SOLIDWORKS Sweep Feature
We all know what knurling is, right? The most common use for knurling is to add grip to an otherwise slippery part. Using this is done on a lathe, turned with special bits or tooling. Now, how do we get knurling on a SOLIDWORKS part?…
Watch a video to learn how our SOLIDWORKS Christmas Tree Topper was made, using advanced part modeling tools, such as Combine and Swept Boss/Base.
Did you know that you can use a Solid Body to perform a Swept Cut? If you usually work with multi-body parts, you will find this tool very handy to complete your designs. Under the SOLIDWORKS Cut Sweep command, there is an option which allows you…
SOLIDWORKS Sweep Profile Selection Enhanced to include Faces, Edges, & Curves
The SOLIDWORKS Sweep feature has been improving over the years; unlike Extrude the Sweep feature requires at least two sketches to be selected, namely the Profile and Path. In the past, from customer requests, DS SOLIDWORKS added the “Circular Profile” option to make the sweep with only one sketch…
Sometimes it’s much easier to generate a profile sketch for a sweep feature somewhere along the path. For example if the path crosses normally to one of the reference planes. Previous versions of SOLIDWORKS required the profile sketch to be placed at one of the endpoints…
There are too many new SOLIDWORKS 2016 part features to talk about in one blog post, but DS SOLIDWORKS have created a very helpful demonstration video highlighting the top 3 which will give you an idea of just some of the cool features that are…
SOLIDWORKS Conceptual Designer Tutorial: Best Practices for Defining Features [VIDEO]
This video explores the different outcomes between selecting a sketch object, a sketch, one or more edges, or even a face when defining features in SOLIDWORKS Mechanical Conceptual. Looks like old best practices hold true for SOLIDWORKS Mechanical Conceptual: Always select the BIGGEST ENTITY you…
How would a CSWE design a marble roller coaster? (Part 1 of many) [VIDEO]
A marble roller coaster should be easy to assembly and use as little material as possible. If it can be made with very little material then it can be 3D printed at very low cost. When designing these parts I will consider how they will…
If you want to create a spiral / helical sheet metal model, using the sweep feature + insert bends will not do the job. You will need to use two different size helix / spiral paths: Then, convert these curves to 3D sketch entities: Now, use…