manufacturing http://www.computersight.com/tags/manufacturing New posts about manufacturing Solidworks Tutorial: How to Draw Circle and Filleted Arc http://www.computersight.com/Software/Solidworks-Tutorial-How-to-Draw-Circle-and-Filleted-Arc.255169 In the first article of my tutorial set, I tought you how to draw linear objects. Those were simply lines and rectangular, that is, the main elements of drawing. In this article, I aim to teach you curves and the simplest closed curve, a circle.

How to Draw a Circle

As a mathematical description, circle is a combination of points with the same length from a fixed point. To draw a circle, two things we need. They are the coordinate of center of the circle and radius or diameter of it. Let's now draw our first circle by Solidworks. Let's draw a circle with a center of origin and a radius of 20 mm.

  1. Click the sketch button to define a plane on which you will draw. Since our drawing is 2D, any plane can be chosen. I choose top plane as a reference plane.
  2. Click the circle button on the toolbar and choose origin as the center point of the circle. Afterthat, drag the circle to the out of the page.
  3. By clicking "smart dimension" button , dimension the radius of circle. Since the radius is 20 mm, specify diameter as 40 mm.

How to Draw Filleted Arcs

To draw filleted arcs, we first need a corner of two intersecting lines. As an example, we will filet one corner of 40x40 mm square. Lets first draw the square by using rectangular button on the toolbar.

  1. Click the fillet button on the toolbar.
  2. Enter the radius of fillet as 5 mm into the fillet parameters space.
  3. Choose the corner point which you want to fillet. Be careful here, you should select the point not the sides you want to fillet. After that, Solidworks automatically dimension the filleted arc. Here is the result.

]]> Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:12:21 PST Why Solidworks? http://www.computersight.com/Programming/Why-Solidworks.238675 Today, engineers and engineering students use many software programs while designing new constructions, mechanisms and systems. Of all those software programs; Autocad, Solidworks, Unigraphics, Catia and Proengineering are the most popular and preferred programs. Autocad is usually used for 2D design. However, others are for 3D design. I've started using Solidworks after one year experience in Autocad. I realized that Autocad sometimes doesn't meet my requirements. I discovered Solidworks and what I would do with the assistance of this program.

Why solidworks? Because it is very easy to use. Eveything is clear in Solidworks. If you know English and have a little computer knowledge and technical information, you can easily learn how to use Solidworks wtihout needing any additional source like books and tutorials. It is very easy to understand the fundementals of SW.

Other plausible reason is that there are many Solidworks books in Bookstores. One can find many resources written in different languages. For me, it is easy to find such sources written both in English and my native language Turkish. Solidworks have been given as two-semester course in most of European and American universities.

Designing starts with 2D in Solidworks. Above all, you should have a knowledge of drawing in 2D. You should be capable of making 2D sketches. You should be capable of forming the main 2D construction of solid systems. Rest is very simple because it goes on with simple extrusion, hole making, cutting, lofting and revolving processes.

Another advantage of Solidworks is that it works well with all versions of Windows operating system. The last version,  SW 2008, is installed and worked on Vista after loading Service Pack of Vista. Without Service Pack, it doesn't run on your system.

To learn how to use Solidworks and how to design systems or just making drawings for fun, follow my tutorial set. My next article will be about simple 3D drawings. In the next articles, you should learn how to draw cylinders, rectangular prisms and cubes with very different dimensions.

In a nutshell, Solidworks is a good way to explain the things in your mind with simple lines and curves.

]]> Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:54:10 PST How to Draw an Oblique Cone http://www.computersight.com/Software/How-to-Draw-an-Oblique-Cone.39711 I am familiar with Key Creator CAD program of KUBOTEK company for 2 years. Key Creator is not a popular program in CAD world. It is beyond of the fame of Autocad.

Since I have been familiar with Key Creator for 2 years, I have drawn many simple and complicated geometries. However, one of my friends claimed that I couldn't draw the solid form of an oblique cone. I stumped when I heard his challenge on my technical drawing capability. It was really difficult to solve such problem but I did. Now, listen and learn how to draw an oblique cone. There may be of course many ways of drawing an oblique cone but I claim that mine is the easiest.

Oblique cone is a cone whose apex are not aligned above the center of the base. First of all we'll determine the exact location of the point of apex. After that, we draw the base circle with its given dimensions. Most of the time we know the radius or the exact location of the center. Then we use the menu of solid drawings. Under create menu we see an option swept. Now push the swept and then loft button. We choose curve-edge option for circle and point option for the point from sub-menu. Then, Key creator applies your command automatically. Look. You draw an oblique cone. The final part is to make a layout for your solid drawing. To do this, press into layout button and choose create instance option. Now you can see the top, front, right and isometric views of your work on the screen. How simple how easy.

I wish life could be as easy as drawing an object.

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