Introduction to SolidWorks

Lesson 10 – Creating Assemblies and Sub-Assemblies
Section IV – Modeling Assemblies 10.4 The Tire and Wheel Sub-Assembly

 Move the cursor to the location where you want to locate the wheel. Remember that

once the wheel is positioned it will not move.

 To make the wheel coincident with the origin, click the check mark. If the origin is not

visible, click ViewOrigins on the Main Menu. See Figure 10.2.

Figure 10. 2 – Adding the Wheel to the Assembly

Assemblies

Products, devices and structures are usually assemblies of parts. The reason for breaking your design

into parts is to facilitate manufacturing. Each part is made of a different material or manufacturing

process. Parts are typically manufactured and handled separately and come together at assembly. The

SolidWorks assembly model can be used to create an assembly drawing that will help the assembler.

In addition, the SolidWorks assembly can be used to verify that parts do not have interferences and

that mechanisms will work as expected. If used, this capability can reduce or entirely eliminate errors.

Sub-assemblies are used to facilitate assembly. For example, the wheels and tires are assembled

together during manufacture by casting the rubber compound around the wheel. The result is a tire and

wheel sub-assembly that for all practical purposes can be treated as a single part. Another example of

a sub-assembly in the skateboard is the truck sub-assembly consisting of the wheels, tires and truck. In

the automobile industry, engines are assembled and tested independently before they are added to the

automobile frame at final assembly.