Siemens does not like me…!

[VersabossParticipant @versaboss]

Solid edge stays silent

[VersabossParticipant @versaboss]

So I wanted also to see what all this noise about Solid edge is. Download Thursday night, went to sleep and installed on Friday. No hiccup, all ok. Then I clicked on one of the offered instruction files, and learned something about the different setups. But I had much trouble reading all, it's is in a very small and fuzzy font, and light blue on white is poison for my eyes. So when I stopped I was shown a box asking if this was helpful. I clicked 'no' and had the opportunity to write a remark. So I did, mentioning the two points above.

Returning today for another try, and nothing works. All the instruction boxes on the start screen are inaccessible…

Maybe that's the end with Solid Edge for me.

Regards,
Hans

[Simon Williams 3Participant @simonwilliams3]

Some people just can't take criticism….

[Andrew FirmanParticipant @andrewfirman12129]

Earlier today I tried to download Solid Edge 2D but it seemed their server was down and I got a message to try later.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

CAD progs can be really weird if they need an internet connection

I couldn't get DSmechanical to work for about 2 years on my Win7 64 system and was stuck with win xp

Then one day it suddenly let me register and get going

So be patient… if it's a CAD you really want to use

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Posted by Simon Williams 3 on 09/05/2020 18:08:25:

Some people just can't take criticism….

Haha! Can happen at any time. I remember my wife giving Ashford hospital a poor review of her treatment.

Canterbury treated her broken wrist but could not re-set it – quick, prompt treatment and then Ashford was lousy. Re-set after nearly seven hours of waiting (not good for a cancer patient half way through her chemo course, among several other things). The review was suddenly cut short and not included in their ratings. Surprise, surprise!

On this occasion it may be a computer glitch. We shall see…?

[IanTParticipant @iant]

I think it might help if you use the link that Raymond Anderson gave us a few weeks back – it's the one I used

Solid Edge Community Edition

I tried Googling 'Solid Edge' and got mixed results and also part of the Siemens site seems to be down for maintenance at the moment too.

Andrew – I'm no expert on the history of SE products but I think you should try the SE Community Edition above rather than the (older I think) "free" 2D version that you may have found. I've started to pull parts of my existing 2D work over to SE and I've been able to open them and change / dimension them using SE just as simple 2D sketches – with of course the possibility of extruding them out in 3D should I wish to do so.

Hope this helps – keep trying, it's worth it!

Regards,

IanT

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

You only need a internet connection for Downloading. Never any need for the internet after that to run the software.

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by not done it yet on 09/05/2020 23:41:01:

Posted by Simon Williams 3 on 09/05/2020 18:08:25:

Some people just can't take criticism….

Haha! Can happen at any time. I remember my wife giving Ashford hospital a poor review of her treatment.

I have been a great supporter of the NHS for as long as I can remember. My Dad spent 40 years as a medic with them but I am always a bit bemused when attending hospital or surgery and they offer me a 'Friends and Families' form to review the place.

I know they would be given good treatment, but no – I don't want my friends and family to need to go to hospital!

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

We would avoid both Ashford and Shrewsbury for reasons of sub-standard service (more so Shrewsbury) but we both cannot fault Papworth and Peterborough. Totally different experiences.

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

Solid edge is not working on any of their options, I was trying yesterday.

Off topic I know, but such forms handed out at NHS visits are to satisfy the tick box. Plus good ratings are used to outweigh the poor ones, yes these are sad I know. My Father fought cancer for 30 years, he received nothing but the highest care. This was one of the reasons I joined the NHS for 10 years in the twilight of my career, I wish I was able to assist now.

Regards

Gray,

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

Well said Gray.

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

Certain servers are off line for maintenance. They should be up and running hopefully by tomorrow.

[Robin KingParticipant @robinking15611]

FWIW I tried downloading the 2D version a couple of days ago off the original quoted link but it was indicating a download time of more than 2 hours. Even allowing for our rural broadband that's a bit too long for me so I abandoned it. Nonetheless if the Youtube videos are to be believed it would be worth trying at the very least so I'll have to give it another go soon from IanT's link, though that wasn't working this a.m.

