No power tools required, SolidWorks Toolbox Shortcuts
SolidWorks Toolbox has a plethora of available mechanical hardware for machine designers to choose from. In fact, the estimate is that there are over 2 millions distinct sizes of hardware to grab. In playing around with Toolbox today, I rediscovered a trick to rapidly insert screws into an assembly. The normal process to insert a [...]
SolidWorks Title Block Tips
A question that pops up from time to time with our customers is how to create a Title Block. More specifically, the description field. Many times, a description for a part on the drawing will not fit on one line of text. This is in many cases rectified by adding another field for the second [...]
The “Hole” Story – SolidWorks Fill Patterns
Ask a hundred engineers wow they would go about the process of generating a hole pattern with lots and lots of holes, and you will get a hundred answers. So this is just my two cents, but a penny saved is a penny earned. The technique that I am going to show you describes using the all powerful [...]
Dimension Palette Update for SP3
The infamous “Dimension palette” introduced to the SolidWorks user community has been received with much fanfare. Many people have come to love it or hate it. The concept is great. As soon as you select a dimension, it gives you a heads-up interface in which you can change the tolerance, unit precision and browse to [...]
SolidWorks Width Mate
SolidWorks has great technology to put parts together called mates. In my previous article about the Wild Kingdom of mates I indicated there are various “phylums” of mates. This topic will hone in on the Geometric Phylum of mates and specifically on the “Width” mate. The Width mate saves a lot of time for engineers [...]
What is SolidWorks Mechatronics and why do I need it?
Designing production machinery is a challenging job, especially when integrating controls and making sure everything works. Today I put together a pre-recorded presentation showing machine operation in SolidWorks Motion as well as the integration of tools from National Instruments and Rockwell Automation. With SolidWorks and National Instruments LabVIEW, you can lower the cost and risk [...]
