SOLIDWORKS Exercise 1

Bicycle Frame

Exercise 1: In this lab you will create

Bicycle Frame blends between different
tube arrangements.
This lab reinforces the
following skills:
 Lofted Surface
 Trim Surface
 Filled Surface
 Boundary Surface
Units: millimeters

1 Open a part file.

Open Bicycle_Frame_Lab.sldprt.
2 Create simple blend using a loft.
Use Lofted Surface to create a blend
between the Upper Seat Tube and the Lower Seat
Tube.
Use Curvature To Face for the Start/End
Constraints on both profiles.
Use the mesh display to make sure the loft is not
twisting.
Adjust the connectors to straighten the lofted
surface if it does twist.
Tip Consider showing the Right Plane to help align connector points.
Use the Tangent Length values to adjust the shape of the blend to your
satisfaction. To match the illustrations, use the default value of 1.
3 Create sketch for trimming.
Open a new sketch on the Right Plane.
Create a sketch similar to that shown. A straight
line and a partial ellipse are used here.
Do not overlap the ellipse with the blend on the
other side of the tube.

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Exercise 1 SOLIDWORKS
Bicycle Frame

4 Trim.
Trim the surfaces using the sketch from
step 3, keeping the pieces shown.
Pieces to keep
Do not trim the Seat Stays.

5 Loft.
Loft a surface using the two closed loop edges
as profiles.
Use Curvature To Face for the Start/End
Constraints on both profiles.
Adjust the connector points so that they align
with the Right Plane.
Use the Tangent Length values to adjust the
shape of the blend to your satisfaction.

6 Define a plane.
Show the Tube Centerlines sketch.
Define a plane that is Perpendicular to the Right Plane and that
passes through the centerline of the Seat Stays.
Name the plane Seat Stay Plane.
This plane will be used for the sketch that will trim the Seat Stays.

Seat Stay Plane

Centerline of the Seat Stays

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 1
Bicycle Frame

7 Create the sketch to trim the

Seat Stays.
Note Some of the other surface bodies
have been hidden for clarity.
Open a new sketch on the Seat
Stay Plane created in step 6.
Sketch and dimension lines as
shown. The 685mm dimension is
attached to the part Origin.
Use either Split Entities or
collinear lines to create six break
points as indicated by the red arrows and the orange dots.
The lines and points are symmetrical about the centerline.
8 Trim Surfaces. Pieces to keep Result
Use Trim Surface
and select the pieces to
keep.

9 Blend with boundary features.

For the blends in this area, use Boundary Surface features to
create the boundary for the Filled Surface.
Use Curvature To Face at each edge.
Adjust the Tangent Length values as desired. To match the
illustrations, use the profile order and Tangent Length values
indicated in the image.

Edge1 = 1.00
Edge2 = 1.00

Edge1 = 1.00
Edge2 = 1.00

Edge1 = 3.00
Edge2 = 3.00

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Exercise 1 SOLIDWORKS
Bicycle Frame

10 Filled surface.
We now have an area bounded by surfaces. To create a patch within the
boundary, we will use a Filled Surface .
For Edge settings, use Curvature and click Apply to all edges.

11 Repeat.
Create a second filled surface on the opposite side of the frame using
the same settings.
12 Offset.
Offset the two Chain Stays using an Offset
Distance of 4mm to the outside.
These offset surfaces will be used to trim
openings in the Bottom Bracket.

13 Trim the Bottom Bracket.

Using the offset surfaces created in
step 12, trim the Bottom Bracket. This
will require two operations because two
trim tools are necessary.

14 Hide the two offset surfaces.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 1
Bicycle Frame

15 Trim the Chain Stays.

Open a new sketch on the Right Plane.
Show the Tube Centerlines sketch.
Sketch a line perpendicular to the centerline of the Chain Stays and
dimensioned from the center of the Bottom Bracket as shown.
Trim the two Chain Stays.

16 Loft.
Use Lofted Surface to create a blend
between the end of the Chain Stay and the
trimmed hole in the Bottom Bracket.
Use the SelectionManager to select the
edges on the Bottom Bracket.
Select Curvature To Face for both edges.
The preview disappears.
It appears that a loft is not going to work for this blend.
Click Cancel .
17 Boundary surface.
Click Boundary Surface .
Select the edge of the Chain Stay and the
edges of the Bottom Bracket for
Direction 1. Use the SelectionManager to
select the edges on the Bottom Bracket.
Right-click one of the connectors and click
Add Connector.

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Exercise 1 SOLIDWORKS
Bicycle Frame

Change to a Right view.

Drag the connectors so they are at the top and
bottom silhouette edges of the preview.
Tip You might want to turn off the curvature
comb display and increase the number of
mesh lines in the preview.

Set the Tangency Type to

Curvature To Face for both edges.
Adjust the Tangent Length values as
desired. To match the illustration, use
0.5 at the edge of the Bottom
Bracket and 1.5 at the edge of the
Chain Stay.

Click OK .
18 Repeat.
Create a second Boundary Surface
between the other Chain Stay and the
Bottom Bracket.

19 Planar surfaces.
With a single Planar Surface
feature, select the edges around the
five openings in the frame as
shown in the image to the right.
The single feature will create all of
the planar surface bodies, even
though they are not coplanar.
20 Knit and solidify the part.
Select all the surface bodies except
the two offsets of the
Chain Stays.
An easy way to select them all is to
box-select in the graphics area or
expand the Surface Bodies folder
and Shift-select the bodies in the
list. Then Ctrl-select to deselect the two offset surfaces.
Select the Create solid option.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 1
Bicycle Frame

21 Shell.
Shell the frame at 1.5mm thickness, selecting the planar faces for the
openings on the Head Tube, Seat Tube, and Bottom Bracket.
22 Save and close the file.

