When I make a part and then go to mass properties it gives me a weight. Oftentimes this weight (mass) that SW tells me fails the sanity check. Then I will check and find that no material is defined.
Why does Solid Works spit out a weight when there is no material defined? Is there a logical reason for it to use the density it does when there is no material defined?
Part of me wishes that SW would throw out a warning when no material was defined rather than throwing out a random/wrong weight. On the other hand, when I measure the weight of a big assembly, I don't want to have to worry about defining a material for every little bolt, nut and washer.
What do you folks think about this?
Loren,
I believe that the default material density for SolidWorks is 1 gm/cc. You can set up your part templates to have whatever density you like. Since a lot of our parts are Polycarbonate, I use a value of 1.20 gm.cc. I typically don't define a material, as the clear Polycarbonate appearance isn't good for most of our parts. When I work with other materials I have to remember to set the proper density, unless I go ahead and use a material.
I guess the existing SW way of handling weights works OK for me.
Jerry S.