I’m thinking about getting Solidworks Student Edition. I would like to know how hard it will be to pick up and learn. Now that IFI has released a whole library of the parts I would like to begin modeling robots on my computer. So how easy is it to pick up?
A determined person will be able to learn Solidworks in a matter of weeks. Once you leaern it, it is a great program to work with.
Solidworks is a great software package. Very easy to use even easier if all that parts are made for you all you’ll have to do is an assembly. I highly recommend it.
We, the day before I purchased it my mentor received a package containing several free 150 day licenses of the Solidworks Student Design Kit. So I’ve been playing around and working with it. I must say so far it doesn’t seem that complicated but then again all I’m doing is sticking parts together and thats all I really wanted to do.
How difficult is it to learn in comparison to Autodesk Inventor?
i’ve been using the 150 day license that came with my vex kit and after i got all the vex parts in, I found it really difficult to join the parts together. Is there a specific way to do that?
Just use the mate command and rotate and zoom on the model to get a better view of what you are mating.
Personally I haven’t use Inventor as much as Solidworks, but I think that they are not that difficult to master. Solidworks is a bit easier.
One thing I’ve run into is mateing motors and bearings to the metal pieces. With the motors I haven’t found a good way to mate them, same with the bearings. Where/how do you guys mate motors and bearings.
I would mate them concentrically. However you would need to slightly modify the metal paerts to contain a circular object. The inside of the bearing mated with something else and the ouside of the clutch mated to the metal. I attached a EDrawings file which will help you see my modified metal part. (Download EDrawing viewer at Solidworks.com) Specifically look at the back of the Chasis Rail. There are other ways to mate them, but I like to use this one.
ProGear.zip (185 KB)
Thanks for the help Technic but there has got to be a better way. I’ve figured out how to mate the motors to my liking. I’m still working on the bearings. The problem with the bearings are that the edges on the little tabs aren’t perpendicular.
For the bearing alone I have had a lot of trouble also. But I figured out something. Do you know the little extension of the bearing that locks into the metal piece, try mating the side of that extension to the metal hole. I am 100% sure it works. It is kind of tricky at first, but it works.
I tried the sides again and I still couldn’t get it to work. So then I went into edrawings and found that when you select the two sides of the little tabs it says the angle is 89.93degrees. However when I selected only the edges it said that the edges of those sides were perpendicular. That doesn’t seem to make much sense. Anyways I now have to try and mate using just the edges.
To try and clarify which edges I’m talking about, they are the edges farthest from the bottom of the bearing on the little tabs that insert into the holes.
Ok so I found out that you can get the bearings in, you have to use the edges and mate them to the inner faces of the holes.
Now onto the next issue, mating axles to the bearings and everything else, wheels, washers, collars, etc, to the axles.
Any suggestions.
Thanks for all the help too.
Okay, here is some info that will help you out.
**1. **To mate an axle to the bearings. Although here is no direct mate unless you mate using the distance command, you should be able to mate up to the point in which they are mated together. Kind of confusing, this is what I mean.
-
- You mate the axle to the gear (inside gear hole to axle side)
2. You then mate the gear to the bearing concentrically
(Bearing was already connected to metal.)
3. The axle should now be mated to the bearing.*
Use other mates to get to what you want to do.
**2. ** wheels
Mate with side of axel and with a side of the wheel hole.
**3. ** collar and washers
Mate other items together to get to your final goal
(Which in this case is the axle with the collar)
The gear assembly I attached below used many parts. All of these parts were mated together with a series of steps.
Hope this helps
Technic-R-C
ok so we got the 150 day trial codes today for our team. i have the code but i dont know the site to register it in to download the trial lol, can anyone paste a link to it so i can get started pls! thx
Thanks Technic for your way to get the axles and wheels etc. together.
Does anyone else have another way or is that the only way, I’m still not satisfied with the end result. It seems to me there has to be a better way.
thx ur a life saver, sry for posting in wrong topic, i googled it and this came up 
but now i can start!