learning.md

Learning to use DesignSpark Mechanical (DSM) CAD

SpaceClaim tutorials

• Because DesignSpark Mechanical is based on Ansys SpaceClaim (but with reduced functionality) the SpaceClaim tutorials are often completely applicable to DSM.
• These tutorials can be very helpful when getting started because
  • They are of high quality, use accurate terminology and are well produced.
  • Their consistent use of accurate terminology facilitates learning of CAD concepts
  • For example, this tutorial Creating Geometry Using ANSYS SpaceClaim shows how to make a pipe with an elbow bend. (You can ignore the end of the video where they make an interior solid which is used for CFD analysis.)
• Series: Discovery SpaceClaim: Getting Started Tutorials including:
  • Intricacies of the Move Tool Translate and rotate items in SpaceClaim using Move tool
  • Basics of components & Assemblies. Also: copies vs. Instances Understanding structure tree in SpaceClaim

Official DSM tutorials

• Getting Started series
  • Series of 11 video tutorials
  • Total time: 43 minutes
• Specific (by topic) tutorials
• DSM Online help
  • DSM-v1 Online Help (This has a lot of helpful detailed information that is not in the v6 version.)
  • DSM-v6 Online Help
• Collection of 47 video tutorials from RS DesignSpark (This is an older collection, with some up to 9 years old)

Tutorials by the DSM Community of users

• A Series of 11 Tutorials produced by Fabrication Planet Channel
• The MakerHive DesignSpark Mechanical - ZERO TO HERO EPISODE 1 shows some efficient Best Practices
• Best Practice: Components & Assemblies DesignSpark Mechanical - How to - Creating components
• The Structure Tree Explained (DSM06) (one in a series) Explains structure tree in detail

Tutorials related to the Move Tool

• Moving (from 2012) but lots of excellent detailed info
• Move a component so that its face is in alignment to another face DesignSpark Mechanical - How to Align Object Up To
• Mate & Align

How To make Detailed Drawings:

• Start by right clicking a component (part or assembly) in the assembly tree
  • Select Open Component
  • Click File -> New -> Drawing Sheet
• Watch Detailing Tutorial for all the detailed instructions

Shared versus Copied parts and assemblies: Why it's important...

• Different CAD vendors use different terminology, so this can get confusing. To keep it as simple as possible, I will restrict this discussion to the two Dynamic CAD applications:
  1. SolidDesigner (PTC Creo Elements Direct)
  2. SpaceClaim (DesignSpark Mechanical)
• Although PTC has the formidable task of maintaining both their legacy history-based CAD product (Pro-Engineer) as well as their more recently acquired Direct Modeling CAD product (Creo Elements Direct), their article About shared parts and assemblies does a good job of summing up the difference between share and copy as it applies to parts and assemblies. (This same distinction also applies in SpaceClaim, but SpaceClaim prefers to use the term components rather than parts.)

It is recommended to use the Share functions in preference to the Copy functions for any parts and assemblies which are used more than once in a model. By sharing parts, you ensure that modifications made to one shared part are automatically reflected in all other shared instances of that part. When sharing parts or assemblies, the largest proportion of data, particularly data concerned with the geometry of a part, is shared between all instances. Consequently, this shared data exists only once in memory. Shared assemblies share the same parts and information about the relationship between the parts; for example, positioning of parts within the assembly.

• Toward the end of the SpaceClaim video Basics of components & Assemblies they show how components behave if they are copied versus if they are shared. But SpaceClaim doesn't use the same terminology. Instead, they explain that it is a best practice when copying, to not copy a solid directly, but instead, to copy the component which contains it. This way, the copied solid will be linked to the original so that when one is modified, the other is also modified. (In other words, they are shared.) If you prefer to break that shared relationship, you can right-click on the newly copied component and then click Source then Make independent.

• Best practice in SpaceClaim is to treat assemblies the same way. Copying the assembly creates what is effectively a shared instance of the original assembly. Any change in one assembly (such as a moved component) would occur in the other assembly. If you want to break the shared relationship, you do it the same way: right click the newly copied assembly, then click Source then Make independent. But be aware that this is a deep copy, meaning that every last component and subassembly loses its shared relationship with the original. That's probably not what you want to do.

  • There is a small (but annoying) issue when making a shared copy of an assembly in DesignSpark Mechanical. Say you have an assembly on the left and you want to have an identical (shared) assembly on the right. Well, you can't give them different names. If you want them to show up in the assembly tree as assy-left and assy-right, then you have to create two new parent components with those names and then drag and drop the respective assemblies into them.