Oct 13th - Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, IN

DriveWorks Concept - Specification Flow - Who What & When

Specification flow is a powerful feature in DriveWorks that gives the DriveWorks Administrator the ability to customize the DriveWorks specification process. (ie rules for what happens and when it happens).

When a project is first set up in DriveWorks it is created with a default specification flow which guides a specification through four basic states - Running (i.e. filling out forms in the specification), Saved, Pending, and Completed.

Each one of these states has links to other states to move from one state to another. For example, a specification in the Saved state can be moved into the Running state, and a specification in the Running state can be moved into the Pending state (by clicking Finish), or the Completed state (by clicking Release). These links between states are called transitions.

Each state also has certain operations that can be performed on it, but which do not move to another state, for example, a specification can be deleted, or copied.

 
The Specification Flow can be customized in DriveWorks Administrator to meet your own specification and Work flow needs.  

Example Uses
There are lots of reasons why you may want to look at customizing your specification flow, here are a few examples.

• You may have a quoting process which involves generating a general-assembly drawing - all before releasing to manufacture and before the full manufacturing information is generated.
• You may have additional requirements during the specification process such as copying a document to another machine which otherwise would involve complicated macros.
• You may simply want to change the text that is displayed on the "Finish" button to something like "Quote" 
• You may want to set rules that determine that a Sales Manager can see all specifications generated by your distributors, but only let each distributor see their own specifications.

You can read more about Specification Flow in the ONLINE documentation file
http://docs.driveworkspro.com/?ProjectEditorSpecificationFlow.html

 

 

 

Celebrating 10 years of Design Automation

Today we are celebrating 10 years of Design Automation.
We have a customized 'DriveWorks' Cake which we are about to cut .... and a few bottles of .......!

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS AND RESELLERS THE WORLD OVER ....
and here's to 10 more happy and successful years for all.

And yes there are alot of E numbers! 

Pacific Design Show - California

46,000 visitors PLUS, that is the number of people that visite the Show! That is ALOT of people and with all the halls at the massive Anaheim Convention Centre full to bursting it meant there were ALOT of exhibitors too... and that included DriveWorks!

Time to invest in cushion-soled 'show' shoes I think!

 

Thanks go to DriveWorks resellers Hawk Ridge and Go Engineer for their support over the 3 days at the Show.

SolidWorks World 2010 - Sunday

So with the booth all set up on the Saturday I always look forward to the Sunday evening reception.

It's great to catch up with friends and colleagues in the 'Reseller Exclusive' Preview and of course to speculate on what announcements we might hear during the general sessions.

As you can see from the photo the booth was divided into 3 sections to show the fully scalable  path all the way from DriveWorksXpress  included in SolidWorks, to DriveWorks Solo, inside SolidWorks, to DriveWorks Pro.

DriveWorks Pro takes our product configurator out to the web as a sales configurator whilst maintaining full fidelity Design Automation for the generation of sales and manufacturing data and documentation.

Exlar Corporation describes Design Automation Savings

Saving Time and Money through Design Automation was the subject of the presentation at SolidWorks World 2009 by Trevor Waldeland and Eric Summerfield of Exlar

The customer has the option to put any motor on this product line.

Because of this, there is a list of things that can vary with the motor plate. (shown in Orange)

• Pulley center to center distance
• Motor mounting screws bolt circle
• Motor pilot diameter and depth
• Size of the motor mounting screws

 

There are 2 steps to using Design Automation with DriveWorksXpress.

1. Setting Up your project
2. Running your project

So once you have decided what things can change, you identify and capture those things from your SolidWorks Model, make sure you have a drawing, create a form and build your rules.

Once that is done you simply fill out your form with the specification for your new variation.

 

Your new part will now have all the new dimensions we entered.
You can now create any new parts in the future in about 1 minute using the project you have set up in DriveWorksXpress

 

1. How long did it take to create variations before DriveWorksXpress?
30 minutes to 1 hour

2. How long did it take to set this project up in DriveWorksXpress?
2 hours

3. How long does it take now to create a new variation using DriveWorksXpress?
5 minutes

4. How many possible variations could there be?
Unlimited

5. How would you describe your experience of using DriveWorksXpress?
Really easy to setup and use. We are in the process right now of installing
the full version of DriveWorks because of the easy of use and time savings.

6. Have you shared your work with your colleagues?
Yes, all of our SolidWorks users has access to these files.

7. Will you be adding more products and rules?
Absolutely!!

SolidWorks 2009 - DriveWorksXpress Tutorial

As DriveWorksXpress has been incorporated by SolidWorks Corporation into every seat of SolidWorks you can access a DriveWorksXpress Tutorial from inside SolidWorks too.

Thrilled with Achievements in DriveWorksXpress

On the DriveWorksXpress site we have an area where people can tell us how they have got on using DriveWorksXpress. They can upload picures of their products, screen grabs of their DriveWorksXpress form and a Rules Summary. They can also tell us how long things used to take them before they had DriveWorksXpress and how long it takes them now. The feedback has been stunning.

One such company to told us what they have been doing is Mondragon Assembly. They design and manufacture systems and equipment for process automation. They are a global company, manufacturing in Europe and North America, and offer highly custom solutions for assembly process automation requirements.

Oscar José Hernández is thrilled with his achievements in DriveWorksXpress...

 

Time spent setting up – 6 weeks
"It took around six weeks, this includes learning how to use DriveWorksXpress, and whenever I discovered something new, I stepped back to make everything smoother and easier."

 Time spent before SolidWorks and DriveWorksXpress – 2 days
"It took approximately 2 days."

Time taken with SolidWorks and DriveWorksXpress – 10 minutes
"It now takes around ten minutes… or less."

 How would you describe your experience with using DriveWorksXpress?
"This tool is awesome, at first I thought we couldn’t make a good use of it, but it has made our life much easier."

 Do you make use of the resources available at www.driveworksxpress.com?
"Of course, when I have a question I go to the DriveWorksXpress forum for some “enlightenment” and also when I was learning DriveWorksXpress I downloaded the exercises and videos."

 Have you shared your work with colleagues?
"Yes, the entire design department uses this."

I'm going to keep reporting these results here on the blog because I think it's worth sharing with everyone. with results like these it becomes easy to justify purchasing the full version of DriveWorks.