Upgrading software can be a daunting task. I say daunting because the majority of the time that you put into upgrading is set aside for downloading the upgrade. When time is short and you just need to get SolidWorks up... Continue reading

There will be a time when you need a specific piece of information about a weldment to be called out. Whether it’s a custom properties that you create or an existing one like Angle1, it can be linked to a... Continue reading

SolidWorks has done some updating for 2013 in how part and assembly data is saved. In previous versions everytime a part/assembly is saved, solidworks asks if you want to rebuild the document. The best practice for that was to hit... Continue reading

A lot of projects will go through revisions. When revisions occur, it can be a task to change out balloons in drawings. In 2013, SolidWorks added a couple of buttons to make this easier. When you add more components to... Continue reading

In SolidWorks, drawing views only show solid bodies by default. If your 3D models have both solid and surface bodies, it will take a few more steps to show the surface bodies. Let's say we start with this simple example... Continue reading

If geometry gets complex, mating can get difficult. The quickest way to mate two parts with complex surfaces is still using reference geometry (planes, axis). Using reference geometry also makes it easier for your processor to calculate, making animations smoother.... Continue reading

When you don't use a file management system, keeping files organized can be a hassle. So, what happens is users put all their part, drawing, and assembly files into the same folder. This will cause issues when creating new revisions.... Continue reading

There are a couple of different methodologies that can be employed. One of the main reasons for creating sub-assemblies is for manufacturing process. For example, it is standard practice to divide the main assembly as you see in the picture... Continue reading

Fillets can be created at the 3d level using the fillet feature and the 2d level using the sketch fillet command. Sketch fillets do reduce the number of features in the tree and provide the same basic control as any... Continue reading

Sometimes one would want to represent the mating geometry in a drawing view. You have the option of creating the whole assembly and dropping the cut away or section view into the drawing. That can take a long time depending... Continue reading