[bootstrap]

ALERT: I'm a newbie at solidworks. Perhaps I'm a moron.

In fact, I must be a moron, because I cannot even get a $4500 piece of trashware to do one of the most basic things possible... position a freaking hole on an extruded plate. I've watched video tutorials of this being done, and it sure doesn't work for me. All I can imagine is, the tutorials are with slightly older version of solidworks than the 2010 version. But I've spent freaking hours and hours and hours trying to dimension or smart-dimension these holes to place them where they need to be, and I've started over and over and over and created new parts dozens of times. I cannot believe a supposedly "intuitive" piece of software can be this impossible to accomplish the most trivial task! So, "it must be me", but "it can't be me" and "it can't be this difficult".

I attach the last iteration in attached file "hole.zip". I placed 8 holes, but I cannot dimension them or smart dimension them. In most cases it hides the little dots or stars in the center of the hole that I need to dimension to. When it doesn't I still can't do what I need, and right-clicking pops up a menu without any kind of "dimension" option (which is otherwise usually available).

I'm fried. I'm going to give up on solidworks if I can't do something this simple. Please, someone, explain what I'm doing wrong. This is just completely insane like TwilightZone! Thanks.

[DareBee]

Well you have me confused.

Took me less than 3 minutes (including download, unzip, open SW, add dims, screen capture and repost).

- Right click sketch3 under CBORE
- select edit sketch
- initiate smart dim
- add dimensions/relations to the points
- done

What is it doing for you

[kelef]

hi'ya bootstrap, check out the tutorials that come with SW 2010, for the basics, they make work more fun when you get what you're looking for-and to get further skills and deeper instructions try "SolidWorks Tutorial By Magnitude" hope you get more fun and less Twilight :rainfro::rainfro::rainfro: kman

[bootstrap]

Thanks for your help. You have helped, but I'm still struggling to get anywhere. I managed to position the holes where I wanted, but it was like pulling teeth. Probably the main thing I was missing, usually, was right clicking CBORE and selecting edit sketch. I don't know why I need to do that, but hey.

Even when I eventually make something happen that I need to happen, later I go back to try it again and usually I need to struggle and fiddle and flail around endlessly to find some combination of jerking around that finally works. And I'm flailing so aimlessly that I have no freaking idea what I finally did to make it work, that I'm not learning anything and not able to come back later and make it work again... without hours of flailing again. This is just utterly absurd.

When I watch the tutorials the mouse cursor is flying around the screen at the speed of light and stuff is appearing and changing almost like the mind of the demonstrator was making it happen. The cursor is usually bouncing around so fast I can't tell which icons and buttons it is flying over and which it clicked as it passed over. Sometimes I plate the same 5 seconds over and over about 20 times, but I still can't make happen what is happening for them. Maybe that's because their version of solidworks appears to be roughly 2 years older, but I can't believe it is that different. Their GUI sure doesn't look much different.

Clearly I must be missing some basic principle or "logic" to "what's going on" and the relationships involved in the solidworks software. I've read several introductory documents about solidworks, watched hours and hours of video tutorials where they mouse cursor is just flying around the screen like crazy and stuff is happening effortlessly for the tutor. But I can't even reproduce what they're doing because everything happens so fast I can't even tell which things the mouse has passed over and which it has clicked along the way. Sometimes I replay the same 5 seconds 20 or 30 times and still can't figure out what they're doing that I'm not... or what step they performed 2 minutes before that I haven't done.

Clearly I need to understand something that is not explained, but is assumed is "obvious to everyone". This pisses me off to no end, because I develop software applications so I'm not a complete dummy. And I created two 3D video game engines for companies that are in commercially released video games, so I understand 3D better than 99.99999999% of the population. So something stinks like crazy about solidworks and/or its "training" and/or its "documentation". Whatever it is that I'm missing cannot be so obvious that they need not mention it to novices! That I cannot believe. I mean sure... I can be as stupid as anyone sometimes. But this is just beyond absurd.

So what is it? I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the existence of too many different "categories" of "entities" in solidworks, how they relate to each other, and how we manage to work with them.

