SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 30: Using Imported Geometry and Direct Editing Techniques

I’ll show you a slightly more complex example. In traditional SolidWorks usage, if you wanted to

move the face indicated in Figure 30.16, you would go back and edit the sketch or feature that was

used to create it. The fillets would update to match the new geometry.

The direct edit salesmen would say that first finding the feature you need to change is difficult,

then waiting for the change to rebuild all the features, and last dealing with the downstream fea-

tures like fillets that might fail due to the changes is frustrating, and he would be right. The prob-

lem is that the part, as shown in Figure 30.16, cannot be changed at all in direct edit software. In

the direct edit scheme, the fillets are just faces; they are not intelligent features. If you move faces

they are attached, you have to also explicitly tell the fillet faces what to do as well.

FIGURE 30.16

Fillets greatly complicate direct editing schemes.

Here’s how to simplify the part by suppressing fillets and using the Move Face feature to change

the part (see Figure 30.17). Here, I’ve moved the ring around the top of the barrel as well as the

mounting boss. In order to make this move, I had to select seven faces:

1. Top of ring


2. Bottom of ring on left


3. Bottom of ring on right


4. Top of boss


5. Bottom of boss


6. Full round on end of boss


7. Hole in the mounting boss