yang686526

vb or driveworks
we are looking at driveworks to create models that would be created from a master model. i have been trying to do this with driveworks express but i have not been able to control the suppression or hiding of models and assemblies in the sw assembly model. does anyone using driveworks use it to control assembly parts? also is the user interface for driveworks easy for a non-solidworks person to use. at present i have written a sample vb program with a treeview of parts and a person can select and deselect parts, these parts are shown in the model as the person does their selection,. this works fine for a sample but i would prefer to use an established program if there is a program out there.
any insights will be appreciated.
dan miel
sw2008
i just went to a lunch and learn for driveworks. i would recommend that you see if your var is planning any free training. the class was 4hrs and we did the tutorial then created a simple part on our own. once you get what everything does and do a part on your own everything seems to fall into place. unfortunately we don't have a great need for driveworks.
the interface is simple and to control the things you are trying to control is simple with the if(,,) statement. i.e if ( holequantity <= 1 , "suppress" , "unsuppress" )
sw 2008 sp5
sw 2009 sp2 (evaluating)
dell precision 690, 2gigs
quadro fx 4600
cswa, cswp, cswp-smtl
the driveworks ui is a wizard based forms approach that you get to design. express is a very small subset of what you can do in driveworks. i don't think there will be any trouble making a nice looking ui in driveworks. also in driveworks there are alot more things you can do with assemblies especially by using driven alternatives. my recommendation is that if you can do what you want in driveworks i'd go that route rather than the custom programming route, the reason for this is that driveworks developers will then be the folks on the hook to make sure that all of calls to solidworks work from release to release and from os to os. it's better for you to focus on your rules and let someone else have those techincal headaches.
i feel that driveworks is a little intense for non-engineers to use. i have spent alot of time developing custom configurators that integrate with solidworks over the last 7 years, and i think it's important to differentiate between solutions that are integrated within solidworks (as in contained withing the sw ui) and those that are not. those that are not can be alot friendlier on those who don't have alot of sw experience, like salesmen, etc.
with that said, driveworks can certainly do what you require. if you'd like to see an alternative solution that might be friendlier to a non engineer, try