Part VII: Working with Specialized Functionality
Planar path segments
Some path segments that are allowed in 3D sketches can only be used if they are sketched on a
plane. These entities include circles and arcs, and can include splines, although splines are not
required to be on a plane. I have already been mentioned that to sketch on a 3D Plane (a plane
created within the 3D sketch), you can simply double-click the plane.To sketch on a standard plane or reference geometry plane, you can Ctrl+click the border of the
plane with the sketch entity icon active or double-click the plane. The space handle moves, indi-
cating that newly created sketch entities will lie in the selected plane.Dimensions
Dimensions in 2D sketches can represent the distance between two points, or they can represent
the horizontal or vertical distance between objects. In 3D sketches, dimensions between points are
always the straight-line distance. If you want to get a dimension that is horizontal or vertical, you
should create the dimension between a plane and a point (the dimension is always measured nor-
mal to the plane) or between a line and a point (the dimension is always measured perpendicular
to the line). For this reason, reference sketch geometry is often used freely in 3D sketches, in part
to support dimensioning.
Using the Weldment Tools
Like the Sheet Metal tools, the Weldment tools in SolidWorks are specialized to enable you to cre-
ate weldment-specific features in a specialized environment. Everything starts from a sketch or set
of sketches representing the wireframe of the welded Structural Members.Weldment
The Weldment button on the Weldment toolbar simply places a Weldment placeholder in the
FeatureManager. This placeholder tells SolidWorks that this part is a special weldment part, much
in the way that the Sheet Metal feature in sheet metal parts is a placeholder, and denotes a special
part type. The Weldment feature moves to the top of the tree, regardless of when it is created in
the part history. If you do not create a Weldment feature manually, then one is automatically cre-
ated for you and placed at the top of the tree when the first Structural Member feature is created.
Structural Members are discussed next in this chapter.
This feature offers only a few special default settings: the ability to set custom properties that trans-
fer to all Cut list items that are created in the current part, and the fact that the Merge Result
option is deselected by default in Weldment parts. The former is important when multiple weld-
ments go together to make an assembly. To access the custom properties interface, shown in
Figure 31.5, select the Properties option on the Weldment feature right mouse button (RMB)
menu.