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SolidWorks abbreviation (SW) is a new generation of Dassault introduced for the electrical industry design of mechanical 3D design tools. SolidWorks Chinese version of the use of a new parallel and serial product development environment and *** enjoy 3DCAD model, and is widely used in the design of parts, design of machinery and equipment, medical equipment, automotive, aerospace and other industries; SolidWorks can meet the user directly add a variety of auxiliary plug-ins, connect to a variety of NC programming software and print directly. Industry; SolidWorks can meet the user directly in the software to add a variety of auxiliary plug-ins, connect a variety of NC programming software and directly print the model of the use of demand. About the power of solidworks, in fact, I believe that many partners also have a certain understanding, but for the mastery of the software as well as the use of the software, may be a lot of partners are still scratching their heads! It doesn't matter, if you want to learn how to use solidworks, you've come to the right place. A wealth of solidworks boutique video courses, take you one by one to break through the software basic to advanced operation

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Based on SolidWorks parametric modeling ideas and methods

Keywords: parametric design SolidWorks modeling

Parametric design is mainly based on the use of three-dimensional software for the secondary development of the use of this article to the SOLIDWORKS standard components This paper takes the development of SOLIDWORKS standard parts library as the technical background, elaborates on the modeling ideas and methods based on SolidWorks parametric, and introduces the specific parametric design modeling process with hexagonal bolts as an example.

1 understanding of the customer's products

Hexagonal bolts refers to a class of fasteners consisting of a head and a screw (cylinder with external threads), which need to be coordinated with the nut, used to fasten the connection of two parts with a through-hole. This form of connection is called bolt connection. Such as the nut from the bolt to spin down, there can make the two parts separate, so the bolt connection is a removable connection.

1.1 Understanding customer needs

The main completion of the hexagonal bolt design structure and features of the parametric design, so that it can realize the interactive design.

1.2 Understanding of the product composition structure

Mainly composed of the head of the bolt and screw composed of datum A and datum B, of which datum A is used to establish the screw and bolt head characteristics, and datum B is used to establish the characteristics of the bolt thread. Dimensional datums are labeled and feature dimensions are created as shown.

Examples of how different datums are modeled are as follows:

3.1.4.1 Selection of datum C and datum A

Datum C is used to create the head feature of the bolt, and datum A is used to create the screw and thread features, and the results are shown below:

Figure 3 Schematic of the bolt structure with datum C and datum A selected

3.1.4.2 Selection of datum C and datum B

Datum C is used to create the bolt head and screw features, and datum B is used to create the thread features, and the result is as follows:

Figure 4: Schematic of the bolt structure with datum C and datum B

Comparing the different modeling methods when these three different datums are selected, it's easy to see the following The two modeling methods do not meet the selection of our active parameters, nominal length L refers to the length of the screw, b refers to the length of the thread, so the selection of datum A and datum B is more in line with the requirements of the active parameters of the parametric design.

3.2 Sketching

3.3 Application of constraints

Constraints are limitations on the size, position, and orientation of geometric elements, and are divided into two categories: dimensional constraints and geometric constraints. Dimensional constraints limit the size of an element and place restrictions on length, radius, and angle of intersection; geometric constraints limit the orientation or relative positional relationships of elements.

The design process can be viewed as a process of constraint satisfaction, and the design activity essentially involves modeling the constraints of a product by extracting its effective constraints and performing constraint solving. Constraints in design activities come from three main sources: function, structure and manufacturing. Functional constraints are descriptions of the functions that can be accomplished by the product; structural constraints are representations of the product's structural strength, stiffness, etc.; manufacturing constraints are expressions of the manufacturing resource environment and processing methods. These constraints must be synthesized into design goals during the product design process and mapped into a specific geometric/topological structure, which translates into geometric constraints.

3.3.1 Dimensional Constraints

The so-called dimensional constraints are computational methods that automatically translate changes in dimensions into corresponding changes in geometry and ensure that the structural constraints before and after the changes remain unchanged. For sketching, dimensional constraints are used to establish the correspondence between geometric data and its parameters.

