SOLIDWORKS

SolidWorks is one of the products of SolidWorks Corporation, which is powered by

Dassault Systemes 3D experience platform. SolidWorks mechanical design automation
software is a feature-based, parametric solid modeling design tool that lets designers
quickly sketch out ideas, experiment with features and dimensions, and produce models
and detailed drawings. It takes advantage of the easy to learn Windows graphical user
interface in which designers can use simple drag and drop (DD), copy paste
functionality same as in the Windows. Many of the icons such as print, open, cut and
save are also part of the SolidWorks application which is familiar with Windows
functions. When designing a model using SolidWorks, you can visualize it in three
dimensions, the way the model exists once it is manufactured.
SolidWorks is structured in three basic types: part mode, assembly mode and drawing
mode. Part mode is the basic building block in this software. For example, you must
have to create a part before you create assembly. Assembly mode contains parts or
other assemblies, called sub assemblies. These three modes are discussed below one
by one.

PART MODE
The part mode is the very first and basic mode of SolidWorks in which a 3D model is
created.First, you need to select a sketching plane to create a sketch for the base
feature. Three default planes are provided named Front Plane, Top Plane and Right
Plane. After completion of drawing sketches, you can give proper dimensions and apply
the required relations in the same sketching environment. The Sheet Metal and Surface
Modeling tools are also present in this mode for special design of the part.

ASSEMBLY MODE
In Assembly Mode, the assembly is created by assembling the components created
earlier in the park mode to form a complete model. You can also create models by
creating parts in the assembly mode. Assembly is created by mating relations between
parts. These relations are termed as Mate tools.
In Assembly Mode, after assembling the components you can also animate the model
with the use of Motion Study Tab. The Evaluate Command Manager Tab is provided in
the assembly mode.
DRAWING MODE
The Drawing Mode is used for the detailing of any created part or assembly. All the
detailing or documentation is done in 2D format in this mode. The documentation
consists of different drawing views and the details in the drawing views. You can detail
all the views by simply dragging and dropping parts or assemblies that you created in
Part Mode or Assembly Mode. Drawing Mode provides all the tools required to generate
and modify the drawing views and add dimensions and annotations to them.
SolidWorks has a property of Bi-directional Associativity, which gives a major advantage
to this software. As this property ensures that any change in the dimensions of a part in
the drawing view will lead to the change in the design of part in the part as well as in the
assembly mode, and vice versa.

SKETCHING PLANE
In a CAD software, everything is referenced to other entity like a line created must be
referenced to any other geometry so that you can clearly define the position of line with
respect to the other geometry. But, what if there is no geometry in the sketch to
reference from. In these cases, we have tools to create reference geometries like
reference planes,axes, points, curves etc. Out of these reference geometries, the
sketching plane acts as foundation for other geometries.

STARTING SKETCH
• Click on the Sketch button at the left in the Sketch CommandManager. Three main
planes are displayed with their name in the viewport.
• Click on the desired plane from the viewport or click on the arrow displayed in the
top-left corner of the viewport and select the name of the plane from the list of
features.
• On clicking on a plane, the selected plane will become parallel to the screen. Now, we
are ready to draw sketches on the plane.

SKETCH COMMAND MANAGER

HEADS-UP VIEW TOOLBAR

The Heads-up View Toolbar contains tools to change the view and orient the modeling
area.

VIEW ORIENTATION TOOLBOX

SKETCH CREATION TOOLS

The standard tools to draw sketch entities are available in this section of Ribbon.
LINE TOOLS
There are three tools in the Line drop-down to create different type of lines; Line,
Centerline and Midpoint Line.

RECTANGLE
There are five tools in the Rectangles drop-down; Corner Rectangle, Center
Rectangle, 3 Point Corner Rectangle, 3 Point Center Rectangle, and Parallelogram.

SLOT
There are four tools in the Slot drop-down; Straight Slot, Center Straight Slot, 3 Point
Arc Slot, and Centerpoint Arc Slot.

