Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to
this guides to eDrawings. We're
going to step through five
topics during this guide. We're
going to take a look at what an
eDrawing is, how to create one,
how to then use them, how to
share them with people. Also
take a look at some functions in
eDrawings professional. So let's
start off with what an eDrawing
is. eDrawings is a fast,
reliable, and convenient way to
open and view many 3D models and
2D drawings created by widely
used CAD systems. eDrawings
standard comes with a range of
tools to allow you to
interrogate the 3D design data
such as measurements, creating
markups and cross sections along
with other options to view
existing animations, as well as
simulation results. eDrawings
professional extends the
functionality by allowing you to
open your models in a virtual
reality environment. For more
information on eDrawings or just
a reminder, be sure to check out
the product pages on our
website. There's a handy video
to give you a quick overview of
the product in action. Okay. So
hopefully you will know what an
eDrawing is now let's take a
look at how we create them.
Let's drop into SOLIDWORKS, We
have an assembly model of a
prosthetic foot. The easiest way
to get this into eDrawings is to
simply use the file menu and
choose publish to eDrawings, get
an option to choose the
configuration. We only have one
in this example, we also have an
option to include a attachment.
Now the attachment is a step
file. So one of the three
formats of step file, this is
useful if the model needs to be
sent to a manufacturing team,
stakeholder, and they need to
access a neutral format file for
producing manufacturing data
from, I'll leave that on for now
to show an example. We also have
some options to be aware of this
includes things like being able
to measure the file. So if you
do not want the recipient to be
able to measure the file, you
can, de-select the option. I'll
leave it on here for the moment.
We can also allow or disable STL
export for parts and assemblies
again. So if this model needs to
be sent to someone who is
perhaps going to 3D print it, an
STL is normally the file type of
choice for that scenario, you
can enable that from eDrawings,
and then some other options
about, transferring motion
studies or animations from
SOLIDWORKS, and also table data.
We locate that. And the last
setting in here is whether or
not there's a password on the
file. Passwords obviously apply
an extra layer of security. So
if it is a secure document, you
can assign a password to it. I
leave it off for the moment.
When we hit, okay, SOLIDWORKS
processes the file and creates
the eDrawing.
Once the file is being
converted, the eDrawings
application is loaded and you
can see here, we have our
SOLIDWORKS foot assembly. So
down in the bottom right here,
we have a, an attachment cause
we have the step file enabled
and you can see we have the, the
STP or step file. We can turn
this and we've got some options
to actually view the attachment,
extract the attachment or save
it out or delete it. So just an
example, if I press view this
loads up into eDrawings as well,
and then we have the step file.
You can see here, the STP file.
So this a full assembly, very,
very useful method and is a
great time-saver saves you
having to do it from SOLIDWORKS
manually. Now the other method
of creating a eDrawing is to use
the save as command in
SOLIDWORKS, So if we just toggle
back to the SOLIDWORKS
application as my original
model, rather than using the
shortcut, For example, if you
didn't need to open it
necessarily straight away, we
can use the regular save as
command, you know, and here we
can choose the eDrawings format
in this case, it's an dot E A S
M file choose the location to
save, give it a name and we can
save that file. We got the same
options. The only difference
here is that the file isn't
opened automatically. So great
if you just want to save
a file to send to someone, if
you needed to then open that
file up manually to load the
eDrawings application. Um, it is
a standalone program just like
SOLIDWORKS we find the, find the
program and load it up. And then
just like any other file we can
choose to open that just while
we're in here. If you weren't
aware from perhaps the intro
video that I linked to,
eDrawings is a general purpose
CAD viewer. It can open up a
whole range of file types from
native eDrawings files,
SOLIDWORKS files, obviously a
neutral format such as step and
IGES and some other proprietary
CAD formats as well. When we
opened the foot model, you can
see here, we ended up with the
same results had we have just
published it directly from
SOLIDWORKS. Okay so now we've
looked at how we can publish an
eDrawing, Let's take a look at
what we can do with it. So back
to our foot assembly in
eDrawings, you can see here, the
assembly model, it start with
icons across the top of the
screen. So we've got a general
selection tool. We've got pan,
rotate and zoom. Exactly the
same as we have in SOLIDWORKS I
won't dwell on those too much.
We also have zoom to selection,
zoom to area it's useful for
just quickly zooming into a
certain region of interest.
We've also got, controls for
perspective
and ambient occlusion as well.
