So, you’ve successfully learned how to build your part and now you’re ready to create your first assembly. Congratulations! Once you’ve inserted your components (via ‘Insert Components’, dragging and dropping, etc), let’s move on to mating. One of the great benefits of SOLIDWORKS is that there are multiple ways to accomplish the same result, and that also goes for mating! We’ll discuss how we can use the Mates menu, Quick Mates and SmartMates to get you up and running.
The first way we learn to mate is with the Mate icon (it resembles a paper clip) in the Assembly menu, on the CommandManager.
New functionality when using dimensions for slots and drawings in SolidWorks 2014. Experienced SOLIDWORKS users. No details to the solutions for either this sample exam or the real test will be shared by the SOLIDWORKS Certification team. Please consult your SOLIDWORKS reseller, your local user group, or the on-line SOLIDWORKS forums at forum.solidworks.com to review any topics on the CSWP exam. The Slot command accelerates the development of curvilinear geometry. This online video demonstrates how to quickly define parameters within an object by working with slots in SolidWorks. You will learn how to use various slot tools including the Center Point Arc Slot to easily rotate objects and create angled slots, which saves you time by reducing the need to individually draw lines. The Slot command accelerates the development of curvilinear geometry. This online video demonstrates how to quickly define parameters within an object by working with slots in SolidWorks. You will learn how to use various slot tools including the Center Point Arc Slot to easily rotate objects and create angled slots, which saves you time by reducing the need to individually draw lines.
Once you’ve selected the Mate feature, you can select the first entity to mate. It also may turn transparent, if ‘Make first selection transparent’ is turned on the very bottom.
Next, select the second entity you want to mate to. Based on the selections, SOLIDWORKS will guess which mate you’re trying to create. If it’s the correct one, press the green check to accept it; if it isn’t, select the mate you’re looking for and accept it. Tip: Use the Alt key to temporarily hide a face when you need to select through it.
SOLIDWORKS 2014 now allows for an automated way to create Hole Wizard Slots. Using the Hole Wizard feature there are three new slots available: Slot, Counter.
In some instances, certain mates will require you to select the mate first, before selecting the entities to mate, such as the Width mate under the Advanced Mates.
Quick Mates
Another way is to pre-select the faces you’re creating a mate for, without having to be in the Mate menu. Simply hold down Ctrl and select the two entities you wish to mate.
The supported mate types are all standard mates (Concentric, Coincident, Equal, etc), as well as some advanced mates (Profile Center, Symmetric and Width) and some mechanical mates (Cam and Slot).
SmartMates
If you prefer to drag your components together and have them magically snap into place, SmartMates is probably more up your alley. In this scenario, we’ll create a ‘peg-in-hole’ SmartMate, which will result in a concentric and coincident mate. To create it, hold down the Alt key, and left-click and drag the circular edge to the edge you want to mate it to. If successful, you’ll see this icon: Tip: It’s easier when you can see what you’re dragging and what you’re dragging it to, in the same view.
If the part flips on you, there are 2 options to fix it:
1. If you have let go of your left mouse button (released the part), click the Tab key to flip the orientation. 2. If you haven’t released your left mouse button, right-click on one of the mates that’s created and select Flip Mate Alignment.
Here’s a breakdown of different types of mates that can be created when using SmartMates:
Lastly, if you want to control the speed that SOLIDWORKS applies the SmartMate, that can be done in the System Options > Performance > SmartMate Sensitivity. Dragging the slider from left to right will decrease the speed of the SmartMate.
For more information on SOLIDWORKS or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading!
The proper formating of the hole wizard feature will allow the user to easily control and change any number of holes at once. This is good practice for the modeling efficiency will be much faster and in the future, adding fasteners will be much smoother as the hole wizard can be used to pattern features.
Solidworks Counterbore Slot Rotate Blade
Hole Wizard Introduction
Hole wizard is a useful tool in SolidWorks used to control the features and properties of multiple holes at once. The Hole Wizard Feature allows you to create a variety of different types of hole cutouts for area and function specific applications.
Figure 1: Command Manager Icon
The hole option types are as follows: counterbore, countersink, drill, straight tapped, tapered tap and legacy. Among each of those options, Hole Wizard also allows you to generate counterbore, countersink, and traditional slots. The counterbored and countersink holes add a flat-bottomed hole cut and angled lead on the top side of the hole which is often used to sit fasteners flush with the surface of the part.
The drilled hole type allows access to various drill sizes and varieties, such as a dowel, fractional, helicoil, number/letter sizing, screw clearances, and finally regular or pipe tapped drills. Straight tapped holes add a constant threading along the hole direction; while tapered tapped holes add the varying hole and thread size with respect to the hole depth. Finally, the legacy hole is customizable hole feature that allows you to input various sizing to construct a hole specific to your needs.
Operating the Hole Wizard
First selecting the Hole Wizard icon in the command manager shown in Figure 1, the feature manager will appear on the screen and the Type tab will be automatically preselected.
Figure 2: Hole Wizard Feature Manager
The Type tab is used to select the type of hole you intend to create. Additionally, this tab allows you to specify other parameters involving the hole such as the standard, the size and depth of the intended hole, and other custom options specific to each hole type.
Solidworks Counterbore Slot Rotate Tool
After configuring the properties the specific holes, the Positions tab is used to generate a sketch which defines a point or set of points for each hole location. Like any sketch, a surface or reference plane must first be selected to start your sketch. This can be done by either preselecting before entering the feature or in the feature when in the positions tab.
Figure 3: Hole Position Interface
With each point that you add in the sketch, a hole preview will appear which better shows your hole location and area size that the hole will take up. After the hole positions are placed and the hole previews look correct, based on your specified hole type, click the green check mark to finish the wizard.
Solidworks Counterbore Slot Rotate Chart
Tips & Tricks
While you may be able to use an extruded cut for simple holes (especially clearance holes), our engineers and designers here at Perception Engineering, among many others, highly recommend that you use hole wizard for all hole type applications. Using hole wizard features will allow you to drive feature-based patterns that can save a lot of time in the following stages of the project. An excellent example of this is when adding fasteners to an assembly. Here, the Pattern Driven Component Pattern can be used with hole wizard to mate fasteners into their corresponding hole locations with ease. Additionally, make sure to utilize all the sketch related tools at your disposal when placing your hole locations especially: mirroring, centerlines, and patterns.
Solidworks Counterbore Slot Rotate Software
That’s all for now! You now know the basics to Hole-Wizard. If you like the content or have questions, signup for our email list to stay in the loop for solutions or weekly content.
Solidworks Counterbore Slot Rotate Machine
If you would like to learn more, check out these course that provide everything you need to know to get started!