DISQUS

Justin · 12 months ago

I'm a new reader but been swxing for years. i cant seem to add configurations as a macro. i need to go over a large back catalogue and add colour configurations for each of many parts and then make a custom colour property so they get called up by colour into BOM. I can get solidworks scheduler to do the custom property bit but i need to manually create the configurations. Is there any way around this?

Josh M · 12 months ago

Justin, hi! good question! you can create a configuration with a macro. Record one to see how it works. Bring up the macro toolbar and start a new macro. go to the config tab and create a new macro. stop the macro and then edit it to see how solidworks creates it. This is a huge step in learning about automating solidworks. thanks!

Shaun_E · 1 year ago

Josh, Thanks for the post. Using the alt key to mate concident is fine when the two surfaces to be mated are not exactly parallel to each other. Yes, it can be done, but your macro has less keystrokes and more consistant results.

Josh M · 1 year ago

Thanks for the defense of my innocent macro tip :) I can fly through assembly mates with'em. I hope this give some people ideas about speeding up the process/reducing keystrokes for other commands.

giovanni · 12 months ago

good job. i am italian designer. good josh

NathonRose · 1 year ago

There would be no "easy" way to adjust the orientation of the mate, except going into the mate, right? So, maybe mention to align the objects close to what orientation you'd want. Would like distance mates, and possibly multiple coincident/concentric. Will have to look at these to see if possible to make them. Thanks!

Rod_Uding · 1 year ago

Once you create the mate, you can RMB on the mate in the feature tree. This will give you some options on the mate depending upon the type. One of the options is to "Flip Mate Alignment". A distance mate will add a "Flip Dimenison" option.

Jeff_P · 1 year ago

Is it just me or does this post seem a little dated? The use of macros for mating has become obsolete with the addition of quick mates. With the macro you either have to have the two objects selected prerun or code the macro to ask for the user input. With quick mates you just hold down the ALT key and drag the first object over to the second one and then click OK. May be a few more operations from the user, but beats having to see an error box each time you forget to preselect.

Josh M · 1 year ago

Yep Jeff, it's dated. I wish there was no need for macros actually. I'm all for the program knowing what I need to do and doing it, but those dang macros come in handy sometimes. This is one instance where I could show the usefulness of macros and open up ideas about using them for other functions that readers (like Rod) can use to make their job easier. It's kind of a two part post. Quickmates are great, but this show how to add commands, so to speak, and introduces people to very simple macro functionality. Cool?

Chris · 1 year ago

Quickmates!?! HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS!?!?! BRILLIANT!!! You're my hero Jeff.

Bradley Grzesiak · 1 year ago

Here's what I want: a macro to fully define a fastener to a hole. Mate references are nice and all, but a simple mate macro should be much quicker. Here's the idea:
-Select the top edge of the hole and an edge of the underside of the fastener (ie: the annulus)
-Run the macro, which assigns a concentric, coincident, and parallel mate, fully defining the fastener.

Now THAT would be tremendously useful. I'd write it myself, but I'm up to my eyeballs in paperwork right now. =/

Keith · 1 year ago

Mates are already pretty quick with a keyboard shortcut to the mate command. I assigned 'M' to the mate command. Once I select two surfaces I just hit 'M', then use a right click to confirm the coincident or concentric mate works (since SW always seems to guess correctly), then hit enter to finish up the mate command. No need for fancy, non standard macros.

My favorite macro, and the only one I really use, is one that toggles between selecting hidden lines and not. During normal use I have this one turned off. When I need to mate to an internal edge or make a line in an in context sketch line up with an existing feature I switch to wireframe mode and toggle this macro. I kludged this one together from other peoples work, but the final product is better than the sum of its parts. Instead of having one macro to turn the option on and another to turn it off this macro toggles between the two states. It also lets you know whats going on by giving feedback in the system tray.

Feast your eyes on it here: http://uberthin.com/hosted/solidworks/hidden_li...

Rod_Uding · 1 year ago

Josh, you are slowly forcing me to become more efficient. I enjoy that.

There have been some days when my monitor almost looked like the one in the post.

Josh M · 1 year ago

Rod, you are slowly forcing me to respond to more comments! keep'em coming man, love it. and really glad you found this useful. Not sure why I haven't posted it already. see ya!

Rod_Uding · 1 year ago

Since I read this post yesterday, I have now been adding macros for the mates. I found a set that had just about all the mates. I have been adding them to the macro toolbar and using some old AutoCAD 16 x 16 bitmaps from the object snaps to indicated the mate type. I knew those icons woudl be handy some day. Saves me time reinventing the wheel.

John · 1 year ago

Rod - where might I find that set of macros?

Rod_Uding · 1 year ago

Lenny's website is one: http://www.lennyworks.com/solidworks/
He has 2 sections listed on the left for macros

Also, Lorono's SW resources: http://sw.fcsuper.com/index.php?name=UpDownload

Matt Lombard's: http://mysite.verizon.net/mjlombard/macros.html

I believe I pulled mine from Matt Lombard's site. Enjoy!

Justin · 11 months ago

Hey Josh,
Thanks for the assistance but i still dont seem to be able to do get it to work. Can you recommend somewhere i can learn more how macros work?

Rod_Uding · 11 months ago

Try Lenny Kikstra's site: http://designsmarter.typepad.com/lennyworks/

Lenny is a SW god at this stuff

scott · 9 months ago

Is there a way to use a macro to change the configuration on a part inside an assembly?

Here is what the "record" writes, but when I run it, it doesnt work.

Dim swApp As Object
Dim Part As Object
Dim SelMgr As Object
Dim boolstatus As Boolean
Dim longstatus As Long, longwarnings As Long
Dim Feature As Object
Sub main()

Set swApp = Application.SldWorks

Set Part = swApp.ActiveDoc
Set SelMgr = Part.SelectionManager
boolstatus = Part.Extension.SelectByID2("part1@assem1", "COMPONENT", 0, 0, 0, False, 0, Nothing, 0)
Part.CompConfigProperties4 2, 0, True, "config1", False
Part.ClearSelection2 True
boolstatus = Part.EditRebuild3
End Sub

Josh M · 9 months ago

you may have to have a prompt to select which part you want to change. I'm not an expert in the API, but you would have to have assemblies set up really similarly. For instance, I use a program that matches all the configurations with the same name, so all the parts with a 'Simple' configuration appear in the 'Simple' configuration of the assembly.

MAli · 4 months ago

You should add one additional arguement into this command:
Part.CompConfigProperties4 2, 0, True, "config1", False
It should be:
Part.CompConfigProperties4 2, 0, True, True, "config1", False

Drew · 7 months ago

Is there a way to import parts/sub assy's into an assy using a design table