07-Solidworks Advanced Surface Modeling 2007 PDF

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SolidWorks® 2007
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Advanced Surface Modeling
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SolidWorks Corporation
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Document Number: PMT0103-ENG

SolidWorks 2007 Training Manual
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Table of Contents
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Introduction
About This Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
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Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
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Course Design Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Using this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
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About the Training Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Windows® XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Conventions Used in this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Lesson 1:
Introduction to Surfacing
What is solid? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Behind the Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Working with Surface Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Checking for a Closed Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Parameterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Surface Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Feature History in an IGES File? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
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Why use Surfaces? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

When not to use Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Mixing Metaphors: Hybrid Modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Workflow with Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
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Working with Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Layout Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Identify Symmetry and Edges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Identify Functional Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Check your Models Frequently. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Folders in the FeatureManager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
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Clean-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Exercise 1: Trimming Surfaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Exercise 2: Working from Sketch Pictures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Exercise 3: Workflow for a Surface Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Lesson 2:
Solid-Surface Hybrid Modeling
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Hybrid Modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Using Surfaces to Modify Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
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Interchanging between Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Surfaces as Construction Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Stages in the Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
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Repairing and Editing Imported Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Editing Imported Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Exercise 4: Using Import Surface and Replace Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Exercise 5: Using Surfaces to Create Solids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
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Exercise 6: Finial Wrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Lesson 3:
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Stages in the Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Using Sketch Picture to Capture Design Intent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Lofting Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Modeling the Lower Half . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
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Filling in Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Preparation for Using Filled Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
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Creating a Knit Surface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Design Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Dynamic Feature Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Replacing a Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Exercise 7: Mouse Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Design Intent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Exercise 8: Halyard Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Exercise 9: Bar of Soap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Exercise 10: Finial Scroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Lesson 4:
Blends and Patches
Complex Blends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
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Stages in the Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Fill Surface Edge Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Smoothing Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Three Alternative Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Analysis Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
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Freeform Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Using the Triad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Undoing Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Exercise 11: Corner Blend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
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Exercise 12: Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Exercise 13: Bicycle Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Lesson 5:
Master Model Techniques
Introduction to Master Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Push and Pull type Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
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Workaround for Split Feature* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Summary of Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
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Surface Master Technique. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Working with a Solid Master Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Splitting the Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
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Modeling the Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Reveal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Draft Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Fastening Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
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Saving the Bodies and Creating an Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Rapid Prototyping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Print3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
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Exercise 14: Solid Master Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Exercise 15: Surface Master Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
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Introduction
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About This The goal of this course is to teach you how to use surface features to
Course build parts using SolidWorks software. Most of the case studies and
exercises in this course are taken from consumer product design
applications, and the lessons center around the combined use of solids
and surfaces, with the goal always being to create a good solid.
During this course we will learn industry standard surfacing
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terminology necessary to understand a ground-up surface modeling
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approach, as well as answer some of the “when” and “why” questions
which are inevitable with the solids to surfaces paradigm shift. If your
modeling experience to date has been completely in the solids realm,
you may find that working in surfaces requires a different approach.
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This course has several examples showing functions that do not
ultimately create the intended geometry, necessitating an alternative
approach. This is not to highlight shortcomings of the software, but
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rather to help you identify situations in which you need to try more than
one method. Working with more complex models and shapes means
you will run into more situations when you need to have at your
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disposal alternate methods for achieving particular shapes.
Prerequisites Students attending this course are expected to have the following:
Q Completed the course Advanced Part Modeling.
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Course Design This course is designed around a process-based (or task-based)
Philosophy approach to training. Rather than focus on individual features and
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functions, a process-based training course emphasizes the processes and

procedures you follow to complete a particular task. By utilizing case
studies to illustrate these processes, you learn the necessary commands,
options and menus in the context of completing a design task.
Using this Book This training manual is intended to be used in a classroom environment
under the guidance of an experienced SolidWorks instructor. It is not
intended to be a self-paced tutorial. The examples and case studies are
designed to be demonstrated “live” by the instructor.
Laboratory Laboratory exercises give you the opportunity to apply and practice the
Exercises material covered during the lecture/demonstration portion of the
course. They are designed to represent typical design and modeling
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situations while being modest enough to be completed during class

time. You should note that many students work at different paces.
Therefore, we have included more lab exercises than you can
reasonably expect to complete during the course. This ensures that even
the fastest student will not run out of exercises.
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A Note About The drawings and dimensions given in the lab exercises are not intended
Dimensions to reflect any particular drafting standard. In fact, sometimes dimensions
are given in a fashion that would never be considered acceptable in
industry. The reason for this is the labs are designed to encourage you to
apply the information covered in class and to employ and reinforce
About This Course 3

certain techniques in modeling. As a result, the drawings and dimensions

in the exercises are done in a way that compliments this objective.
About the A complete set of the various files used throughout this course can be
Training Files downloaded from the SolidWorks website, www.solidworks.com.
Click on the link for Services, then Training and Certification. There
you will see a link to the page where you can download the training file
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sets. The files are supplied as signed, self-extracting executables.
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The files are organized by lesson number. The Case Study folder
within each lesson contains the files your instructor uses while
presenting the lessons. The Exercises folder contains any files that
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are required for doing the laboratory exercises.
Windows® XP The screen shots in this manual were made using SolidWorks 2007
running on Windows® XP. You may notice differences in the
appearance of the menus and windows. These differences do not affect
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the performance of the software.
Conventions Used This manual uses the following typographic conventions:
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in this Book
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Convention Meaning
Bold Sans Serif SolidWorks commands and options appear in
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this style. For example, Insert, Boss means
choose the Boss option from the Insert menu.
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Typewriter Feature names and file names appear in this

style. For example, Sketch1.
Double lines precede and follow sections of
17 Do this step the procedures. This provides separation
between the steps of the procedure and large
blocks of explanatory text. The steps
themselves are numbered in sans serif bold.
Use of Color The SolidWorks 2007 user interface

makes extensive use of color to
highlight selected geometry and to
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provide you with visual feedback.

This greatly increases the
intuitiveness and ease of use of
SolidWorks 2007. To take maximum advantage of this, the training
manuals are printed in full color.
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Also, in many cases, we have used additional color in the illustrations

to communicate concepts, identify features, and otherwise convey
important information. For example, we might show the result of an
operation in a different color, even though by default, the SolidWorks
software would not display the results in that way.
4 About This Course

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Lesson 1
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Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
Understand the differences and similarities between solids and
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surfaces
Q Understand the properties of NURBS surfaces and iso parameter
(U-V) lines
Q Be familiar with common surface types
Q Understand the
Q Understand typical workflow scenarios
Q Understand working with Master Models
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Lesson 1 SolidWorks 2007 Training Manual
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SolidWorks 2007 Training Manual Lesson 1
What is solid? The best way to begin understanding surfaces is to understand concepts
underlying solids. If you have been working in SolidWorks for any
amount of time, you should have a good intuition for solids already.
Solid models attempt to describe real objects for manufacturing and
documentation. Real objects have volume. There is always a boundary
between the inside and the outside of the volume, and that boundary is
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always sealed, or watertight. At this point we are only concerned with
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the geometrical properties of solids, not the material properties such as
density and modulus. Volume and boundary are the two main aspects
of the real world that SolidWorks needs to represent in order to create
solid models.
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The boundary around the solid is an infinitely thin skin. This infinitely
thin boundary is what we know as a surface. So the solid is in fact
defined by a surface (boundary) and a direction (inside vs. outside).
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This concept helps us understand the role of surfaces in defining solids,
and is one of the basic concepts necessary to understanding how and
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why we work with surfaces.
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Behind the Scenes Now that we understand that solids are really just surfaces that follow
special rules, it becomes obvious that there are some things going on
behind the scenes when SolidWorks builds solid models. One way to
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get a better grasp of what is going on is to see what it takes to do the
same tasks manually.
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We can use a simple cylinder as an example.
1 Extrude a solid cylinder.

