Introduction to SolidWorks

Lesson 3 – Modeling the Skateboard Deck Using Extruded Boss/Base
Section II – Modeling Simple Parts 3.2 Introduction

If you find yourself in one of these three these situations, use the Esc key to exit,

and try again.

Modeling 2 – Sketch a cross-section of the part.

 At this stage of the sketch, exact dimensions are not important. They will be

added later.

 It is helpful to use Inferencing. It makes the software intelligent enough to guess

the user’s intent and to suggest (or assume) appropriate relationships between

sketch entities such as parallel, perpendicular, midpoint, etc.

 One example of Inferencing is the dashed line that appears when the cursor

crosses the origin in Figure 3.1.

 Use Inferencing to draw a horizontal line across the origin.

 Even the complex cross-

sections can be

sketched. Maintain, as

best as possible, the

original proportions and relationships (i.e. parallel, perpendicular, etc.). Be careful

of unintended relationships due to Inferencing and, if necessary, break a

complicated sketch into multiple simpler sketches. If the sketch becomes

something you do not

want, use Undo to step

back and try something

else.

Modeling 3 – Constrain your

sketch by adding dimensions

and relationships. The sketch

is fully defined when no blue

lines are visible and all the lines

are black.

Figure 3. 1 – Example of Inferencing

Inferencing

Inferencing will indicate that your line is horizontal or

vertical, or that your mouse pointer is coincident or

parallel to another line. This is a very useful feature

when sketching.

Unfortunately, sometimes SolidWorks will make the

wrong assumption. To delete a relationship, click

ToolsRelationsDisplay/Delete on the Main Menu.

You can click ToolsRelationsAdd to add relations

that were not captured with Inferencing. You can see

which relations you have in your sketch by clicking

ToolsRelationsDisplay.

It is possible to override Inferencing. On the Main

Menu click ToolsSketch SettingsSketch

Relations to toggle Inferencing on/off. If the symbols

displaying sketch relations clutter your sketch, you can

turn them on/of with ViewSketch Relations on the

Main Menu.

Smart Dimension

Smart Dimension is the best command for

dimensioning geometry in SolidWorks. It can be used as

follows:

1) click a line to dimension,

2) click two points to dimension the distance,

3) click a line and a point to dimension the distance,

4) click two parallel lines to dimension the distance

and click two lines that are not parallel to

dimension the angle.