If you’ve ever scene a carbon bike frame up close, you’ll notice that the blends at each joint are fairly complex, at least from a solid modeling perspective. Trying to use the fillet tool for geometry like this is just going to leave you feeling frustrated and confused.… Read more…
The surface above represents a degenerate surface, which ”occurs when one or more sides of the parametric quadrilateral surface used for meshing collapse to a singularity.” Source: Ansys Workbench
In SolidWorks this happens when trying to apply a boundary surface to a boundary that is not four sided.… Read more…
The Delete Hole command is specific to surfaces within SolidWorks and is especially useful with surfaces that have been imported. It allows you to select a hole that lies on a surface, which doesn’t have to be round, and use the delete key to remove out the hole.… Read more…
(Source fastcodesign.com)
Diving into a new set of tools can be intimidating. I’ll admit when I first started working with the SolidWorks Surfacing tools, I was apprehensive, but soon found that the tools are a lot simpler than they seem.… Read more…
There are certain shapes and surfaces that are difficult to mate in SolidWorks, without first adding a reference or two. For example, if you try mating a sphere to a non-planar surface, the only option that SolidWorks gives you is the lock mate.… Read more…
The Helix/Spiral tool in SolidWorks is limited to creating straight helices and spirals, so to create a helix along a curved path, you have to get a little creative. The twist along path option, in swept features, allows you to forego the use of the Helix tool and use a combination of a swept surface and a swept boss/base for the desired result.… Read more…