Click Supplier Services on 3D ContentCentral to view your Supplier Services home page, or Dashboard.

All users can view and manage account and content information, and can publish their product catalogs directly on their company website with Models on your website.

The Supplier Services area in 3D ContentCentral lets manufacturers display 3D models and 2D drawings that the community can view and download over the Web.

As a model builder, you should determine the features, default orientation, textual attributes, and drawings that are required to display the model realistically and completely.

SolidWorks 2010 provides the Configuration Publisher to simplify the preparation of model configurations for 3D ContentCentral. This interactive tool lets you drag controls and set attributes to create rules that define the configurations. You can preview the interface in Configuration Publisher to see how it will look in 3D ContentCentral.

Note: To use the Configuration Publisher, you need a complete design table with all of the configuration data or a simplified design table with only the model variables. The Configuration Publisher will prompt you for variables and create a design table for you if one does not already exist.

For details about using Configuration Publisher to create configurations for 3D ContentCentral, see the SolidWorks documentation. (In SolidWorks, click Help > SolidWorks Help and look for Configuration Publisher under Configurations.)

After you create the model and its configurations, you upload them to 3D ContentCentral.

When creating and using a design table for 3D ContentCentral models, consider these guidelines.

• Do not use quotation marks for parameter names.
• If you rename the assembly and all its references, the design table does not automatically update.
• Ensure that column headings refer to actual parameters. Column headings should not include non-existing parameters or names that have changed.
• When preparing models or assemblies that include configurations:
  
  • Use the part number as the configuration name.
  • Specify the configuration name in the first column of the design table.
  • Specify groups or part families, if applicable, in the second column of the design table.
• Test components required for an assembly by activating some or all configurations.

Suppliers might want to allow model downloads while protecting proprietary part information. You can specify that any downloads of parts from that supplier contain no configuration information in the SolidWorks model files.

1. Login to the Supplier Services area of 3D ContentCentral.
2. Click Uploaded files.
3. In Uploaded files, select the models.
4. Click .
   When you exclude features, the download does not include detailed features in the SolidWorks model file.

   Note: To revert to a featured (parametric) model, select the model and click .

When allowing customer downloads of models, suppliers should consider what dimensions or features are necessary for their customers to design using the supplier's models. A more complex model might seem more realistic, but might impact file size and reveal too many proprietary product details. A simpler model might not provide enough information for potential customers to make informed design decisions.

Necessary Model Details

These might include, but are not limited to:

• Overall component size
• Component shape
• Mounting holes
• Alignment and interface features, couplings, and connections
• Port sizes and locations
• Lubrication joints
• Fan vents
• Flanges
• Keyways and keys
• Textual attributes indicating or explaining properties that might be useful to the potential customer

Optional Details

• Branding/Logo features
• Cosmetic detail and features
• Cosmetic detail, such as fillets and rounds

Details to Exclude

• Internal details and parts specific to the internal functionality of the component
• External features that might reveal proprietary supplier information or intellectual property
• External features not used by potential customers
• Complex detailed features not used by potential customers

Too much detail increases file size, which can impact your catalog size. Potential customers might add these models to large assemblies, so a simpler model might be better for them.

In most cases, a single part can represent an entire product. However, sometimes a multiple-part assembly includes options such as switches and mounting brackets that are easier to add as components in an assembly rather than as features in a part.

2D drawings are not required, but can give customers the ability to incorporate the product geometry into other 2D drawings.

The model builder and supplier should decide what views and dimensions to include in the model.

In 3D ContentCentral, models are displayed in 3D form, so the standard isometric view should depict an easily recognizable image of the product.

There are no set rules to determine whether a file will upload to 3D ContentCentral easily; however, there are some general guidelines that might help.

• 3D ContentCentral is unable to upload files that are too large or too complex.
• Models must be free of rebuild errors.
• Parts should open and rebuild in SolidWorks in less than 90 seconds.
• Parts should contain less than 200 simple features or 100 complex features (for example, surfacing).
• Assembly ZIP files should be smaller than 15 MB.
• Assemblies should contain fewer than 20 components.
• If the model is too large, consider deleting configurations specified in the ConfigurationManager (keeping the definition specifications in the design table).

3D ContentCentral requires that models to be uploaded follow specific naming, building, and archiving guidelines.

1. Verify that the part or assembly rebuilds correctly in SolidWorks.
2. Follow these naming conventions for components and assemblies:
   
   • Use alpha-numeric characters for the component or assembly names.
   • Avoid special characters in top-level assembly names. For example:

     ~	tilde
     < >	less than or greater than
     *	asterisk
     $	dollar sign

   • You can use Pack and Go to collect all SolidWorks files for an assembly into a single directory location.
   • While the File Upload tool can upload SolidWorks files directly, you can upload a ZIP archive file containing the SolidWorks files instead.
     Note: The ZIP file name must have the same root as the model or assembly file name. For example, a ZIP file containing a crnkshft.sldasm file must be named crnkshft.zip.
3. When preparing configurations that include drawings, select the Use model's "in-use" or last saved configuration option in SolidWorks.
   This option is in the Drawing View Properties dialog box, under Configuration information on the View Properties tab.

   Note: To upload a ProEngineer assembly, you must zip the assembly with all referenced components in the ZIP file.

Once you have created parts or assembly files that are ready for publishing, you can add them to 3D ContentCentral using the File Upload tool.

1. Login to your Supplier Services account.
2. On Supplier Services Home, under Manage your content, click Upload files to access the File Upload tool.
   Note: You may need to install Microsoft^® Silverlight^™ and Java^™ the first time you run the File Upload tool.
3. Drag the SolidWorks model files (or a ZIP archive containing SolidWorks files) from a Windows folder onto the Drag & drop your files here to upload area.

   These files appear in the Upload Queue.

   Under File Details, you can specify 3D ContentCentral properties for the files.

4. Click . When the files are uploaded, the Confirmation window appears.
5. Click Close to close the Confirmation window. The models are uploaded into the Supplier Services account on 3D ContentCentral.

Once you have uploaded model files to a Supplier Services account, you can publish them, making them visible to the entire user community on 3D ContentCentral.

1. Login to the Supplier Services section of 3D ContentCentral.
2. At the top of the page, click Uploaded files.
   
   The Uploaded files page displays a listing of all uploaded model files. The Publish Status column indicates either Published or Unpublished.
3. For unpublished models, if there are properties marked Required for Publishing (for example, Display Name or Categories), make the necessary changes.
   1. Select the file.
   2. Click Edit .
   3. Modify the part parameters, by typing values for the various text fields, adding categories, and so on.
   4. When you are finished, click Save.
4. At the top of the page, click Back to Grid View to return to the part listing. There should be no fields marked Required for Publishing.
5. Select the model in the list and click . The part is published to the 3D ContentCentral community, as indicated by the Published value under Publish Status.