Part I: SolidWorks Basics
a bronze bushing, and is bolted to a plate below it.” This does not give you enough information
to design the part, but it does give you information about two surfaces that are important (a hole
for the bushing and the bottom that touches the mounting plate), as well as some general size
and load requirements. The following questions can help you develop the design intent for your
own projects.Is the part symmetrical?
Symmetry is an important aspect of design intent. Taking advantage of symmetry can significantly
reduce the time needed to model the part. Symmetry can exist on several levels:l Sketch symmetryl (^) Individual feature symmetry
l Whole-part symmetry
l (^) Axial symmetry (a revolved part)
l “Almost” symmetry (the whole part is symmetrical, except for a few features)
l (^) Left and right symmetrical versions of the part
l Assembly symmetry
What are the primary or functional features?
This is probably the most important question. Primary or functional features include how the part
mounts or connects to other parts, motion that it needs to accommodate, and additional structure
to support loads.
Often it is a good idea to create a special sketch as the first feature in the part that lays out the
functional features. This could be as simple as a straight line to denote the bottom and a circle to
represent the position and size of a mating part, or as complex as full outlines of parts and fea-
tures from all three standard planes. This technique is called a layout sketch, and it is an impor-
tant technique in both simple and complex parts. You can use layout sketches for anything from
simply drawing a size-reference bounding box to creating the one point of reference for all
sketched features in the part. You can use multiple layout sketches if a single sketch on one
plane is not sufficient.
In what ways is the part likely to change?
When the marketing department gets out of their meeting at 4:45 pm, what changes do you need
to be prepared for so that you can still be out the door by 5:00 pm? No one expects you to be able
to tell the future, but you do need to model in such a way that your model easily adapts to future
changes. As you gain experience with the software and keep this idea in mind, you will develop
some instincts for the type of modeling that you do.