DesignSpark Mechanical Online Help

Advanced options

 

Modify how your design changes are displayed in the Design windowClosed, whether tools and hints are displayed, enable background loading, change the language, customize the SpinClosed, Select, and Undo tools, reset the layout of the panels, and adjust the license warning.

To set advanced options

  1. Select DS Mechanical Options from the File menu to display the DS Mechanical Options window.

  2. Click Advanced in the navigation panel on the left.

  3. Modify the options on the page.

    You can click Reset all user settings to adjust all settings back to their default states. You may need to restart DS Mechanical.

  4. Click OK to save all your changes and close the window.

If you try to enter a value that is out of the allowed range in the Options panelClosed or the DS Mechanical Options dialog, you will see a red exclamation mark icon next to the field. You can hover over the icon to see a tooltip that will explain the valid values for the option.

General

Enable constraint based sketching: Select this option to enable constraint based sketching. You need to restart DS Mechanical to use constraint-based sketching.

Animate changes to view projection: Select this option to animate the steps when you select a view.

Animate configuration change: Select this option to dynamically show you the parts moving on screen when switching between configurations.

Auto-extrude/revolve sketches in Section modeClosed: Select this option to automatically extrude or revolve in section mode. As you sketch in Section modeClosed, lines that begin on an existing edge are extruded to form surfaces, and closed surfaces form solids. If the line begins on a solid, the line is finished automatically when you click another point on the solid. To automatically revolve, the sketch must be attached to a revolved face.

Maximum undo steps: Type the number of actions you want available for undo. We recommend that this value be set to at least 50. To enable your changes, you must restart DS Mechanical.

Language: Select a language from the menu. The DS Mechanical user interface and online help display in the selected language.

Reset All User Settings: Reset all modifiable user settings to a default state. To apply the updated settings, you must restart DS Mechanical.

Export User Settings: Export a DS Mechanical user.config file (XML format) for editing and/or future import.

Import User Settings: Apply non-default, customized selections that are unique to an individual user. A valid DS Mechanical user.config file (XML format) must be available for import. User.config file location can vary depending on DS Mechanical installation, but generally, this file type is stored in your local AppData directory. Once you locate theuser.config file you want to import, or, enter the name of the user.config file in the File Name text box, click Open to import the file.

How to create a universal user settings file

  1. Create an environment variable called SpaceClaim_ADMIN_CONFIG. It should point to a fully qualified file name which may be on the network, for example: [SpaceClaim_ADMIN_CONFIG=\\dell_server\shared\rob\admin.config

  2. Begin by creating your own user.config file as described below.

  3. Test that your settings have exported correctly as follows.

  4. Open a new DS Mechanical session and see the results of your user.config file.

Notes about the universal settings file

Restricting access to specific user settings

You can prevent some tabs in the DS Mechanical Options panelClosed from being overridden by a user. This is done with the 'panel.config' file that specifies which tabs to disable.

There is an example panel.config file in the following directory:

C:\<installation directory>\panel.config, where <installation directory> is the location where you installed the application.

This file is simply an example to work from and currently does nothing.

Unlike the 'admin.config' file, which can be named anything, 'panel.config' should not be renamed.

How to create a 'panel.config' file

This example will disable the 'Popular', 'SnapClosed', and 'File->CATIAClosed' options.

<PanelsToDisable>

<PanelName>Popular</PanelName>

<PanelName>SnapClosed</PanelName>

<PanelName>FileOptions_CATIAClosed</PanelName>

</PanelsToDisable>

All of the option panel names are listed below. Use them to customize panel.config as you like. Place the file in the same location as the admin.config where your Environment variable points.

Popular

Detailing_General

Detailing_SizeAndFormat

Detailing_ModularGrid

Appearance

SnapClosed

Units

SheetMetal

Navigation

Advanced

FileOptions_General

FileOptions_ACISClosed

FileOptions_AutoCADClosed

FileOptions_CATIAClosed

FileOptions_IGES

FileOptions_JTOpen

FileOptions_OBJ

FileOptions_ParasolidClosed

FileOptions_PDF

FileOptions_ProEngineer

FileOptions_Rhino

FileOptions_SketchUp

FileOptions_STEPClosed

FileOptions_STL

FileOptions_VRML

SupportFiles

Customize

AddIns

License

Resources

SpaceClaim Labs

Pull Tool

Select Automatic, Add, Cut, or No Merge to set the initial state of PullClosed. The Automatic option selects by default.

Animate Full PullClosed: Select this option to animate all the steps when you select the Full Pull option to revolve, sweep, or blend your design.

Behavior

Preview before modifying: Select when you want interim calculations performed when modifying solids from the menu. If this option is turned on, the preview of a change is displayed as a rough wireframe model rather than a rendered, 3D model. If you work with very large designs, a wireframe preview can be faster than doing the calculations necessary to render the change as a shaded 3D model. Select:

Enable geometry convergence: Select this option if you want DS Mechanical to help you when you are moving solids together so that the edges (such as rounds) converge perfectly. If this option is enabled, when you are moving solids together, DS Mechanical will display a progress bar as it performs the convergence steps. When the option is enabled, if the geometry fails while dragging (using the PullClosed or MoveClosed tool) beyond a certain point, SpaceClaim will figure out the last value at which the geometry can be created and will set it at that point. With the option disabled (default), you can drag beyond the geometry failure when the geometry disappears.

OffsetClosed edges by geodesic calculation: With this option selected, all the points on the offset edge are the same distance from the initial edge. In the examples below, the original edge is highlighted in green, the regular offset is shown in orange, and the geodesic offset is shown in blue.

 

Top view direction: Allows you to change the top view to Z, Y, or X. This setting is saved with the document and only applies to new documents. You may want to change this setting when you import drawings from other CAD applications that use a different upward direction. This option is automatically set to Y when you run DS Mechanical with an ANSYS license, giving your design the same orientation in DS Mechanical and ANSYS. Choose X when you need to comply with manufacturing conventions.

Examples

Extruding while sketching in Section modeClosed

 

Graphics

Allows you to select the graphics renderer for DS Mechanical.


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