Have you ever seen the SOLIDWORKS zer-thickness error that reads, Unable to create this feature because it would result in zero-thickness geometry? It probably caused your heart rate to spike, and you think, oh no, I hope I saved my file so I can close without saving, re-open, then do the same thing and get the same result. Let’s look at the cause of this error and some solutions.
SOLIDWORKS Assemblies let you detect interferences between parts so you can clearance them. It shows you where the interference is so you can edit the part within the context of the assembly to ensure a proper fit. You can even use the interfering parts to create perfect cavities that fit the offending parts like puzzle pieces.
“Work hard at hardly working, work smarter not harder.” We’ve all heard these phrases, but do we do this? Are there any settings that allow us to do this in SOLIDWORKS? You bet there is, and a couple of the ones I recommend in this blog allow users to input sketch entity values and automatically add the dimensions to that entity.
In this article, we cover what an assembly hole series is and how to create one. The SOLIDWORKS Assembly Hole Series is a Hole Wizard type feature that will intelligently create hole features through multiple components in an assembly. It gives you a large amount of flexibility for hole type and features within the hole to fasten your assembly components together.
In this article, we will show you the steps to convert a SOLIDWORKS Multibody Part file into a SOLIDWORKS Assembly File. The steps listed below can be useful when creating Molds as you can easily model everything at the Part level, and then move to the Assembly drawing to simply create your annotations.
Linking values to external files in SOLIDWORKS allows users to change a common dimension value via one source. This can be useful when dealing with multiple designs that have to mate with the same interface.
In SOLIDWORKS, a Radial Explode allows users to explode items aligned radially about an axis in a single step. This tutorial explains each of the steps needed to create this view.
Freezing features in SOLIDWORKS improves performance by excluding them from rebuilds. It also prevents any unwanted changes to the frozen features. To enable the Freeze bar, go to System Options > General and check the box for Enable Freeze bar. Once enabled, the Freeze bar is the horizontal yellow line at the top of the Design Tree.
In this SOLIDWORKS tutorial, we explore an Assembly Feature for creating chains and other linked or looped mechanisms. Before we can create this feature, the Assembly must contain a sketch of the path to be followed, and the components to be patterned. The Chain Component Pattern is accessed from the Linear Component Pattern pull-down menu in the Assembly tab (or use the Searchbar to locate it).