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What's in 2009 . . . . . . ?


AndiACD

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Although there have been many improvements to VW of the years I can't help thinking that the Machine Design side of things has rather been left behind which is a great pity.

I too have been playing around with SW running through parellels on my Macbook Pro and have been very impressed.

VW is a great program, but it would be nice to at least have 3D dimensioning if not 3D constraints.

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Having used both undoubtedly Solidworks is an excellent program. It is however very good at what it does because it works in one area, mechanical CAD, and restricts the user to work in a particular way. Components have to be parametrised from the initial 2d sketch onwards, for instance - which is fine when you know in advance what the physical and area constraints will be; not usually the case though. Great when you know where you're going, less good when you're playing around finding the best way to get there.

It also depends what you're drawing. VW has a pretty good stab at almost anything, Solidworks is purely mechanical. For instance VW will handle large amounts of OS Landplan data and follow the tangle of classes/layers on import perfectly well. Solidworks just can't do this.

There are some direct comparisons where SW is not as good as VW. Duplicate array is easier and more powerful in VW than the SW equivalent, 2d drafting is SW is nowhere near as powerful; on the other hand VW lacks 3d dimensioning and the parametrics are almost laughable.

It's horses for courses ultimately. VW is Jack-of-all-trades (and you could very well say master of none) whereas SW is mechanical CAD done very well within the way it works which personally I find too restrictive.

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I was thinking of upgrading to 2009, and was wondering if pipe threads and teeth on bevel gears has made it to the new version.

Please list any more improvements over VW12.5. VW has the foundation to be a very powerful mechanical program, but it seems most of the attention is given to other areas.

Thanks, Larry

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Thanks Tom for the prompt reply, I am going to place my order.

I looked through the available "What's New" on the website, but could find very little about Machine Design. You have an excellent product, and have to "blow your horn more" about Machine Design features, like a white paper listing them.

Thanks again , Larry

Edited by Larry B.
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here, here!

Hi Larry, i made a fuss about this lack of real world specific Machine Design movies and tools displayed in the "What's New" section of VW2009.

No Joy!

Hi Tomu, Sorry mate same rules apply for your link. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with Machine Design either, except of course the page title. Is there not one "Mechanical Engineer" in NNA? Someone who can demonstrate how someone from this profession can show MD in all of it's glory?

Wow, us. Please!

Is this too much to ask??

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Alot of the stuff illustrated in the What's New section of MD doesn't really seem to be particularly Mechanically based....e.g. "3D Wall Improvements" and "Site Modifiers Applicable to Existing Site Models" which I'm sure are great but not specific to a Mechanical Engineer.

A more 'tuned' MD section would be helpful.

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Hey Guys,

I been on vacation (I guess that's a good excuse for not responding before now :cool:)

The pipe threads can be found in the tapped hole objects. To create an "external" thread, set the Hole Type to "Through Hole" and the Tap Drill Length to the same value as the Thread Length. Please let me know if this doesn't give you what you need.

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Hi Tom,

As you said in your post"Please let me know if this doesn't give you what you need." I really expected to see the pipe threads as part of the Shaft Tool. The threads could be placed on either end of a shaft, with control of the end chamfer, which we don't have with the new method, and provide a pipe nipple or fitting.

Thanks, Larry

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just loaded my copy of VW09 and read in a microscope stage. VW09 wouldn't draw one of the plates! It gave an error message saying to draw it again. The plate is very complex and I don't want to have to do that. It also drew the holes with a very low resolution set of polygons.

I think this thing was put out half-baked. :(

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SciMan,

This hissy fit that VW throws on a regular basis is usually down to Crossed Lines(not wires, although there are plenty of them too).

When Adding and/or Subtracting solids particularly with threads VW complains a lot. Even now in 2009.

The best way around this is Zoom in close and try a bit of "Nudging".

Hardly a suitable solution, i know, as you and your microscope will need a lot more precision than even i look for(which is a helluvalot), but, if you zoom in enough the "Nudge" doesn't make such a noticable difference, unfortunately it takes forever to find which part is causing the problem, and then the best direction in which to Nudge is a stab in the dark.

It wouldn't be quite so bad if, VW, when it warns you "that the object you have created cannot be computed", it, instead of deselecting everything, told you which were the offending parts so you knew which bits TO edit :(

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  • 2 months later...

Hello Andy,

I saw the earlier references to "pipe threads".

And I'm gonna be picky here.

Pipe threads are normally tapered.

I had assumed that VW would address the NPT series of pipe threads

Yes, there are straight pipe threads, but they are less common.

I do a lot of designing of systems that use compression fittings for tubing (Plastic and metal) and I would like to be able to distinguish easily in my drawings between straight threads and tapered threads.

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Andy, Jim,

The only "pipe tools" in 2009 are the Hole - Tapped tools which contain both NPT and NPS threads. There will not be anything new pertaining to pipe threads in SP3.

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Hi Tom, thanx for the update on pipe threads and their existence in 2009.

Whilst i personally don't have a great need of either NPT or NPS pipe threads, maybe you could enlighten all of us as to where we all might find them in MD, as it would appear that they are not as easy to find as one might think due to the many requests that they could be added to VW.

forgive me for stating the not so obvious . . . . . .

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