Features I like today
In the course of my day-to-day work, I often come across stuff I like, or that I think works particularly well. The Trim sketch tool is one of those things. This was updated several years back, and the new functionality has been very welcome.
In particular, the Corner option will extend two lines to where they intersect. Works great. Nothing I’d change about it. You’ve always been able to use Trim as Extend, but this Corner option is better than Extend. I also use the Power Trim quite a bit, and also the Trim to Closest.
Today I’m rebuilding an imported casting model (something that would be completely unnecessary in Solid Edge). So I’m copying a lot of sketches from one model to another. Of course the source model has draft and fillets on it, which makes simple stuff a little less simple.
Just for reference, I tried the FeatureWorks software on this part, and it ran for 2 days, maxed out the memory, and essentially stopped working. The remodeled part has about 200 features. I mainly wanted to remove the fillets with FeatureWorks. But that didn’t work, and then the manual Delete Face didn’t work, so I’m left with extending lines in sketches to get sharp corners and un-apply draft.
If SolidWorks were going to add some functionality, I’d be happy to see something like a tool that would find and select fillet faces on imported parts. Solid Edge does a really good job at this.
“If SolidWorks were going to add some functionality, I’d be happy to see something like a tool that would find and select fillet faces on imported parts. Solid Edge does a really good job at this.”
This was once in SW or an addin. Trevor D’Arcy-Evans wrote it back in the comp.cad.solidworks days. At some point it found it’s way into utilities but is gone now. Trevor was very good at handling geometry in the API.
@Alin
Yeah, that’s cool too.
Matt, what about the dynamic undo during the power trimming? I believe it is pretty nicely implemented.
http://www.javelin-tech.com/blog/2011/03/dynamic-undo-power-trimming/
Thanks for the help. There is hidden treasure everywhere in Solidworks. The check sketch found the overlap and highlighted the segment that I wanted to keep. The repair sketch made a change that created both open and closed contours, and failed the feature. Despite the bugs both are helpful to bring things into the open.
@Rick McWilliams
Rick,
Go to Tools/Sketch Tools/Repair Sketch. That will eliminate duplicate lines & such.
Rick, try Tools menu/Sketch Tools/Check Sketch for Feature.
It is nice to see some features that are useful and not in SW2007. The sketch feature that I would like would be a tool that would find and eliminate overlapping lines and curves.
I am desgning an new amphibious airplane. This is a bit much for Solidworks. I am resorting to a modular approach that involves exporting an outer mould line igs. Subsequent parts are built relating to pieces of the outer mould line. I am using copied sketches more than I would like.
I can’t remember where I saw it, but when running FeatureWorks it is apparently a good practice to only do certain types of elements at a time. I don’t do this very often, and it hasn’t been perfect, but it has saved some work for me at times. I think the workflow goes like this:
1. Run FeatureWorks and just do the fillets.
2. Run FeatureWorks and just do the draft.
3. Run FeatureWorks and do the rest.
For what it is worth, step 2 and 3 are even less reliable than step 1. Unless you are dealing with very simple geometry.
You can also use FeatureWorks in a kind of Pick n Choose sort of way. This has been the most useful to me. Again, I don’t do this very often and have to learn it each time, but if you know it is there, it is fairly easy to find.