SolidWorks

This is a Powerful and User-friendly software to design 3D model of Mechanical parts and Assemblys,Drawings to manufacture and also FEM analysis, and so on.

Starting SolidWorks
By click on New, 3 options will be appeared (Part, Assembly, and Drawing)

Design a Part
Every part is composed of a sketch and a feature 1- Go to Sketch Mode and Draw a 2D sketch(sketch is a drawing that it has no thickness like line, circle, rectangle, arc, ) 2- Go to Feature Mode, select one of the appropriate commands to create 3D model(such as Cube, Cylinder, spring,)

Creating a Sketch
First choose a main plane from Feature manager Tree Select Sketch on the main toolbar 2-Click on
Then choose the appropriate geometrical command from Sketch Toolbar

Sketch Toolbar Feature Manager Tree

Front Plane

Feature Manager Tree

This box displays all the features of your part or assembly. It also lists planes, axis, and Mating groups. To select the main Planes(Front, Top, and Right) To modify and see the procedure of designing a part, it has a dynamic relation with area of drawing

Sketch and Feature Toolbars

To create any Sketch (drawing ) use the sketch toolbar. Feature Toolbar: this toolbar contains all the functions for creating and manipulating 3D shapes

Basic Feature functions

http://www.dmti.unifi.it/dac_prato/modellazione/modelling.html

Creating a Part
First: Sketch
Click on Sketch Click on

Creating a Part
Choose one of the Main planes to draw the Sketch (Hint:Before creating a sketch you should choose a Plane or a side of part)

2D Sketch
After selecting one of the main plane, click on a shape on Sketch Toolbar(Rectangle ) Now, by clicking on the design area and move the pointer you can draw the sketch

Adding Dimensions
Use Dimension Tool(click on Smart Dimesion) Select the entities to add the dimensions Double click on dimensions to modify the dimensions

Dimensions
It is not required to add dimension on sketch before use them to create a feature Fully Defiend Sketch: the position of all entities are fully described, and all the entities are BLACK Under Defined Sketch: additional dimensions or relations are needed to completely specify the geometry, under defiened entities are BLUE Over Defiened Sketch, an object has conflicting dimensions or relations, or both. Over defined entities are RED.

Over defined Sketch

Add relation

Feature mode
Now by clicking on Features on the main Toolbar, switch to Feature mode

Now the feature toolbar will be activated

Extrude
Extrude the sketch 1-click Extruded base 2-Set End Condition to Blind 3-Set Depth to 10 mm Click OK.

Completed Part

Extruded Cut
Select a side of part as a plane to draw the sketch (by clicking on it)

Draw the sketch

Click on Sketch Click on Rectangle Draw it on the selected plane

Extruded Cut
Click on Feature Click on Extruded cut (the preview)

Cut-Extrude
From the CutExtrude Menu Choose the Through All

Cut-Extrude

Sweep(first create the path) to move a profile along a Path

In sketch mode Select Front Plane in Feature manager Draw the path for ex. By clicking spline draw like the picture

Sweep(create the x-section)

Now draw another sketch as the X-section: Choose the Top plane Draw the profile in sketch mode (cirlce)

Reference Geometry
Click Insert Choose Reference Geometry 1-Plane Parallel plane Normal to curve plane 2-Axis 3-

Reference geometry
a plane parallel to the Front Plane with a distance 10 mm

Now a complex example Creating a Spring by Sweep

Drawing the circle of spring Curve>Helix Defining the plane Normal to Curve Drawing the circle Sweep

Drawing a Helix Curve

First Step Draw the sketch of circle in one of the main plane

Drawing the Helix Curve

Click on Curve command

Select Helix
Define the Pitch and Revolution

Define a perpendicular plane to one end of the helix curve

Choose one of the end point of Helix Insert> Ref. Geometry> plane Normal to curve(selec t the curve and an end point)

Drawing the x-section

In the defined plane, click on sketch

Select Circle and draw it

(put the center of circle on the end point of curve)

Swept

Now click on Feature to go to the feature mode then Click on Swept Boss/ Base

Sweep
In the sweep menu click on the profile box Select the circle as the profile Select the helix curve as the path

Edit Sketches and Features

From the Feature Manager Tree Right click on each feature select Edit Feature or Edit Sketch

Viewing the Part:

You can access the standard engineering views by clicking the Standard Views button on the mai

Each small box on the "Standard View" menu corresponds to a view of the object. The best way to understand what each view means is to click each view and see what happens.

Assembly
Open a new assembly file(click on New>Assembly) Insert the created By clicking Mate , make the necessary relation between the parts Save the assembly (with extension .asm or sldasm)

Open Assembly

Assembly
Insert Components

Select Existing Part

Insert Parts
From the box Browse and select the created parts to insert into assembly area

Insert the Components(parts)

Mate
To make the assembly use the appropriate Mate commands, -Coincident -Parallel -Tangent,.

Mate (Coincident)
Click on Mate Select the First face Use zoom and move or rotate to select the faces

Mate(Coincident)
Select the Second face
Solidworks automatically makes the selected faces coincident

Mate(Two components)

Mate (Concentric)
Click on mate Select the hole and shaft of the Two components Click on Concentric

Cardan(Universal) Joint

Save as
The assembly files should be save as with extention .asm, .sldasm

Save(output)
To imports the file in different softwares Solidworks provide you to save the files in appropriate format such as

Ansys(.igs), Catia, and Rapid protoype machine(.stl)

Save the Assembly in stl format

During Save as, click on Options, Choose (save all components of an assembly in a single file)

The final file saved in stl format

Extracting Dimensions From the Part:

Right click where it says annotations on the feature manager design tree, and click where it says 'Show Feature Dimensions':

Extracting Dimensions From the Part:

Go to the main file menu and select Tools>Measure