Video Tech Tips

When it comes to modeling in SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD, using reference planes is very important. In some ways, reference planes are the building blocks of your models because they’re a key part in creating more complicated shapes. Sometimes, it even takes multiple reference planes to get that one feature just right. In this Video Tech Tip, we share with you what we think are the two most useful ways to quickly add reference planes with offset planes and mid-planes.

The SOLIDWORKS 2019 update includes the ability to create fillets that don’t run the entire length of the edge and you may be asking yourself, "Why would I need that?" If you’re not producing awesome injection molded enclosures with crenelations for curb appeal, you might not care, but your machinist does. In this week's Video Tech Tip, we'll walk you through creating a partial fillet.

Creating designs in SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD can sometimes be complex and nothing is too easy. Many of the shapes have intricate designs and details, which makes them complicated. With the diverse set of tools at your fingertips available in SOLIDWORKS, creating shapes is pretty straightforward. But creating the CAD model is just step one.

Conveying your design intent and then ultimately getting the product manufactured finishes the process. The surface flatten tool introduced a few years ago can help you share your design with various stakeholders. Check out this week’s Video Tech Tip to see how you can use the surface flatten tool in SOLIDWORKS.

When designing in SOLIDWORKS details matter, but it's especially important when it comes to creating weldments. When working on a weldment model the structural members make up most of the design but the modeling efforts don’t stop there. A lot of the work comes from trimming members and adding things like gussets, end caps and weld beads.

In this week’s Video Tech Tip, we will walk you through the steps needed to add weld beads to your designs to help you create a complete and accurate SOLIDWORKS model.

Are you as excited as we are about the new features in SOLIDWORKS 2019? The addition of 3D textures is one of our favorites. This new feature allows you to add complex and intricate geometry to your 3D CAD models in a few simple steps. In this Video Tech Tip, you'll see how 3D textures can add repeating geometric features to models in one simple step.

How many times have you been working in SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation and gotten a pop-up message about your model not being watertight? This week's Video Tech Tip shows you how to overcome this pop-up error in SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation by teaching you how to deal with a non-watertight volume.

Split Line, Project Curve, and Wrap: what's the difference between these SOLIDWORKS features? Some users might've used them interchangeably without noticing any differences. In this Video Tech Tip, we will examine how these three features are different from each other and help you decide when to use each.

Meet SOLIDWORKS Split Line tool: a helpful, time-saving option that can be used to create additional faces and reference. It achieves this through three different methods: silhouette, projection and intersection. In this Video Tech Tip, we’ll examine the application of those three types of split lines and the required steps to create them.

SOLIDWORKS Treehouse is an editing tool for visualizing the project structure of an assembly. You can use it to create a hierarchy for a project before you start it in SOLIDWORKS by mapping the consisting parts and assemblies. You can also use it to quickly track the components of an existing assembly and make changes through file properties, configurations, suppression, and file creation. This week’s Video Tech Tip will walk you through the process of using Treehouse.

If you have attended one of our essential courses, you are familiar with Geometry Pattern. If not, it’s very important to understand why Geometry Pattern can save you loads of time in modeling. In this Video Tech Tip, we will explain how to use the Geometry Pattern in SOLIDWORKS.

Finding your SOLIDWORKS serial number is easy if you know where to look. You are given your serial number when you first get SOLIDWORKS and over time this could get lost or forgotten. Why would you need to know this? Knowing your serial number is important, especially when you call TriMech for technical support. You can also get access to all the extra online features through MySOLIDWORKS and the customer portal. In this Video Tech Tip, we will show you three ways to find your SOLIDWORKS serial number. 

Wrapping presents can be a lot of fun or a huge burden – it all depends on your outlook. Sometimes you end up with a piece of paper that isn't big enough, or the wrapping paper roll isn't wide enough, or you have a stack of boxes to the ceiling and would like to assembly-line the whole process. That’s where leveraging SOLIDWORKS can come in handy. In this Video Tech Tip, we will show you how to use the flattening and measuring tools in SOLIDWORKS to wrap your presents.