The SolidWorks Conblogerate » The SolidWorks Geek

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

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:40:42 +0000

“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 a Stapler – Arm Bracket (Sheet Metal) – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 9/8/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Building a Stapler – Anvil Forming Tool, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:33:51 +0000

“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 has but it now seems to be the most popular series of The SolidWorks Geek. Your comments and questions are all great and please keep them coming. Due to the number of steps required to create the models illustrated in this series, I am constantly experimenting with the way I present the information. I try to balance the amount of information with the size of the post. From time to time, I may not spend as much time on a particular step but your comments and questions fill any gaps I may have left. So thank you, my photo may be the one shown above but this blog is yours.” …

Keep Reading: Building a Stapler – Anvil Forming Tool – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 9/29/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Building a Stapler – Staple Cradle Pt1, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:28:07 +0000

“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 that but it is the sheet metal part of the stapler that holds all the staples. I have done sheet metal parts on the SolidWorks Geek before but this time instead of creating a sheet metal part from native features, we are going to create a solid model that we will then add sheet metal bends to create the finished part. For this article, I am also trying a different approach to present the steps for this project to the readers, your feedback would be greatly appreciated.” …

Keep Reading: Building a Stapler – Staple Cradle Pt1 – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 10/17/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Building a Stapler – Staple Cradle Pt2, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:19:04 +0000

“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 a sheet metal component.” …

Keep Reading: Building a Stapler – Staple Cradle Pt2 – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 10/21/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Endulge Your Sweet Tooth ~ Part1, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:58:51 +0000

“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 the image I shared it on Twitter and a number of people suggested that it would be a great tutorial. Over the next few days we are going to recreate this image. First, we will create the model for one of the mints.” …

Keep Reading: Endulge Your Sweet Tooth ~ Part1 – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 1/16/10 on The SolidWorks Geek

Splitting Parts Revisted Pt2, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:50:22 +0000

“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 read it here.” …

Keep Reading: Splitting Parts Revisted Pt2 – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 10/16/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Splitting Parts Revisted, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:41:31 +0000

“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 will tell you, there are more ways then one to crack an egg. (I know…bad pun)” …

Keep Reading: Splitting Parts Revisted – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 10/15/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

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

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:10:28 +0000

“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 assemblies faster then you ever imagined. The steps illustrated today may seem like a lot but a few extra minutes when setting up your library components can save you hours in the long run.” …

Keep Reading: Design Faster with Design Library and Mate References Pt1 – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 8/18/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Add Features to the Design Library, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:04:53 +0000

“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 the benefits of using the Design Library. In the past we explored such topics as creating a notes library, adding forming tools and adding components to the library with Mate references. If you missed any of these post you can go here to find them all: http://www.theswgeek.com/tag/design-library/. Today we are going to cover adding your most commonly used features to the design library to speed up your design process.” …

Keep Reading: Add Features to the Design Library – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 8/25/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Adding a Library Feature to a Part, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:02:02 +0000

“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 with references and without references. Today we are going to concentrate on inserting features without references.” …

Keep Reading: Adding a Library Feature to a Part – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 8/25/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Building a Stapler – Anvil, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:56:47 +0000

“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: Building a Stapler – Anvil – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 8/31/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

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

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:10:34 +0000

“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 fillet, instead I will show you some fillet options you might not have heard of before. Using Fillet options like Multiple Radius Fillets, Rounded Corners, and Setbacks can really help in achieving the results your parts require. In coming weeks, I will cover even more tricks for fillets that can really make your parts stand out.” …

Keep Reading: Some Fillet Tricks You May or May Not Know – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 9/1/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Building a Stapler – Anvil Rivet, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:06:18 +0000

“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 modeled up the Anvil for the stapler and today we will stay in the general area of the stapler with the Anvil Rivet. The Anvil Rivet is used to attach the Anvil to the Base and retain the Anvil Spring (Next Week). This week is fun because we also get to build the rivet with two configurations, the free state and and as it is assembled. So lets get started…” …

Keep Reading: Building a Stapler – Anvil Rivet – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 9/5/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Video – Splitting a Part in SolidWorks, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:51:15 +0000

“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 to drawing the two halves independently. Is there some easy trick to do this in SW? Up to this point we are still drawing one part, then draw or try to draw the second one to match up.’

Rather then creating a post like a normally do, I decided to try my hand at creating a video to answer his question. This is my first attempt at creating videos, so please be kind. It this works, I could be doing more of these. Tell me what you think.” …

Keep Reading: Video – Splitting a Part in SolidWorks – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 9/6/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Creating Fillets using Hold Lines, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:45:07 +0000

“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 is using Hold Lines with Face Fillets. Hold lines allow you to better control how you fillet your part by specifying the tangent lines for a fillet rather then the radius. Today, we’ll look at two ways hold lines can be used.” …

Keep Reading: Creating Fillets using Hold Lines – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 9/8/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Building a Stapler – Anvil Spring, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:33:58 +0000

“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 and Compressed each represent the three states of the spring, with the Default configuration representing the Free State. So let’s get started with all the fun.” …

Keep Reading: Building a Stapler – Anvil Spring – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 9/12/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Building a Stapler – Arm Spring, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:23:16 +0000

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 spring. So let’s see what we need to do…

Keep Reading: Building a Stapler – Arm Spring – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 9/26/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Using Derived Sketches in Parts, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:05:21 +0000

“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 discuss. Unlike when using Convert Entities, Derived Sketches can be moved anywhere on your part and they will still maintain their reference to the parent sketch. As the parent sketch is updated, each derived sketch is updated regardless of it’s location.” …

Keep Reading: Using Derived Sketches in Parts – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 10/8/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Using Insert Part to Create Derived Parts, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:01:26 +0000

“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 is updated the derived part is updated as well. There a many reasons you may need to use this technique in your usage of SolidWorks. I have seen it used by molders to prepare a model by adding drafts, splits and modifying faces for making the mold tool. I use this technique when I have a purchased part in my design library that I need to make modifications without actually affecting the geometry of the original part.” …

Keep Reading: Using Insert Part to Create Derived Parts – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 10/13/08 on The SolidWorks Geek

Improve Productivity – Use Shortcut Bars, by Alex Ruiz

admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:46:45 +0000

“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 to the CommandManager & Context menus, you should have no need for additional toolbars.”…

Keep Reading: Improve Productivity – Use Shortcut Bars – The SolidWorks Geek.

Published by Alex Ruiz on 5/25/08 on The SolidWorks Geek