Chapter 4: Creating Simple Parts, Assemblies, and Drawings
Making the first extrude feature
Going back to the sketch in Figure 4.2, I will show you how to continue building the part using
the newly learned tools. By centering the sketch on the Origin and extruding by using a Mid Plane
end condition, the initial block is built symmetrically about all three standard planes, with the part
Origin at the center. In many parts, this is a desirable situation. It enables you to create mirrored
features using the standard planes, and helps you to assemble parts together in an assembly later,
when parts must be centered and do not have a hard face-to-face connection with other parts.
Figure 4.4 shows the initial feature with the standard planes.FIGURE 4.4An initial extruded feature centered on the standard planes
Note
When you create a feature from a sketch, SolidWorks hides and absorbs (consumes) the sketch under the fea-
ture in the FeatureManager, so you need to click the plus sign next to the feature to see the sketch in the tree.
You can right-click the sketch in the FeatureManager to show it in the graphics window. n
The next modeling step is to create a groove on the back of the part. How is this feature going to
be made? You can use several techniques to create this geometry. List as many techniques as you
can think of, whether or not you know how to use them. Later, I will go through several tech-
niques that work.Tip
One of the secrets to success with SolidWorks, or indeed any tool-based process, is to know several ways to
accomplish any given task. By working through this process, you gain problem-solving skills as well as the abil-
ity to improvise when the textbook method fails. n
Figure 4.5 shows multiple methods for creating the groove. From the left to the right, the methods
are a thin feature cut, a swept cut, and a nested loop sketch.