For engineers who already know the math—but still lose projects. For the last few years, I’ve been sharing technical guides here on Mechanical Design Handbook —how to size a motor, how to calculate fits, and (as you recently read) how to choose between timing belts and ball screws. But after 25 years in industrial automation, I realized something uncomfortable: Projects rarely fail because the math was wrong. They fail because: The client changed the scope three times in one week. A critical vendor lied about a shipping date (and no one verified it). The installation technician couldn’t fit a wrench into the gap we designed. University taught us the physics. It didn’t teach us the reality. That gap is why I wrote my new book, The Sheet Mechanic . This is not a textbook. It is a field manual for the messy, political, and chaotic space between the CAD model and the factory floor. It captures the systems I’ve used to survive industrial projec...
To link Solid Edge variables to Microsoft Excel, we can do so by entering a formula in the variables table or by using VBA code. Advertisement In this post, I would like to show how easy it is to make it using the variables table. You can use the Variable Table to define and edit functional relationships between the dimensions of a design in a familiar spreadsheet format. The Variable Table is accessed with the Variables command on the Tools menu (or the Tools tab > Variables group in modern versions). There are two types of variables: dimensions displayed in the design and variables you create directly in the Variable Table. Dimension variables directly control elements of a design. Variables that you create cannot directly control the design but can drive dimension variables. A user variable must be set equal to a value or mathematical expression; for example, PI = 3.14159. Let's begin... 1. Create the Mechanism Sketch ...