My Top 5 Enhancements in SolidWorks 2009

Posted on November 28th, 2008 in Assemblies, Configurations, Dimensions, Models, Productivity, Sketches, SolidWorks by The SW Geek

Hey Geeks! I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. Let me start off by apologizing to all of my readers for my most recent absence. I have been knee deep in a project that will be extremely important to the future of the SolidWorks Geek. When the right time comes, I will tell you more about it in detail. So on to the fun stuff… Last week I installed SolidWorks 2009, so as of today The SolidWorks Geek blog has gone to the new version. I wanted to start the transition off with telling you about some of my favorite new additions to SolidWorks 2009. I can spend hours telling you about all of my favorite additions, so to keep you from falling asleep on your keyboard I decided to narrow it down to 5 features.

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Building a Stapler - Staple Cradle Pt1

Posted on October 17th, 2008 in Design Tutorial, Models, Sheet Metal, Stapler by The SW Geek

I know, I know… It’s been way too long since I have written an article for the stapler but I am going to make up for it today. Today we are going start a two part article on how to build the staple cradle of the stapler. I don’t know if it is really called that but it is the sheet metal part of the stapler that holds all the staples. I have done sheet metal parts on the SolidWorks Geek before but this time instead of creating a sheet metal part from native features, we are going to create a solid model that we will then add sheet metal bends to create the finished part. For this article, I am also trying a different approach to present the steps for this project to the readers, your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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Splitting Parts Revisted Pt2

Posted on October 16th, 2008 in Models, Multi Bodies, Productivity, SolidWorks by The SW Geek

Earlier this week, I revisited the techniques I discussed in my video Splitting a Part in SolidWorks. I left off at splitting the part into two solid bodies and that is where will be picking up from today. If you missed the first part of this article, I would strongly suggest you go back and read it here.

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Splitting Parts Revisted

Posted on October 15th, 2008 in Models, Multi Bodies, SolidWorks by The SW Geek

After I created the video for splitting parts, I was asked by a few of my readers to write an article about splitting parts since some companies block Youtube videos. Rather then rehash the same information over again I decided to take the opportunity to explore another approach to achieve the same outcome. As anybody will tell you, there are more ways then one to crack an egg. (I know…bad pun)

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Using Insert Part to Create Derived Parts

Posted on October 13th, 2008 in Models, Productivity, SolidWorks by The SW Geek

Last week, I introduced you to making derived sketches to save time in duplicating features on your part. Today is all about using the Insert Part command to create a derived part. A derived part is an extremely useful technique for adding features to a part without affecting the original part.  When the original part is updated the derived part is updated as well. There a many reasons you may need to use this technique in your usage of SolidWorks. I have seen it used by molders to prepare a model by adding drafts, splits and modifying faces for making the mold tool. I use this technique when I have a purchased part in my design library that I need to make modifications without actually affecting the geometry of the original part.

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Using Derived Sketches in Parts

Posted on October 8th, 2008 in Models, Productivity, Sketches, SolidWorks by The SW Geek

I know last week I mentioned that we were finished with sketch tools, for the time being, but I figured one more couldn’t hurt. I was working on a model for work earlier this week that I had created a few features using Derived Sketches and I thought it would be a great topic to discuss. Unlike when using Convert Entities, Derived Sketches can be moved anywhere on your part and they will still maintain their reference to the parent sketch. As the parent sketch is updated, each derived sketch is updated regardless of it’s location.

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Even more Sketch Tools

Posted on September 29th, 2008 in Models, Sketches, SolidWorks by The SW Geek

♪Monday, Monday, so good to me ♪♫ … because it is the beginning of another fine SolidWorks week. Over the past two weeks, we have been covering some cool Sketch tools available in SolidWorks 2008. I know some of you might be wondering why I am still in 2008. Well to be honest, I would love to start using 2009 but since my company hasn’t moved to 2009 yet…I am stuck for now. I am working feverishly to work something out to get ‘09 but it may take some time. Until then, I have plenty of topics to cover in 2008 that will still help out those of you who have made the transition to 2009. With that being said, let us just jump right in with both feet…

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Building a Stapler - Anvil Spring

Posted on September 12th, 2008 in Configurations, Design Tutorial, Models, SolidWorks, Stapler by The SW Geek

Today on this very happy Friday, we are going to continue building our virtual stapler with the Anvil Spring. Over the past couple of weeks we built the Anvil and Anvil Rivet, now we will make a configured spring without a design table. The spring we make today will have three configurations: Default, As Assembled and Compressed each represent the three states of the spring, with the Default configuration representing the Free State. So let’s get started with all the fun.

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Creating Fillets using Hold Lines

Posted on September 8th, 2008 in Fillets, Models, SolidWorks by The SW Geek

Another week is upon us, it’s time to knock those cobwebs out of your head and get ready to learn some more cool stuff. Last week, I went over a couple of fillet tricks that I hope you enjoyed and this week I am doing more of the same. One of my favorite fillet tricks is using Hold Lines with Face Fillets. Hold lines allow you to better control how you fillet your part by specifying the tangent lines for a fillet rather then the radius. Today, we’ll look at two ways hold lines can be used.

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Video - Splitting a Part in SolidWorks

Posted on September 6th, 2008 in Models, SolidWorks, Video by The SW Geek

The other day I received an email from a reader by the name of Zac. Here is an excerpt for his email:

One thing we just can not figure out how to do  is this:  We often want to draw a single part, and then split it into two separate halves as separate parts, as opposed to drawing the two halves independently.  Is there some easy trick to do this in SW?   Up to this point we are still drawing one part, then draw or try to draw the second one to match up.

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