Open a new part using the Part_IN template. On the
Top reference plane, draw a circle with a 1” diameter
centered on the origin and extrude it 1”.
Three faces have been created, two planar end faces and
the cylindrical face that connects them.
Notice also how easy this was, a single step. Contrast this with the steps
to come.
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Save this part as Solid.SLDPRT.

Extrude a cylindrical surface.
Introducing: Extruded Surface works exactly like its solid counterpart except that it
Extruded Surface produces a surface instead of a solid, it does not cap the ends, and it
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does not require a closed loop sketch.
Where to Find It Q Click Extruded Surface on the Surfaces toolbar

Q Or, click Insert, Surface, Extruded.
What is solid? 7
2 Extrude a surface.
Open a second new part with the Part_IN template. On the Top
reference plane, draw a circle with a 1” diameter centered on the origin
and extrude it 1.1” in the positive Y direction and .1” in direction 2.
This is intentionally different from the solid example. Surfaces are
frequently “overbuilt”, then trimmed back.
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Click Window, Tile Vertically to display the window with the solid
and the window with the surface side by side.
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Save this part as Surface.SLDPRT.
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Introducing: Planar Planar Surfaces are created from a closed loop sketch. The sketch may
Surface have multiple closed loops or nested loops. Planar Surfaces can use
loops formed by edges which are not closed loops.
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Where to Find It Q Click Planar Surface on the Surfaces toolbar.
Q Or, click Insert, Surface, Planar.
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Introducing: Knit Knit surface is in some ways similar to the Combine function for solids.
Surface It joins together separate surface bodies into a single surface body.
There are several rules for knitting:
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Q Surface bodies must touch edge to edge.
Q Surface bodies must not intersect, touch either body at a point or
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any place that is not an edge (in the middle of a face for example).
Q Disjoint bodies cannot be knit.
Where to Find It Q Click Knit Surface on the Surfaces Toolbar.

Q Or, click Insert, Surface, Knit.
3 Create a planar surface.

On the Top reference plane, sketch a square centered on the Origin
with a 2” long side.
Click Planar Surface to create the surface.
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8 What is solid?
4 Copy the surface body.

Use the Move/Copy Bodies
tool to copy the planar
surface to the other end of
the cylinder using the
dimensions shown.
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Introducing: Trim The Trim Surface feature enables you to cut back a surface using either
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Surface another surface, a plane or a sketch. There are two types of Trim
feature, the Standard trim where one surface is used as the trimming
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tool, and the Mutual trim, where multiple surfaces trim one another.
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Mutual Trim also knits the resulting surfaces together while Standard
trim leaves them as separate surface bodies.
Where to Find It Click Trim Surface

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Working with
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Working with surface bodies is in many respects similar to working

Surface Bodies with solid bodies, but there are significant differences as well. Surface
bodies are listed in the Surface Bodies folder at the top of the part
FeatureManager just like solid bodies are listed in the Solid
Bodies folder, and can be hidden or deleted from there.
One of the major differences is that boolean type operations do not
work on surfaces in the same way that they do on solids. With solids, if
you want to add a boss to a body, you simply sketch it and extrude it,
and SolidWorks automatically merges the new feature into the existing
solid body.
To add to a surface body, you must first create the geometry you want
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to add, and then use the Knit feature to knit the two separate bodies
together into a single body.
Other requirements also exist, such as the surfaces must touch edge to
edge. An edge cannot knit to the middle of a face and bodies cannot
touch only at a point. Also, as with solids, you cannot knit surfaces that
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do not touch at all.
Working with Surface Bodies 9

Managing visibility of surface bodies

can at times be a challenge. The Hide/
Show state of the body can be affected
by rollback state and configurations.
Using the Display Pane with the
Surface Bodies folder expanded
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may be helpful.
Many features in SolidWorks are limited to only working on one body
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at a time. This includes features such as fillet and draft. Keep this in
mind as you plan your modeling strategy. If you have a design which
requires many bodies, you may want to wait until the bodies are joined
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together to add draft and fillets.
5 Trim the surfaces.

Click Trim Surface on the
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Surfaces toolbar.
Select Mutual Trim.
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Select all three surface bodies
in the Trimming Surfaces
box.
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Use the Keep selections
setting.
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Click inside the Pieces to

Keep selection box to
activate it. Select the sections
of the surfaces that you want
to keep.
Note In this simple example, selecting portions of faces that need to be kept
is fairly easy and straight forward. However, as models become more
complex, it may become difficult or even impossible to select the
portions you need to select. In those cases it may be better to activate
the Remove Selections option, and select the portions of the surface
bodies which you wish to discard. Also, you might consider breaking
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the trim into multiple features, making it easier to visualize and select.
Introducing: The Thicken feature has two functions. One is to add thickness to an
Thicken open surface by offsetting the thickness, and the second is to solidify an
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enclosed volume made of surfaces.
Where to Find It Q Click Thicken on the Features toolbar.

Q Or, click Insert, Boss/Base, Thicken.
Note The Thicken icon is not on the Features toolbar by default. If you want
10 Working with Surface Bodies

to access this feature from the toolbar, you will need to add it using
Tools, Customize.
6 Make the surface into a solid.

Notice that the mutual trim results in a single surface
body. If this had been done with the standard trim option, it would take
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four trim features to complete, and would result in three separate
surface bodies.
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Click Insert, Boss/Base, Thicken.
Only when there is a closed surface selected does
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the check box Create solid from enclosed
volume show up.
Click OK to accept the solid.
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Note The Merge Result box is only displayed when the feature is edited after
it is initially created. It does is not displayed when the feature is
created.
Checking for a
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There are three ways to check a surface to see if it is closed.
or
Closed Surface
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Q Thicken (the Create solid option only shows when a closed volume
exists)
Q Tools, Check will highlight open edges of a surface (Tools, Check
is discussed in more detail in Lesson 2: Solid-Surface Hybrid
Modeling)
Q In any display mode that displays model edges, look to see if any
edges are shown in the color specified at Tools, Options, Color,
Surfaces, Open edges color (Tools, Options, Display/
Selection, Show open edges of surfaces in different color must
also be checked)
7 Compare the two parts.
Make sure the windows showing the part created as a solid and the part
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created from surfaces are tiled so you can see both of them at the same
time. Check the volume for each part. You should get .785 cubic
inches.
The parts look identical. They are in fact identical geometrically.
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We will examine both parts with one more method.

