SOLIDWORKS has always had many ways to create dynamic, powerful pattern features. Buried in the options since almost the beginning of time, and sometimes forgotten, has been a “Vary Sketch” option. Let’s explore this option a bit to show you some interesting ways to use it. For a little bit of background, for the Vary Sketch to work it does require that the Pattern feature use a dimension from the seed feature sketch as a direction reference. That dimension is […]
3D sketching can be very challenging to do quickly. Whether you struggle with dimensioning, over-defining, or not sketching on the correct plane, I have a simple trick for you to try. I am going to show you a way to speed up the 3D sketching process and still work with-in the comfortable realm of 2D sketching. Here is how I took a single sketch entity and quickly made a 3D sketch of a decahedron. First, I placed a single line […]
Macros in SOLIDWORKS are a great way to save time from having to perform repetitive tasks. A single macro can range anywhere from performing a few simple tasks to complex programs that will change depending on user input. This guide will walk you through how to get started creating macros and how to assign your macro to a button on your user interface for easy access. CREATING A NEW BLANK MACRO To create a new blank macro in SOLIDWORKS, go […]
To increase our productivity in SOLIDWORKS, we use those handy pop-up menus to: A single click can launch a pop-up menu, or, Control-select multiple items and releasing Control launches the pop-up menu. Inevitably, we move the mouse and that handy pop-up menu disappears. Rather than starting over… Instead, move your mouse back to the same general area of the lost pop-up menu and press/release the Control key again. This will re-display that elusive pop-up menu. Here is a short video […]
Have you ever needed a similar pattern of an object, but needed a dimension to slightly change? Or maybe increase in value every time it was patterned? There is a way to do this in SOLIDWORKS, and it is quite easy once you know the tool is there and maybe a little knowledge about how to use it. We are going to try and keep this as simple as possible to get the base understanding, but I am sure you […]
One of the benefits of working in 3D has always been the ability to verify that your assemblies will actually fit together when the parts hit the manufacturing floor. SOLIDWORKS has always had a great interference detection for parts that don’t move and even a collision detection for parts that do move. The issue with fasteners is that they are always designed to interfere. A bolt or a screw is modeled to the major diameter of the thread and the […]
Most often we create many drawings for a product or project. After we are done, it is time to print them out. No one likes the daunting task of open each drawing and print each drawing separately. DraftSight offers 3 ways to print: Quick Print, Print to file and Batch print. This blog focuses on the batch print option. Let’s check out how to use it… The Batch Print Command can be used without having any drawings open in your […]
I recently moved to a small town outside the suburban metro/Minneapolis area. Thrilled by the offering of more space and a chance for a wood shop, I got to dreaming about what could be in the new space I call “home”. The first order of business – a custom desk for the new office space. My design intent was relatively simple. I wanted to 1) spend as little as possible, 2) fit both my office workstation and my personal workstation […]
If you want to learn how to load your Flow results and create your first cut plot check out the previous blog in the series “How do I View SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation Results and Create My First Cut Plot?” With your Flow Simulation setup and solved the next task is to view and inspect the results. One plot that provides insight into your design is the Surface Plot. The Surface plot allows the user to see what is happening at […]
SOLIDWORKS design tables help you to efficiently create and manage model configurations. Leveraging the capabilities of Microsoft Excel, you can easily control design parameters—such as dimensions, suppression states, and materials—through cells in a spreadsheet. Once you have your model fully constructed though, there comes the question of how to clearly represent these distinct configurations in a drawing. A tabulated drawing is one popular method to detail a family of similar parts. In this kind of document, varying dimension values are […]