When creating an assembly, there are times when we need to show the individual parts or how the assembly is put together. To do this, we can use Exploded Views in SOLIDWORKS. The Exploded View function is located on the CommandManager in the Assembly tab.
Global variables in SOLIDWORKS are user-defined names that are assigned numeric values. These can be used directly in a dimension or used in an equation. They make it easier to understand and modify equations. For example, in the image below, we want the bottom line to always be twice the thickness of the top portion. When you double click on the dimension for the bottom line, we can add the equation =’D1@Sketch1’*2 with D1@Sketch1 being the .50 dimension.
The SOLIDWORKS Convert Entities tool is both useful and powerful in that it will project edges of a face onto the active sketch whether or not the face is parallel to the active sketch. These edges will always be projected as seen when looking normal to the sketch. Convert Entities is one of the few tools that behaves differently if you have an object selected before you press the button.
This article is an introduction to some of the SQL tables more commonly used in queries. Many of these tables fall into two categories. The first identifies a list and gives them ID’s. The second lists the use of those attributes by file. A good example of this is the Transitions table identifies each of the transitions in the workflows, and the TransitionHistory Table lists all the transitions that any file has gone through. In this case, the Transitions table is used to give meaning to the TransitionNr listed in the Transitionhistory table.
If while browsing the SOLIDWORKS Toolbox, you notice there are folders and/or parts that are missing, this could be a sign that the Toolbox index file is either old or possibly corrupted. Don’t worry, there is a simple fix.