Like the stupid holes, for instance. I finally did position them correctly, but I followed the advice somebody here gave me about "design intent" and put down some "construction lines" on my sketch under where the center line of the linear bearings and their holes would go. So I kept trying to dimension from the center of the counterbore hole to the construction line, but it would never freaking work... it would not recognize the construction line was there as far as I could tell. Now eventually I got it to work, but I don't know how. I do know that I could only get it to work when I chose a "horizontal" or "vertical" dimension. But even then usually I couldn't select the center of the freaking hole and then the damn construction line. One or the other, but not both. Finally I managed it, somehow, but I still don't know what flailing around I had to do to achieve it.

I had similar problems trying to mirror the holes for the four linear bearings. Each linear bearing has 4 bold holes, and I have one linear bearing in each corner of the 200mm square extruded plate. So to try to design correctly according to my "design intent", I mirrored the 4 holes around the vertical centerline, then mirrored those 8 holes around the horizontal centerline. But that was impossible to do with "mirror entities" or whatever it is called. After driving myself insane yet again, I happened upon something just called "mirror" and not "mirror entities". I was finally able to make that do what I wanted, after a bunch of fiddling around. Again I had trouble because usually when I selected the holes, then clicked on the horizontal and vertical construction lines through the middle of the plate, solidworks did not recognize those lines... as if they were inactive or something. As usual, after flailing around for a few more years all of a sudden I was able to click those horizontal and vertical lines and mirror the selected holes with the "mirror" button/command/whateveritis.

I am so tired of this BS. I could be learning, but I'm not. Once I manage to get something to work, I cannot go back and make it work again. Some very fundamental "logic" or "sense" of solidworks is escaping me. I assumed it had something to do with "activating" or "editing" the layer or entity or whatever they're called in that tree hierarchy no the left edge... but it clearly isn't as simple as that either.

Once I got the 16 holes in the "xaxis_base" plate I tried to make an assembly and place the four linear bearing pillow blocks in the 4 corners where they belong. Ha. Fat chance! I inserted the "xaxis_base" part, which does appear. Then I inserted the "20mm bore linear ball bearing pillow block" part, which also appears. When the linear bearing initially appears I can move it around. But once I clicked (or something) and let it go... from then on I couldn't find any way to rotate or translate just the linear bearing! Yet another totally frustrating piece of annoyance courtesy solidworks. I tried everything... well, everything except what is obvious to you all and totally invisible to me. I tried double clicking the part, right clicking the part, selecting the part, screaming and hollering at solidworks, threatening solidworks, throwing rocks through my LCD screen at solidworks... nothing helps. Okay, I didn't go quite that far, but I felt like it.

I started another assembly and tried again, and this time I tried to place the linear bearing pillow block where it belonged before I let it go. That was futile because the arrow keys only let me move the linear bearing along two axes, and obviously I needed three. And the damn thing just goes right on through the "xaxis_base" plate so there's no way I could ever get it positioned exactly right anyway. And I didn't see any hint that solid works saw that the 4 M6 counterbore holes in the "xaxis_base" plate exactly corresponded and aligned with the 4 M6 threaded holes in the linear bearing. So I see no way to help me get that exactly positioned and aligned... and in fact also get the 16 M6 bolts stuck through the "xaxis_base" plate into the holes in the bearings to hold them down. And again, I did not find anything sufficiently helpful in the tutorials or solidworks help. I must say though, any search on solidworks help generates 27 million matches of which at least 26.99999 million are useless. So who knows.

I appreciate the help I'm getting here, but I wish you knew what is the missing link of information that's preventing me from getting anywhere with solidworks. I attach a ZIP file with the "xaxis_base" and "linear bearing" in case that helps you understand how trivial are the things I'm trying to do.

And if any of you solidworks geniuses is anywhere near southern Nevada, you could make my day, week, month and year by watching me try to accomplish things. I mean, you're guaranteed to love it. You'll be rolling around on the floor laughing so hard you might pass out. But when you come to again, you must show me the utterly trivial thing I'm forgetting to do in each case. But most important, maybe you'll figure out what fundamental principle or piece of information that I'm missing that's screwing me up so badly. What a relief that would be! Or maybe solidworks just sucks as badly as it looks to me.

[kelef]

hi'ya bootstrap, see zip, if that's the way you're going I'll write up a step by step and e-mail it to you - later:rainfro::rainfro::rainfro: kman

[CNC Lurker]

<snip>
Clearly I need to understand something that is not explained, but is assumed is "obvious to everyone". This pisses me off to no end, because I develop software applications so I'm not a complete dummy. And I created two 3D video game engines for companies that are in commercially released video games, so I understand 3D better than 99.99999999% of the population. So something stinks like crazy about solidworks and/or its "training" and/or its "documentation". Whatever it is that I'm missing cannot be so obvious that they need not mention it to novices! That I cannot believe. I mean sure... I can be as stupid as anyone sometimes. But this is just beyond absurd.

