Tutorial - How about some timesaving tips?

Juan Esteban Paz (JEPaz)

18 Jan, 2012 06:18 AM

Here is a a tutorial for a few timesaving tips when modelling on SolidWorks.

1. Step 1:

   The Jog Line feature is really handy when making space for a ring on a shaft, Just Click over a line and draw a rectangle
   

   

2. Step 2:

   Another Time saver is to make geomatric mates all over the sketch trying to have the least independent dimensions, instead you make all the entities of the same size to depend on one dimension only
   

   

3. Step 3:

   If you can avoid drawing parts for your project you will most definately save a lot of time you should use Libraries or sites where you can get models such as GrabCAD, 3dcontentcentral, traceparts,etc don't waste your time on things that are already drawed by another guy, maybe you can just retouch his model.
   

   

4. Step 4:

   When modelling symmetric parts or features always try to use the mirror feature this way your dimensions only depend on one side of the model, and you get a really easy way to make changes or updates to your models.
   

   

5. Step 5:

   A very usefull procedure for modelling is multibodies, this way you can get feature driven parts that are going to work together as one a non-welded weldment of parts this way as above you avoid changing every single part, having dependent parts, and sometimes even filesizes will be less than having every single part as an assembly
   

   

6. Step 6:

   This is a really usefull feature, you can just hold the right click on the screen and a wheel with common opperations will apear you can change the size of it from 4 (Default) to 8, under customize.
   

   

7. Step 7:

   adding more tabs to the ribbon bar will get you a boost on your modeling times, you can have surfaces, weldments, sheet metal buttons a lot closer
   

   

8. Step 8:

   When Starting a New Model think ahead how can i make this thing really easy for an assembly I mosly use centered planes to allign components, as well as to reduce the process required for mating (Making extra poanes
   

   

9. Step 9:

   Need some more Space to work?? right click the ribbon and uncheck the Large Icons with labels option.
   

   

10. Step 10:

    Need a DXF file for cnc laser or plasma cutting? use DXF / DWG export