solid edge 2D

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

following the demise of Draftsight I've been trying to get to grips with SE 2D. It's free and very powerful, but has at least one annoying feature (there might be more I haen't found). When I offset a line, it insists on adding a dimension telling me how far I've offset it, which I then have to delete. There must be a way of turning this off. Anyone out there know how?

The other good freeby I've found is NanoCad,but that has some features like tangent to 2 circles missing in the free version

Edited By duncan webster on 26/04/2020 17:14:19

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Excellent thanks. The other downside is you can't tie colour and line style to layers, but I'll learn to live with that. Unless someone knows otherwise

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Posted by Barrie Lever on 07/05/2020 18:37:08:

I have had a good chance to use the Solid Edge 2D and 3D Community Edition free of charge programmes.

The programmes have the feel of having millions of Euro's, Dollars or pounds spent in their development.

The programmes are rock steady and bring features and facilities to the hobbyist that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

I've known that one day I would either need (or want) to move on from TurboCAD DL (2D) which I've used for over 20 years and personally find quite functional. However, it does seem to be slipping behind current CAD technologies (it's not parametric for instance) and whilst I don't think CNC beckons for me any time soon – I am learning to 3D print using Open SCAD. But Open SCAD isn't going to support my 2D engineering needs, although it's certainly got me going in 3DP

I'm afraid I didn't find Fusion 360 that easy to get into (I'm not exactly sure why) and it's cloud-based too (I found the whole start-up process irritating I'm afraid). Alibre was free for the trial period but then it seemed to move to some kind of annual subscription fee (didn't like that idea much either). So, given that the "high end" CAD programmes seemed undesirable/unobtainable for one reason or another I had intended to start looking at FreeCAD for my future 'engineering' CAD needs.

But I was intrigued when I saw that Solid Edge (Community Edition) was available free to download (a lifetime license) with local drawing storage and ongoing updates. Here was a very serious piece of CAD software from a large corporate entity (Siemens). So I downloaded SE last week – which took a little while, as it's about 3.5Gb – and whilst it's still very early days, I must say that I'm extremely impressed with SE already.

Having learned the hard way (with TurboCAD) the importance of understanding how best to interact with a CAD system, I'm taking my time with the user-interface and most particularly trying to sort out the keyboard and other mouse shortcuts before I really dive too far into the rest of the feature set. So far I'm finding it pretty intuitive once you get the basic concepts under your belt – and there are usually several ways to get to the same end result.

So, a very (very) powerful, professional CAD system which is downloadable for free and with no strings attached that I can tell. Who would have thought that would happen any time soon?

Regards,

IanT

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[IanTParticipant @iant]

I am always a little nervous about commenting on some things Barrie, because there is such a huge range of experience here. I am very much a hobbyist in 'all things engineering' and much of my work looks pretty basic compared to what some folk here produce. However, I hope my comments are useful to others who are also trying to find their way around in this wonderful hobby of ours. We can't all be experts and sometimes other people groping their way around a particular issue can be just as useful to me as the professional view.

My early attempts at 2D certainly left a lot to be desired and took forever to draw (snapping was a real problem!). Over time they improved and with good advice about keyboard use – also speeded up. But any professional Draughtsman looking at my drawings today would probably still have a fit (I often get my projections and other drawing conventions muddled). But for my purposes, my 2D drawings have been mostly good enough.

Some time ago (years) I tried 3D in TurboCAD DeLuxe but found the whole process very confusing. I never quite knew which plane I was in – getting totally disoriented within the 3D drawing space. I know others produce extremely complex 3D work TC – albeit in the Professional version I suspect – but this experience pretty much killed my desire to draw in 3D at that time.

But when Fusion 360 came along, I thought I might fare better (as others here clearly loved it) but I just didn't enjoy using it. I've now deleted Fusion or I would have been tempted to go back and try to recall exactly what my problem really was (and I'm sure it was my problem) – whether a matter of some preference, perhaps linked to my previous 2D experience, I'm not really sure.

So I had some pretty large reservations when downloading Solid Edge given my prior 3D failures. However, I was delighted to find it pretty straight forward and even (say it quietly) enjoyable to use. I'm afraid there is nothing very scientific about this opinion though. I have pretty much zero knowledge of the detailed differences between the various CAD packages (apart from the cloud/payment aspects) and others here clearly will have a much more informed view of these things than I am likely to ever have.