<snip>
Or maybe solidworks just sucks as badly as it looks to me.

As a fps gamer, I'd like to know what game engines did you create?

Whatever you learned about 3D as far as gaming goes, throw that away and start with an empty pot because 3D CAD is a different creature altogether. Have you tried the step-by-step tutorials in SW? Not the videos, but the ones in the Help menu. It is text-based andy you don't go to the next step until you hit "Next".

[giz]

bootstrap - I work technical support for solidworks and I'd be willing to help you out. I realize how difficult it can be when you first start the program.

If you shoot me an email at treid[at]goengineer[dot]com we can set up a remote session. I can watch what you are doing, give some advice, and answer any questions you have.

[bostosh]

Boots, My sympathies with the lament

"Clearly I must be missing some basic principle or "logic" to "what's going on" and the relationships involved in the solidworks software."

Solidworks is not intuitive. Well maybe after years of prior experience.

I have taught this Cad stuff to many different personalities, And realize sometimes there is a point of frustration. I call it the bloody forehead problem which comes from beating one's head against the screen, (back in the days of 21" CRT's),

I would like to know more about your end of the CAD biz.
Maya and Bryce type cad's

I can offer experience to the pencil days.

[csangster]

Bootstrap,

I wouldn't be so hard on yourself, holes in Solidworks is actually one of the more 'tricky' features.

But once you know the 'trick' it isn't that bad.

So you have a body that you want to put a hole on.

If you have a flat face that you want a hole pattern, draw a sketch on that face with points at the locations where you want the holes. Constrain this sketch fully with all the necessary dimensions so that it doesn't float around on you. Exit this sketch. It will now appear grayed out but still visible on your part.

Hit the Hole Wizard icon.

This will open the dialog box for creating whatever hole you desire, C-bore, C-sink, threaded for insert, pipe thread........whatever you desire.

In the dialog box there are two tabs, one is for creating you hole type, the other is for positioning your hole. When you are ready to position your holes, select the 'positions' tab and select your points in the sketch that you created earlier. The hole wizard will automatically constrain the holes to this sketch.

If you are putting holes on a cylindrical surface the process is a bit different but still just as easy.

For holes on a cylindrical surface (or other type of non-planar surface), instead of creating a sketch on a surface, create reference axes that pass through the centerline of where you want your holes.

Go through the Hole Wizard process again, selecting your hole type and then select the positions tab. Since there is no 'sketch' to select hole centers on, you will just need to put the holes on the surface of interest. The Hole Wizard will constrain the hole geometry to that surface, but it just doesn't know exactly where you want the hole yet.

Once the holes are on the surface hit okay and exit the Hole Wizard.

In your feature tree you will now see the 'Hole feature'.

Expand this hole feature and you will see two sketches, one sketch is a 3D sketch that controls the location of the hole, and one sketch controls the geometry of the hole.

Edit the 3D sketch that controls the location of the hole. With this sketch open you will see that the 'point' for the hole is un-constrained with no dimensions. To put the holes exactly where you want them edit this sketch and constrain the point of the hole location to the reference axis that you created for the centerline of the hole.

The holes will now be constrained to the surface and the centerline.

Let me know if this helps,

Chris

ALERT: I'm a newbie at solidworks. Perhaps I'm a moron.

In fact, I must be a moron, because I cannot even get a $4500 piece of trashware to do one of the most basic things possible... position a freaking hole on an extruded plate. I've watched video tutorials of this being done, and it sure doesn't work for me. All I can imagine is, the tutorials are with slightly older version of solidworks than the 2010 version. But I've spent freaking hours and hours and hours trying to dimension or smart-dimension these holes to place them where they need to be, and I've started over and over and over and created new parts dozens of times. I cannot believe a supposedly "intuitive" piece of software can be this impossible to accomplish the most trivial task! So, "it must be me", but "it can't be me" and "it can't be this difficult".

I attach the last iteration in attached file "hole.zip". I placed 8 holes, but I cannot dimension them or smart dimension them. In most cases it hides the little dots or stars in the center of the hole that I need to dimension to. When it doesn't I still can't do what I need, and right-clicking pops up a menu without any kind of "dimension" option (which is otherwise usually available).

