What is Solid works? Some General Rules of Thumb

What is Solidworks:

Solidworks is a very productive 3D CAD tool that is used to design 3D designs from 2D drawings. Solidworks is loaded with analytical and design automation tools which help simulate the physical behavior of a design like kinematics, dynamics, stress, and deflection.

Rules Of Thumb:

Some rules shared below can be very basic and some could depend on your taste

General rules of thumb:

1. Do not rename or move a Solidworks file with windows explorer as it might lose its external reference, do it only with Solidworks explorer.
2. Rename a file using Solidworks only when all your Solidworks files are closed.
3. You should create a part or a multibody-part, or sub-assembly for each component you want to appear in the BOM-list of the main assembly drawing.
4. Use a directory or a file management system to store all Solidworks files.
5. Create procedure steps to keep track of the production drawings, parts, and assemblies.
6. In reality, newly designed models are discussed and improved or adjusted before and after manufacturing, so start building your model, while keeping in mind that some features and parts need to be changed later.
7. If your model is easy to change for others too then you can be sure that you have built a good model.

Rules of thumb for sketches:

1. Keep sketches simple and preferably one for each feature.
2. Frequently use the mirror feature and mirror body for symmetry.
3. Use should use “convert entities” and “power trim” instead of sketching new lines.
4. Dimension the entities of the sketches as much as possible as you would like them to have in the drawing.
5. You can rename sketches for easy understanding of the model for others.
6. Do not use “blocks” in sketches, if there is a possibility that you want to update or change the block. Referenced blocks are difficult to update.

Rules of thumb for drawings:

1. Use well-designed templates that suit your “company standards” for your drawings.
2. Use blocks with your standard text, symbols, and shapes as much as possible in Drawings.
3. Use “Layers” for different colors of lines in your drawings.
4. Use display states (created in the assembly), to hide or show components in the drawing.

Polosoft uses Solidworks for providing CAD services. We implement different tips that I have provided herewith many other tips to build you CAD designs matching the industry standards.