Page 35 - 02. Subyek Computer Aided Design - Beginner’s Guide to SOLIDWORKS 2019- Level 1 by Alejandro Reyes

Part Modeling

Chapter 2: Part Modeling

The design process in SOLI DWORKS generally starts in the part modeling

environment, where we create the different parts that make the product or machine

being designed. These are later assembled to other parts; at that time the group

of parts becomes an Assembly. In SOLIDWORKS, every component of the design

will be modeled separately, and each one is a single file with the extension *.sldprt.

SOLIDWORKS is Feature based software; this means that the parts are created

by incrementally adding features to the model. In the simplest of terms, features

are operations that either add or remove material to a part; for example, extrusions,

cuts, rounds, etc. There are also features that do not create geometry but are used

as a construction aid, such as auxiliary planes, axes, etc.

This book will cover many different features to create parts, including the

most commonly used tools and their options. Some features require a Sketch or

profile to be created first; these are known as Sketched features. A Sketch is a 2D

profile created on a plane or flat face that will be later used to generate a 3D

feature. It is in the Sketch where most of the design information is added to the

model, including dimensions and geometric relations between the different sketch

elements and existing geometry. Examples of sketched features include

Extrusions, Revolved features, Sweeps and Lofts, all of which will be covered in

this section.

A 2D Sketch can be created only in a Plane or planar (flat) face. By default,

every SOLIDWORKS Part and Assembly has three default planes (Front, Top

and Right) and an Origin at their intersection. Most parts can be started in any one

of these planes. It is not really critical which plane we use to start our designs;

however, the plane's initial selection can potentially save us a little time when

working in an assembly or when we start detailing the part in the detail drawing for

manufacturing.

The initial planning that takes place before we start modeling a part is called

the Design Intent. Basically, the Design Intent includes the general plan of how

the part is going to be modeled, sort of a "Step 1, Step 2, etc.," and how we

anticipate (or guess) our model may change to accommodate possible design

changes to fit other parts in an assembly or overall design needs. For example, we

may choose to create a revolved feature instead of multiple extrusions, or the other

way around, based on the particular needs of the task at hand.

SOLIDWORKS is a 3D parametric design software. Parametric means the

models created are driven by parameters. These parameters are dimensions,

geometric relations, equations, etc. When a parameter is modified, the 3D model

is updated to reflect the changes. Good design practices are evident in how well

the Design Intent and model integrity is maintained when parameters are modified.

In other words, the model updates predictably when we change the parameters.

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