SOLIDWORKS: Custom Material Library

SOLIDWORKS: Custom Material Library

Table of Contents




 

Materials are an important way to gain extra insight into your design. This
could be through analyzing weight, the center of gravity or possibly as part
of a simulation. None of these things are possible without assigning your
parts material properties. But what do you do if the built-in SWX library
doesn’t have the material you are looking for or the property values that your
vendor sent you don’t match up with what is in the software? Well, it’s time
to go and make some custom materials.

Inside any Part of Assembly File, right-click on the
Material in the Feature Manager Design Tree and go to
Edit Material“.

  1. Custom Library (i.e. the blue folders):
    Right-click anywhere in the Left Pane of the Material
    Dialog Window and Select “New Library“.

    • This is basically just a folder/organization tool for Categories of
      materials. It is named and then saved as an externally referenced file
      (meaning it can be shared with other users).*
  2. Custom Category (e.g. Steel, Plastics, Aluminum):
    Right-click on any Custom Library and
    select “New Category“.

    • These are also organizational folders but are saved into the custom
      library.
  3. Custom Material: Right-click on a
    Custom Category and select “New Material“.

    • All Material settings can be adjusted including material properties,
      appearance, and any custom properties or information you want to be
      associated with the material.**
  4. All Categories and Materials can be copy/pasted into a Custom Library and
    edited. This is particularly useful when only a few material properties are
    needed to be changed.

Notes:

*Custom Libraries must be saved in a location specified by File
Locations>Materials Databases in your system options (you should be
automatically prompted to save in the default Custom Material Library
location). This list can be added too and can include network locations to
synchronize Material Libraries.

**Some options (such as creating plots to define temperature dependent
properties) will only be available if the Simulation Add-in is activated.

For more information, check out our
YouTube channel
or contact us at
Hawk Ridge Systems
today. Thanks for reading!

Sean Marrs

Sean Marrs

Sean Marrs is an Applications Engineer at our office in Beaverton, Oregon. Sean has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo. When he isn’t in the classroom, Sean spends his free time running around in the forest and drinking great micro brews!
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

4 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jason Stephens
Jason Stephens
2 years ago

Hi Sean, is it possible to add a new material property to a custom material? For instance I would like to specify electrical resistance (temperature dependent) for a metal such as Molybdenum. I can create a new custom material (“Custom Moly”) and copy the built-in Moly properties but I do not see a way to add Resistivity(T). Is this possible?

Thanks,

Jason

DEBANANDA SAHU
DEBANANDA SAHU
2 years ago

Hi ,
Custom material Data is not saved in the custom material library . whenever i modify the data and try to save , it takes some default value and my input value just vanishes . I have saved the material library file in the desktop folder and have linked to File location . Can you guide me out how to solve this .

Sean Marrs
Sean Marrs
2 years ago

Hey Jason,
There is a “Custom” tab along the top of the Material Library window where you can create material specific properties.

Best,
Sean

Sean Marrs
Sean Marrs
2 years ago

Hello Debananda,

While I cannot know for sure for your specific situation (this would be a good time to go to your reseller for support help as a remote session would be invaluable for troubleshooting), you could look into permissions to make sure there isn’t anything blocking write access to the folder.

Best,
Sean

solidworks cad dual monitors

Free Upgrades on SOLIDWORKS