- Solidworks Plastics Tutorials
- Solidworks Installation Manager Internal Error
- Solidworks Install Error Register_i386_sldshellextserverexe
Sink marks are areas in a molded part where the surface is deformed into a depression. The depressions typically occur in areas of thick geometry and are caused by uneven cooling of the injection material. Potentially problematic geometry would include areas where features such as a rib or boss meet the wall, areas of rapidly changing thickness, or large solid regions. As the material begins to cool and harden within the mold not all areas cool at the same rate. Due to this temperature gradient, a molten region will still exist in the center of the wall after the outer material has begun to solidify. As the inner material begins to cool and harden it also begins to shrink. This shrinking begins pulling the outer surface in, potentially collapsing the wall or deforming the part. Injection errors like this can range from simple aesthetically unpleasing blemishes to structurally compromising deformities.
Luckily, there are many ways to alleviate issues cause by sink marks, including modifying the geometry, adjusting the mold and material temperature settings, and changing the injection and packing pressure. Additionally, SolidWorks Plastics can help you identify locations in which these issues can occur so your part can be modified before the physical molds have been manufactured. This can significantly limit the time and cost involved in performing rework and reduces overall design costs.
Solidworks Plastics Tutorials
The SOLIDWORKS PDM client is installed for the SOLIDWORKS installation manager which can be found on the SOLIDWORKS DVD or downloaded from the customer portal. If you already have SOLIDWORKS installed on your machine you can add the SOLIDWORKS PDM client by navigating to Control Panel Programs and Features SOLIDWORKS Modify/Change.
When viewing the sink mark results of your plastics simulation, any areas highlighted will experience some degree of deformation. Using the range sliders in the PropertyManager will allow you to limit the results view to only values that exceed the user’s design requirements allowing you to focus your design changes on those areas.
Some general guidelines for avoiding sink marks include:
- SOLIDWORKS Plastics. Predict and avoid manufacturing defects in plastic part and injection mold designs, eliminating costly rework, improving part quality, and decreasing time to market.
- SOLIDWORKS Plastics. Predict and avoid manufacturing defects in plastic part and injection mold designs, eliminating costly rework, improving part quality, and decreasing time to market.
- Making part walls uniform in thickness whenever possible.
- Make ribs no more than 50%-80% of the wall thickness it connects to.
- Place gates in areas that allow the thickest sections to fill and pack first.
- Increase the gate size to allow the mold to fill and pack properly.
- Reduce the number or size of solid regions by simply hollowing them out. Add a pattern of ribs if additional rigidity is needed after hollowing the feature.
- Increase the hold time in which the part is under injection pressure.
- Increase the injection pressure to force more material into the mold and reduce shrinkage.
- Modify the geometry to place the features causing sink marks in areas where they have less impact on the design.
- Reduce the injection temperature of the material and the mold.
Using these suggestions in tandem with the SolidWorks Plastics package can help your business predict issues such as sink marks before they occur. Working out these issues in the design stages can significantly reduce the amount of mold rework required. This will help to decrease the time to market for the product as well as lower cost.
You know this icon, don’t you? I think it’s safe to say that if you’re reading this that you do. When this shows up it can be difficult to quickly find the one part you are looking for.
Why does it happen?
It sure beats me, but we know windows and .dll files don’t like to play nice at times especially with Microsoft updates and antiviruses on the prowl. Fortunately, we have a couple of ways to try to coax them into playing together again.
Let’s begin with SOLIDWORKS by going to Tools > Options > System Options > General > Show thumbnail graphics in Windows explorer. Make sure this option is checked. If unchecked you will have to save the files without thumbnails for the icons to be refreshed.
If the option was already checked then let’s try to persuade windows. Let’s check the folder options.
For Windows 7:
Click the windows button and type and select “Folder options” and go to the “View” tab. Here we want to uncheck the option “Always show icons, never thumbnails”, scroll down and check the option “Show preview handlers in preview pane”, see picture below.
For Windows 10:
Click the windows button, type and select “show hidden folders and options” and go to the “View” tab. Here we want to uncheck the option “Always show icons, never thumbnails”, scroll down and check the option “Show preview handlers in preview pane”, see the same picture for windows 7 above.
If this step does not restore the thumbnails, let’s follow to the next.
For Windows 7 and 10:
Click the windows button, type “Adjust the appearance and performance of windows” and select the matching result. In the “Visual effects” tab check the option ”Show thumbnails instead of icons”
Solidworks Installation Manager Internal Error
Default Administrator
If none of these settings fixed the problem it is time to bring out the big guns. Beware, you must have access to the Default Administrator account on your computer for the following steps to work. If you do not then you will need to get your IT team involved in this.
For Window 7 and 10:
Click the windows button and type “cmd”, right click the result and select “Runs as Administrator”. This will launch the command prompt.
Here we will try to register the .dll files that may not have registered properly during installation. Keep in mind it is possible for these files to become unregistered after Windows or SOLIDWORKS updates.
Now for the fun part, type the following in the command prompt, keep in mind these path names are the default paths. If you changed the name of the Solidworks installation folder or selected a path different from default please use the correct path.
** Make sure you include the quotations **
- regsvr32 “C:Program FilesCommon FilesSOLIDWORKS sharedswdocumentmgr.dll”
- regsvr32 “C:Program FilesCommon FilesSOLIDWORKS Sharedsldwinshellextu.dll /u”
- regsvr32 “C:Program FilesCommon FilesSOLIDWORKS Sharedsldwinshellextu.dll”
- regsvr32 “C:Program FilesSOLIDWORKS Corp 20XXSOLIDWORKSsldthumbnailprovider.dll”
Success
The successful messages will look like this:
Solidworks Install Error Register_i386_sldshellextserverexe
You will get a message telling you if the .dll file was successfully registered or not. If you do not have administrative permissions, these commands are likely to fail so be sure to get a hold of your IT team for some assistance.
You will want to restart your computer for these changes to take full effect. Your thumbnails should now show the parts or assemblies themselves instead of that pesky icon.