Document Type
Journal Article
Faculty
Faculty of Computing, Health and Science
School
School of Engineering
RAS ID
14782
Abstract
Modular fixtures (MFs) play an important role in terms of cost and production time reduction in manufacturing processes. In this paper, the authors illustrate an automated approach for MFs design and assembly. This approach is based on the secondary development of SolidWorks integrating with Visual Basic (VB) 6 programing language. SolidWorks API (Application programming interface) functions were applied in order to control SolidWorks commands and assembly operations. An ActiveX DLL project was created in VB 6 and a plug-in file in .dll format was generated. The outcomes were creating new menus in SolidWorks environment for selecting, inserting, and assembling MFs elements. The approach was applied for a side clamping procedure and for a semi-circular workpiece.
Access Rights
free_to_read
Comments
This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of: Farhan, U. H., O'Brien, S. , & Tolouei Rad, M. (2012). SolidWorks Secondary Development with Visual Basic 6 for an Automated Modular Fixture Assembly Approach. International Journal of Engineering, 6(6), 290-304. Available here