8 Delete faces.
In the Advanced Part Modeling course, we used Delete Face to remove
unwanted geometry from a solid model, which repaired itself with the
underlying untrimmed surfaces. We will again use Delete Face to

explore the untrimmed surfaces, but in a different way this time.

Editing Surface.SLDPRT, click Delete Face
from the Surfaces toolbar. If it is not available on
your toolbar, it is available in the menus at Insert,
Face, Delete.
Change to the Delete option.
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Click OK to accept the feature.
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Notice that the Solid Bodies folder is gone
and the Surface Bodies folder has reappeared.
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Introducing: Face The Face Curves function creates a series of 3D sketches forming a
Curves mesh on the selected face. This mesh represents the underlying
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parameterization of the face. The mesh density can be changed or you
can limit the lines to one in each direction located at a point of your
choosing. When you click OK, each line will become its own 3D
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sketch. These 3D sketches are often placed in folders for easier
management.
Where to Find It Q Click Face Curves from the Sketch toolbar.

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Q Or, click Tools, Sketch Tools, Face Curves.
Note The Face Curves icon is not on the Sketch toolbar by default. If you
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want to access this feature from the toolbar, you will need to add it
using Tools, Customize.
Parameterization All surfaces in SolidWorks can
either be constructed or described
by a parameterized mesh of
curves. These are called iso V=1
parameter or U-V curves. The
curves along one side of a four-
sided surface are the U lines and in
the perpendicular direction are the U=1
V=0
V lines. The parameter is the U=0
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number representing the position

along the length of the edge, between 0 and 1.
In SolidWorks, you can see the U-V mesh by using the Face Curves
tool. Certain features also enable previews with mesh such as Dome,
Shape, Fill surface, Boundary, Freeform and Loft. The mesh is helpful
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in troubleshooting feature failure or unexpected shapes. We will

examine this in more detail in later lessons.
Surface Types Without talking about SolidWorks surface features, there are several
types of surface geometry. There are others beyond those listed, but

these are the major types.

Q Algebraic surfaces can be
described with simple algebraic
expressions. These include
surfaces that are flat, spherical,
cylindrical, conical, toroidal, and so on. U-V lines on algebraic
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surfaces are straight lines, arcs or circles.
Ruled surfaces are
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Q
surfaces where every
point on the surface has
a straight line that
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passes through it and
lies on the surface.
Q Developable surfaces
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are a subset of ruled surfaces,
and can be flattened without
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include planar, cylindrical and
conical surfaces. This surface
type is important because SolidWorks sheet metal functions can
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or
only flatten these shapes. Besides sheet metal, developable surfaces
are widely applied in shipbuilding (for easily formed flat plates or
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sheets of fiberglass) and label application (labels will stretch or

pucker on non-developable surfaces) among many others.
Q NURBS (non-uniform rational b-
spline) is a surfacing technology
widely used by CAD and computer
graphics software. NURBS surfaces
are defined by parameterized U-V
curves where the curves are splines,
and the surface is interpolated
between the splines.
NURBS One of the implications of having a mesh of perpendicular curves is
that the surfaces created will tend to be four-sided.
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Obviously, SolidWorks models can have surfaces that are not four-
sided. There are two ways for this to happen:
Q One or more of the sides is of zero length, and the curves in that
direction intersect at a single point which is called a singularity.
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These surfaces are called degenerate surfaces and often (but not

always) cause problems in filleting, shelling or offsetting..
e
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Computers and mathematics both have a difficult time with the
number zero, which is why zero length sides cause problems.
Q An initially four-sided surface is trimmed to the required shape.
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9 Apply Face Curves.
Select the remaining surface and click Tools, Sketch
Tools, Face Curves.
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Exit the Face Curves using the red X to avoid creating
the 3D sketches.
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This surface has the appearance of a surface that was rectangular, and
then trimmed to be circular. In fact, we know that was the case, since
this face was built from a rectangular planar surface.
Introducing: Untrim The Untrim feature reveals in part or in whole the underlying surface.
A surface can be untrimmed even if the Trim feature has never been
used on it because model faces are defined by a combination of the
underlying surface and the trimmed boundary. Sometimes faces are
used as-is, without a trimmed boundary. This holds true for solid and
surface faces created either natively in SolidWorks or imported from
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another source.
Where to Find It Q Click Untrim from the Surfaces toolbar.

Q Or, Click Insert, Surface, Untrim.
Feature History in Before you get too excited, no, this course will not teach you how to
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an IGES File? extract feature history from an IGES file, but features like Untrim and
Delete Face can help you remove faces from imported models like they
were never there. The IGES file remembers two things for every face,
the original surface and any boundaries used to trim the surface. The
trim boundary can be removed, leaving just the original surface, which

is a huge benefit when removing fillets from an imported part for

example.
Untrim, along with other techniques such as Delete Face, Extend
Surface and Delete Hole can be applied with equal effectiveness to
both SolidWorks native and imported geometry.
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10 Untrim the surface.
Click Untrim from the Surface toolbar.
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Select either the face or the edge of the surface.
The preview shows that the underlying surface is
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indeed rectangular.
11 Repeat the steps.
Repeat steps 8 through 11 but this time use Solid.SLDPRT.
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12 The results are the same.
Regardless if the end faces of the cylinders were made from a
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rectangular planar surface or extruded from a circle as a solid, the
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underlying shape in both cases is four sided.
13 Save and close the parts.
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Why did you come to an Advanced Surface Modeling class to learn to
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create simple cylinders? There are a couple of reasons:

Q Solids are just surfaces which follow special rules. To make a solid,
SolidWorks is going through the same steps behind the scenes
which we went through manually to build the surface model.
Understanding what is happening behind the scenes helps you
troubleshoot and avoid problems better.
Q Using surface modeling, it takes much more time to model the same
geometry that can be done much more quickly using solids.
However, not everything can be modeled in solids, so surfacing is a
necessary evil.
Q CAD-neutral surfacing terminology and concepts are essentially the
same for all solid modelers. Applying these concepts will help you
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understand how surfaces and solids, imported and native geometry

can be manipulated.
Why use Now that you know what surfaces are, we can build the case for why
Surfaces? surfaces are used. There are several reasons.
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Why use Surfaces? 15

Q Some shapes can not be created

with solids. You have probably
noticed that solid features like lofts
and sweeps tend to result in shapes
that have one or more flat sides.
Surfaces are frequently used to cap
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off flat ends, or to create geometry
which has no flat ends. The part
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shown to the right is an example of
this use of surface modeling.
Q Surfaces build a shape face by face
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rather than all at once. Solid
features build several sides of a
shape at once, and the entire feature
flows in a single direction, which
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sometimes makes it difficult or
impossible to get all of the sides
correct. Surface features build
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shapes one face at a time, so
different techniques and different
directions can be used for different
faces.
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Q Surfaces can be used as reference geometry. Surfaces are not
limited to complex geometry, they also include extruded and
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revolved shapes. Any type of surface feature can be used as

reference geometry to assist construction or to modify solids.
Q Surface features are
sometimes more efficient than
solid features. Solid features
have a need to build a viable
stand-alone solid body for
every feature before it is
merged with the rest of the
solid. This often requires
building a lot of extra geometry
and knitting. From a rebuild
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time point of view, surfaces are

often more efficient, enabling you to only build the faces that are
necessary.
When not to use Working with surfaces is almost always more work than working with
Surfaces
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solids. If you have the option and the results will be equivalent, you
should model with solids by default. Here are some situations when
you should avoid surface features:
Q Use solids when the end result can be achieved more easily and
more efficiently than with surfaces. Sometimes rebuild time is not
16 Why use Surfaces?

the driving measure, and is overridden by actual modeling time.