So my opinion is purely a personal one and largely uninformed technically. But for the short time I've been using Solid edge it has been an absolute revelation and it just seems to suit me (and my work) very well. I hope to move some of my existing 2D drawings to it shortly, so I can further develop and improve them on SE over time – as well as drawing all new work on it of course.

Regards,

IanT

Edited By IanT on 08/05/2020 10:23:41

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

Hello folks, Glad to see that those new to Solid Edge are getting on well with it. I think Kudos should be given to Siemens PLM for offering none commercial folks the chance to use [ and keep ] the software. I highly recommend folk to join the user forum over at Siemens PLM also another great forum is the Solid Edge user group on Facebook.

Duncan, as far as tying properties to a layer, it can be done but involves editing a text file in the programme. It is quite an involved process and results in whatever properties you assign to that layer being stored for that layer [ is that what you were meaning ? ] I have done it for a certain number of layers which I have tied to a custom draft template. Another area that folks new to Solid Edge will probably be unaware of concerns the importing of non native files. I will post an explanation in another post [ hopefully with a screenshot ]

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

Some more info on importing non native data into Solid Edge. If you import a step file assembly into Solid Edge and open it in an assembly template it will come in as 1 solid body ie no separate parts. If you want it to open as an assembly of separate parts you need to do the following. Go to where Solid Edge is installed [ usually the C drive ] Then, Siemens/ Solid Edge 2020/ Preferences/ Translators. and in a text editor change the Import Multiple Bodies As Single Part file to OFF and save the file. You can now open the step assembly as an assembly ie separate parts. The exact same procedure applies to the Direct import of a native Solidworks file or… Inventor/ ProE/ Creo / Catia. See screenshots

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

In case the screenshots are not clear on a persons screen The STEP translator to alter is STEP.INI and the Solidworks one is SW2SE.INI

Cheers.

[John RutzenParticipant @johnrutzen76569]

Hi, i've now got a windows 10 Professional 64 bit laptop with 17 inch screen so I am thinking of getting Solid Edge 2D or Community edition. However my laptop has Office 2007 on it presumably because it's free. My question is – will it run or do I have to subscribe to the latest Office version?

Edited By John Rutzen on 05/12/2020 12:48:31

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by John Rutzen on 05/12/2020 12:47:38:

Hi, i've now got a windows 10 Professional 64 bit laptop with 17 inch screen so I am thinking of getting Solid Edge 2D or Community edition. However my laptop has Office 2007 on it presumably because it's free. My question is – will it run or do I have to subscribe to the latest Office version?

Edited By John Rutzen on 05/12/2020 12:48:31

The version of Office you are running should not affect Solid Edge, but check the SE forum to confirm this.

Microsoft Office is certainly not free, but the demo version is. It is supposed to stop working after an unspecified time, however I have only ever seen warning messages and a black background appear.

The big issue with Office 2007 is that no updates or security fixes have been issued since 2017 and mainstream support ended in 2012.

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

It matters not one hoot to Solid edge if Office is installed or no. So go for it.

[John RutzenParticipant @johnrutzen76569]

Thanks for replies. Would I be better to go for 2D or just Community Edition?

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Hello John,

I've been running Solid Edge 2020 (Community) with Office 2007 also installed (on a Win 10 laptop) for a while now and I've not had any issues or conflicts that I'm aware of.

I've never tried SE 2D, as I went straight to SE2020 directly from TurboCAD 16 (which I also still use). I'm not a CAD expert (far from it) but my very simple take is that SE2020 is a very competent 3D CAD programme which (like any 3D CAD) needs a different approach (mindset) to 2D drafting. For some things, a simple 2D drawing is often all I need and for that I still use TC (I'm practised with it) and I can produce most drawings fairly quickly.

However, I sometimes need 3D CAD to produce designs that go 'beyond' 2D for a number of reasons. 3D print is an obvious example (although I also use Open SCAD for simpler things), isometric drawing is another, as well as the ability to visualise and check how complex parts will combine & fit (e.g. assemble) in practice. I like the parametric nature of the product and it has many useful features not available in TC. However, 3D does take (me) longer to get to the finished design currently and I frankly don't always need it's 'power' when I've a simpler 2D tool available.

