Book Image

Learn SOLIDWORKS - Second Edition

By : Tayseer Almattar
Book Image

Learn SOLIDWORKS - Second Edition

By: Tayseer Almattar

Overview of this book

SOLIDWORKS is the leading choice for 3D engineering and product design applications across industries such as aviation, automobile, and consumer product design. This book helps you to get up and running with SOLIDWORKS and understand each new concept and tool with the help of easy-to-follow exercises. You'll begin with the basics, exploring the software interface and finding out how to work with drawing files. The book then guides you through topics such as sketching, building complex 3D models, generating dynamic and static assemblies, and generating 2D engineering drawings to prepare you to take on any design project. You'll also work with practical exercises to get hands-on experience with creating sketches, 3D part models, assemblies, and drawings. To reinforce your understanding of SOLIDWORKS, the book is supplemented by downloadable files that will help you to understand the concepts and exercises more easily. Finally, you'll also work on projects for 3D modeling objects inspired by everyday life. By the end of this SOLIDWORKS book, you'll have gained the skills you need to create professional 3D mechanical models using SOLIDWORKS and be able to prepare effectively for the Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate (CSWA) and Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional (CSWP) exams.
Table of Contents (26 chapters)
1
Section 1 – Getting Started
4
Section 2 – 2D Sketching
7
Section 3 – Basic Mechanical Core Features – Associate Level
10
Section 4 – Basic Evaluations and Assemblies – Associate Level
13
Section 5 – 2D Engineering Drawings Foundation
18
Section 6 – Advanced Mechanical Core Features – Professional Level
21
Section 7 – Advanced Assemblies – Professional Level

Reference geometries – additional planes

By default, SOLIDWORKS provides us with three planes that we can start sketching on. In addition, we can use any other straight surface as a plane. However, sometimes, we need planes that are different. In this case, we need to introduce our own planes. In this section, we will discuss how we can create additional planes in our 3D space. We will also introduce reference geometries.

Understanding planes, reference geometries, and why we need them

Reference geometries are like the origin points we need for the different planes that we use for sketching. They are used as a base for sketches, features, and coordinate locations. In SOLIDWORKS, reference geometries include planes, coordinate systems, axes, and points. In this section, we will focus on planes.

Whenever we create a sketch, we start by selecting a sketch plane to base our sketch on. Previously, we used the default planes and the surfaces resulting from features. However...