Mechanical Design Handbook

Which software are you using in your mechanical design project? I have been using Solid Edge 3D CAD software for 1-2 years for my mechanical design projects in the past. But now, according to the standardization in my design organization, I have to switch to use Unigraphics software instead, or we call it in short as "UG NX4" (the latest versions are simply called NX ). To be honest, at first, I still liked Solid Edge because I think I can make modeling and assembly in Solid Edge faster and easier than in UG. But one of the good things for UG is the Motion Simulation module that helps me simulate the movement of mechanical assemblies before releasing for manufacturing. I know that Solid Edge also has this kind of simulation module, but I didn't have a chance to use it (no license). So in this post, I would like to share how easy it is to set up motion simulation in UG NX4. Let's start with a very simple modeling. I would like to see how the cylinder mov...

In a previous example , I showed how to control variables in a Solid Edge sketch using a direct link to an Excel spreadsheet. In this example, I am going to show how to use VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) in Excel to control the variables in a Solid Edge sketch directly. 1. Setup Excel VBA Create a new file in Microsoft Excel. Press Alt+F11 to enter the Microsoft Visual Basic window as shown below. Right-click in the Project Explorer on the new file name (in this example, Book2 ) > Insert > Module . 2. Add References To make Solid Edge type libraries available to the Visual Basic Object Browser, click References on the Tools menu (or Project menu depending on your version). On the References dialog box, select the Solid Edge libraries you want to access (specifically the Solid Edge Framework Type Library and Solid Edge Part Type Library ). All variable automation is accessed through the Variables collection and Variable objec...