Javelin / TriMech Author
Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE
Methods of Scaling Solid Bodies in SOLIDWORKS
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on January 16, 2018
A 3D Solid Body can be scaled up or down using the SOLIDWORKS Scale feature. In this blog article other than introducing the Scale feature, a few scaling scenarios are also reviewed. The Scale Feature could be can under the Insert menu > Features > Scale or…
How to adjust SOLIDWORKS Spin Box Increment Values Locally & Globally
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on January 14, 2018
Upon editing a dimension value in SOLIDWORKS, you can use the SOLIDWORKS spin box instead of typing in numbers. The middle mouse wheel or clicking on the little up/down arrows on the right side of the dimension box could be used to fine-tune a dimension…
Creating a Surface from a Mesh Feature in SOLIDWORKS 2018
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on January 7, 2018
When a *.stl or *.obj file is imported into SOLIDWORKS, the 3D model opens in a tessellated or meshed form. All faces are broken into some triangular faces. Round faces will have more segments than flat faces. In SOLIDWORKS 2017 a *.stl file could be…
Mirror Sketch Entities using Reference Planes and Planar Faces in SOLIDWORKS 2018
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on January 4, 2018
In all versions of SOLIDWORKS in the past, we had to draw a center-line to be used with the Mirror Sketch tool. Either the center-line or a straight edge of a solid body was necessary for Mirror Sketch to work. In SOLIDWORKS 2018, planes and…
How to convert to a Normal Cut in SOLIDWORKS 2018
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on January 3, 2018
When creating cut-extrudes on sheet metal models, it is recommended to choose the Normal Cut option under cut-extrude properties. What if a cut has already been made on a sheet metal and it is not normal? It could even be made by cut-loft feature. In…
SOLIDWORKS 2018 Circular Sketch Pattern Instance Limit Removed
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on January 1, 2018
The SOLIDWORKS 2018 Circular Sketch Pattern command is available for both 2D sketch entities and 3D features. There used to be a limit of 1000 instances for patterned instances in SOLIDWORKS 2017 and older versions. But in SOLIDWORKS 2018 there is almost no limit for…
SOLIDWORKS 2018 Automatic Solve and Undo for Sketches
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on December 25, 2017
Using Automatic Solve specifies whether SOLIDWORKS should automatically do the computation to solve the sketch geometry of your part as you create it. When you are in the process of changing many dimensions in an active sketch, you may want to turn off the Automatic Solve option temporarily. Same…
How to show SOLIDWORKS Sub-weldment Components in a Drawing Cut List
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on November 17, 2017
In SOLIDWORKS, a Weldment model usually includes many numbers of components which show in the cut list table. To reduce the rows in the cut list to a manageable number or to create sub-groups for the model, one can group components and save them under…
Using the SOLIDWORKS Rollback Bar has no effect on rebuild time!
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on November 15, 2017
The Performance Evaluation tool in SOLIDWORKS provides the capability of showing the rebuild time for the whole model. In addition, one can see a break down of rebuild time for individual feature. Because the rebuild times for feature are sorted from longest to shortest, the…
Why is the SOLIDWORKS Measure Tool not allowing me to take Arc/Circle Measurements?
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on November 13, 2017
Has it ever happened that you are trying to measure the distance between two arcs or circles, but when you run the SOLIDWORKS Measure tool the Arc/Circle Measurements option is grayed out? The following image shows a screenshot of the measure window where the first…
Manipulating SOLIDWORKS Extension Lines in your Drawings
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on November 6, 2017
In this article, manipulating SOLIDWORKS extension lines after being added by dimensions is examined. It is shown that the extension lines could be treated as a separate entity in drawings and we can even decide to show or hide them. Some settings existed under Tools…
How to adjust Part Image Quality to improve SOLIDWORKS Large Assembly Performance
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on November 2, 2017
Working with large assembly files in SOLIDWORKS is a challenge and requires some training. Using SOLIDWORKS Large Assembly Performance techniques is one of the key elements to handle heavy designs quicker. There are several techniques, two of which include decreasing the size of your assembly file and…
How to construct a Chain in a SOLIDWORKS Part
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on October 13, 2017
How do I design a chain in a SOLIDWORKS Part? This is a question we have been asked many times on technical support. Two methods of 3D modeling a SOLIDWORKS chain are described in this post, both of which use the “Curve Driven Pattern” feature….
Imagine you have a very crowded sketch in your part. Let’s say you want to pick an end point but the midpoints of lines, centerline or even the center point of a circle becomes selected. As shown in following image, all of the “Sketch Snaps”…
Show a SOLIDWORKS Sketch in a Specific Drawing View while Hidden in all other Views
By Mehdi Rezaei, CSWE on August 10, 2017
Let’s assume we have a sketch drawn in a part file and we have not used it to create a feature. By default in SOLIDWORKS, this sketch will remain shown unless we hide them in the part level. Usually, designers hide those kinds of sketches…