Chapter 8: Selecting Secondary Features
SolidWorks has a wide range of features beyond the basic extrudes and revolves. You saw the depth of the standard features in Chapter 7; now in Chapter 8, you have seen the breadth of some of the less-used, but still useful operations. You won't use each of these secondary features every day, but it is nice to know that if you need to show a model in a flexed in-use state, you at least don't have to directly model the deformed part manually.
Springs are very commonly needed to be custom designed in small mechanisms that you might be called upon to create. The ability to model these items is a valuable skill.
- Master It Use a Helix and a 3D sketch to create a sweep path for a spring with elongated ends for use in a light mechanism.
- Solution Remember that you can convert the helix into a 3D sketch entity to make it easier to connect to in the 3D sketch.
Packaging and fixturing are additional types of design and modeling that...