Q It is generally best practice to avoid leaving a model as an open
surface. Surfaces are usually an intermediate step to a solid. There
may be some valid reasons for leaving models as open surfaces, but
these will be the exception rather than the norm. In Lesson 5:
Master Model Techniques, we will leave a model as a surface
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model, but it is being used as reference geometry to create a solid
later in the workflow.
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Q There are certain types of master model functions which are not
available for surface features, but only for solids. There will be
more detailed information on this topic in Lesson 5: Master Model
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Techniques.
Mixing Metaphors: SolidWorks enables you to combine the best advantages of solids with
Hybrid Modeling the best advantages of surfaces. Solid-surface hybrid modeling is often
the best option. This generally entails using surfaces to modify solids or
st
converting a solid model into a surface model to make changes, and
then back to a solid. Techniques that fall into this category can include:
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Q replace face
Q cut with surface
Q up to surface or up to body end conditions
Q split using a surface body to cut the model
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Hybrid modeling is mentioned here in the way of a general
introduction. The topic will be covered in more detail in Lesson 2:
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Solid-Surface Hybrid Modeling.

Workflow with When working with surfaces, especially when starting a complex
Surfaces model as a surface model, there are some general workflow guidelines
that may be useful.
Working with By the time you start modeling a part with SolidWorks, you probably
Images have some idea of what the part will look like. This idea may come
from hand sketches or digital photos of an existing product or
handmade model. 3D scan data from a physical model is another
possible source of design data.
If you have the option, an
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image is often a great place to

start. Digital images can be
used in SolidWorks as Sketch
Pictures, which in turn can be
used to trace over or as a
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visual reference. Sketch

Pictures should be used early
on in a part and the sketch
they are connected to should
have some sort of a special
Workflow with Surfaces 17

name to indicate the presence of a Sketch Picture.

Sketch Pictures were first introduced in the Advanced Part Modeling
course. You may want to go back to the manual and review some of the
properties of and methods for using Sketch Pictures.
Layout Sketch Layout sketches are often helpful when embarking on a complex part.
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You may want to sketch items such as key features or locations, an
overall size, driving contours, or a size reference for a Sketch Picture.
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Sketch Picture sketches do not need to have
any sketch geometry in them. Also, more than
one sketch picture can be used in separate
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sketches on orthogonal planes or where ever
sketch references may be needed. This is
useful for example if you want to have sketch
pictures to show front, top and side views.
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Note
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Perspective can make it difficult to accurately get measurements from
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objects in a digital image. Perspective in photos can be minimized by
or
moving the camera further away from the object. Flatbed document
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scanners can also help reduce perspective, but are only usable on parts
that do not have much depth to them.
Sharp corners are another issue to watch out for. You are modeling the
sharp edges, but most real parts have rounded edges, so you may have
to extrapolate past the rounded edges to the virtual sharp.
High resolution digital images used as sketch pictures are often initially
displayed very large when inserted. It is helpful if a ruler is placed in
the photograph with the part to allow you to scale the image. Draw a
line or circle in the sketch and dimension it to the largest visible
dimension on the ruler, and then match the image size to the sketch.
It is also a good idea
no
to use digital images

with very high
contrast and good
focus. The best
example is a very
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sharp black and

white image. If the
image bleeds or fades
from one color to Edges may be difficult Sharp, Clear Image
another, it becomes to distinguish.
18 Workflow with Surfaces

difficult to distinguish edges with accuracy.

Identify Symmetry Getting started on a complex shape with no flat faces to use as a datum
and Edges or reference can be tricky. With prismatic parts, it is generally easy to
visualize how to create the shape, with extrude or revolve features, but
parts that do not sit flat on a table are a different matter.
Symmetry
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One of the first and easiest things to look at is symmetry. Position any
sketch pictures to center the part around the origin. The symmetry may
ut
not be complete, but take as much advantage of it as possible. This
makes not only modeling easier, but also mating the part into an
assembly later, and even setting up motion or FEA analysis models.
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Identify Edges Identifying and creating hard edges on the
part can help you get a start on a tough
model. Edges are fairly difficult to create
with any accuracy as the result of
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intersecting faces, but are relatively easy to
create as projected curves. An edge is
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traced from two orthogonal sketch pictures,
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and a projected curve is created from the
two sketches.
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Less commonly, 3D edges can be
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created as 3D splines. Editing

splines in 3D space requires some
practice, but can be done
effectively. One technique for
editing 3D splines is to split the
graphics window using the Four
View tool on the Standard Views
toolbar. Dragging 3D items in space
always moves the item in a plane
parallel to the screen unless there
are other constraints on the item.
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Curves on the plane of symmetry can also be useful for establishing a

starting point for a model. Even though these curves do not represent a
hard edge, they represent a silhouette edge, which is also useful.
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Tip Curve features cannot be mirrored directly,

but surfaces can be. When you have the
need to mirror a curve, make a surface
from the curve, mirror the surface, and the
mirrored edge can serve the same function
as the mirrored curve. This is an example
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of using surfaces as construction geometry.
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Identify Functional If the model you are working on has any functional faces, these are
Faces generally easy to identify and use for a starting location. Functional
faces are items like a bottle neck, which must be circular, or a bottom
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which must be flat or have feet, or a face which mates to another part
with a defined shape, or a face where a label will sit, which must be
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developable.
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In the part shown to the
right, the functional
surface is really the
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or
round area in back
which will fit onto a
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door latch mechanism.

The first sketch in the part acts as a layout sketch and sizes the outer
face as well as the inner diameter which is not yet cut. The line shown
above to the left side of the size reference sketch also
establishes the length of the part.
Check your Because surface models are created by humans, they are often not
Models Frequently perfect, and may have defects which are not plainly visible. If you build
important features on geometry with errors, the rest of the model may
be compromised. Therefor, it is important to make sure after every
important step to check the model for errors.
The two tools used to check models are Tools, Check and Verification
on Rebuild.
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Introducing: Verification on Rebuild is a setting which enables SolidWorks to do

Verification on more thorough checks on models. When the option is cleared,
Rebuild
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SolidWorks checks every model face against every adjacent face.

