GrabCAD Workbench

Owned by Devon Copeland
Last updated: Sept 18, 2018 by Adam Marchand

What is Workbench

GrabCAD Workbench is Midnight Sun's file management software for mechanical documents. It's like Github but it's designed especially for CAD files. With GrabCAD Workbench, you can preview solidworks assemblies and parts in a web browser. GrabCAD Workbench also has a solidworks add-in to help with workflow. 

Getting Setup

  1. Send Robin Pearce, Adam Marchand, Matt Suski or Devon Copeland the email you wish to use for your GrabCAD account through Slack
  2. You will get an invite to Midnight Sun's projects and will be assigned the appropriate privileges. You will now be able to view Midnight Sun files in your web browser. 
  3. Download the GrabCAD workbench desktop app. 
  4. After installing the Workbench Desktop App and finishing the initial setup, you will see the project you were invited to in the left panel of the Desktop App. Select this project and click on the purple download panel to sync the project files to your computer.

More detailed instructions are available on GrabCAD's website. 

Committing a File

With the desktop app

  1. After you are done editing a part or assembly, launch the GrabCAD Workbench app and select the project which the part or assembly belongs to. 
  2. The "Local Folder" block should be highlighted in blue and say "File(s) ready to upload".
  3. Select the block: "View Details & Upload Files".
  4. Add a descriptive upload comment. This is very important so we can track changes for each revision of a part, assembly or drawing. Be as specific as possible.
  5. Select the files you want to upload and click "Upload Selected"

WARNING: Be very careful when manipulating solidworks files in windows explorer. If you do not manage references property you risk corrupting our assemblies. For example, do not rename files in the file explorer. Any references to that file will not be updated and there will be errors. 

With Solidworks

  1. Make sure the GrabCAD add-in is running (go to Tools → Add-Ins and select GrabCAD Workbench)
  2. Go to the GrabCAD add-in tab 
  3. Click "Upload"
  4. Add a descriptive upload comment. This is very important so we can track changes for each revision of a part, assembly or drawing. Be as specific as possible.
  5. Select the files you want to upload in the sidebar and click "Upload"

Standard Components Library

All fasteners, and commonly used hardware will be added to the "StandardComponents" library, a specific project in our GrabCAD Workbench ecosystem. If you are using a common fastener that is not in the library please add it to the library then insert it to your assembly. This way there will only be one copy of each specific fastener in our file system, even if that particular fasteners is used across multiple projects. 

More detailed instructions available here. 

Our "StandardComponents" library also includes drawing templates with the Midnight Sun border and title block. More information here.