Category Tips and Tricks

Previously I showed some flow techniques that relied on exploding geometry and animation techniques Recently a customer asked if there were simple ways to show flow, show Pressure Change and show Gas tanks filling up without having to rely on modifying the geometry even if it was all one piece or not even having geometry and, not using Key frame animation. Here are a couple of simple techniques that just might do the trick.

Enjoy,

Tod

Filters are your friends for time saving searches and isolating the actors you need.
These filter tips and tricks should help make you more productive and life just a bit easier leaving more time to enjoy your real friends. Filters are terrible at conversation anyway.

Tod

Recently, 3DVIA Composer team has released a new certification exam that has been updated to V6R2013x.  This certification focuses on 3DVIA Composer and offers customers, partners, DS employees, and students the opportunity to achieve accreditation in this area.  To be properly prepared it is recommended that test takers have at least 3-months of work experience using 3DVIA Composer.  Prior to taking the certification exam it is also recommended that test takers complete 20 hours of Companion training that is offered through the following link; 3DVIA Composer Essentials Companion.   This exam consists of approximately 50-70 questions that range in difficulty and all are multiple choice questions.  The certification exam is delivered in a secure proctored testing environment at any P...

If you’ve ever wanted to make a ghosted line illustration, here is a quick and easy way to do it.

Using scenarios can be a powerful tool in multi user environments. In addition, it can also be a way to simplifiy subassembly and assembly animations. Here are a few basic tips to help you get started.

Have you ever wanted to nest your sub assemblies in numbered groups based on their parent assembly?

Here are a few tips and tricks to help you do just that.

This podcast replaces the original podcast by Marcus which is no longer available

Tod

Have you ever wanted to create High Resolution Images in Silhouette mode but still have control over your line weights?  Here is a quick and easy tip to do just that.
Enjoy

You can’t do deformations in 3DVIA Composer… or can you?
True you can’t physically deform objects other than scaling but you can get by with quite a bit by faking it.
Recently a customer wanted to simulate a variable belt drive power system in 3DVIA Composer. This episode will give you some tips and tricks to help you do just that. You may even pick up a few other animation techniques and tips while you’re at it.

Enjoy Faking Geometry Deformations

Tod

Over the past few years, we have been showcasing some cool samples and passing along some interesting tips and tricks… and with the posting of TodCast #9, this marks our 100th 3DVIA Composer video in this series!!

Which one is your favorite?

Parts aren’t always designed to be rigid. The challenge is that when you design parts to flex, it can be difficult to show. In his latest “TodCast”, our 3DVIA Composer technical guru Tod Cruikshank offers a few handy tips and tricks for using Merge and Explode commands to animate the appearance of part flexibility.

We’re back this week with the latest TodCast. This time, Tod breaks down the fundamentals adding multiple levels to an assembly in order to easily create complex animation movements in 3DVIA Composer. Who knows, you might even be able to pick up a few new skateboarding tricks as well!

When ever you share 3D data outside your organization, you put your designs at risk of being reverse engineered and stolen. This makes protecting intellectual property a major concern for manufacturers and product designers. In our next TodCast, Tod shows how easy it is to protect your 3D designs using a few simple (and patented!) tools in 3DVIA Composer.

We’re proud to announce that the first ever 3DVIA Composer User Group meeting was an astounding success!

Braving the cold and snow of the Minnesota winter, a broad mix of CAD engineers, engineering managers, and technical writers gathered in Minneapolis to share ideas and become more productive using 3DVIA Composer.

The day’s speaker roster included 3DVIA’s own Tod Cruikshank (the famed creator of the “TodCast”), who presented a collection of tips and tricks for streamlining content creation in 3DVIA Composer. Also speaking were Earl Hasz from SolidWorks and Mat Sauer of MTS Systems Corp.

It’s good to point out that this event was purely focused on sharing information to help make users more productive – and not trying to sell (software, timeshare, used cars, etc)...

