Welcome to another SOLIDWORKS Mold Tools tutorial. In the previous article, we discussed Draft Analysis and Scale. In this article, we'll take a look at shut off surfaces, parting surfaces, and tooling split mold tools.
Is your SOLIDWORKS session cascading in upon itself and leaving you dizzy, no longer sure which way is positive Z? Or, maybe the text in your feature tree has shrunk down to the point of being illegible. Most likely, you are suffering from mishandled DPI Scaling settings.
When designing parts in SOLIDWORKS and documenting them in drawings, it is often necessary to display a company logo. Perhaps you need to put together some product reviews for marketing, maybe your drawing will be used to determine the position of screen printing on a part, or, maybe, you're just looking to spruce up your drawings with your company logo. In this article, learn three different methods for adding images and inserting logos into SOLIDWORKS parts and drawings.
SOLIDWORKS Draft Analysis lets us determine if a part is ready to be molded. It uses color highlighting to indicate which faces of a model have an adequate draft to be easily released from a mold. We can specify our own tolerance and direction of pull, and we can view which faces have positive draft, negative draft, or still require draft. Scaling lets us enlarge a part to account for shrinkage.
When working in SOLIDWORKS, there are times when we need to repeat a feature that has already been created. If using a linear pattern or the Mirror Feature does not produce the desired geometry, another option is to copy the feature, and paste it where needed. This guide explains ways to copy and paste features from your SOLIDWORKS FeatureManager Design Tree in the same part and from one part to another.
In this blog, we will explore the basics of SOLIDWORKS Routing for Pipe Design. In this tutorial, we will cover the following topics: How to turn on the SOLIDWORKS Routing add-in, how to access the Routing Library, how to start a Pipe Route using Flanges, a Routing PropertyManager overview, how to create a SOLIDWORKS Drawing of the Pipe Route, and much more.
The SOLIDWORKS Convert to Sheet Metal command is an efficient way to create Sheet Metal geometry without having to be proficient in using Sheet Metal features. Converting a regular solid or surface body to a sheet metal model that can be flattened (unfolded), can help facilitate the manufacturing of the part. Flattened parts can be saved in either DXF or DWG formats, which can be directly read into laser/plasma cutting software.
This guide will show you how to create a Lip/Groove feature in SOLIDWORKS for plastic parts. It can be created in a multi-body part or in an assembly by editing one of its components. For this example, we will create the lip/groove feature in an assembly file. To access the Lip/Groove feature go to Insert > Fastening Feature > Lip/Groove.
Scanto3D, an add-in available in both SOLIDWORKS Professional and SOLIDWORKS Premium, is a great tool to use if you want to scan an existing part to obtain the mesh for better 3D model creation. Used in a variety of industries such as consumer products, machine design, and medical design, Scanto3D is capable of creating organically shaped objects for reference and representation quickly and easily.