SolidWorks Direct Editing

This blog post is to coincide with the ‘Direct Editing’ Webcast and Tips & Tricks on our Solidsolutions.tv. I hope for those that attended the webcast and for those that have/will watch it, that you did see one or two new tools (or use of tools) that you haven’t seen before. 

 

I did have one question from the audience, which was to do with the move face command and rotating the angle of a hole, keeping the entrance of the hole in the same place but having the end face of the hole perpendicular to the cylindrical sides. Now, you may have seen this but I was very much unaware that you would be able to do this with just the Move Face command, I was under the impression that you would need to create a reference plane with the Hole Wizard... But in actual fact, the move face command is very much able to do this. All you need to do is select the bottom face of the hole.  

 

It just goes to show that when it comes to these sorts of tools you never know what sort of goodies may be hiding within a certain tool; you just need to be in the correct environment with the correct geometry selected.

Back to the job at hand – Direct Editing tools are very useful and powerful tools within SolidWorks. Especially with imported geometry where there is no history with the part, whether this is on purpose or because the sender has a different CAD system.  Move Face especially has a very good track record with imported geometry with being able to correct mistakes in models or failed geometry on import. The one that stands out for me is the simple use of sketch geometry with the translate option in Move Face to move the centre of the circular patterned holes back on to the centre of the face/back to the origin. For more information and demonstrations on Direct Editing tools and toolbars, log on to our Solidsolutions.tv website (remembering that a subscription is needed) and watch it for yourself!

 

 

Olly Smith

Applications Engineer