I'm fried. I'm going to give up on solidworks if I can't do something this simple. Please, someone, explain what I'm doing wrong. This is just completely insane like TwilightZone! Thanks.

[DareBee]

Bootstrap,

I wouldn't be so hard on yourself, holes in Solidworks is actually one of the more 'tricky' features.

But once you know the 'trick' it isn't that bad.

So you have a body that you want to put a hole on.

If you have a flat face that you want a hole pattern, draw a sketch on that face with points at the locations where you want the holes. Constrain this sketch fully with all the necessary dimensions so that it doesn't float around on you. Exit this sketch. It will now appear grayed out but still visible on your part.

Hit the Hole Wizard icon.

This will open the dialog box for creating whatever hole you desire, C-bore, C-sink, threaded for insert, pipe thread........whatever you desire.

In the dialog box there are two tabs, one is for creating you hole type, the other is for positioning your hole. When you are ready to position your holes, select the 'positions' tab and select your points in the sketch that you created earlier. The hole wizard will automatically constrain the holes to this sketch.

If you are putting holes on a cylindrical surface the process is a bit different but still just as easy.

For holes on a cylindrical surface (or other type of non-planar surface), instead of creating a sketch on a surface, create reference axes that pass through the centerline of where you want your holes.

Go through the Hole Wizard process again, selecting your hole type and then select the positions tab. Since there is no 'sketch' to select hole centers on, you will just need to put the holes on the surface of interest. The Hole Wizard will constrain the hole geometry to that surface, but it just doesn't know exactly where you want the hole yet.

Once the holes are on the surface hit okay and exit the Hole Wizard.

In your feature tree you will now see the 'Hole feature'.

Expand this hole feature and you will see two sketches, one sketch is a 3D sketch that controls the location of the hole, and one sketch controls the geometry of the hole.

Edit the 3D sketch that controls the location of the hole. With this sketch open you will see that the 'point' for the hole is un-constrained with no dimensions. To put the holes exactly where you want them edit this sketch and constrain the point of the hole location to the reference axis that you created for the centerline of the hole.

The holes will now be constrained to the surface and the centerline.

Let me know if this helps,

Chris

Chris is doing holes the "hard way".
This method is good for non-flat surfaces where 3D positions are needed.
The 3D sketch gives you very limited options/flexibility for constraining the sketch points.

Simpler way is to keep all sketches 2d.
- Select the desired flat surface first
- click hole wizard
- select hole type etc.
- go to positions tab (there will already be a point where you clicked the surface, IMO this is retarded because it is always an arbitrary location and must be moved or deleted, but whatever).
- add needed points (I like to do this first because it is automatically initiated and I am often picking holes that already exist on mating parts, boom, fully constrained).
- use dimensions, relations and construction geometry to constrain the points (most of us design geometric parts, I use a lot of mirror and patterning functionality to be intuitive and save (future) time.


If you do any assemblies, and decide to change them in the future, this is where the BIG learning comes in.
Most people have GREAT difficulty designing something intuitive and adaptive to change. Especially when one dimension change effects a dozen other parts. Get ready for severe cursing (wedge).
This is the massive advantage to this software, also the hardest to master. Get it wrong, you might as well be using that archaic stick drawing program that so many people love :drowning: - Get it right, and one click transforms a whole machine, ready for production, can save 100s of thousands of $.

[csangster]

Chris is doing holes the "hard way".
This method is good for non-flat surfaces where 3D positions are needed.
The 3D sketch gives you very limited options/flexibility for constraining the sketch points.

Simpler way is to keep all sketches 2d.
- Select the desired flat surface first
- click hole wizard
- select hole type etc.
- go to positions tab (there will already be a point where you clicked the surface, IMO this is retarded because it is always an arbitrary location and must be moved or deleted, but whatever).
- add needed points (I like to do this first because it is automatically initiated and I am often picking holes that already exist on mating parts, boom, fully constrained).
- use dimensions, relations and construction geometry to constrain the points (most of us design geometric parts, I use a lot of mirror and patterning functionality to be intuitive and save (future) time.


