Category Archives: The SolidWorks Geek

Building a Stapler – Arm Bracket (Sheet Metal), by Alex Ruiz

“Earlier this morning we starting working on the Arm Bracket for the Stapler. If you missed it, You should go back and read about creating the forming tools needed for the Arm Bracket. Now that we have created the forming tools we can move on to creating our sheet metal Arm Bracket.” …
Keep Reading: Building [...]

Also posted in Base-Flange/Tab, Convert Entities, Design Library, Forming Tool | Tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Building a Stapler – Anvil Forming Tool, by Alex Ruiz

“Here we are at the beginning of another beautiful Friday morning and of course you know what that means…this weeks modeling tutorial. Last month when I started the stapler project, I thought it would be fun to model up the stapler sitting on my desk. I never expected it to attract the attention it [...]

Also posted in Dynamic Mirror Entities, Forming Tool, Revolved Boss/Base | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

Building a Stapler – Staple Cradle Pt1, by Alex Ruiz

“I know, I know… It’s been way too long since I have written an article for the stapler but I am going to make up for it today. Today we are going start a two part article on how to build the staple cradle of the stapler. I don’t know if it is really called [...]

Also posted in Dimensions/Relations, Extruded Boss/Base, Extruded Cut, Offset Entities, Rectangle, Shell, Smart Dimension | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Building a Stapler – Staple Cradle Pt2, by Alex Ruiz

“Picking up where we left off on Friday, we are going to be finishing up the stapler cradle today. If you missed the first part of this tutorial, you can find it here. In the first part of this tutorial we started building the staple cradle using standard features that we will then convert to [...]

Also posted in Forming Tool, Insert Bends | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Endulge Your Sweet Tooth ~ Part1, by Alex Ruiz

“For the first tutorial of 2010, we are going to create this image of a stack of peppermints using SolidWorks and the new features of PhotoView 360. A few weeks ago I came across an image much like this one on IStockPhoto.com and I thought it would be a fun project to do. After creating [...]

Also posted in Circular Sketch Pattern, Revolved Boss/Base, Spline, Split | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Splitting Parts Revisted Pt2, by Alex Ruiz

“Earlier this week, I revisited the techniques I discussed in my video Splitting a Part in SolidWorks. I left off at splitting the part into two solid bodies and that is where will be picking up from today. If you missed the first part of this article, I would strongly suggest you go back and [...]

Also posted in Convert Entities, Extruded Boss/Base, Extruded Cut | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

Splitting Parts Revisted, by Alex Ruiz

“After I created the video for splitting parts, I was asked by a few of my readers to write an article about splitting parts since some companies block Youtube videos. Rather then rehash the same information over again I decided to take the opportunity to explore another approach to achieve the same outcome. As anybody [...]

Also posted in Radiate Surface (Surfaces), Shell, Split, Split Line (Mold Tools) | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Design Faster with Design Library and Mate References Pt1, by Alex Ruiz

“Last week, I spoke briefly about the benefits of using the Design library in Why Do I Need to Use the Design Library? . As promised, this week I will show you my favorite way of using the Design Library. Adding frequently used components, with Mate References, to the Design Library allows you to build [...]

Also posted in Design Library, Mate Reference | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Add Features to the Design Library, by Alex Ruiz

“Here we are at the beginning of another fine week in the blogosphere. I hope each and every one of you had a great weekend. I also hope you got some rest because I have tons of tips and tricks to throw your way this week. Today we will start with our continuing exploration of [...]

Also posted in Design Library | Tagged , | Comments closed

Adding a Library Feature to a Part, by Alex Ruiz

“Now that we added a feature to the Design Library, we can now add it to a new part. Adding features from the Design Library are as easy as drag-and-drop, so easy even an AutoCAD user can do it ( I Kid).  There are two types of features you will drop into a part; features [...]

Also posted in Design Library | Tagged , | Comments closed

Building a Stapler – Anvil, by Alex Ruiz

“On Friday, I went over the procedure for creating the forming tool for the stapler anvil. Today, as a special Sunday post, I will go over the rest of the anvil. The anvil will be made as a sheet metal component so we can use the forming tool that was created on Friday.” …
Keep Reading: [...]

Also posted in Sheet Metal | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Some Fillet Tricks You May or May Not Know, by Alex Ruiz

“Everybody knows how to use the Fillet tool to create radii on parts, at least I hope they do. 99.9% of the fillets you will create in your daily usage of SolidWorks only require you to click an edge and enter a value. I will not be showing you how to do this kind of [...]

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Building a Stapler – Anvil Rivet, by Alex Ruiz

“Yay, it’s Friday! You know what that means…Beer! Oh, and of course another component of our stapler is about to be modeled. I hope you enjoy the modeling tutorials as much as I do. It gives me a chance to play with my favorite design tool SolidWorks (like I need an excuse). Last week, we [...]

Also posted in ConfigurationManager, Fillet, Instant3D, Revolved Boss/Base | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Video – Splitting a Part in SolidWorks, by Alex Ruiz

“The other day I received an email from a reader by the name of Zac. Here is an excerpt for his email:
‘One thing we just can not figure out how to do  is this:  We often want to draw a single part, and then split it into two separate halves as separate parts, as opposed [...]

Also posted in Split | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Creating Fillets using Hold Lines, by Alex Ruiz

“Another week is upon us, it’s time to knock those cobwebs out of your head and get ready to learn some more cool stuff. Last week, I went over a couple of fillet tricks that I hope you enjoyed and this week I am doing more of the same. One of my favorite fillet tricks [...]

Also posted in Fillet, Split Line | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Building a Stapler – Anvil Spring, by Alex Ruiz

“Today on this very happy Friday, we are going to continue building our virtual stapler with the Anvil Spring. Over the past couple of weeks we built the Anvil and Anvil Rivet, now we will make a configured spring without a design table. The spring we make today will have three configurations: Default, As Assembled [...]

Also posted in Helix and Spiral, Plane, Swept Boss/Base | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Building a Stapler – Arm Spring, by Alex Ruiz

After missing a week, we are finally back to building our stapler. The last time we were here, we made a multi-configured spring for the anvil without using a Design Table. Today we are going to make another spring but this time we are going to be creating a simple design table to configure the [...]

Also posted in Design Table, Helix and Spiral, Swept Boss/Base | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Using Derived Sketches in Parts, by Alex Ruiz

“I know last week I mentioned that we were finished with sketch tools, for the time being, but I figured one more couldn’t hurt. I was working on a model for work earlier this week that I had created a few features using Derived Sketches and I thought it would be a great topic to [...]

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Using Insert Part to Create Derived Parts, by Alex Ruiz

“Last week, I introduced you to making derived sketches to save time in duplicating features on your part. Today is all about using the Insert Part command to create a derived part. A derived part is an extremely useful technique for adding features to a part without affecting the original part.  When the original part [...]

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Improve Productivity – Use Shortcut Bars, by Alex Ruiz

“One of my favorite new features in SolidWorks 2008 is the addition of Shortcut Bars. Shortcut bars are customizable floating bars that pop up in the graphic area near your mouse pointer. By default each environment has its own shortcut bar that you can then customize just like another toolbar. With Shortcut Bars in addition [...]

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