Dimensional constraints are closely related to the design intent, and are a concrete manifestation of feature functionality. SolidWorks usually provides a variety of dimensioning forms, generally linear dimensions, diameter dimensions, radius dimensions, angle dimensions, etc., and pay attention to the application of dimensional chain.

Figure 5 Dimensional constraints

For this part of the dimensional constraints, you also need to understand the "constraint linkage" knowledge.

Constraint linkage is divided into: (1) graphical feature linkage (2) related parameter linkage

The so-called graphical feature linkage is to ensure that in the case of graphical topology (continuous, tangent, perpendicular, parallel, etc.) unchanged, the driving of sub-constraints.

Figure 6 Graph feature linkage

The so-called correlation parameter linkage is to establish the relationship between the subconstraints and the primary constraints both numerically and logically.

Figure 7 Related Parameter Linkage

3.3.2 Geometric Constraints

The so-called geometric constraints are the requirement of a particular relationship between geometric elements that must be satisfied. Using geometric constraints as geometric reference elements and surface profile elements that constitute geometric/topological structures, the position and shape parameters of each shape structure can be derived, thus forming a parametric product geometry model.

Geometric constraints on products include two main aspects: topological constraints and dimensional constraints. Topological constraints refer to the qualitative description of the product structure, which represents the fixed links between geometric elements, such as symmetry, equality, perpendicularity, tangency, etc., and thus can characterize the relative positional relationships between the characteristic shapes (geometric elements that constitute the features). These relationships are to be abstracted into nine types of directed relationships between points, edges, and surfaces, each with its own corresponding predicate, including "identical", "parallel", "perpendicular", "intersection", "offset" and so on. Usually, after the feature shape is determined, this linkage is not allowed to be changed or modified or specified interactively by the user (assembly relationship), i.e., the feature definition itself is an implicit expression of the graphical feature linkage, so there is no need to take the graphical feature linkage into account in its parameterization, which is one of the characteristics of feature-based parameterization that distinguishes it from traditional parameterization. However, in some special occasions, it must be able to handle its variation.

The usual geometric constraints in SolidWorks include horizontal, vertical, parallel, perpendicular, tangent, equal-length, equal-radius, coincident, concentric, symmetric, and so on.

Figure 8 Geometric constraints in SolidWorks

3.4 Application of symmetry

Symmetry is a form that exists widely in nature. Therefore, our products are often designed to be symmetrical, so that in addition to the product looks beautiful, but also can save a lot of design time.

In SolidWorks, designers can make good use of the symmetry of a product to quickly model it. At the same time, in order to facilitate the use of this symmetry, we often need to pay attention to the following points in the modeling:

1, in the creation of sketches, the center of symmetry of the sketch (the center of the circle, the center of a rectangle, the center of an ellipse, etc.) and the origin of the coordinates of the coincidence;

2, in the part to create the appropriate symmetry of the reference surfaces;

3, in the assembly, the symmetry of the substrate The three reference surfaces of the part coincide with each of the three reference surfaces of the assembly.

In SolidWorks, the feature operation corresponding to symmetry is the "mirror" function, which consists of three levels of mirroring operations: sketch, part, and assembly.

In sketching, new sketches are generated by mirroring;

In the part level, mirroring can be categorized into feature mirroring, solid mirroring, and surface mirroring;

In assemblies, new parts are generated by mirroring.

4 Conclusion

The above example is just a very simple hexagonal bolt model, perhaps a simple model does not fully reflect the practicality of the modeling ideas and methods, but for the parametric model modeling process and the related modeling methods, has been to share it with you, the specific modeling ideas and methods to be combined with the model feature structure. It is worth emphasizing that the modeling ideas come from the designer's engineering background and good design habits, and the use of modeling methods vary from person to person.

So, today's "SolidWorks Parametric Modeling Ideas and Methods" ends here! We must learn to see more, practice more, think more, learn more, I hope we can all learn solidworks soon! Here, but also to provide you with more courses to learn, click the link: