Introduction

SolidWorks as a topic of learning is a huge, sprawling expanse. There is a lot to know, and a lot to write about. While I have made every effort to be complete in this book, I'm sure there are some niche topics that have gone untreated. New in 2011, I have taken this book from a single volume of an immense scope to two individual volumes, each still fairly large, one covering parts and part drawings, and the other covering assemblies and assembly drawings. There is some overlap and some gray area between these topics, but I have tried to divide the material in the way that makes the most sense and divides the material evenly. It is certainly recommended for you to get both volumes for your reference.

This book is primarily meant as an encyclopedic desk reference for SolidWorks Standard users who want a more thorough understanding of the software and process than can be found in other available documentation. As such, it is not necessarily intended to be a guide for beginners, although it has elements of that. Nor is it necessarily intended as a classroom guide, but I have seen people use it for that as well.

Possibly the most controversial aspect of the book is that it is not filled with step-by-step tutorials (although there are some). Tutorials have their place, and I believe they are best suited for beginners. You are only a beginner for a short period of time, so this book tries to aim more at intermediate users, and it does so with a more conceptual approach to explaining functionality. I attempt to help you make the decisions about how to apply the tools to your tasks rather than demonstrating simple tasks that you will never need to do again. You will not learn to model a teapot in this book, because in your work, knowing how to model a teapot will probably not help you. You will, however, learn how to make decisions which should enable you to model just about anything you want, including teapots.

To keep the size of the book down, I have tried to avoid topics found only in SolidWorks Professional or Premium, although some discussion of these topics was in places unavoidable.

While the book does point out limitations, bugs and conceptual errors in the software, and from time to time ventures into the realm of opinion, in every case this is meant to give the reader a more thorough understanding of the software and how it is applied in the context of everyday design or engineering practice.

The overall goal of this book is not to fill your head with facts, but to help you think like the software, so that you can use the tool as an intuitive extension of your own process. As your modeling projects get more complex, you will need to have more troubleshooting and workaround skills available to you. Along with best practice recommendations, these are the most compelling reasons to study this book.

Thank you for your interest.

About This Book

You will find enough information here that the book can grow with your SolidWorks needs. I have written tutorials for most of the chapters with newer users in mind, because for them, it is most helpful to see how things are done in SolidWorks step by step. The longer narrative examples give more in-depth information about features and functions, as well as the results of various settings and options.

This book includes many details that come from practical usage and is focused on the needs of professional users, not on student learners. My approach is to teach concepts rather than button pushes.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is divided into six parts.

Part I: Introducing SolidWorks Basics

This part explores basic concepts and terminology used in SolidWorks. You need to read this section if you are new to the software and especially if you are new to 3D modeling or parametric history-based design.

Part II: Building Intelligence into Your Parts

This part takes a deeper look at creating parametric relations to automate changes.

Part III: Creating Part Drawings

This part examines the functionality within the 2D drawing side of the software. Whether you are creating views, making tables, or customizing annotations, these chapters have something for everyone.

Part IV: Using Advanced Techniques

This part examines several types of advanced techniques, such as surface modeling and multi-body modeling. This is information you won't find in other SolidWorks books, explained here by someone who uses the functionality daily.

Part V: Working with Specialized Functionality

Specialized functionality such as sheet metal,, and plastics, requires detailed information. Part V includes these topics because they are key to unlocking all the power available in SolidWorks.

Part VI: Appendixes

The appendixes in this book contain information that was not appropriate in the main body of the text, such as the contents of the DVD and other sources of help.

Icons Used in This Book

This book uses a set of icons to point out certain details in the text. While they are relatively self-explanatory, here is what each of these icons indicates:

The SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible is unique in its use of these two icons:

These icons point out and describe techniques and settings that are either recommended or not recommended for specific reasons. Best Practice is usually considered to be very conservative usage, where the stability of the parametrics and performance (a euphemism for rebuild speed) are the ultimate goals. These two aspects of SolidWorks models are usually weighed against modeling speed (how long it takes you to create the model).