So you can get some nice
realistic shadowing effects. We
also have the standard view
orientations front back top,
right Et cetera. Again, exactly
like SOLIDWORKS and also some
display styles, So we can view
the model in wireframe, shaded
with edges, and plain shaded. We
have a look down at the bottom.
We have options for kind of
resetting the view back to
normal. So if you got a little
bit muddled up with settings, et
cetera, we can return that back
to how it was imported. We've
got an animate button. The great
benefit of eDrawings is that we
work in natively in 3D so that
we can animate the model. So if
someone is a, a non-cardiac
user, or maybe it's not like
technical, uh, they don't need
to worry about zooming, panning
and rotating. They can just hit
the play button automatically to
view the model rotate around.
It's a great way for just
reviewing the design. We can
also explode the view. So if
there is an exploded view stored
in the SOLIDWORKS file, these
will be presented in here and we
can toggle these on and off. So
I have a preset exploded view.
You can save with a, some of the
hardware separated out. We can
also use a slide bar to play the
exploding collapse sequence.
Again, this is very easy to use,
just dragging the slider back
and forth, to toggle that mode
on and off to reset this, we just hit
reset and go back to the home
screen. We can individually move
parts. So perhaps you didn't
have an exploded sequence set
up. We can still just pick up
individual parts and drag them
out just by clicking eDrawings
doesn't support the mates that
we have in the SOLIDWORKS CAD
file, which is very useful for
us just to be able to move these
parts around and drill down into
that assembly. Again, don't
worry. We can't break this. You
can hit the reset button and
take us back to normal. In the
move command the default is a
free drag and there are settings
for positional information and
translate and rotate. So if we
needed to explicitly move it a
component in a certain X, Y, Z
direction that we could do that.
We can measure so if you
remember the setting we had,
when we published the drawing in
the first instance, as long as
that was enabled, it will allow
the recipient to come in here
and use the measure commands to
start picking up measurements
between anything they can click
on. So it could be X, Y, Z
distances between these two
holes here, uh, notice with any
holes or cylindrical objects, we
have got settings to choose a
center to center or minimum
distance or maximum distance
between them is select entities
very useful for, working out
bolt centers. Anything you click
on can be measured. So whether it's
just a pair of faces or edges or
points, uh, we can extract
useful information
automatically. We also have
sectioning tools this much like
solid works allows us to put a
plane through the model and drag
back and forth in different
orientations. And you can see
very intuitive and easy to use
just by dragging the cursor back
and forth. You can change the
plane orientation. There's some
presets to align to X, Y, and Z
directions in the model. We can
flip any of these as well. So we
can flip the plans, uh, opposite
side, just by dragging around.
We can view normal to the plane,
We can also choose to hide the
plane if you need it to maybe as
you were just going to do a
quick screenshot or for review
purposes, it wasn't required to
see the, the cutting plane. And
we could also choose the create
the cap or not. So you'll notice
if I zoom in here, what would be
the section faces in the real
world, There'll be some solid
material there. If we wanted to
kind of just see through the
skin of the model we can choose
to de-select the cap. It often
gives it a little bit more of a
complicated view, I guess, but a
useful for seeing inside the
part. Again, to return to normal
we can either de-select section
or press the home button.
And the last thing I look at
down here is stamps, stamps are
list of predefined PNGs. You can
actually add your own in here.
So if there was a watermark we
needed to add to this before we
send it out, uh, we can do that
and we can resize these to
anything that is appropriate.
That means that anyone viewing
this file or printing it out has
a watermark on there as well.
Just adds that extra bit of
security. So there's no
misinformation or misuse of the
file. The last functions down
here in the interface, our mass
properties. This allows us to
call back, information such as
that total weight volume surface
area, in multiple types of
units. So you can select those
as well as decimal places. We've
also got markup tools, or these
are really useful for, I guess,
bi-directional communication.
eDrawings is great receiving
data back from the recipient. So
it could be that you want to
create a call out, just to put a
comment on about a certain
component, a comment to say a
change material bolt perhaps, it
logs the time and date that the
user created the comment, and we
have a range of other kind of
tools. If you wanted to kinda
scribble on this, we could,
start adding additional
annotation styles to
make that mark more visible. We
can even add pictures and images
in here as well. We could add
dimensions on here. So if there
was perhaps a, another change
required, perhaps that the, the
distance between these, these
bolts, we could add that on and
say, you know, increase 75mm. So
again, a whole range of useful
markup tools to allow feedback
from the, from the recipient. We
can even save those comments
back. So if you wanted to send
that file back to a SOLIDWORKS
user to view by clicking the
save icon, it generates a markup
file, which you can then email
or send back to the original
sender. You can view any
annotations that might've been
stored in the model. If there
was any 3D views, it's useful.