If you do any assemblies, and decide to change them in the future, this is where the BIG learning comes in.
Most people have GREAT difficulty designing something intuitive and adaptive to change. Especially when one dimension change effects a dozen other parts. Get ready for severe cursing (wedge).
This is the massive advantage to this software, also the hardest to master. Get it wrong, you might as well be using that archaic stick drawing program that so many people love :drowning: - Get it right, and one click transforms a whole machine, ready for production, can save 100s of thousands of $.

Either way the real solution for you would be to try different ways out, and see which way works best for you. Then you will be the most efficient.

Enjoy,
Chris

[bootstrap]

IMPORTANT: Thanks much to everyone helping me. I very much appreciate it. And thanks for the offers of personal one-on-one help. I appreciate that too, and I might take advantage of it at some point. But I generally work on solidworks late at night through dawn. Plus your answers here will help a lot more people who find this thread days, weeks, months, years later.

I have made progress. I can't say that I understand the underlying logic or sense of solidworks much better, but somehow (I'm not sure how) I seem to take less flailing around to accomplish basics things now. I wish I could say it was conscious understanding, but it's subconscious so far.

I attach ZIP files that contain the parts and assemblies for the device I'm trying to design, in case you need to see them to understand my questions. I can now position holes. Hurray! I now have lots of holes, in fact, probably too many (nothing I can't fix/delete later... ehhh... hopefully).

Here are my current problems:

My "master assembly" (filename "xaxis_assembly_0002.sldasm") is simply two copies of a "stand assembly" (filename "xaxis_stand_0003.sldasm") and one copy of a "plate assembly" (filename "xaxis_plate_0005.sldasm").

Each of these assemblies contains a few of my simple parts, plus a few "standard parts" that are commercially available components that I found CAD files for on the internet, then converted into solidworks parts (linear bearings and socket head cap screws AKA hex bolts). I'll include all the necessary parts in case you want to fiddle.

My problems:

----------

#1: I stupidly named one of my parts the same as the assembly it is in. Of course the extents distinguish them, but I find that confusing and want to change the part name (filename "xaxis_plate_0001.sldprt") to (filename: "xaxis_base_0001.sldprt"). However, I have not found a way to tell solidworks to substitute one part for another. It appears I could edit the part within the assembly, but I don't know whether I can then save the part with a different filename or not, and what the consequences of that might be.

So my first question is, how do I tell solidworks to "substitute xaxis_base_0001.sldprt for xaxis_plate_0005.sldprt withing assembly xaxis_plate_0001.sldasm"... without destroying any mates with other assemblies in the assembly files?

----------

#2: When I mated the shafts through the linear bearings in xaxis_plate_0005.sldasm I connected them with "concentric" mates. And sure enough, I can indeed grab the shaft and slide it back and forth in the linear bearings when I am editing these parts in that assembly.

However, in the complete assembly, that should mean I can slide the whole "xaxis_plate_0005.sldasm" assembly back and forth on those shafts, right?

Well, I can't. Why not? I did attach the end faces of the shafts to the appropriate faces in the "xaxis_end_0005.sldprt" end pieces in the "xaxis_stand_0003.sldasm" assembly, but that should only fix the shafts, not prevent the linear bearings in the "xaxis_plate_0002.sldasm" assembly from sliding on those shafts, because I specified no "mate" between the shaft and linear bearings except concentricity.

But when I try to slide it with the "triad", it complains saying it is "fully defined". Not by me it wasn't! At least not intentionally.

----------

#3: Now that I have assemblies, what is the best way to edit component parts (or component assemblies)? It feels "unnatural" to edit them while I'm in the master assembly, or even one of the sub-assemblies. So my tendency is to close the assembly, load up the part, edit it as a part, then save it, then reload the assembly again.

This gets me into the problem that I mentioned in question #1 above. When I save the part, I tend to increment the 4-digit number on the end, which is my "version number". I tend to avoid working with one unchanging part name from beginning to end, because if I decide "whoops, the way i was doing it before was better", then I can go back and pick up where I left off with the old part.

In other words, I'm not editing in a way that leaves no trace of "how I got here". Yes, I could make a copy of the file in windows explorer and add a suffix there, and that's what I may need to do if solidworks won't let me substitute newer versions of parts with a new filename into already created assemblies.

----------

#4: If you open the files, take a look through the hierarchy and see if you see anything that looks "wrong" or "stupid" or "inefficient". I tried to take into account "design intent", but in some cases I didn't like what solidworks did, and ignored that.

