Tech Tip - BIM Support

Tech Tip – BIM Support

Table of Contents

Designers and manufacturers of equipment, furniture, lighting fixtures,
elevators and other types of products used in buildings have always had a bit
of an uphill battle when sharing their design data for use in Architectural,
Engineering, and Construction (AEC) software where the buildings themselves
are designed. As of SOLIDWORKS 2015 new functionality has been added to easily
export 3D models for use in AEC software, offering designers and engineers
added flexibility and assurance in sharing Building Information Modeling (BIM)
data.

Let’s go through a quick scenario to get a feel for this new ability. Let’s
say we design large industrial boilers for heating applications in commercial
buildings. At some point in the design of the building, a project manager or
architect may need our model in order to integrate it properly. Rather than
wasting time on trial and error of many different types of export formats and
settings, you can now do this quite easily.

Type and Orientation: Before the information can be exported
out of SOLIDWORKS, it is important to establish the mounting location for the
newly designed product, ensuring the size, scale, and rotation are accurate
and easily understood. This boiler will be mounted to the floor, but the
drop-down menu also offers options for ceiling and floor mounted equipment.

Export to AEC Menu

De-Feature: Once the mounting options are set, it is
important to de-feature the assembly and remove extraneous parts or other
intellectual property. In this example, the smaller parts (like the nuts on
the front plate) of the design are easily removed and the model is updated.
There are almost 500 components in this boiler assembly, but that kind of
detail is unnecessary at the building level.

Remove menu

In this example I chose the “Custom” option for feature and component removal,
which allows me more control over the selections. The other 3 modes are more
automated and work as follows:

 

High:               The model is exported as is, without
removing any details.

Medium:         All internal components are removed.

Internal cross section geometry is removed and made solid.

Fillets and chamfers with less than one inch radii are removed.

Holes under two inches in diameter are suppressed.

Low:                All internal components are removed.

Internal cross section geometry is removed and made solid.

Fillets and chamfers with less than two inch radii are removed.

Holes under three inches in diameter and extrudes less than three inches in
total depth are suppressed.

 

Before accepting the new version of the model for export, we are offered a
nice preview which clearly shows the reorientation and simplification of the
model (small components removed, volumes filled in, small features removed,
etc.).

Model

If we’re satisfied with the preview of the model as it will be exported, the
only thing left to do is to hit the “Save As .SAT” button. This will save a
version of the model in the ACIS (.SAT) format which is widely used and
accepted in the AEC software industry. No need to worry about settings or
options, it’s already been done by going through the steps in the wizard.

Save Model as .SAT menu

While most of these things were possible previously, you had to have the
“tribal knowledge” of what type of format will work, how to re-orient the
model, how to simplify the model, etc. Now in SOLIDWORKS, it’s all packaged up
in a nice little wizard to make this workflow extremely fast and easy.

Todd Domke

Todd Domke

Todd Domke is the Product Manager for SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD, and holds a number of certifications, including Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert. Todd is a frequent instructor at many of the Southern California training courses, and has been using SOLIDWORKS for over a decade.
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Carl Smith
Carl Smith
2 years ago

Hey,
first of all, Thank you so much for this information about TipFor bim Support and it’s very impressive and very helpful for me once again Thank you.:)

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