If you're using SolidWorks MBD,
we can recall the 3D views and
annotate views to display any
information about the model. And
the last one is component. So in
this case, this is an assembly.
So we have a full list of the
components make that assembly up
with the structure as it was in
SOLIDWORKS this supports full
cross highlighting. So if we
select any of these objects in
the, uh, in the tree, the model
window highlights the
corresponding parts as well. And
this works with the other way as
well. We highlight the parts,
the tree is enabled. Now this
allows us to also
kind of view the, you know, any
of file names and configuration
names and descriptions that
would have been installed in
SOLIDWORKS. We've also got some
controls here for showing all of
the model. Uh, we can hide parts
individually. So if I wanted to
right click, we get various
options for hiding and showing
components. So perhaps I want to
hide this cover or hide that the
sole, just to show the
mechanism, you can do that. You
can even isolate parts on their
own. So I might want to just
control, select just like in
SOLIDWORKS, a selection of
components, and then just show
those on their own so we can get
a better understanding of their
of a component on in its own
viewport, revert back to the, I
guess, bring all the components
back. We can either use these
components here to show all, and
they get faded back in, or we
could have just went and pressed
the home button to get back to
the start again. Okay. So we've
looked at how we can view and
manipulate the eDrawings. Let's
take a look at how we can share
this information with other
users. So back into my eDrawings
interface, we have our foot
assembly from the file menu. You
can save the drawing in numerous
formats that we can share with
other people. I guess we have
the native eDrawing file, which
in this case is a dot EASM
eDrawings can exist in three
formats for parts assemblies and
2D drawings, and they have their
own files extension. We can also
compress these into a zip file,
as well as a zip file with an
executable. So the executable is
the embedded viewer. So this is
a slightly larger zip file, but
it means you only have to send
it to someone once and they can
install eDrawings via the
executable. You can also save in
one of two HTML formats, one,
which is active X, which
contains in embedded active X
frame to run in your web browser
and another using web HTML. This
is a new format that's available
in eDrawings professional, and
we're going to get to that in
the, in the last chapter. We've
then got a number of Rasta file
types. So bitmaps TIFFs JPEGs,
PNGs, and GIFs So lots of ways
to share your information from
eDrawings. Okay, so let's finish
up looking at a couple of
features, unique to eDrawings
professional. First is the web
HTML file format. This format
creates a single HTML file that
can be opened on any modern
browser on any device. We've got
the same viewing capabilities as
we had in the original drawings
application. So we have a home
button to reset the view. You
can automatically animate
through the views. You can zoom
to fit. You can change the
display style, including ambient
occlusion and perspective modes,
changing the views through
standard orientations, as well
as any shading display styles.
We've also got access to the
components lists. This is an
assembly file. So you can see
the structure here, any
configurations that might be
available, any exploded
sequences, using a simple slide
in drag bar. We can, explode the
assembly out. We have a
sectioning tool that works very
similarly to the full
application where we can drag
back and forth. We can change
cutting planes and orientations
include capping or not. You've
got to measure tool. This is
very handy, so we can come in
and we can measure between
anything we can select points
and edges and faces, for
example, or we've also got a
manual move command where we can
start dragging the parts around
on the screen to explore the
assembly of more detail. So
using the HTML mode with
eDrawings is a great way of
sharing data that allows people
to view the files without having
to install any software. And
this will run on any device with
a modern web browser for a more
immersive experience for your
designs eDrawings professional
also provides a seamless path to
virtual reality. Simply open the
SOLIDWORKS assembly in VR adjust
scene settings, such as floor
and sky put on your headset and
jump into your design. Using the
controller. You can teleport
from one location to another. At
the click of a button just makes
navigating for your design easy
and fast. You can virtually
climb stairs, view, sight lines, and
look over platform edges, to
feel what it's like to be inside
your design. You can grab
objects with another controller
click. You can view component
metadata, use a pick and place
method to disassemble, or simply
release to put them back. So
we've seen how eDrawings is an
incredibly versatile tool for
viewing and interacting with CAD
data. Please take some time to
further explore the functions
I've discussed here. I'm sure
you'll see the benefits. Thanks
for watching.