For example, I have two versions of the "leg" part that are pure mirror images of each other. First I made the mirror image leg the way solidworks says I should, but the tree looked totally wacko, not nearly as clean as my first part. So I just created a whole new mirror image leg from scratch.

Which raises a point. I think I can see benefit to the solidworks way... but only in some situations. The solidworks way looks like if I change the original leg, the mirror image leg would change too. Sometimes that's what you'd want to happen. But sometimes not. For example, maybe one side needs an etched or machined in logo or something.

In these very common cases where you want to create a mirror image part, but then continue on making changes to one or both parts, then what I wanted is more appropriate. And what I wanted was a whole new clean clone copy of my original part, except an exact mirror image without clutter in the tree, or connections in the tree to the other part.

----------

#5: I have about 23 gazillion bolts in these assemblies, and I had to insert them one by one, obviously because I'm stupid (and couldn't find any way to tell solidworks "insert 23 of these bolts [in a row] and I'll position them myself later". Obviously solidworks supports this... I just don't see it. Where is it?

----------

#6: In the tree hierarchy of each assembly, it seems like the first sub assembly always has "(f)" before the name. What does that mean? This pattern also exists within assemblies that contain only parts... the first part always has "(f)" before the name. Why?

----------

#7: I see all the bolts in the assemblies have a "(-)" before the name. What does that mean?

----------

#8: While I can live with the big square hole in the xaxis_plate part, I was intending to only put the square about 2/3 of the way through from the bottom, then put a smaller circle all the way through.

But just by adding the square to the sketch (recently, long after the plate was otherwise finished), the square somehow automatically went all the way through. And I didn't do anything except add the square to the sketch. Same with that circle next to the square.

Why did that happen?

If I had to do what I said, how do I prevent adding a square to a sketch from making that square punch through everything on the 3D plate the sketch the plate was extruded from?

----------

#9: Next I need to create a zaxis linear bearing assembly standing on end across the middle of the xaxis plate. Because fitting everything in the whole assembly is rather tricky with the linear bearings and shafts and everything in the way, I prefer to work on that particular part incrementally while it is positioned on the xaxis plate assembly (or better yet, on the whole shebang assembly).

I assume I just make a simple startup zaxis part, add that to the assembly, and then start moving it around and then modifying it while the assembly is still there and visible. I haven't really tried this for real yet, because when I initially tried this it seemed like "things changed" and I was afraid I'd screw up my whole assembly.

So I guess I'm asking for suggestions and warnings and tips about working in this mode. What should I do, not do, be careful of, etc. Or just "forget it"?

----------

That's all I can think of at the moment. Hopefully I included all the files in the three attached ZIP files. I think so. Let me know if not and I'll edit the post and add whatever is missing. And thanks for all the help.

[bootstrap]

I attach a single ZIP file to this message to replace the three ZIP files attached to my previous message.

Everything is pretty much the same except the current ZIP file has no duplicate parts (easier to unzip) and more importantly has a first cut of the zaxis assembly and parts.

#1: The main assembly filename is: "papec_assembly_0003.sldasm". This is the file to open to see "everything" put together (the other 4 assemblies).

#2: The zaxis assembly has the same problem as the xaxis assembly. Though I was able to slide the shafts through the linear bearings in the zaxis assembly file (with the triad tool), they will not slide when the zaxis assembly is part of the entire device.

#3: A new question. When you slide the shafts or endpieces attached to the shaft back and forth in the zaxis assembly you can shove them past where the limits should be (where metal hits metal). Is there an easy way, or any way, to limit the travel so that can't happen in the assembly?

Otherwise my questions remain the same as the previous message.

Thanks to everyone who has my back! :wave:

[kelef]

hi'ya bootstrap, see zip, is this what you're tryin' for-check mates for asys and advance mates distance. right click in tree and set component properties of each assy to (-)flexible not (f)fixed/rigid kman:rainfro::rainfro::rainfro:

[JerryFlyGuy]

Bootstrap by far the easiest way to answer all of these questions is to simply get in touch 1 on 1 w/ someone. I've found Skype to work very well [its free for everyone] and in connecting this way [and showing one's desktop] alot of these questions could be answered in minutes [faster than it takes to make models and type answers].

I've been running SW since 2002 and would gladdly hook up w/ you and run down some of your questions.

SW is intuitive, but you have to approach things from a CAD mindset. It's alot different modeling in 3D CAD vs 3D Visual art.


My Skype nick is the same as it appears here.. just shoot me a chat and I'd be glad to setup a time.

