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SolidWorks Tip: Holes in a Formed Cylinder
Here’s a SolidWorks Tip geared a little more towards the less experienced SolidWorks users out there. I based this tip on a question I received from a student in the UK. The question asked was if it was possible to extrude-cut a pattern of holes on a flat sheet then roll the sheet into a…
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SolidWorks Tip: Connectors Anyone??
Here is a quick little video tip on connectors which can be found in Boundary Surfaces, Sweeps, and Lofts. Most users that utilize these features often are aware of the connector options available which can help you shape the surface (in particular the UV flow). This tip shows how to utilize a single surface edge…
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SolidWorks Tip: Context Toolbar in Sketches
SolidWorks 2008 brought about many changes in the user interface. One of the additions to the UI that has spurred some comments from users (both positive and negative) has been the Context Toolbar. The Context Toolbar appears when you right click OR left click on certain entities within the software. (The right click options consists…
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SolidWorks 2008 Upgrade
Well, one of the reasons you haven’t heard much from me the past week was due to my preparations for our upgrade to SolidWorks 2008 at Dynetics. Every year I try to pick a time where we are wrapping up some major projects and have had ample time to test the software prior to implementation. …
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SolidWorks Tip: Adding a Mate in 2008!
Here is a great little tip-off for those of you using SolidWorks 2008. With previous versions of SolidWorks, you may constantly find yourself venturing from the graphics area towards the Assembly Toolbar or CommandManager everytime you wanted to add a mate to a component in your assembly. The Edit/Add Mates command is available in the…
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SolidWorks Tip: Normal to Cylinder?
Here is a little gem of a tip that I just discovered. (Even after 10 years use I still find little things like this from time to time.) Select a cylindrical surface in a model. Invoke the “Normal to” command and the view will instantly be normal to the axis of that cylinder! This can…
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COSMOS Companion
I’ve got my hands in MANY different areas of SolidWorks on a daily basis. One of the areas that I have been trying to gain more knowledge in over the past couple of years is COSMOSWorks. Every so often I use COSMOSWorks to refine designs and validate expected results of parts & assemblies under load. …
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SolidWorks Tip: Unabsorb Sketches
Here is a little jewel of a feature inside of SolidWorks……the ability to use the rollback bar to unabsorb sketches from features. This has been one of those features that I have found is not as well known amongst SolidWorks users as one would think. I’ve talked to many users who have discovered this feature…
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SolidWorks Tip: Sketch Slot
Comments left on Blogs can definitely drive content. Here is one example. A comment left by Tyler last week on one of my other Blog postings got me thinking a bit. Tyler’s question dealt with creating an “oval” or “slot” shape that consists of two arcs and two lines that are tangent to each arc. …
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SolidWorks Tip: Converting Drawing Views
When working in SolidWorks sometimes it is necessary to convert Model Views in a Drawing to Vector entities (lines and arcs) so that the view is NOT tied to the geometry of the solid model. An example of this would be a view of an electrical connector’s pin numbers for a cable/harness drawing. In cases…
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New Boundary Surface Video
Mark Biasotti has posted a really nice Boundary Surface Video Tutorial. If you use surfacing at all, I highly recommend you check it out. With Mark’s permission, I have made the model available for download here. In the tutorial, Mark shows how powerful adding connectors can be within the Boundary Surface feature itself. This is…
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SolidWorks Tip: Move Face
Over the past year, the Move Face tool has become one of my favorite tools in SolidWorks. It was originally introduced as a tool that helps users make modifications to imported bodies (parts with NO feature tree). The feature works so well, I have found myself using it on SolidWorks native models. The Move Face…
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SolidWorks Tip: Time to upgrade!
It’s upgrade time this week for SolidWorks where I work. I thought this would be a good time to discuss a few things to do in preparation of a major version upgrade in SolidWorks. Not everyone’s upgrade preparation is the same since it can depend mainly on how many seats of SolidWorks you have and…
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SolidWorks Tip: 3D Sketcher Triad
Have you ever been frustrated when trying to manipulate splines in 3DSketches? I think most of us who have used them have felt that way from time to time. Most of that frustration can stem from the view orientation of the model in relation to the direction that you are trying to manipulate the point…