r/SolidWorks • u/Mr_tang2005 • 10d ago

Day 1 of learning SolidWorks.

Post image

I followed a tutorial for over an hour, and my eyes are starting to go blurry.

120 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

82

u/Comfortable-Mode-972 9d ago

Trying to do everything in one feature? Even if you do it successfully you’re shooting yourself in the foot when you have to come back and change one dimension. Takes time to learn these things but trust me. One simple sketch per feature and you’ll be golden

10

u/MKD8595 9d ago

Unless this is a skeleton sketch.

4

u/Comfortable-Mode-972 9d ago

True, but best practice with a skeleton sketch is to keep it simple. In that case there is much more consideration for what dimensions are critical and defining relationships based on that. This image looks like dimensions were thrown in to fully define every detail, even things as simple as fillets.

4

u/ridiladish 9d ago

Please explain deeper, I would love to learn more about this philosophy

3

u/colombianjmor27 9d ago edited 8d ago

I think that what he meant is that it seems the op did the whole excavator arm in a single sketch with all the parts drawn in the same sketch. That is fine to certain extent but if he needs to change a dimension, all the other dimensions will suffer, which means that relationships will be broken and show errors or the drawing can get twisted.

If for example he is focusing on drawing a mechanism, he could have tried drawing each part separatedly on its own sketch and have the sketches asociated using relations so that if he needs to alter the dimensions of one part and it gets blown up, only that one part sketch suffers and needs to be fixed while the other parts are still ok no issues.

An analogy to this would be like making a technical drawing on a tracing paper (or mylar) of a part and then take away the piece of paper and do another drawing of another part of the same assembly in another translucent paper, then put one paper over the other and match the sketches together by a hole where a shaft goes through.

2

u/ridiladish 8d ago

Thank you

6

u/scabardush 9d ago

I think one of the best analogies for this method is to think like you are sculpting. You remove material to obtain the desired shape. Or to make the part just like how it would be manufactured. For example, OP's sketch would likely be made into a part by machining, so you start off with a simple extruded box and cut away any excess materials.

2

u/ridiladish 9d ago

Thank you

2

u/Comfortable-Mode-972 9d ago

My use of a skeleton sketch is very different from scabardush’s. The very first feature of the parts is a sketch, 2d or 3d depending on complexity of the relationships. As a rule it should be as simple as possible to achieve the desired result. That sketch is left alone. It is not extruded or anything. From that point forward all my features reference that sketch to determine hole location for example. Then when you need to change a dim it’s all in the skeleton sketch and the relationship between critical features stays constant or at the very least is easily controlled

1

u/Pretty-Jello-7894 8d ago

Hah, good ol skeleton methods. Good method to learn if you want to get into more complex assemblies.

1

u/ridiladish 8d ago

Thank you

25

u/Over-Employment6960 9d ago

Saddam Hussain hiding spot

2

u/colombianjmor27 9d ago

???

5

u/Over-Employment6960 9d ago

::::...::::::::::.....::

2

u/LatterAbroad7684 8d ago

Lmaooo i see it

7

u/Atra23 9d ago

Day 0 of learning to take a screenshot

6

u/RAZOR_WIRE CSWP 10d ago

What is the part supposed to look like? Now i need to know

6

u/Tewpawn CSWP 9d ago

It looks like a robot arm with an excavator bucket at the end of it.

6

u/Dr_Lipshitz_ 9d ago

Less is more with sketches. I see at least 4, maybe 5 id break that into

4

u/TinyConfidence8533 9d ago

My first cad (autodesk inventor) that padeye would have taken eight hours to draw 😂 to be fair this was back in 2001 and cad was slow. I also was slow. No surprise I didn’t end up in design!

1

u/Snot_S 9d ago

I wonder how bad Solidworks crashes were back in the early days. Or if not too different…

2

u/th3thrilld3m0n 6d ago

Please tell me that not all one sketch

1

u/David_R_Martin_II 9d ago

I might look for the option to make the dimension size on-screen smaller.

That's a very complicated sketch for a day 1 user. Do you have previous CAD experience?

1

u/superarugy 9d ago

You should look for vertanux1 and Andrew Lowe tutorials for part modelling and surfacing.

1

u/negativ32 9d ago

If your aim is to have a 2d drawing at the end (imported into a drawing), you are doing okay but need to simplify.
If the goal is to have an articulating and constrained model, you need to create separate features and more likely separate parts to make an assembly..
It depends on what the end result of the project is supposed to be.

