I’m liking this topic, so we’re gonna keep going with it till it breaks into a million tiny pieces. Here’s why. I get a bit of emails asking questions about SolidWorks and a lot of them are really good questions that I’d love to turn into posts. So, here’s your chance again to have your question answered.

First Person to Ask a Question!
The first person to asks a question about SolidWorks in the comments below will turn this post into a 100% grade-A tip for everyone to join in on. All I ask, is that it’s not a question like, why does SolidWorks suck or can I put milk in an envelope… this is serious stuff people.

So ask away, chime in if you know the answer, and we’ll crank out another topic that will send people home to their families in a pleasant mood.

The Mystery Question IS…

UPDATE! Chris Chastine asks…
“Does anyone else have trouble motivating their users and getting them to use some more common features? It continues to baffle me why my users still don’t use patterns or hole wizard so that when time comes to work on the assembly they can save themselves hours of sheer torture by not having to place (and keep updated) hundreds of fasteners. I still have users that draw and dimension each and every hole instead of making them all “equal” or using relations to force the design intent.

Before you ask – no, we don’t have modeling standards. And no, I am not a full time CAD Admin, I design during the day and mysteriously transform into an admin during my slower periods.”

Chris, sounds like a tough situations. Let’s see what everyone has to say!

Yesterday my copy of SolidWorks Surfacing by Matt Lombard arrived in the mail from Amazon! My boy likes all the colored images in the book… and I like the colored images in the book. We discussed boundary surface and debated lofting conditions. From first glance, this book is full of insight that will get you…

Oh to have ways of creating models faster. Moving your mouse around really fast-like doesn’t help, gripping your neck and squeezing real hard doesn’t help much either. Sometimes, it’s just what you have in your bag o’ tricks that can get you moving along… or in our case, a library of tricks.

In SolidWorks, you may use the Design Library to store everything from common features to standard assemblies, but what it’s rarely used as, is a library of surface features; surfaces that can be used to aid design. This may feel a little soupy if you’re unfamiliar with surfacing in SolidWorks, but I think you’ll be able to pick up some ideas even if you don’t use surfacing.

To explain, picture this example.

I know, it’s only Tuesday and you’re saying, “Yeeeeah, I typically take my inspiration on Fridays – Thursdays at the earliest to knock some of thoooose projects out over the weekend, m’kay? thanks.” But folks, this just can’t wait, I tell you, and will probably get you through the week completely distracted by your potential……