When it is checked, this setting forces SolidWorks to check every
model face against every other face in the model. This gives a more
thorough check and also can create a large performance drain on your
system. On complex parts, it is recommended to turn this setting on and

perform a forced rebuild (Ctrl+Q). There will be no special indication

that the setting is turned on, but when it works, features will fail that
previously did not fail, but allowed bad geometry to be created.
Where to Find It Q Click Tools, Options, Performance, Verification on Rebuild.
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Introducing: Tools, Tools, Check is a checking utility that identifies geometry problems.
Check Sometimes features will fail for seemingly no apparent reason, and a
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check will reveal that somewhere earlier in the tree a bad corner was
created. Tools, Check also will help you find open surface edges that
prevent a surface from knitting into a solid and short edges and
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minimum radius points that prevent a part from shelling.
Where to Find It Q Click Check from the Tools toolbar.

Q Click Tools, Check.
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Note It is a recommended best practice to work with the Verification on
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Rebuild option cleared, but to turn it on and check the model every
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several features, and then turning it off again. At a minimum, all
models, particularly complex ones should be checked with Verification
on Rebuild before calling the model finished.
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Folders in the
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Working with surface models will often produce feature
FeatureManager trees with hundreds of features. Because you are
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building parts one face at a time and there are so many

steps, there can be many, many features. At times there
will be many features related to a particular area of the
part. It is good practice to put long lists of related
features into a single folder for clearer organization and
to assist other people who might have to edit the part after you are done
with it. Often creating and naming a single folder eliminates the need to
rename several individual features. It also makes the FeatureManager
more navigable.
Clean-up Many modeling “housekeeping” practices fall into the personal
preference range rather than best practice type topics. Clean-up is one
of those topics.
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At the end of a surface modeling project, you may find that you have
many left over surface or solid bodies. Some SolidWorks users choose
to delete all but the final target solid from the bodies folders using the
Delete Bodies feature. A Delete Bodies feature remains in the
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FeatureManager and can be suppressed, edited or deleted later if access

to some of the affected bodies is needed.

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or
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Exercise 1: Create this part by following the steps as

Trimming shown.
Surfaces This lab reinforces the following
techniques:
Q Moving, rotating and copying surface
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bodies
Trimming surfaces
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Q
Q Converting a surface into a solid.

Units: inches
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Procedure Open an existing part named Trim_Exercise.SLDPRT.
1 Create an axis.
Create a reference axis from the two corners of the
st
surface nearest the Top reference plane. Make
sure this is called Axis1.
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2 Rotate the surface body.
Use the Move/Copy Body feature to rotate
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(no copy) the body about Axis1 by 35

degrees as shown.
3 Copy surface bodies.

Create another reference axis using the
intersection of the Front and the Right
reference planes. This should be called
Axis2.
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Use the Move/Copy Body feature to

Rotate and Copy the surface body about
Axis2, making 2 copies at an angle of 120
degrees.
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Exercise 1: Trimming Surfaces 23

4 Create a new sketch.

On the Right reference plane, open a
sketch, and dimension a point as
shown. The dimensions go to the
planes that are shown.
Exit the sketch.
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5 Create another axis.
Create Axis3 using the Point and Plane definition, with the newly
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created sketch point and the Right reference plane.
6 Copy surface body.
Rotate and Copy the original surface
body about Axis3 by 136 degrees.
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7
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Trim the surfaces.
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The display may look confusing, but use
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the Trim feature with the type set to
Mutual Trim and select the Pieces to
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Keep, selecting purple pieces as shown.

You should wind up with an enclosed
volume and should have four faces
selected.
8 Thicken into a solid.
The Create solid from enclosed volume option
will only be available if you have successfully
created an enclosed volume.
9 Save and close the part.

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24 Exercise 1: Trimming Surfaces

Exercise 2: Create this part by following the

Working from steps as shown.
Sketch Pictures This lab reinforces the following
techniques:
Q Use and management of Sketch
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Pictures
Projected curves
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Q
Q Thickened surfaces
Q Sharing sketches
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Units: millimeters
Procedure
st
1 Open a new part using the Part_MM template and name it
Stapler.SLDPRT
2
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Insert sketch pictures.
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Using the jpg images
provided
(StaplerCoverSide.
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jpg and
or
StaplerCoverBottom
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.jpg), insert the pictures

on the appropriate planes,
then orient and size the
images as appropriate.
The overall size of the side view image should be approximately 136 x
37.5 mm. (aspect ratio should be locked), with the sketch origin placed
in the center of the arc at the rear of the cover. The bottom view should
be approximately 53 mm x 130 mm.
You may need to adjust the angle of the images as well. This process is
not an exact one. You will need to make judgment calls and
approximations, and work with data that is not perfect.
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Exit the sketches and name them Side View and Bottom View as
appropriate.
3 Side profile sketch.
In the finished example
part, all of the sketch
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entities were drawn in a

single sketch, but you may
split them into multiple sketches if that helps you keep track of things
better. Multiple sketches could be put into a single folder to reflect the
common function of the sketches.
Exercise 2: Working from Sketch Pictures 25

The bottom and top edge projections as well as the front and side
silhouettes are in this sketch. You will use the sketch entities in this
sketch to create two different projected curves and two different lofted
surfaces.
A shared sketch approach makes it easier to edit shapes all in one or
two sketches, although it may look a little chaotic with sketch lines
e
everywhere.
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To assist in visualization, sometimes it is
useful to hide the sketch picture once the
edges have been traced. To do this, right-
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click the sketch picture icon under the
sketch in the FeatureManager and select
Suppress. This controls the sketch
picture independently from the overall
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sketch visibility.
Tip There is no way to show the sketch picture without showing sketch
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entities in the sketch. Foe this reason, Sketch Pictures are sometimes
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put into sketches with no sketch geometry, and a separate sketch
feature is created to act as a layout sketch.
Exit the sketch and rename it Side Sketch.
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4 Add sketch points at intersections.
Because we will want to reference the
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intersections later, add sketch points at

the indicated intersections. For
clarification, the intersection at the top
is between the front silhouette line and
the top edge projection, not the top
silhouette.
5 Bottom profile sketch.

In the same way that you
used a single sketch for
multiple side view curves
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in the previous step, make

a sketch that contains one
side of the curves for the
top and bottom edges, as shown. Remember that when sketching a
spline which needs to be smooth across the plane of symmetry, apply
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constraints to the ends of the spline which are on the centerline.

Notice also that the spline representing the top edge of the stapler cover
seems to be misplaced. This is because the edge must be located where
the sharp corner between the faces would exist if the fillet were
26 Exercise 2: Working from Sketch Pictures

removed.
Exit the sketch and rename it Bottom Sketch.
6 Create a projected curve.
Using the sketch entities
shown selected, create a
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projected curve that
represents half of the lower
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edge around the cover.
You will need to use Contour Selection to select
individual open loops from the shared sketches. The
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Selection Manager works in loft, sweep and
boundary surface features only.
As a reminder, the Contour Selection is available
from the right-click shortcut menu while editing the
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Projected Curve feature.
7 Create a second
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projected curve.
Using the
highlighted sketch
splines, create a
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or
second projected
curve representing
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half of the top edge of the cover.

