INTRODUCTION
Solid works developed by dassault system is a CAD software which is widely used for designing in automotive and mechanical industry. It is a feature based, parametric, solid modeling mechanical design and automation software.
Some of the important mode of solid-works:-
> PART MODE
It is feature based parametric environment in which you can create solid models
You are provided with three default planes named as front, top and right plane.
First you need to select a plane to create the sketch for the base feature. On selecting a sketch plane, you enter the sketch environment, where sketch models are created. After sketch you can specify their dimension and apply the relation in same sketching environment.
> ASSEMBLY MODE
In assembly mode you can assemble/join different parts and make a product with the help of required tool.
> DRAWING MODE
This mode is used for documentation of the part or the assembly created earlier in the for of drawing view and details in the drawing view.
IMPORTANT TERM AND THEIR DEFINITION
> Modeling feature based
A feature is defined as smallest building block that can be modified individually. In solid-works the solid models are created by integration a number of these building blocks.
A model created in solid works is a combination of a number of individual feature that are related to each other directly or indirectly.
> Parametric modeling
The parametric nature of a software is define as its ability to use the standard properties or parameter in defining the shape and size of geometry.
The main function of this property is to derive the selected geometry in new size and shape without considering its original dimension. You can change and modify the shape and size of any feature at any stage of design process.
> Bidirectional assosciativity
As mentioned earlier, solid-works has different modes such as
Part, assembly, drawing, among all these there exist a bidirectional associativity. This feature ensures that any modification mad in the model in any one of these modes is automatically reflected in other modes immediately.
> How can we change the units ?
- Go to tools menu
- Then go to option
- Chose system option then general
- Next choose document properties.
- Choose unit system
- MKS, CGS, MMGS, IPS, CUSTOM
- OK
> GRID/SNAP
- Select the grid type
- Enter major grid spacing (25-4)
- Miner line (4)
- Snap point per minor (1)
- Ok
