SOLIDWORKS Assembly design- all you need to know

Ah, SOLIDWORKS assembly design…top down, bottom up, middle of the road approach? How can I edit my features, parts and components once I’ve started putting them all together in an assembly? Looking to figure out how to work in the SOLIDWORKS assesmbly design environment? Click here for our new SOLIDWORKS 2015 tutorials on Assembly.

SOLIDWORKS Assembly Design Playlist

Or you can click here for the same SOLIDWORKS Assembly Design playlist, which shows sample videos from this course.

SOLIDWORKS assembly design by Video-Tutorials.net

Thanks! Rosanna D, VTN

About working with linear patterns in the assembly environment…

The linear pattern tool in the assembly environment works similarly to how it works when you’re part modeling. There are some instances when you’d want to apply a pattern in the assembly design stage rather than during part modeling. For example, if you have a stock component like a bolt or washer that you need to space at intervals along your model, a better place to bring this component into play is during assembly design. For creating linear patterns, you need to choose one or two directions for placing the pattern – so, for example, 5 washers in one direction, times 3 washers in a second direction, makes for a total of 15 washers in the pattern.

You can, let’s say, choose a linear edge as your source of the direction.  You also have to choose, of course, a feature to pattern. This is usually a component that’s in your feature manager design tree, but you’re able to bring in something new if you need to. Other parameters you will set up in the property manager include the number of instances, spacing between the instances, and instances to skip. You can choose to space the instances equally along a certain predetermined length, and you can also choose individual instances to skip. It’s easy to restore the instances if they’ve been skipped.