Chapter 4: Creating Simple Parts, Assemblies, and Drawings
- Open the part that you created in the previous tutorial. If you do not have it, then
you can open a prebuilt copy from the CD-ROM materials for Chapter 4, named
Chapter4SimpleMachinedPart.sldprt. Once you open the part, change to the
assembly window.
Tip
You can press Ctrl+Tab to change between open documents, and Alt+Tab to change between open applica-
tions. These Windows conventions are not exclusive to SolidWorks. n- From the assembly menus, choose Insert ➪ Component ➪ Existing Part/Assembly.
This displays the PropertyManager, as shown in Figure 4.17. Select the machined part
from the selection box and click in an open space in the graphics window to place it.
Newly placed parts in the assembly (except for the very first part) are completely unde-
fined in terms of position or location. Instead of the (f) symbol, for Fixed, the newly
placed part displays a (– symbol, which means Underdefined. You can change a Fixed
part to underdefined by selecting Float in the RMB menu. Figure 4.17 also shows the
FeatureManager with the new part in it. It is a little confusing that (f) stands for Fixed
when the opposite condition, Float, also starts with an f.
FIGURE 4.17
The Insert Component interfaceNote
Parts in an assembly are positioned relative to one another with mates. Mates are in many ways similar to
sketch relations. n