SolidWorks 2010 Bible

CHAPTERCHAPTER

Creating Simple

Parts, Assemblies,

and Drawings

IN THIS CHAPTER

Establishing design intent

Building a simple part

Creating a simple assembly

tutorial

Making a simple drawing

tutorial

G

ood modeling practice is based on robust design intent. This just
means that you should try to build parts that can adapt easily to
changes. This section of the book begins with questions that you
need to ask to model effectively.

Beginning to create simple parts will help you understand techniques used in
more complex modeling projects. Learning on simple tools and then
expanding your skills helps you to understand best practice issues, which
makes you a better contributor to a team environment.

Discovering Design Intent

By asking questions about the part’s function before you start modeling or
designing, you can create a model that will be easier to edit, easier to prop-
erly place into an assembly, easier to detail in drawings, and easier for other
SolidWorks users to understand when someone else has to work on your
models. Whether you are doing the modeling for someone else or doing the
design and modeling for yourself may make a difference in how you
approach the modeling task.

The purpose of these questions is to help you establish design intent. The
term design intent is a statement of how the part functions and how the
model reacts to modeling changes.

It may help if you try to put the design intent into words to help you focus
on what is important in the design. An example of a statement of design
intent is “This part is symmetric about two planes, is used to support a
1.00" diameter shaft with a constant downward load of 150 pounds using