SPLINE
The tools in spline drop-down are used to create the splines with different methods.
ELLIPSE
The tools in the Ellipse drop-down are used to create geometric profiles like; ellipse,
partial ellipse, parabola, and conic.

SKETCH FILLET
The Sketch Fillet tool is used to create fillet at the corners created by intersection of
two entities. Fillet is sometimes also referred to as round. Generally it is not advised to
use this tool first if there are some major changes going to occur later in the model.

SKETCH CHAMFER
The Sketch Chamfer tool is used to create chamfer at the corners created by
intersection of two entities.
TEXT
The Text tool is used to create text which can be used for embossing/engraving on a
solid face. The Text tool is also used to provide notes and other information for the
model.

POINT
The Point tool is used to create sketch point in the viewport. The point is a very
important entity and finds its major usage when you start creating surfaces. The points
give the flexibility to parametrically change the surface design.
 SKETCH EDITING TOOLS
TRIM ENTITIES
The Trim Entities tool is available in the Trim Entities drop-down of the Ribbon. This
tool is used to remove unwanted parts of a sketch entity. While removing the segments,
the tool considers intersection points as the reference for trimming.

EXTENDS ENTITIES
The Extend Entities tool does the reverse of the Trim Entities tool. This tool is available
in the Trim Entities drop-down. This tool extends the sketch entities up to the nearest
intersecting entity.
OFFSET ENTITIES
The Offset Entities tool is used to create copy of the selected entities at a specified
distance from them. If you are the user of AutoCAD then this tool is the most
common tool being used while creating layouts.

MIRROR ENTITIES
The Mirror Entities tool is used to create mirror copy of the selected entities with respect
to a reference called mirror line.

LINEAR SKETCH PATTERN

The Linear Sketch Pattern tool is used to create multiple copies of an entity in linear
directions. You can create pattern in two linear directions at a time.
CIRCULAR SKETCH PATTERN
The Circular Sketch Pattern tool is used to create multiple copies of an entity in circular
fashion. You can create pattern in two linear directions at a time.

MOVE ENTITIES
The Move Entities tool is used to move the entities from one position to another
position. You can move the entities either by coordinate values or by clicking.
COPY ENTITIES
The Copy Entities tool is available in the Move Entities drop-down. This tool is used
to copy the entities by specifying position. This tool works in the same way as the Move
Entities tool does. The only difference is that it does not move the entity but it creates
the entities.

ROTATE ENTITIES
The Rotate Entities tool is available in the Move Entities drop-down. This tool is
used to rotate the entities by specifying angle.
SCALE ENTITIES
The Scale Entities tool is available in the Move Entities drop-down. This tool is used
to increase or decrease the size of an entity by specified scale value.

STRETCH ENTITIES
The Stretch Entities tool is available in the Move Entities drop-down. This tool is
used to stretch any sketched entity.
 3D SKETCHING
A 3D sketch is a sketch which is not confined to one plane only. The 3D sketch can be
in all the planes available in the viewport. To start with the 3D sketching, we are
required to again open the Sketch tab in Ribbon.

CONVERT ENTITIES
The Convert Entities tool is used when you need the projection of any face, edge or
sketch entity in another sketch. In this way, you can create the sketch entities from the
projection of other features. The tool is available in the Convert Entities drop-down in
the Sketch tab of Ribbon.

EXTRUDED BOSS/BASE TOOL

Extruded Boss/Base tool is used to create a solid volume by adding height to the
selected sketch.

REVOLVE BOSS/BASS TOOL

Revolved Boss/Base tool is used to create a solid volume by revolving a sketch about
selected axis.
SWEEP BOSS/BASE TOOL
The Swept Boss/Base tool is used to create a solid volume by moving a sketch along
the selected path.

LOFTED BOSS/BASE TOOL

The Lofted Boss/Base tool is used to create a solid volume joining two or more
sketches created on different planes.
REFERENCE GEOMETRY
There are various types of reference geometries that can be created in SolidWorks. All
the tools to create these reference geometries are available in the Reference Geometry
Drop-down.