There are a lot of hidden gems within SolidWorks that you wouldn’t typically know to look for. Once such tool is the corner treatment option, within the structural member tool. It allows you to modify individual joints, within a single structural member.

Corner treatment allows you to set corner specific weld gaps as well as changing an option called trim order. Trim order, as the name suggests, allows you to control the hierarchy by which each group is trimmed. Trim order 1 will not be trimmed. Trim order 2 will be trimmed based on trim order 1 and so forth.

To access this option click on the pink dot at the center of a joint (within a structural member). That will bring up the following dialog box. Each individual structural member group will be set to it’s own trim order, and if you set each group to the same trim order, SolidWorks will do its best to create a compound miter.

There are limitations to this, as you can see for the image below, for a larger number of groups or members, (in this case 5) there may be gaps. In these cases you can play around with the trim order until you get a suitable result, as well as setting them to different trim orders, so you don’t confuse SolidWorks too badly.

The CSWP is an odd beast. Reach a certain level of SolidWorks usage and the test is easy, real easy. On the other hand if you’re new to SolidWorks or don’t spend a good deal of time in the program, the CSWP can be almost impossible to pass the test within the given time limits. So how can you make your test taking experience as pleasant as possible? Avoid the following mistakes:

1. Making it difficult to update variables

In section one of the CSWP, you’ll be given a list of variables that will change from question to question. Updating these all individually is time consuming and will usually lead to errors on the exam. By storing these values in a design table or within global variables (my preferred method), you’ll be able to quickly and accurately update your parts. Check out the video below for a full explanation:

2. Poor model management and too many features/sketches

Newer users tend to stack too many extrusions and sketches on top of each other. For the CSWP you should be using few sketches and contour selections to create extrusions. I could go into further detail, but the video below covers what you’ll need to know on this topic:

Rather than trying to create new features for model updates, you should mostly be able to go back into your feature history and rebuild your part according to the new specifications, in each subsequent question.

3. Not properly reading every question

Just like any other standardized test that you’ve taken, the CSWP is trying to make sure you are paying attention. I’ve gotten several questions wrong on the exam because I didn’t take the time to thoroughly check that I had set everything up properly.

For example, on section three of the exam, you’ll be asked to replace a component in an assembly. Most of the questions in section three are going to be based on a coordinate system that you’ll add to your base part. Once you replace this component the mass properties settings will default back to the part’s default coordinate system. If you answer this question without making the proper settings adjustment, you’ll get the question wrong. On another question I simply forgot one of the design table updates.

Keep a keen eye on what they are asking on each question and you’ll quickly increase the likelihood of passing the exam.

Bonus: Lack of Exam Prep/Practice

Practice, Practice, Practice. Sometimes the only medicine is time. The more time you spend honing your abilities in SolidWorks, the more likely you’ll be able to breeze through the exam. A good place to start is SolidWorks’ sample example, which can be downloaded by clicking here. This sample exam covers section one of the CSWP.

We’ll be putting out two samples exams that cover all three sections of the CSWP, next week. We’ve also just launched a section on SolidWize that covers the CSWP in depth.

That being said everything has its time and place and the scale entities tool is no different. Check out the full tutorial below:

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. By using the boundary surface tool and the fill surface tool, we can quickly produce the desired geometry.

The initial geometry can be created using surface extrusions or surface sweeps. Once you have that, the first step is to trim away portions of all three tubes, so that you have some space to work with.

Next you want to split up each surface into four quadrants, preferably of similar sizes, between all three surfaces. We will be creating three boundary surfaces between the various edges. There are several ways to split these up. I drew up a couple line sketches and used the split line tool to achieve this.

Then we want to join the top and bottom edges of each tube with boundary surfaces as shown. You’ll want to choose the curvature to face option for the end condition at each edge. You’ll also want to change the weighting of the curvature constraint to get the right curvature.

Lastly we want to create a fill surface by selecting all the connecting open edges on one side. You’ll also want to choose the curvature option for each edge so that everything remains curvature continuous. You can then mirror over the fill and knit the surfaces together to get the completed blend.

You may at some point run into geometry like the two disjointed bodies shown below:

You might be tempted to quickly extend the solids using a boundary or loft feature between the two, but this usually leads to a fairly poor transition between the bodies. The best way to approach this issue is to actually remove out material and then connect the bodies, using a boundary feature, which very similar to the boundary surface tool.

Check our the full SolidWorks tutorial below:

That’s why in this week’s tutorial by SolidWize, I’ll be talking about validating your design using SolidWorks SimulationXpress.

The most suitable Shapeways material for this use case would be stainless steel.

SimulationXpress is a fairly simple tool to use, and can allow you to quickly verify that your model will have adequate strength.

Watch the full tutorial below. If you’d like to follow along, you can download the SolidWorks file from my GrabCad Profile.

About the author: Rohit Mitra is the founder of SolidWize.com, a membership based online training system for SolidWorks users.

With the right setup, you can create high quality photo realistic renderings in Photoview 360. We’ve just launched a new training section on Photoview 360 that will take beginner to expert in creating SolidWorks renderings, and over the next few weeks, we’ll be adding several more hours of content to the section. We’ll cover everything from appearances to setting up options to customization of scenes. Check out the following video to get you started:

Getting started with Photoview:

Adding Appearanced in SolidWorks:

You would think that simply cranking up the render quality, in Photoview 360, would be the best option for a beautiful render. This can not only be time consuming, but unnecessary as well. Typically your SolidWorks renderings will have the best balance of quality and time of render on either the “better” or “best” setting. The image above is in the “best” quality and the one below is set to “maximum.”

Aside from a slight difference in shading, the quality of the images is nearly identical. There are certain limitations to the lower settings that can make it necessary to use the “maximum,” for example interior renders with very little lighting and renderings with a large number or reflections or refractions like the image below.

See the full tutorial below on selecting the right render quality and the limitations associated with each quality:

If the HDR image above looks a little weird to you, it’s because it isn’t really meant to be viewed as a 2D image. When working with Realview turned on in SolidWorks or Photoview added in, you may have noticed the environmental reflections you can see coming off your model, like the picture below.

Through the edit scene options (photoview 360>edit scene), you can import an HDR image as an environment.

It can then be used as either the environment or both the environment and background. To import the HDR image, click on the button marked “browse” in the “environment” tab and select the image you want to import. If you also want to set this image as the background, you can set the background pulldown menu as the environment.

The image below is the result of using the image at the top of this page, which you can download here as the environment. You can also find quite a few free HDR images to bring into SolidWorks by doing a quick google search.

At the bottom of this menu you’ll find a slider for “floor offset.”

You can move the floor offset in either direction by flipping the direction arrow. Then you’ll want to change the offset value to move the floor. Sometimes this adjustment requires several attempts at tweaking to get just right, so you may have to change the offset value several times before getting the right look. In the end, you should end up with something like this:

Happy Rendering!