[Robin KingParticipant @robinking15611]

Afterthought – does anyone know if that package can use UK imperial dimensions?

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

Robin, The imperial dims supported are ANSI

[Robin KingParticipant @robinking15611]

Ah so. In my ignorance – what's the difference from UK imperial dims?

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

Couldn't tell you, You asked if it was UK Imperial I informed you Solid Edge does ANSI imperial. Unless its the formatting. I really don't know what the difference is.

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Posted by Robin King on 10/05/2020 18:26:47:

Ah so. In my ignorance – what's the difference from UK imperial dims?

Robin

Check in at the following link for more info on ANSI, American National Standards Institute.

**LINK**

Emgee

[Robin KingParticipant @robinking15611]

Thank you both. R

[IanTParticipant @iant]

An American "inch" is the same as one of our "inches" Robin and both equal 25.4mm – at least since about 1933. So at least at that level they are the same – e.g. you can dimension in inches.

But the US have their own 'standards' for all things and these standards are managed/set within the US by the American National Standards Institute (hence ANSI) or their nominees – who also represent the US at the International Standards Organisation (ISO). These 'standards' cover a vast multitude of things including drafting standards, mechanical fixtures, paper sizes, electrical standards, common symbols etc etc.

When I installed SE I choose ISO Metric as my default drafting system but you can open templates with a number of different 'Standards' (all the ones that are currently used globally I would suspect) – although 'ANSI Inches' is the only "imperial" system offered. Not having used this option, I cannot tell you what differences you might notice but it will most likely be in areas like the drafting standards, fixture libraries and paper sizes etc. There are also quite a few 'metric' options available, including GB, JSI & DIN.

However, as just about everything in SE seems to be customisable, I think you could probably opt to work in "inches" and customise a template to present your work in a way that might suit you – but that is very much a guess at the moment I'm afraid.

That's about the sum total of my knowledge in this area – but others may be able to shed more light into the detailed differences.

Regards,

IanT

[Robin KingParticipant @robinking15611]

Ian,

thank you – that's very helpful. As and when I can download it I'll have a play with it and see what can be done/set up.

R

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

ANSI and Imperial Inches have both been based via the yard on the international standard metre since the 19th century. The US conversion made the inch 25.4000508mm, while the British conversion (adopted later), made the Imperial Inch 25.399977mm. The difference is tiny.

BSI proposed the "Industrial Inch" to be 25.4mm in 1930, and the US did the same in 1933. Took a long time for the change to 1 yard = 0.9144 metres to filter through. Canada first to convert in 1951, the UK eventually got there in 1964.

The difference between these inches is almost undetectable in a home workshop. And today the ANSI inch is absolutely identical to the Imperial Inch – they are both exactly 25.4mm as determined by to the same metre standard.

All the CAD packages I've used assume choosing English Measure means that the user is in the USA, and therefore switches over to Inch Paper sizes. Mildly inconvenient because UK paper is almost universally metric, US paper sizes being special order here. Not a problem in practice, because all my CAD packages allow the printing and other features to be redefined by the user. Perfectly possible to draw on US paper and print to metric sizes. A potential booby trap when standard print templates are used – borders and information blocks are matched to physical paper sizes. Can be a problem because A4 is bigger than 'Letter' and smaller than 'Legal' etc. It can all be worked around by scaling and so forth. If you don't use templates, or define your own, problem fixed. Depending on the package, it's usually obvious enough how to make changes, for example Fusion 360 asks immediately:

Note 'ISO' implies defaults of mm and A3 paper, no template is applied, and they can all be changed. Other packages might tuck configuration choices away in a 'Property' or 'Drawing Preference' but none of the software I've used makes the settings difficult to find.

Dave

[Rod AshtonParticipant @rodashton53132]

If you where dithering on the subject, or having a bored moment. I have just downloaded SE 2D. Yes it took about an hour to download. But especially if you have a Solidworks background or even if you are a beginner, this software is excellent and far in advance of my current goto, Qcad.

So definitely for me. Out with the old and in with the new.

Thank you gentlemen for the heads up.

[Author]

Posts