The resulting pair of curves should look
like the image to the right.
8 Draw first loft profile.
The side face of the stapler cover will be
created by a loft. There are possibly other
techniques that may be equally or more
valid, but for this example, we will use a loft.
The easiest loft profile to set up for this side face is the silhouette at the
front of the stapler. You have already drawn this once, so we will reuse
that sketch.
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Open a new sketch on the Right reference plane.

Make sure the Side Sketch is visible.
Use Convert Entities to capture the front silhouette
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line of Side Sketch.

Split the converted spline twice with the Split Entities
tool. Give the split points coincident relations with the
intersection sketch points from Step 3.
Convert the unneeded end pieces of the spline to construction

geometry.
Exit the sketch.
9 Create the second loft profile.
The second loft profile is just a straight line. The rear of the stapler
cover will be trimmed away to be semi-circular, but for now we will
e
just create it straight.
Create a plane offset from the Front reference
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plane which is as far to the left in the image as
possible such that both projected curves pierce it.
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Draw a line on this plane that is pierced at each end
by a projected curve. Make sure the line and endpoints
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have no other sketch relations other than the pierce
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constraints.
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Introducing: Lofted Lofted surfaces work much like their solid counterparts. The most
Surface obvious difference is that they will produce an open surface rather than
a closed solid.
Lofted surfaces also have options for loft profiles which are not
available to solid lofts, including using open loop curves and sketches
as profiles. You can still use closed loop profiles, but the surface
feature will not cap the ends.
The Selection Manager is used to select multiple edges or contours for
profiles or guide curves.
Where to Find It Click Lofted Surface on the Surfaces Toolbar.

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Q Or, click Insert, Surface, Loft.

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10 Create the loft.

Create a Lofted Surface using
the converted and split spline
from Step 7 and the line from
Step 8. Use the two projected
curves as guide curves. Apply end
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tangency to the spline, Normal to
Profile.
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Set guide curve influence to
Global.
11 Mirror the loft.
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Mirror the lofted surface body
about the Right reference plane.
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12 Create a new sketch.
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On the plane used to draw the straight line
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for the lofted surface, draw an arc
connecting the top corner of the lofted
surface with the top corner of the mirrored
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surface.
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The arc should have a slight curvature, with
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approximately a .25 mm bulge. as shown.

Exit the sketch
13 Show the Side Sketch.
14 Create another new

sketch.
Create another new sketch
on the Right reference
plane.
Select the spline from the Side Sketch shown highlighted in the
image to the right, and click Convert Entities.
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15 Split the converted

spline.
Using the Split
Entities tool, place a
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split point 15-20 mm

from the limits of the
new surface you are
about to create.
Convert the ends of the

spline to construction geometry.

Exit the sketch.
Introducing: Fill The Fill Surface feature is one of the most versatile surface tools you
Surface will find in SolidWorks. Fill requires a boundary of surface edges or
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sketch entities. It may even work without a closed loop. If surface
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edges are selected, boundary conditions such as Contact, Tangency to
Face and Curvature to Face may be selected.
The Fill surface can knit itself into the surrounding surface bodies, knit
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an enclosed volume into a solid or integrate itself directly into a solid
body.
The Fill surface works by creating a four-sided patch and trimming it to
fit the selected boundary.
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Where to Find It Q Click Filled Surface on the Surfaces Toolbar.
Q
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Or, click Insert, Surface, Fill.
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16 Create a Fill surface.
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Click Filled Surface.
As the boundary, select the top
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edge of the loft, the top edge

of the mirrored surface and the
arc drawn in Step 12.
Select the spline from Step 15
as a constraint curve.
All edges should be set to
Contact.
17 Knit the surface bodies
together.
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At this point you should have

three surface bodies unless in
the mirror feature you checked
the Knit surfaces option.
Knit them all together as a single surface body.
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18 Create a split line feature.

Open a sketch on the Top reference plane.
Draw a line across the back of the top face of the
stapler cover, and dimension it about 2.5 mm

above the sketch origin.

Create a Split Line feature on the top face.
19 Delete face.
Use the Delete Face feature to
delete the small face.
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20 Thicken surface.
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Thicken the surface toward the
inside by 1.75 mm.
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Notice the defects in the corners
indicated by the red arrows. We
will fix these in an upcoming
step.
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21 Full round fillets.
Apply full round fillets to the
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back thin wall faces.
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22 Use Delete Face to get rid of
the defects.
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In a Delete Face feature set to
the Delete and Patch option,
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select the small triangular faces

created by the Thicken feature.
23 Inside fillet.
Apply a fillet with a 1 mm radius to the
inside edge of the stapler cover.
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24 Rear fillet.
Apply a fillet with a 2 mm radius to the
trimmed edge as shown.
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25 Outside fillet.
Select the two main edges
around the outside of the
cover, and apply a fillet
with a 2 mm radius. Clear
the Tangent Propagation
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option.
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26 Apply final fillet.
Apply a fillet with a .75
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mm radius to the remainder
of the outer edges as shown.
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27 Extra Credit.
Apply the ribs and bosses as shown in the sketch pictures. Use the
additional picture StaplerCoverAngle.jpg, which was
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photographed in the direction of draw for the placement.
Save and exit the part.
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Exercise 3: Create this part by following the steps as

Workflow for a shown.
Surface Part This lab uses techniques that should be
familiar to you, and reinforces the
following techniques:
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Q Defining edges of a surfaced part
Using Symmetry
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Q
Q Using Fill and Loft surface features

Units: inches
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Design Intent The design intent for this part is as follows:
1. Part is symmetrical.
2. Surfaces are smooth.
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3. All fillets and rounds are .06” radius with continuous curvature.
Procedure Open a new part using the Part_IN template and name it
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Workflow.SLDPRT.
1 Create a size reference sketch.
The sketch consists of three
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concentric circles and a vertical
or
line. The outermost circle is offset
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from the 1.250” dia circle.

Exit the sketch and rename it Size
Reference Sketch
2 Sketch a spline for a projected
curve.
Keep the spline close to the 1.250”
dia circle, and use handles to give it
some curvature at the ends using the spline handles.
This sketch represents the
only real edge in the part
(shown in red to the right) as
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projected onto the Right

reference plane. This will be
the first sketch for a projected
curve. The second sketch is
made in the next step.
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Exit the sketch and rename it to Side Profile.
Exercise 3: Workflow for a Surface Part 33

3 Sketch second spline for projected

curve.
The sketch is displayed from two
different angles to show it in normal
projection and also how it relates to
the previous sketches.
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This represents the edge around the part as
projected onto the Top reference plane.
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Where the spline touches the plane of symmetry,
give the spline handle a Horizontal relation.
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Make sure that the other end of the spline is
longer than the previous sketch so the projection
works properly.
Exit the sketch and rename it Top Profile.
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4 Create the Projected Curve.
Use the Top Profile and
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Side Profile sketches to
create a projected curve, using the
Sketch on Sketch option.
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5 Create center profile sketch.
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On the Right reference plane,

draw a spline that follows the
offset circle from the Size
Reference Sketch, and ends
at the ends of the Side Profile sketch.
Again use spline handles to control the shape at the ends of the spline.
This spline will be the shape of the surface at the plane of symmetry,
the silhouette edge.
Exit the sketch and name it Center Profile.
6 Create a guide curve.
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Hide all of the sketches except the Center