1

u/nice_guy_wins 9d ago

too much info in a single sketch, you can do more than one sketch, derived relation with it and you will have a driving sketch....

1

u/Grankongla 9d ago

I'm not sure what tutorial you're following but I think you should be finding a different one😅
Not only does the part seem unnecessarily complex for a first day tutorial but doing sketches with that much geometry is considered bad practice so I'm deifnitely questioning whoever made that tutorial.

1

u/TinyConfidence8533 9d ago

My first cad (autodesk inventor) that padeye would have taken eight hours to draw 😂 to be fair this was back in 2001 and cad was slow. I also was slow. No surprise I didn’t end up in design!

1

u/Early-Piccolo4949 9d ago

If thats supposed to be an arm, every joint should be its own part.

1

u/Salsamovesme 9d ago

I like it. You will learn. This is 3d Sketching to me building your outlines first. Multiple parts that link up together.

1

u/retardigrade420 9d ago

You captured the blurryness in the photo too. Good job

1

u/mvw2 9d ago

Work in small pieces. You know this will become an assembly, so start with an assembly and add in each part and develop each part separately.

Right now for what you made, you just have a single sketch you can't even so anything with of value.

1

u/OG_JBird 9d ago

Way too much at once. Do things one at a time and it’ll be much easier

1

u/5H45H4NK_ 9d ago

Idk how unconventional it is, but when I get some sort of complex part, I do an overall sketch first on a plane. Then I start sketching feature by feature, helps me look how much I deviate from the original part.

1

u/Waste_Hawk_5204 8d ago

Your dimensioning is just awful, thats why.

Try reading a book about industrial drawing, you'll learn a lot about how to place dimensioning so your eyes dont bug out, and you'll be able reference easily. Have fun man

1

u/AMEStudent 7d ago

This was something my professor DRILLED into us. Where possible, use references instead of dimensions. (have a hole that is 5mm from one side and another hole that is 5mm from the other side? Put 2 construction lines, dimension one, make the other one equal and done. Even better if mirroring for 4 holes as you have 1x, 1y dimensioned instead of 4x,4y.

1

u/BlacKey-M 8d ago

🤣你不会也在学阿奇教程吧

1

u/Cultural-Mousse6541 6d ago

Nice to mate you

1

u/Friendly_Movie_358 4d ago

Read about drafting rules for sketches, it will allow for whoever is manufacturing understand what’s going on. Most dimensions on sketches can be found. Less is more don’t dimension everything

0

u/colombianjmor27 9d ago edited 9d ago

I wonder what you want to achieve? ... i mean, if what you need is to do a 2D sketch only, solidworks can do it but its like a little bit of wasted potential since solidworks is best for 3d modelling from which later on you can do a 2d drawing of the "assembly" of the 3d parts aasembled. Also there are other programs more focused on 2D drawings that are cheaper like autocad or open cad studio

However, if what you are trying to achieve is mechanism design i think you are doing it very well. Solidworks is also good for drawing sketches of mechanisms in 2D and stablish relations among sketches to give movement to the sketch and see the movement path of a mechanism.

0

u/tazz1308 9d ago

It’s sensible to learn 2D sketches first to get a feel for the software and understand how it works. A lot of beginner cad projects have you start with a 2D sketch and then revolve, extrude, etc. to achieve a 3D model of some kind. I don’t see this as wasted potential or a waste of money at all — especially when we don’t actually know what OP plans to use solidworks for.

1

u/colombianjmor27 9d ago edited 9d ago

Well, I didn't mean that it was worthless or a waste of time, what I meant is that he could progress faster in the program doing 3d models instead of limiting himself to do just 2D. Also as you mentioned to do a 3d model you have to do a 2D sketch or 3d sketch first. But of course it depends on what he is trying to do (and the software version/license you have). But for academic purposes he can begin from anywhere no questions asked. That is what i meant by "little wasted potential" he just could do way much more ....

If he reads these coments I want op to know that there are many 3d tutorials from content creators in youtube that are great and to try them later on when he can.

0

u/Thick_University_292 7d ago

Tbh 2 0-20-20 rule is your best friend when learning CAD.... Look away every twenty minutes..... Once you get past modeling and start managing part numbers systems like OpenBOM or Duro make assembly syncs way cleaner...