‘assemblies’

7 Bits o’ Fuctionality SolidWorks Could Add While Your Models Load

30 Mar, 2009 by in CAD

Yes, you’re sitting waiting for a drawing to load again. You look out the pretend window you’ve drawn on the wall with a dull sharpie and sigh as you long to eat at that taco place your grandpa took you to years ago. *Sigh* May as well get some coffee, it’ll only be a few more minutes.

Curses! That guy is in front of the coffee maker… AGAIN. That guy’s going to bare the brunt of our rage today and take a good listening to as we spew forth our misdirected rage. He’ll never mix his imitation creamer there again.

So many times it comes down to waiting and waiting for drawings and models to load. There’s lots of ways to make assemblies and drawings load faster, but there’s gonna be that lag time on occasion. Here’s four seven things, fresh off the top of my head.
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Parametric Model INSANITY: 5 Ways to Capture Change in SolidWorks Parts

10 Dec, 2008 by in CAD

Cut, trim, copy, paste, delete, trim, spin, slap, aRRRG! It’s the same teeth-gritting routine to get one edge to match another edge, one face to move with another. What we need is an easier way to get multiple parts to capture change and make that model rock your bosses eyes out of his ever loving skull.

SolidWorks makes this absolutely possible. There’s a handful of ways to do it, but they all require a little knowledge as to how they work.

So guess what? examples. Five of ‘em. Ripe and juicy, oh, and simple.
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SolidWorks Assemblies: Four Furious Ways To Split ‘em Up (and Why You Should)

15 Apr, 2008 by in CAD

reanimator-solidworks.jpgAssemblies people! Not assemblies of people, which can have you going through more gallons of fake blood than a remake of the Re-animator, but assemblies of inanimate chunks of 3D data.

You can make really, grossly huge assemblies but there’s a point where people start whispering about you behind your back. Instead of spending your morning talking gossip with the office manager while your models load, split them suckers up and do a little dance that will also have people talking behind your back.
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How To Use 3D Sketches To Reduce SolidWorks Features

25 Mar, 2008 by in CAD

solidworks-tipsHere’s a slightly useful and not-at-all complicated tip on reducing features by using 3D sketches. It’s more fun to have people gather around your desk, get all attentive and then yell the first step very, very loud as they hunker down around your screen… Now move in close people…

Two Tips in One
This is really two tips in one. What a deal. I’ll show how to create a plane at any angle against a curved surface and do it with a minimum number of features, all thanks to the handy 3D-ness of the 3D sketch tool. There’s a video later on, but here’s the step-by-step.
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3 Easy Lovin’ Tips for Tiny SolidWorks Assemblies

13 Mar, 2008 by in CAD

i-love-tiny-assemblies.jpgAwww, look. That tiny assembly is so… tiny and cute. Makes you want to grab a million of ‘em and just give ‘em hugs.

Now, I know some of you aren’t that attached to your bracket or gasket assemblies, but you gotta admit there’s a special place in that documentation system for those little boogers. However, re-creating a lot of the same assemblies can turn that admiration into disgust real quick, unless you have a few tricks to lull them into submission.
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