SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Part II: Building Intelligence into Your Parts

FIGURE 11.13

Using Geometry Analysis to find typical problem spots

These specific types of geometry typically cause problems with other features, such as shells or fil-

lets. If you are having difficulty with a feature failing for a reason that you can’t explain, use the

Geometry Analysis tool to point out potential problem spots. This is not a tool that will do your

job for you, but it is a tool that gives you useful information to help you do your job better and

faster.

Feature Statistics

The Feature Statistics tool has been used previously in this book to measure rebuild times for indi-
vidual features in parts. You can find it either in the Tools menu or the Evaluate tab of the
Command Manager.

Feature Statistics lists the rebuild times of each individual feature in a part. This is useful for

researching features, benchmarking hardware or versions of SolidWorks, and developing best

practice recommendations for different tools and techniques. Figure 11.14 shows the Feature

Statistics interface.

Overall, I do not recommend relying too heavily on the data the Feature Statistics tool provides;

this is not because it is inaccurate, but because rebuild time is not always the best way to evaluate a

model. You can certainly use the information, but you also need to keep it in perspective. A feature

that takes a long time to rebuild but gives the correct result is always better than any feature that

does not give the correct result, regardless of rebuild time.