First thing is first when working with weldments, creating the structural profile. Essentially weldments are bars, pipes, or lengths of items that maintain a standard profile and attach to each other (often via welds). The software comes with a few standards but the exam, and my needs, require making your own. So how are weldment […]

Get a free membership and access SOLIDWORKS tutorials & online training today. Recently the team at Solidworks rolled out another certification test. It popped up on their main blog and the personal site of one of the guys on the certification team, Mike Puckett. This new test covers the weldments features. This looks exciting and

Just looking at what is next on the list to study for. I’ve got a few side projects I plan to work on but there are lingering vouchers for the Mold Tools and Surfacing tests and figured I may as well study for them with what time I do have. Having worked for an injection

Tutorials of creating random sheet metal parts is fun and all but sometimes it’s nice to practice modeling something else. Water Filtration systems are fine, but what I am designing professionally is limited in feature scope. As I built out a library work is becoming more and more a drag and drop routine, which is

Whoa, it’s the last feature of Sheet Metal. Things here are pretty basic, select the feature in the tree or unsuppress it to get the flat pattern of the part. All of the flatten feature options are spelled out nicely in the Help Files, although none of them should effect the results for the exam.

The fold and unfold commands are unique from the flatten command in that they are time dependent. The Flatten feature appears at the end of the tree and can be suppressed and unsuppressed to view the flat pattern, but the fold and unfold features can appear anywhere in the tree. As with other Solidworks features

Form tools are used during the manufacturing process to create unique features on parts. Punched holes, vents, indentions, ribs and plenty of other functional items can all be modeled this way. Typically once a tool is made it is best to design future parts with the same features to eliminate the need for more tools

A sketched bend is one of the easiest ways to change an existing sheet metal part. In a similar fashion to the “Jog” command a sketched bend can create a feature without adding any material. This helps to maintain a conceivable flat pattern without having to create too many relation rules. A one line sketch