SOLIDWORKS Sketch
A SOLIDWORKS Virtual Sharp in sketches and drawings provide the ability to dimension to the imaginary point where two lines would intersect in space. Our previous blog posts show how you can add a virtual sharp using the Point tool or using Find Intersection with the Smart Dimension tool. Did you know you can change…
Mirror Sketch Entities using Reference Planes and Planar Faces in SOLIDWORKS 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 faces of solid bodies have been added to the mirror…
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 as older versions of SOLIDWORKS, the Automatic Solve could be turned…
An option to reverse arc and spline tangency is now available with SOLIDWORKS 2018
For the longest time when creating a tangential arc in a SOLIDWORKS sketch it was hit or miss if the arc was aligned correctly. We would create our arc and hope it would be in the right direction…If not, we would need to delete it and recreate it being careful with our mouse movements. Now…
Select the outside of an Arc rather than the center when adding a dimension in SOLIDWORKS
When adding arc dimensions, you should always select the actual arc rather then the centre point. Doing so will give you more options for the dimension. As you can see in the image below, under the leaders tab after selecting a dimension, we can select the Max, Centre, or minimum Dimension for the arc. These…
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” are activated by default in SOLIDWORKS under Tools > Options…
Show a SOLIDWORKS Sketch in a Specific Drawing View while Hidden in all other Views
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 because it can interfere their design process by showing unrelated…
SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal includes a Sketch Transformation folder in the Flat Pattern feature when a sketch is added to a face that is not the fixed face (i.e. a face that moves when the piece is flattened). Within this folder is a derived sketch of the original so it stays on the face as it…