SOLIDWORKS beginner modeling training: How to create face fillets
More SOLIDWORKS beginner modeling training, and we’re still working with fillets. In this article, I’m going to show you how to create face fillets. We’ll be working in the modeling environment, not the sketch environment, for creating face fillets. I’ve got a solid body in my graphic area, and I’m going to begin by activating the Fillet command:
Figure 01 – The Fillet command on the Features tab
Let’s take a look at the property manager. From the Fillet Type section, select the Face Fillet radio button:
SOLIDWORKS beginner modeling training
SOLIDWORKS beginner modeling training
Figure 02 – Items to Fillet – select Face Fillet
Now let’s move down to the Items to Fillet section. Left-click in the first selection window and select a face. Then select a second face. The face fillet creates a fillet between 2 faces, so you need to select two faces. The blue face marked highlighted below is Face Set 1. The light purple face is Face Set 2. Both selections will appear by name in the selection windows, as you see below.
SOLIDWORKS beginner modeling training
Figure 03 – our selections – but there is no preview! Uh-oh!
Notice, under the Items to Fillet section, that I have Full preview selected. But, after making my two selections of faces, I should see my usual preview in yellow line. I see nothing, why? Well, first of all, this is my first indication that SOLIDWORKS is unable to calculate the fillet. Let’s start with the first obvious solution to this problem: the fillet radius value. Right under Items to Fillet is the Fillet Parameters section, and let’s make the radius larger in value, say 20 millimeters. And presto, here is my preview pf the new face fillet in yellow line!
SOLIDWORKS beginner modeling training
Figure 04 – The face fillet can be previewed now that we increased the radius value. Hurray!
Let’s click OK to accept this fillet:
SOLIDWORKS beginner modeling training
Figure 05 – left-clicking on the green checkmark at the top of the property manager is how you accept your work.
Reactivate the tool and create another face fillet, using the selections shown below. Notice my first face fillet in the graphic area; you can see what it looks like completed now:
Figure 06 – a preview of our second face fillet, and the first completed fillet.
So, in the screen shot above, the first face I selected is blue in the graphic area (there’s also a blue tag on the selection window) and the second face I selected is pinkish; I called it light purple above, but I guess it’s actually just dark pink? Who knows. If I was good with colors I wouldn’t be doing this stuff. Face 2 is pink in the graphic area, and the selection window for face 2 is also tagged pink. So that’s how I can tell what I selected in which order. Full preview is selected, and in the graphic area I see a preview in heavy yellow line of the fillet; hazzah, for this means SOLIDWORKS is able to generate the fillet using the parameters I’ve just specified. The radius is 20mm.
This concludes part 1 of this article. I’ll publish the accompanying second part tomorrow. Thanks! Rosanna D
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