Sketching

Sketching basics
Starting sketch Left click the plan you wish to sketch on, a quick menu will appear giving you the option to start a new sketch. You can also select sketch from the ribbon and then select your plan. Now we are in sketch edit mode. It is important to start your drawings at the origin whenever possible. Solidworks is parametric software. The things we draw based on parameters and their order. Starting our sketches at the origin gives us a nice fixed point to relate everything else to. This is very important in the definition of our sketches and how things update when we make changes. This will become apparent when we talk about dimensions, relations and fully defined vs. under defined in the coming pages.

Sketching dimensions and relations

There are a few basic ways for you to define a sketch, dimensions and relations. Dimensions are numerical values added to sketch entities to locate them in relation to the origin or other entities. Relations are ways to locate items based on their geometry. Dimensions Relations

The center of the circle is coincident with the origin. The decision to use dimensions or relations has to come from the design intent. Understanding what each do will help you better decide. Here is an example: This square has several relations. I added an equal relation between the left line and top line. This means the 100 mm dimension will control the square. Here there is no equal relation so in order to have one dimension control the square they have to be linked (red chain icon). The end result is the same but the equal relation in this case is a better solution. It's not practical for me to try and explain every relation and every situation they can be used. It's up to you to take the next step. They are pretty self explanatory but understand the difference in your selection process. Example: horizontal relation Adding relations There are two ways you can add relations. The first is shift select or Ctrl select. In this method you select the items you want to relate. You then use the properties tab on the left or the pop up to apply one of the available relations. The next is the Add relation button on the ribbon. You can add a dimension from the ribbon bar.

Fully defined vs. under defined

When dealing with sketches in nearly all cases you want to have a fully defined sketch. This means that every degree of freedom in your sketch is accounted for. SW lets you know if your sketch is defined in a few ways. Sketch entities that are under defined will be blue (unless you change this) and entities that are fully defined will turn black. The bottom of your SW window will also let you know. You can use dimensions or relations (or both) to fully define your sketches. For example a circle that is coincident to the origin and have a defined diameter, it will appear in black line. Fully defined sketches are important for updates. If your sketches are not fully defined and you change a dimension or relation later in the model you have no way of knowing how the model will update. If you control your sketch giving it no freedom you will have complete control of how it updates.

Sketch patterns
I avoid them when possible. In nearly all cases a feature pattern will be easier to edit and control. You also have many more options with feature patterns. If you do decide to use a sketch pattern I just want to give you some tips. Fully define your patterned component To edit: right click on one of patterned components and select edit pattern from the menu.

Convert entities
Convert entities will let you select faces or edges and project them onto your sketch plane. In this case I made a plan at an angle to show this. Intersection curve will let you select a face or faces and create curves that intersect those faces and the sketch plan. Convert entities is a very handy tool in many cases, specifically when you are trying to relate your sketch to some geometry that is already in the model. In most cases you do not need to convert edges into your sketch but it does help with visualization.

Trim and extend

Trim and extend are pretty self explanatory but you have a few options and a few things to watch out for. Extend Using the extend command will give you a preview of the line if you hover over it. It will simply extend the line to the next sketch entity if possible. The things you need to watch out with is extending splines. It will take the curvature at the end of the spline you are working with and keep that. The issue that is brought up is the insertion of spline points. These are control points and typically the more points you have, the harder it is to control your spline. So avoid extending splines when possible. Trim A properties tab will come up over the feature manager when using trim.

The message that appears is specific to the trim option you have selected. Not all options will work in all situations. This is why I usually stick with power trim.

Sketch fillets
It is very rare that I will use a sketch fillet. You have much more control over a fillet as a feature. If you do decide to use a sketch fillet just understand how its constrained and how it will update. You have options such as keep corner constrained and you need to understand them. Keep corner constrained: Fully defined Under defined corner constrained option not used. Dimensions for sketch fillets. If you have a rectangle you want to grab the lines as opposed to their endpoints for the dimensions. This line to this line

The difference here is what happens to the corner when a fillet is applied. If you dimension the length of the line or the distance from endpoints the overall dimension will not hold true when the fillet is applied if keep corner constrained option is not used. So basically be careful.