You should take Best Practice and Performance recommendations seriously, but you should treat them as guidelines rather than as rules. When it comes right down to it, the only hard and fast rule about SolidWorks is that there are no hard and fast rules. In fact, I believe that the only reason to have rules in the first place is so that you know when you can break them. Parametric stability and modeling speed are not always the ultimate goals and are often overridden when work-around techniques are used simply to accomplish a geometric goal.

Because not everyone models with the same goals in mind, a single set of rules can never apply for everyone. You must take the best practice suggestions and apply them to your situation using your own judgment.

My point of view while writing this book has been that of someone who is actually using the software, not of someone trying to sell ideas, nor of someone trying to make the software look good, or even that of an academic trying to make a beautiful argument. I try to approach the software objectively as a tool, recognizing that complex tools are good at some things and not so good at others. Both kinds of information (good and not-so-good) are useful to the reader. Pointing out negatives in this context should not be construed as criticizing the SolidWorks software, but rather as preparing the reader for real-world use of the software. Any tool this complex is going to have imperfections. Hopefully some of my enthusiasm for the software also shows through and is to some extent contagious.

Terminology

An important concept referred to frequently in SolidWorks is design intent. As a practical matter, I use the phrase design for change to further distinguish design intent from other design goals.

The reader needs to be familiar with some special terminology before continuing. In many cases, I use a SolidWorks vernacular or slang when the official terminology is either not descriptive enough or, as is sometimes the case, has multiple meanings. For example, the word shortcut has multiple meanings in the SolidWorks interface. It is used to describe right mouse button menus as well as hotkeys. As a result, I have chosen not to use the word shortcut and instead substitute the words RMB and hotkey.

I frequently use RMB to refer to right mouse button menus, or other data that you access by clicking the right mouse button on an item. The word tree refers to the list of features in the FeatureManager.

Differences are frequently found between the names of features on toolbars and the names in the tool tips, menus or PropertyManager titles. In these cases, the differences are usually minor, and either name may be used.

Most functions in SolidWorks can work with either the object-action or the action-object scenarios. These are also called pre-select and select, respectively. The Fillet feature shows no difference between using pre-selection and selection, although for some fillet options such as face fillet, pre-select is not enabled. Most features allow pre-selection, and some functions, such as inserting a design table, require pre-selection. Although you cannot identify a single rule that covers all situations, most functions accept both.

Frequently in this book, I have suggested enhancement requests that the reader may want to make. This is because SolidWorks development is driven to a large extent by customer requests, and if a large number of users converge on a few issues, then those issues are more likely to be fixed or changed. Again, the enhancement request suggestions are not made to criticize the software, but to make it better. I hope that several of you will join me in submitting enhancement requests.

SolidWorks is an extremely powerful modeling tool, very likely with the best combination of power and accessibility on the MCAD market today. This book is meant to help you take advantage of its power in your work and even hobbyist applications. If I could impart only a single thought to all readers of this book, it would be that with a little curiosity and some imagination, you can begin to access the power of SolidWorks for geometry creation and virtual product prototyping. You should start with the assumption that there is a way to do what you are imagining, and that you should be open to using different techniques.

Whoever you are, I hope that you find insight deeper than simply “what does this button do?” in this book. I hope that you will find an intuition for thinking like the software. Jeff Ray, CEO of the SolidWorks Corporation, has said that the goal is to make the software as “intuitive as a light switch.” While most people will agree that they have some work left to achieve that particular goal, I believe that approaching the interface intuitively, rather than attempting to remember it all by rote, is the best method. Good luck to you all.

Contacting the Author

You might want to contact me for some reason. Maybe you found an error in the book, or you have a suggestion about something that you think would improve it. It is always good to hear what real users think about the material, whether you like it or think it could be improved.

The best way to contact me is either through e-mail or through my blog. My e-mail address is [email protected]. You will find my blog at http://dezignstuff.com/blog. On the blog you can leave comments and read other things I have written about the SolidWorks software, CAD, and engineering or computer topics in general. If you want to contact me for commercial help with a modeling project, the previous e-mail address is the best place to start that type of conversation.

Thank you very much for buying and reading this book. I hope the ideas and information within its pages help you accomplish your professional goals.