I'd think about what you primarily need from a CAD system and that may help you to choose. 3D is very sexy but it comes with learning overheads that you might not need to get your 'designs' down on (virtual) paper – or maybe you have needs that can only be met by 3D CAD. Possibly the answer may be that both 2D & 3D will be useful to you – as it is for me.

Hope this helps, rather than further confusing!.

Regards,

IanT

PS – I'm very happy with the time I've invested in Solid Edge 2020 – pleased I did so..

It's the right 3D CAD for my current needs and I enjoy using it.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

John

The community edition has the full Solid Edge 2D program inside accessible via one of the menu options so just download the whole thing.

I found there was an issue with my download default parameter settings that made it impossible to properly access the 2D functions. Which was seriously confusing until I contacted the user forum who explained which parameter to adjust during set-up. Hopefully the latest version of the download doesn't have that problem. Pretty sure it was a knock on from other changes made to keep things simple for beginners in the full fat 3D version which didn't get noticed.

I found a pretty good copyright free tutorial for the 2D side on line:- SoldEdge 2D Drafting by Jerry Craig. One source via Google is **LINK** but I got mine off Scribd. I printed it out and managed to fit all the useful stuff into the largest spiral binder A4 display book. Three pages got stuck to the covers! I prefer spiral wire bound display books to conventional loose leaf ring binders because not only are there are no punched holes to tear out but the book can be folded right over taking up half the space of a normal open ring binder.

Community edition has good embedded tutorials for the 3D side. But I like to have a book. I got Solid Edge 2020 for Designers by Sham Tickoo after a bit of research on Scribd and other places. Seemed to suit me best.

There are a lot of older versions of Solid Edge and plenty of "version specific" books around both for purchase, on the free to read sites and for copyright busting downloads. I tend to use the free to read sites for research then buy the book most likely to suit my needs. The modern equivalent of bookshop browsing! No idea how many versions back you can go before a book becomes inadequate but it makes sense to buy the most up to date one. Older versions on free to read do give you a feel for the house / author style. If spending £60 odd on textbook you don't want one that is written in a manner that annoys you or needs an "explain your explanation" guide.

Clive

Edited By Clive Foster on 05/12/2020 18:08:43

[John RutzenParticipant @johnrutzen76569]

Thanks very much Ian and Clive. It looks like I should get the community edition, I didn't know you could get the 2D from it, it's not something they say on their site. I think I only need 2D for what I do but who knows? I've watched a couple of tutorials of the 2D and it looked easier than the Turbocad I used a few years ago. I was confused about the Microsoft Office business because under 'system requirements' on their site it says you need either Office 2016 or Office 365. However when I searched the question about Office 2007 one search result said it would work.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Posted by John Rutzen on 05/12/2020 20:00:52:

It looks like I should get the community edition, I didn't know you could get the 2D from it, it's not something they say on their site.

Well neither did I John – but I shall certainly look for it now!

Thank you Clive

Regards,

IanT

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

John, Ian

For 2D open a Draft template, mine is set to ISO metric but it handles imperial dimensions fine.

ISO metric is more about the various drawing conventions and standards than dimension units. In a 2D word there is little visible difference between ISO metric, ASME and British standard conventions.

Make sure your Themes are set to Balanced. Which is supposed to be the default but on my download a diffrent, simpler, theme was set which only allowed inspection of 2D drawings not creation. Can't remember which one it was set to.

Clive

Edited By Clive Foster on 05/12/2020 21:27:00

[IanTParticipant @iant]

That's great Clive – my installation was already set to "Balanced" – so I do indeed have access to SE 2D.

It may be something to do with the choices made on installation – I did this quite while ago now, so I can't remember exactly what I opted for at that time.

I've only had a very quick play but (perhaps unsurprisingly) it does seem to work just the same as the 'sketches' you draw initially in 3D mode before extrusion. So I won't need to start again from the beginning to use SE 2D. I had used 'draft' but only to pull in views of parts and assemblies for printing purposes. I'm not sure how I missed this but I guess I just wasn't looking for it.

Anyway – thanks again Clive, that's going to be very useful.

Regards,

IanT

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I tried to do a drawing in imperial using SE 2D recently, I couldn't get it to use better the 3 DP precision. I found out how to get dimensions on 4 DP, but if I offset a line by 7/16 it actually offset it by 0.438. Anyone know which button to press?

I gave up and did it on NanoCad eventually

[Author]

Posts