Splines
Splines are many things. Two of them are powerful and dangerous. The are powerful because there is so much flexibility to their shape. Dangerous because they can absolutely ruin a nice surface or solid you if you dont know what you are doing. Hopefully this intro will shed a little light and put you on the right path. Parts of a spline Spline point , weight , direction Spline points can be endpoints or anywhere on the spline. You will always have two but there can be any number on the spline. It is best to make your splines with as few as possible. I have only run into a handful of cases when I had to have 3 points. Maybe once when I need 4. if you need this many spline points I suggest that you think about breaking up your surface/ geometry into multiple operations. Weight is simply that. The weight or strength of the spline handle will dictate how much influence that handles has on the curvature. If you only want to control the weight you will grab the arrow head. The endpoint on the arrow head will let you control both weight and direction of the spline. Once a dimension is added the arrow head will change to black (fully defined). Direction allows you to change the angle of the spline handle. This handle can have relations added to it such as vertical or horizontal. In a lot of cases these will be handy. Especially in instances where you will be mirroring a body across a plane. If you want to avoid a seam your handles

will need to be perpendicular to the mirror plan. Here the handle has a horizontal relation and is now black (fully defined). Spline curvature. When you select a spline you have the option to show curvature and this is important. The curvature combs show the direction and amount of curvature. Pay close attention to the transitions in the combs. You dont want any fast changes in curvature. Other methods of spline control. If you right click on a spline you can see several options. Things like tangency control. What I want to talk about is another method of controlling the spline instead of weight/direction handles. The right-click menu has Display control polygon. This method can often be easier when controlling splines visually. Spline control through relations and dimensions. You can add angular dimensions to handles, some relations already mentioned and also things like Tangent to surrounding curvature. Depending on what the spline is used for your choice of control may change. Dont be afraid to create construction geometry just to define your splines. In nearly all cases you are much better off with fully defined sketches.

Sketch blocks
Blocks are powerful tools that can help with many different tasks. Laying out belt/chain assemblies, setting up linkages, creating templates for things like hole patterns or standard components to be used in other models and so on. I will introduce you to a few basics and how blocks operate. Belts and pulleys To create a belt/pulley run with blocks you must first draw your pulleys. For basic layout I will dimension the center points of the circles with one pulley being on a tensioner link. I also like to add some sort of register mark on the pulley so you know it is rotating. On the next page you will see a sample layout. Basic layout. You will notice that other than diameters the sketch is under defined. Once you create a block from sketch element, any dimension external to that block will be removed. To create a block go to Tools > blocks > make You want to select only the sketch elements that will be included in that particular block. This will be the circle and vertical line in all cases. The line that represents the tensioner arm will be at its own block. Here we have 5 blocks. For this example I added a fixed relation to the center point of all pulleys except the tensioner. I added the fixed relation to the endpoint of the line. On the blocks toolbar click belt/chain. This will prompt you to select member. Select each of the 4 pulleys. Also note you can flip belt side.

If you have the engage belt option checked you can now rotate one pulley and see all of them follow. You can also adjust the tensioner pulley and see the belt length update. Blocks for linkage layouts. Just like with belts/pulleys you can layout blocks to help you setup a linkage system before getting into 3d modeling. These base sketches can be used to layout a multi-body part so that any changes to the original sketch will update the rest of the parts. This type of layout can save a good bit of time in the long run. Here is a very simple 4-bar linkage setup. There are 4 blocks here. The main fixture and the 3 moving parts. You can use this to plan out the path of a link point, the amount of shock travel needed in a suspension setup, the reach of equipment and so on. The block is basically a sketch in a sketch. Once you make sketch entities a block you have to edit is just like a sketch. Here you see the linkage movement and how quick changes can be made. You can make the sketch blocks as simple or as elaborate as you want. After you have created a block you can save it and insert it into any sketch. This is helpful if you do a lot of work with certain hole patterns for things like electronic PCBs. Either from the Blocks toolbar or from Tools > Blocks save your frequently used blocks into a common file location. One block I have used several times is the Recycle logo. This allows me to have a fully defined sketch in a matter of seconds rather than sketching it for every component.

Linked dimensions
There are two ways to setup linked dimensions and endless situations where they are useful. The first method is during the sketch process. By right-clicking on a dimension you can link values. This lets you name the value and then apply it to any other dimension. Select link values and enter a name in the shared values pop-up. Now if you link another value, the value is in the drop down box. The method I usually used is to create equations. The equations dialog is located in the Tools menu. While it does say equation you can simply create a named value that can be used during sketching of features (explained in another section). The equation dialog box is simple. Just click add. This is a very simple equation but you can get as complex as you need to. The nice thing about creating these before you start sketching is that you can have the values ready to go. Box height was already taken since it was created in the sketch. It was there for us to use if we needed a value that relates to Box Height. Here I created a box length value equal to Box height * 6. Box height was added simply by clicking on it in the global variables list.

While in a sketch all you need to do is right click on the value and link values. Linked value and equation icons. Linked value icon. Another nice feature of creating these basic values in the equations manager is the ease of edits. Simply go back to the equations and edit or edit all. Once edits are made to values and equations just update your model and watch the changes take place.