Whilst v6.1 provides new Assembly‑tab functionality to Engineer subscribers—delivering the same capability level as Ansys Discovery SpaceClaim, a significant improvement not previously available—v6.1 also delivers substantual improvements over 6.0.3 for all users. I highly recommend updating as soon as possible.
All the serious lagginess and seemingly frozen screens in particular circumstances are now gone! You no longer need to use any of the workarounds previously published by DSM.
All issues related to very large assemblies containing many STEP imports—where RAM usage kept increasing have been resolved. DSM now handles everything seemingly effortlessly whilst also using less RAM. This is in part due to v6.1 using updated Ansys SpaceClaim and Parasolid code.
Here is my take on the most important aspects of v6.1, excluding the Assembly tab for now.
Graphical power - much faster screen and system response times:
The demonstrations below were created on a PC with an Intel Xeon E5‑1660v2 (2013) CPU and an Nvidia K4000 (2014) GPU. Any modern medium‑spec PC should be comfortably 5–10× more responsive than mine.
Example 1:
Graphic sketching through complex spline bodies: no projection‑edge freezing, no screen lagging, no constraint‑sketch locking.
Example 2: Model spin response on spline surfaces for fastener threads → 1056 Indepedent bodies!
Users should keep Graphics Performance as high as possible by setting Rendering and Anti‑Aliasing as low as possible.
Image below shows the spline thread surfaces > 1056 Independent bodies!
The ability to convert Heavyweight bodies into Lightweight versions, and vice versa.
A Lightweight body does not generate or compute edges that define body boundaries. Bodies display only faceted surfaces, so sketch planes have no edges to reference.
Note the Lightweight body symbol shown below.
Sketch plane: Lightweight bodies have no edges to reference!
Sections> Lightweight bodies are not sectioned, so dragging an edge is not possible.
In designs requiring constant new sectioning—especially those containing heavy datasets with many spline surfaces—initial display times can be massively reduced by converting bodies to Lightweight if they do not need to be referenced or modified (indeed, Lightweight bodies cannot be modified) but still need to be visually displayed.
Example. Example: A new section took 10.5 seconds to generate edge geometry through 44 spline‑surfaced bolts.
For sketches, edge generation also took ~ 10 seconds.
However, the next row behind, with all bodies set to Lightweight, sectioned instantly (0 seconds).
There are some paradoxes to files containing Lightweight bodies.
1. Lightweight body file sizes are larger than Heavyweight body files. The edge boundaries are always present, and removing them adds data to the file. Larger files pan slightly slower.
2. Lightweight body files do not spin with greater FPS (F9 performance score) because model spinning (standard shaded fastest) always displays bodies in faceted mode, not edges.
Note.
Once a complex section through Heavyweight or mixed bodies has been generated, DSM (using the Parasolid kernel) remembers the edges without lengthy regeneration...
The section / sketch plane body edge generation, is remembered only whilst the file is open.
The above times of ~0.5s when the Sketcher plane has Resume Sketching actioned, are due to displaying all the edges.
Locks and User Origins.
New locks on planes and User Origins now have identifiers, lock states, and can be renamed.
New Locks for Structure browser Objects:
Locking a component will lock all of it contents including it's curves ( new v6.1 lock) but not its 2D sketch location:
Note the new Padlocks symbols:
Patterns - Renaming:
Pattern groups can now be renamed.
Enhanced Graphical displaying of Curves and Point constraints:
Constraint curves now have improved graphical indicators for easier identification prior to deletion.
Point constraint:
Symmetry Constraint:
Consistent Sketcher Plane functionality:
Faster constraint dimensioning and sketch‑update times. The following functions now work correctly…
Resume Sketching
Activate Sketch
New Sketch
Geometry Checking:
Improved fault checking of body errors such as 'Internal void', is now reported.
New Combine tools:
The Make bodies panel options has 2 new tools:
1. Subtract from target
2. Create imprints
Gif : Subtract from Target and Create Imprints
GIF: Create Imprints
NEW Functionality for the Display Orientation Widget
Selecting of widget cube edge or vertex now orientates the model
Export .DXG/.DWG as Solid is now functional
Now DSM options > File Option > AutoCAD - Export options of Solids can be set - previously only Hidden line was working.
For the official full list of improvements etc, The v6.1 Release Notes and Changelog can be found from the DSM Start page.
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Guys, This point release genuinely fixes all the important performance issues of v6 without requiring any workarounds. - small but numerous day to day usage tools improvements will also help your modelling. All the Important bugs fixed!
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New: The Assembly-Tab ( Engineer subscribers)
Three new capabilites are provided with the Assembly tab tools:
1.Position / align components using persistent or temporary mates. Massively shorten time in assembling or positioning components together.
2. Use the Configuration tool to create Exploded configurations and duplicate / annotate in drawings - Also, it's possible (with a little effort and practice) to produce assembly or disassembly sequences to demonstate the design. which can easily be recorded / edited using free tools such as a gif.
3. Use the Mates to experiment with mechanism designs by additionally defining Rigid, Gear and Anchor to the positioning constraints of Tangent, Align and Orient.
Constraints are not the same as parametric assembly modelling !
It's important to appreciate that the use of the Assembly tab functionality doesn't turn DSM into a parametric modeller, meaning there's no sequential mate order that can be replayed. The constraint solver works across all mates simultaneously using a graphical branch solver and searches for a solution based upon the Degrees of Freedom defined by ALL mates, not a sequential regeneration of history. Also, the understanding of Object Degrees of Freedom ( DOF) and the what is a strong or weak constraint when further modification is unknown is very important. It should be appreciated that the maintaining the assembly mates will slow down designing flexibility and speed in modelling progression outside of simple component placing due to user comprehension of how the components are mated and the necessary subsequent actions to effect a design change without any unwanted consequences.
Only in the following situations would I recommend the use of persistent mates:
1. To position components together that will not change or be further modified with Move or Pull commands - this new way is extremely fast.
2. Testing a moving component mechanism. Note all moving components must only be on one level under the root document. A rearragement of component parent ordering may be necessary. Great new capability.
Other notable aspects:
Creating configurations does not require any mating constraints
Any legacy .rsdoc file can be loaded in v6.1 and have Assembly functionality applied.
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For more v6.1 Information:
Keep an eye on official announcements, and watch YouTube DSM Shorts or tutorials from the official RS/DesignSpark channel that demonstrate the new functions.They'll be some basic video's initially followed by designs of higher complexity.
This link references DesignSpark Mechanical on YouTube: rs designspark mechanical - YouTube
I hope all users appreciate the enhanced robustness in DSM v6.1—it is a substantial improvement over v6.0.3.
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