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Exercise 2 SOLIDWORKS
Patches

Exercise 2: In this part you will patch

Patches unwanted areas of a model and
replace them with improved
shapes.
This lab reinforces the
following skills:
 Filled Surface
 Freeform
Units: millimeters
1 Open a part file.
Open Grip.sldprt.
2 Examine the part.
Notice the rounded end of the grip. On both sides there are small
dimples. These were created by the loft features and they need to be
smoothed over.

The bumps are due in part because of

a singularity. The singularity was
caused by the way the lofts were
made.

We will also add a thumb rest as shown in the image below.

Thumb rest

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 2
Patches

3 Sketch.
Open a new sketch on the Top Plane.
Sketch a circle dimensioned as shown. The
center has a Vertical relation with the
Origin.

4 Split line.
Using the circle, create a Split Line feature to
split the top and bottom faces of the part.
The part was mirrored across the plane of
symmetry, so you will need to select four
faces.
5 Delete four faces.
Select the four faces inside of the split line
and delete them.

6 Show two hidden surface bodies.

Expand the Surface Bodies folder
and select the Surface-Sweep1 and
the Mirror1[4] surface bodies.
Right-click the surface bodies and
click Show .

7 Copy surface.
Make a copy of the two surface bodies that were shown in step 6.

Hide the Surface-Sweep1 and the Mirror1[4] surface bodies.

8 Trim the surface.
Reusing the circle sketch from the Split
Line1 feature, trim the copied surfaces
leaving the pieces shown.

9 Show sketch.
Switch to a Right side view.
Expand Folder1 and Surface-Loft1, and
show Sketch3.
This represents the desired shape of the end
of the grip.

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Exercise 2 SOLIDWORKS
Patches

10 Filled surface.
Using the edges of the newly trimmed reference
surfaces and the lower edges created by the Split
Line1 feature, create a Filled Surface using
Curvature for all four edges.
Do not click OK yet.

11 Compare.
Switch to a Right side view and compare the
preview to Sketch3.
The surface curves out too far.
Cancel the Filled Surface command.
12 Constraint curve.
Open a new sketch on the Right Plane.
Use Convert Entities to copy Sketch3
into the active sketch and then hide
Sketch3.

Insert a Split Entity point on the

converted spline and make it coincident
with the model edge using a Pierce
relation.
Delete the rest of the copied spline.
Exit the sketch.
13 Filled surface.
Try the Filled Surface again, using the
sketch from step 12 as a Constraint Curve.
The results are much better.

14 Patch the top using the same procedure.

Hide the trimmed reference surfaces, and show
Ruled Surface1 and Mirror1[3].
Trim Ruled Surface1 and Mirror1[3] using
the circle sketch from the Split Line1 feature.
Create the Filled Surface without using a
constraint curve.
Hide the reference surfaces.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 2
Patches

Strategy The intent is to use a Freeform feature to create the thumb rest.

However, the Freeform feature requires a single face and the area we
want to modify spans two faces. The Freeform feature does not create
a surface from edge selections, it modifies an existing face.
If we split the upper faces of the part, we end up with multiple faces
(two) within a four-sided boundary. That will not work for a Freeform
feature.

So we will trim the surface to remove the highlighted area, then create a
new, four-sided surface which we can then modify using the Freeform
feature.

15 Open a new sketch.

Open a new sketch on the Top
Plane.
Sketch and dimension the lines and
arcs as shown.
Add Vertical relations between the
centers of the two arcs and the part
Origin.
The 102mm dimension is from the
part Origin.

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Exercise 2 SOLIDWORKS
Patches

16 Trim Surface.
Use Trim Surface to remove the are inside the sketch profile.

17 Filled surface.
Create a Filled Surface using
Curvature matching on all edges.
Tip Right-click one of the open edges and click
Select Open Loop.

18 Freeform feature.
Click Freeform .
Select the filled surface that was just created.
19 Turn on symmetry.
This will keep the changes to the face symmetrical.
Whether you select Direction 1 Symmetry or Direction 2 Symmetry
depends on which edge you selected first when creating the filled
surface.
20 Add curves.
Under Control Curves, click Add
Curves.
Place five curves approximately as
shown. If the preview of the curves is
going the wrong way, press Tab.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 2
Patches

21 Add points.
When you are done adding curves,
switch to Add Points mode.
Place control points along the plane of
symmetry for every curve.
The plane will highlight when the point
will be placed properly.

22 Add more points.

Also add a pair of points to the second,
third, and fourth curves as shown.
When a Symmetry option is selected,
placing a control point to one side of the
plane of symmetry places a symmetrical
point on the other side of the plane as
well.
23 Set edge constraints.
Set the edge constraints to Curvature.

24 Move points.
Set the Triad orientation to Global.
We are trying to create a scooped shape
for a thumb rest. Adjust the curves by
moving the control points until you are
satisfied with the results.
Tip To move multiple points at the same
time, hold down Ctrl and select the
control points.

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Exercise 2 SOLIDWORKS
Patches

When you are done, the Freeform surface should look approximately as
shown below.
When you are satisfied, click OK.

25 Knit into a solid.

Knit all the surface bodies except the construction surfaces into a solid
body.

26 Save and close the file.

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