Articles by: Jim Peltier, CSWE
For a long time, I’ve liked 3D Sketching, but I’ve always missed one important function: Mirror. I love using Mirror in a 2D Sketch, and the function is as old as SOLIDWORKS in a 2D Sketch. But how about a 3D Sketch Mirror? My friends,…
The process for reinstalling SOLIDWORKS properly can be quite involved, requiring the removal of prerequisite components, registry keys, folder locations, etc. The procedure for reinstalling DriveWorks is comparatively simple, but requires more planning than does SOLIDWORKS. Let’s take a closer look at what is involved….
There are a lot of great demos out there of what the SOLIDWORKS Variable Pattern (introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2015) can do, but not very many that show how to do it. In this video, I will show you how to create a Variable Pattern with…
As a longtime user of SOLIDWORKS, I’m a big fan of Pack and Go. It allows me to easily reuse designs, easily rename new files, change folder locations, update references, and even create zip files to quickly collect all the referenced documents of an assembly….
Do your sub-assemblies need to know where the other sub-assemblies are? Do they need to know where they fit in to the greater plan? Well, there is a process by which you can know these things without the need to open your top-level assembly every…
An interesting feature in the Sheet Metal tab is the SOLIDWORKS Vent feature. Using the Vent feature, you can create a cutout, along with ribs, spars, and a filled-in boundary with just a very simple sketch. To accomplish the same thing using a Cut-Extrude would require…
Often times, SOLIDWORKS Dimension Styles are passed without notice because it is quite easy to get the job done without using them. However, they can be used for dimensions that have very common notes attached to them. For instance, when I used to design automated…
I’ve occasionally run into the issue where a user sketches a closed shape, such as a rectangle, only to find that when they drag an edge of the rectangle that the rectangle falls apart The top line appears to detach itself from the rest of…
Learn how to easily track revised SOLIDWORKS dimensions by enabling an option that highlights dimensions on a drawing that have changed since it was last saved. Have you ever been in a situation where a change has been made to one of your models (especially…