Treehouse

We deal with some pretty complex structures here, and oftentimes I make myself tree views of an entire machine's assembly structure just like this. This definitely would be a great tool to use, however there are some major issues with the current version (internal exe version 1.0.0.0).

1 - Long names. Typically our file format for major assemblies without our machines are "number station description", so naming something "123 456 B0 STA 01 LOAD COMPONENT" is a pretty typical filename. Problem here is that the tree view shows me the first 9 characters and some dots indicating that the name is longer than it likes to show. Frustrating when you're trying to see what you've already done and have to click each individual filename and scroll through with the arrow keys to see the rest.

2 - Linking to existing files. Pretty much the only way to survive in business, even in custom machinery, is to use standard subassemblies that do common things. Not being able to drag an assembly of a common component into the tree is pretty hindering.

3 - Export feature. Each custom machine we build uses a machine-specific assembly template for top level assemblies, and standard assembly templates for the rest. Obviously, this is not possible in the program's current configuration.

Other then all this, it seems like a great start. I very much hope to see this progress, as I definitely would put it to good use.

this would be great to be able to view existing SW files inside SW explorer in a tree view (i.e. select a file and see where it is used and where it is references graphically; currently this this information is on 2 separate tabs (where used/references).

Do this and this would make SW explorer much easier to use.

Nice demo, but it needs a lot of development to be useful in a production environment. We already use a similar concept in Powerpoint for initial top down design and documentation access. Needs the following;

Existing parts, assemblies, drawings easy to include
Ability to add custom icons for vendor purchased parts
Ability to add stuff like glue, pipe, cables, wire, etc
Ability to reshape the layout more to my liking - horizontal lines instead of diagonal, etc.
Ability to switch subassemblies and other icons on and off (explode and implode BOMs)
Ability to reference other trees without showing them
Ability to change color, shape etc of icons for specific requirements.
Tie ins to Parts and Vendors and similar. i.e. if I create a part in P&V, it creates an icon in Treehouse - and vice versa.
Hyperlink capability for each icon to other drawings assemblies, images, spec documents, test procedures, ECNs, etc.
Hyperlink icons to web addresses
Autocreation of part numbers to our standards
Auto add parts created with bottom up design in S/W

The final requirement is that the finished S/W assembly and Treehouse should match exactly. i.e Treehouse IS the BOM.

I can do most of this in Powerpoint now, so you've got to come up with something really special to make me change!

bp

Dear Sir,I look forward to see the treehouse can link my compents that I have model to the subjects in the treehouse..And then I can open my sld files by double click the subjects in the treehouse..Can we do like that???

I love this approach to planning out designs. Having this intuitive interface to doc plan is very useful. I would like to see this work on an existing document structure as well as have connections to the true file properties within each document and maybe the config specific info as well. If it worked on existing docs then maybe an interface to the Custom Property Builder interface that we have in SW for entering properties as well. I have covered this in a podcast back when the product launched on SolidWorks Heard: http://solidworksheard.com/podcast/49-sw-labs/53-swh-ep187

Off-course this is well attempt...but as all said it must access the existing files....
One more important point...after exporting it to solidworks templete, there is no linkage between tree & the files.....the gateways should be in both ways....just like the design table in SW.

Waiting for the updation of this toool....

I liked what it did, but like others it needs a few more capabilities. One thing I would like to see is the ability to print the tree out to be used as some documentation.

I have to agree with Albert on this one.

"What would be REALLY sweet is if you could add existing Parts/Assemblies to the tree."

Taking parts/assemblies for existing designs to create a layout structure for New designs.

Rodney,

SolidWorks Enterprise PDM Client creates a "Vault View" in the location you specify, which behaves like a virtual folder. It is our experience that using Treehouse to create SolidWorks documents directly in an EPDM Vault View works very smoothly.

Thanks!

good tool for top to bottom mode.

but for 2D drawing file's best name is same to the souce part or asm file automaticly. if not, difficult to find the correct 2D drawing file from the part or asm file in the future

This is a handy piece of software for organizing NEW projects. It runs outside of S/Ws, and is light and quick.

During a test run this morning, I created a top level assembly with parts and several levels of sub-assemblies under it. Drawings were defined for all assemblies, subs and parts. Treehouse found all my templates without help, so it's menu already included my part/metric part template as well as the various drawing templates - ASME a,b,c, etc..

I assigned unique names to all documents in the tree. The tree was then sent to Solidworks with a one button click. On opening the top level assembly in S/Ws, the feature tree showed (as expected) the entire structure with all names in place. Drawings were linked.

This is NICE. There will surely be more files added as a typical projects moves forward, but this is a great organizational start.

works fine outside of enterprise pdm 2009 sp0.0

Is there a way to get it to save in a epdm vault folder directly?

Many companies have standard design of their machines or sub assemblies which need to be customized per sales order. If this tool can duplicate an existing assembly by copying all (parts identified to change or replaced or new design) parts and drawing required would be great. Flexibility need to use exiting parts/drawings in the new derived assembly.

This really goes hand in hand with organization that need to set the structure of the assemblies before the project begins. Things I could see expanded are the ability to input custom properties and let us structure a file as a virtual component.

I like this product. It will be beneficial to have ability to run it on computer without SolidWorks installed and after sync results into SolidWorks.

Oleg Shilovitsky
www.plmtwine.com
http://plmtwine.com/2008/12/09/top-down-plm-approach-…-from-solidworks-labs/

I love the idea of the product... what would be REALLY sweet is if you could add existing Parts/Assemblies to the tree.

Also, I see that if the template has Custom properties in it you can use the custom properties... but.. it would be even better if you could select a custom properties tab to use.

Al in all great work... I see this being a VERY useful tool!!