Fwiw

[DSutton]

Bootstrap
Jerry is probably right but I’ll take a stab at it.

It would help to know what version of Solidworks you are using as things change from version to version.

1. When in the assembly in question, right click on the part you wish to replace. In the popup window select “replace component” (You might have to click the chevron at the bottom of the window to expand it.) A dialog box will open allowing to choose the replacement. Be advised if the replacement part is in any way different from the original your constraints will go sick and you will have to redo them. See answer 3 for another method of doing this.

2. Expanding kelef’s answer, in the feature tree click on the subassembly you which to change. In the box that pops up, the right button in the top row will take you to the component properties dialog window. In that window, in the lower right hand corner check the “flexible” button, click OK and now you will be able to drag the bearings. Be careful as this will allow you to drag them into outer space. To remedy this you can place a dimension constraint between one of the bearing housings and the face plate. You then can edit this constraint to place the assembly where you want it.

3. To edit parts there is no need to close the assembly. Click on the part you wish to edit. In the popup window the left button on the top row will open the part. Edit as necessary then save and close the part. You will be back in the assembly and your part will reflect the edit.
To edit the part and give it a new number do the following:
a. Open the part as described above
b. BEFORE changing anything, do a “file >save as” and give it your new number and close the file. Your assembly will now reflect the new number. (Make sure the “save as copy” box in the lower left corner is NOT checked)
c. Reopen the file as above, edit as necessary, save and close.
You still stand the chance of losing constraints if you delete a feature your original part was constrained to.

4. This is where the design intent comes into play. If you know the parts will always be right and left then use mirror. If one hand or the other needs to have additional features the you can break the link between the parts. This will allow you to add features without the other part updating. To break the link, open the MIRRORED part. Right click on the part number in the feature tree. In the popup window select ”list external refs”. This will open a dialog box where you can break the link. Note that this permanent and cannot be undone

5. When you need to place multiple parts do the following:
a. Browse to the bolt you wish to insert
b. BEFORE you click to place the bolt on the screen, click on the push pin in the upper left hand corner (next to the green check and red X, assuming you browser is on the left)
Now click on the screen 23 gazillion times and you will have lots of bolts.
If your bolts are going to be equally spaced, just place the first one and use the pattern command to set the rest.

As an aside, you could have used pattern to place the holes in your “axis plate”. Put a hole in the upper left hand corner. Pattern that hole two across and two down. Use the pattern command again, patterning that pattern two across and two down.

6. The first part placed in an assembly will be fixed at the assembly origin, hence the “F”. If you wish this not to be the case, right click on the part and select “float” you will now be able to move the part willy nilly if you want.

7. Not sure but I think that means these parts are from the content center (or library or whatever it’s called)

8. This is going to be hard to explain without lots of pictures but I will try.
This happened because you changed sketch 1 and added two more closed contours. ( the square and the circle) Solidworks chose not to extrude those contours. To fix this, edit sketch 1 and do the following:
a. Right click (or left) on Boss-Extrude1. In the popup window, upper left button, edit feature. The part turns translucent with the exception of the square and circle.
b. In the dialog that opens you will see at the bottom “selected contours” Click the chevron on the right to expand this box.
c. Hover the mouse pointer over the square and it will turn red (or some other color depending on your settings)
d. Now click, everything goes to hell. Hover over the circle until it changes color then click, we’re gaining. Now hover somewhere over the rest of the face and click again.
e. Click the green check and now we are solid again.

But wait, my counter bore has died. This is because you modified the face the hole was placed on. To fix this, click on sketch3, middle button top row “edit sketch plane”. Click on the face where your hole was originally placed(face2), click on the green check and we are all better.

Now, to cut the square part way thru the plate. Click “extrude cut” button. Click on one of the edges of the square. The cut-extrude box pops up. Go through the “select contour” bit again (select the square). Most likely you will se an arrow pointing in the wrong direction. To fix this, click on the red-black arrow button on the left side under “direction 1”. Once the direction is OK edit the third box down (depth) to the desired depth. Click the green arrow.
Now you can either start a sketch or place a hole on the bottom face of the square.

Another way of doing this would be to start a new sketch for the square. This can be done by clicking on the face and selecting the second button on the bottom row in the popup window.

9. Sounds like a good idea to me.

The biggest tip I can give you is to backup often and save even more often.
Regards _ Dale