Welcome to the first TodCast of 2012! We have been busy making fresh content for your enlightenment and enjoyment. (Please feel free to tell us what you’d like to see!)

In this TodCast, Tod walks us through the new multi-camera capability of Version6 R2012x, and shows us how easy it is to create engaging animations.

Have you ever wanted to make a technical illustration using non-black silhouette outlines for specific parts? It’s incredibly easy and fast to do, as Tod demonstrates in this latest TodCast.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere — hot enough for ya? Welcome to the dog days of summer! To help keep you cool, Tod has put together a set of tips and tricks that will turn complicated animations into quick and easy work — getting you out of the hot seat, on your way home, and into your hammock in no time!

Tod shows how powerful yet easy it is to mix up and incorporate some advanced stuff: assembly groups, parent/inherited animations, assembly selection mode, grid snapping, primitives, timeline filtering by selected objects… just to name a few.

Enjoy!

So you want to route some wires on your 3DVIA Composer animation, but:

(a) you don’t have 3D models of wires, and (b) you don’t have a way to make parts flexible.

So what to do?

In this latest TodCast, Tod shows an interesting way to use geometry primitives + associative paths to simulate wire routings. Enjoy!

We have a TON of new videos to share with you. I was about to post our next “3DVIA your iPod” video, and quickly eclipse our 100th video, and the title itself struck me… we’ve been doing this for several years, and when we originally started, this was the era of the video iPod. And the way to get the video on your iPod was through iTunes podcast feed.

A lot has changed in the last few years. We’re in the YouTube era, social era… iPhones and iPads, Android, tablets… it’s easier than ever to share videos. We don’t need iTunes video feeds or any other complicated uploading/downloading procedures and syncing. So while I was hoping to soon mark our 100th video “podcast”, it’s time to get current and refresh the name. Plus, I’d like to introduce you to our producer of these videos: Tod.

With th...

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhfO_fC6So4

Hi folks, and Happy New Year to everybody.

Tod’s been busy with kinematics again, and has prepared yet another informative video on this topic. He provides a couple of nice tips to help simulate moving parts around, like a robot, where you need to first pick up the piece, move it with the help of kinematics, and then drop it.

Enjoy!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmqCRYty7Ps

Here is Part 2 of Tod’s introduction to 3DVIA Composer kinematics. Remember that with Composer, the goal is to use kinematics to facilitate the creation of animated procedures.

Enjoy the tutorial.

And we’re always looking for more ideas for future videos. Please let us know what you’d like to see!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-n3EE6KQYk

In this video, Tod introduces you to some uses for 3DVIA Composer kinematics, and then walks you through the basics of how to get it up and running.

One of the very good points Tod makes is that you don’t always need to fully define 100% of the kinematics. When you’re building an animated sequence, a combination of kinematics plus transformations can produce a very effective result.

Enjoy!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeZfJ7k8FdM

If you have the kind of product that has a lot of information, you might find yourself wondering how to create a Bill of Material table that can show some of this extra data?

In just over 2 minutes, you’ll learn how!

 httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbalSg4_mQE

Did you know that you can merge multiple assemblies into one Composer project? And did you also know that there are alignment tools to help you get your parts located where you need them? And how about some other powerful tools for moving, aligning, and adjusting component positions?

Check out this week’s video tip! (And if you have a good internet connection, hit the “HQ” button and watch the video in full screen mode.)

 

In this episode, Tod shows us the flexibility of the 3DVIA Composer user interface and how to customize it to maximize productivity to the way you like to work.

Like toolbars? Watch and learn how to create custom toolbars.

Like keyboard shortcuts? See how to set them up and really turn on the afterburners when it comes to getting work done quickly.

“Find your fast” is not just for 3DVIA Virtools and 3DVIA MP… when it comes to fast, 3DVIA Composer becomes super-fast when you customize the interface to your preferences. It’s one of the reasons we have such great ease and fun of use: nothing beats performance and a crisp, clean user interface.