SOLIDWORKS Model Property Tools – Part4 - Check

This month, we are digging into the SOLIDWORKS Model Property tools. SOLIDWORKS has some real nice tools to help you find and fix errors in sketches, features, parts, assemblies, and imported models. The four main tools on the Evaluate CommandManager tab covered in this series are: Measure, Mass Properties, Section Properties, and Check.

Check

The Check Entity tool, accessed using Tools-Check or found on the Evaluate CommandManager tab, allows users to check model geometry to identify undesirable geometry such as invalid faces, invalid edges, short edges, minimum radius of curvature, edge gaps, and vertex gaps.

When you click on Check, the Check Entity dialog box pops up. Note: The Check Entity tool will be grayed out unless a part document is open and that a solid body has been created. SOLIDWORKS enables you to check model geometry and identify undesirable geometry. Let’s take a closer look at the options in this dialog box.

The first set of options in the Check Entity dialog box allow you to select the level of checking and the entity type that you want to verify. The first check box you see under Check Entity is Stringent solid/surface check. By default, this option is left unchecked. If you keep this option unchecked, then SOLIDWORKS will perform a standard geometry check. SOLIDWORKS will reuse the results of any previous geometry checks to improve performance. If you check the Stringent solid/surface check option, this will force SOLIDWORKS to re-perform all geometry checks. Note: Checking the Stringent solid/surface check option will result in slower performance.

Next, SOLIDWORKS allows you to choose what you want to check. If All is selected, the entire model will be checked. You can specify Solids, Surfaces, or both. If you do not want everything checked, you can use the Selected items option. This will allow you to manually select the faces or edges in the graphics area to be checked. The last choice is Features, which checks all the features in the model.

Check for

The following set of options in the Check Entity dialog box allows you to pick the types of problems that you want SOLIDWORKS to check for and the types of values you want to determine. The following options are available: Invalid face(s), Invalid edge(s), Short edge(s), Minimum radius of curvature, Maximum edge gap, and Maximum vertex gap. Note: When Short edge(s) is checked, you have to specify a minimum edge length.  SOLIDWORKS will report any edges that are less than the specified length you entered.

Once you have gone through all of the options and picked the ones that you want SOLIDWORKS to look for, click the Check button. Here is a quick model I created and used the Check tool on:

After the check is complete, the number of errors appears under Found. The Result list box will show things like errors, open surfaces, and requested values. A full description of the results appears in the message area at the bottom of the dialog box. Make sure that you scroll through the results at the bottom of the dialog box so that you do not miss anything:

No invalid edges/faces found.
No short edges found.
1 open surface(s) found.
Minimum radius of Curvature: 2.17949 in
2 edge(s) and vertices found with maximum gaps

A real cool thing is that you can select an item in Result list and SOLIDWORKS highlights it in the graphics area and displays additional information in the message area at the bottom of the dialog box.

We hope this has given you a better understanding of the capability available in the Check command. If you haven’t done so, please take a look back at the rest of the series digging deep into the SOLIDWORKS Model Property tools. Please check back to the CATI Blog as the Dedicated Support Team will continue posting new series of articles every month that go further into the details of many of the SOLIDWORKS tools. All of these articles will be stored in the category of Daily Dose…..of SOLIDWORKS Support and links to each article with their release date are listed below:

• SOLIDWORKS Model Property Tools – Part1 (Bryan Pawlak 8/19/14)
• SOLIDWORKS Model Property Tools – Part2 (John Van Engen 8/20/14)
• SOLIDWORKS Model Property Tools – Part3 (Blake Cokinis 8/25/14)
• SOLIDWORKS Model Property Tools – Part4 (Neil Bucalo 8/26/14)

Neil Bucalo, CSWP, CSWS-MD
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.