Profile. Make sure the projected curve is
visible.
Open a new sketch on the Top reference plane.
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Near the end with the loop (near the Origin),

sketch a two point spline, and pierce the ends by
the Center Profile sketch and the projected
curve.
At the end pierced by the Center Profile, give the spline handle a
34 Exercise 3: Workflow for a Surface Part

Horizontal relation.
Exit the sketch and rename it Guide Curve.
7 Create the lofted surface.
The loft profiles for the lofted
surface are the Center Profile and
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the projected curve.
Use the Guide Curve sketch as
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a guide curve.
Set tangency for the Center
Profile to Normal to Profile.
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Note Notice that the ends of the lofted surfaces come to a singularity point.
In this case we will allow this to remain, although if you were shelling
the part you would do better to trim off the ends and use the Fill surface
to recreate better faces in these areas.
8 Create a construction surface.
Construction surfaces are sometimes used to help establish boundaries
and tangency for model surfaces. In this case, you will use an extruded
surface to close the gap at the end of the lofted surface, and create a
way to achieve cross-symmetry tangency.
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On the Right reference plane, draw

an arc as shown, constrained to the
corners of the lofted surface.
Extrude the surface to the opposite
side of the Right plane from the
rest of the surfaces. The distance
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doesn’t matter since this is only a
construction surface.
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9 Create a series of arcs.
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The next step is to create a surface
that seals up the side and front of the
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part. The shape of the face will make
it difficult to do as a loft or sweep. .
The surface should bulge out slightly, carrying the curvature of the
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extruded construction surface around to the sides of the part.
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The best way to accomplish this will be to use constraint
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curves in the Fill surface. These constraint curves can be

placed on planes parallel to the Front reference plane,
not necessarily at any particular spacing. Since your
shape will be slightly different from the one shown here,
your model will have different requirements. In the
example shown here, there are six curves with a bulge
distance of approximately .050”.
Without renaming individual features, group the planes and sketches
into a new folder called Constraint Curves.
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Create a Fill surface that uses the
outer edge of the lofted surface
and the edge of the construction
surface as the boundary. The
Curvature Control setting should
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be Contact for the edge of the
lofted surface and Tangent for the
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edge of the extruded surface. Put
the series of arcs into the
Constraint Curves selection box.
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11 Knit the surfaces.
At this point, you will notice that
there are three surface bodies. The
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loft, the fill and the extruded
construction surface.
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Some operations cannot be done to or between multiple bodies. Fillets
and draft are two examples. The next step is to make a fillet between
the intersection of the fill surface and the loft surface, but this cannot be
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done until the surfaces are knit together into a single surface body.
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Select Knit from the Surfaces Toolbar and select the loft and fill
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surfaces.
Click OK to accept and exit the feature.
Hide any other sketches and surface bodies.
If you feel the need to be exceptionally thorough, you may use the
Delete Body feature to delete the construction surface.
12 Create a fillet.
On the example part is a
curvature continuous face fillet
with a .080” radius. Depending
on the minor differences
between your spline sketching
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and that of the example model,

you may not be able to apply a
fillet with these settings. The main limiting factor is the vertical
distance between the ends of the Side Profile sketch.
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A curvature continuous fillet will make the edges of the part look
smoother than a default constant radius fillet.
13 Mirror the body.
Select the Mirror feature and mirror the single surface body. Check the
option to Knit surfaces.


Click Insert, Thicken and check the Create solid from enclosed
volume option.
Alternatively, you could clear the Knit surfaces option in the Mirror
and use a Knit feature, which will also give you the option to make a
solid from the result of the Knit.
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Lesson 2
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Solid-Surface Hybrid
Modeling
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Q Modify a solid using surface bodies.
Q Interchange between solids and surfaces.
Q Use surfaces as construction geometry.
Q Repair and edit imported geometry using surfacing.
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39
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40
Hybrid Hybrid modeling, as the name implies,

Modeling brings together two different modeling
methods: solid modeling, which is best
at prismatic shapes and shapes with flat
ends, and surface modeling which is
best at making shapes one face at a
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time. Often a hybrid approach is the
best option because straight solids can
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be inefficient and awkward, and
surfaces alone take far too long to
model. Deciding which approach to use is about recognizing the
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strengths and weaknesses of various approaches, and applying them as
the situation requires.
In the most general terms, hybrid modeling can be broken into several
categories:
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Q Surface used to modify solid
This includes features such as Replace Face, Cut with Surface, and any
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of the Up to or Offset from Surface end conditions. The Fill surface
also has the ability to integrate itself directly into an existing solid.
Q Interchangeability between solids and surfaces
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This includes Delete Face (changes solid to surface), Thicken enclosed
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volume (surface to solid), Knit and Offset.
Surfaces as construction geometry
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Q
This category is limited mainly by your imagination, but can include
techniques such as Intersection Curve, surfaces used to trim other
surfaces, ruled skirts used to establish a draft tangency surface around
the parting line, and others.
Q Creating solids directly from surfaces
This includes techniques such as lofting surface bodies to create a solid,
or Thicken an open surface body.
Using Surfaces In this lesson we will use existing surface geometry to modify a solid
to Modify Solids body to create the shape of an electric guitar body. We will employ
various methods that all have the same result. Complex modeling is
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often an exercise in multiple methods, and having several ways to

accomplish any task is always a welcome insurance policy.
Procedure Follow these steps to learn several methods to create the part shown.
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Hybrid Modeling 41
1 Open an existing file.

Open the file called
guitar_body.SLDPRT.
Notice that this part has two
surface bodies that have already
been created, along with a sketch
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of the overall outer shape of the
guitar body.
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2 Extrude up to surface.
The easiest and often the most efficient hybrid method is to extrude a
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solid up to a surface body.
Note You may be familiar with the error message “The end face cannot
terminate the extruded feature”, which translated into english means
that the sketch is bigger than the surface and SolidWorks does not
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know what to do outside of the surface boundaries. One way to get
around this limitation is to knit together several surfaces into a larger
surface body, and then extrude up to the body rather than an individual
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face or feature.
Select the sketch named
Guitar Body Outline,
op A
and create a solid Extrude
or
feature using the Up to
Body, and select the Top
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Surface Knit body from

the Graphics Window or
from the FeatureManager.
Up to Surface will also work.
The Belly Scoop surface body has been hidden here for clarity.
Note Notice that after you accept the feature,
where the solid and surface faces
coincide, the display appears mottled.
This is due to the faces being in exactly
the same location and having different
colors. The way SolidWorks displays
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surfaces makes small approximations

which make one or the other surface sit on top at any given point. To
avoid this affect, you can hide the surface body.
3 Edit the Extrude feature.
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Edit the extrusion to make it Blind, 4” deep.
42 Using Surfaces to Modify Solids

4 Cut up to Surface.
Open a sketch on the end face of
the newly created extrude. With
the face still selected, click on
Convert Entities to convert the
edges to sketch entities.
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Extrude the sketch up to the Top
Surface Knit body.
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5 Suppress the extruded cut.
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Introducing: Cut The Cut with Surface feature uses a surface body to cut a solid body.
with Surface The surface must extend all the way through the solid, preferably with
room to spare, meaning that the surface should extend past the solid
visibly.
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Where to Find It Q Click Cut with Surface on the Features toolbar.
Q
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Or, click Insert, Cut, With Surface.
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6 Cut with Surface.
Click Insert, Cut, With Surface.
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Select the Top Surface Knit body.
The direction of the arrow
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indicates the material that will be

removed.
Again, it is no surprise, but the
geometry looks exactly the same as
the other methods.
Introducing: Replace Face is perhaps one of the overlooked and underused gems in
Replace Face SolidWorks hybrid capabilities. It is one of the few functions that can
actually add and/or remove material in a single step. Replace face can
replace faces of solids or of surfaces, but the body replacing the face
must be a surface body.
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Where to Find It Q Click Replace Face on the Surfaces toolbar.
Using Surfaces to Modify Solids 43

Q Or, click Insert, Face, Replace.
7 Replace Face.
Suppress the Surface Cut feature.
Click Replace Face on the Surfaces toolbar.
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In the top box, Target faces for replacement,
select the top face of the solid. The top box is for
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the old faces that will be removed.
In the lower box, Replacement surface, put the
Top Surface Knit body. The lower box is
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for the new faces that will remain. The name that shows in the box may
not match the actual name of the surface body, regardless if you select
from the FeatureManager Bodies folder or the Graphics Window.
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Interchanging Working with solids can only take you so far, and sometimes you may
between Solids y FT
need to shift gears and use a different approach for a while, then switch
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and Surfaces back. That is what temporarily changing a solid model into a surface
model will do for you. On more complex projects you may want to plan
your work so you do not wind up changing in and out of solids and
op A
surfaces and wasting a lot of rebuild time.
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8 Convert the solid body to a surface
body.
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Using the Delete Face feature, with the

Delete option, delete the face that was
replaced in the last step, which will convert
the solid body into a surface body.

Use the Trim Surface feature with the
Mutual Trim type to trim both surfaces.
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The surface body created by the mutual trim made
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an enclosed surface, but it did not make it back into

a solid body.
Click Insert, Boss/Base, Thicken. After you
select the enclosed surface body, there should be a
44 Interchanging between Solids and Surfaces

check box for Create solid from enclosed volume. Make sure this
box is checked.
We have seen several techniques on this part. There will be situations
in consumer product design where you will likely need each one of
these techniques. As to which technique is better, there is no single
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answer that would be valid in all cases. As a homework assignment,
you might try to go through these features and evaluate them with the
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Feature Statistics tool which can help you understand the performance
cost of using various tools.
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Interchanging between Solids and Surfaces 45

Surfaces as One of the keys to any sweep operation is

Construction creating the required curves to use as the path
Geometry or guides. In this example, a decorative piece
of wrought iron is modeled by sweeping a
circle along a curved path. The path is created
by finding the intersection between two
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reference surfaces.
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y FT Thanks to Jason Pancoast at
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Computer-Aided Products, Inc.
for submitting this example.
Stages in the The major steps in this operation are:

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Process
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Q Create a revolved surface.
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This will use a sketched spline.

Q Create a helical surface.
This is done by sweeping a line along a straight path, with twist control.
Q Generate intersection curve.
Find the intersection between the two reference surfaces. This is the
path for the twisted sweep.
Q Sweep one of the “spokes”.
A circular profile is swept along the intersection curve.
Q Pattern the “spokes”.
A circular pattern of the swept feature completes the part.
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Procedure To save time, we will begin by opening an existing part.

1 Open part.
Open the existing part named Wrought
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Iron. This represents the base of an

ornamental object such as the base of a
lamp. A sketch is also included.
2 Hide solid.
Right-click the revolve feature, and select Hide Solid Body.
46 Surfaces as Construction Geometry

3 Edit an existing sketch.

Edit the sketch spline_grid.
4 Create spline.
Click Spline and sketch a spline whose shape is
approximately the same as the one shown in the
illustration at the right, attaching to lines and
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endpoints. The spline should have 7 interpolant
points.
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5
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Dimension.
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Use ordinate dimensions to dimension the
spline points. To maintain symmetry in the
spline, you can use Link Values on the pairs
op A
of vertical ordinate dimensions.
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6 Vertical relation.
Select the upper end
spline handle (arrow)
and add a Vertical
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relation.
Repeat the procedure
for the lower end
spline handle.
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Surfaces as Construction Geometry 47

7 Revolve surface.
Select the vertical centerline at
the zero datum, and click on
the Surfaces toolbar.
Set the Angle to 360°.
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Click OK.
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8 Sketch the sweep path.
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Open a new sketch on the Front reference plane.
Show the sketch of the revolved surface.
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Select the vertical centerline, and click Convert
Entities to copy it into the sketch.
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9 Exit the sketch.
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10 Sketch the sweep profile.

Sketch a line from the bottom end of the sweep
path along the horizontal direction.
11 Exit the sketch.

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12 Sweep a surface.
Sweep a surface using
the path, section, and
twist control settings as
shown. No guide curve
is required to create this
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helical sweep.
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13 Intersection curve.
Open a new 3D Sketch. Hold down Ctrl and
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select the two surfaces.
Click Intersection Curve
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The system generates the intersection in a 3D
sketch, and automatically puts you into Edit
Sketch mode.
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14 Exit the sketch.
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Exit the 3D sketch and hide the two surface
bodies.
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15 Show the solid body.

Right-click Revolve1 and select
Show Solid Body.
Create a plane normal to the top end of
the intersection curve, and sketch a
0.25” circle.
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Surfaces as Construction Geometry 49

17 Sweep.
When sweeping the boss, use the option Align with end faces and
Merge result to ensure that the boss completely merges with the
revolve feature.
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18 Circular pattern.
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Create a circular pattern with six equally spaced instances.

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Repairing and Short of getting a Parasolid file with a feature tree, there are options
Editing available for editing imported parts.
Imported
Geometry
1 Open the STEP file.
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Open the file named
baseframe.STP.
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2 Check for errors.
Errors on imported parts are
spotted during import and a
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warning flag or error message
may be displayed. This part
should show a warning flag
on the Imported feature.
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3 Use Verification on Rebuild.
Turn on Tools, Options, Performance, Verification on Rebuild and
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press Ctrl+Q. This still does not reveal any errors. Make sure to turn
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this setting back off.
4 Tools, Check.
Click Tools, Check, and check the model. This
op A
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shows that there are indeed two invalid faces
on the model.
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Tools, Check will check a model, but by itself

it cannot repair the model.
Import Diagnosis is a tool that can both find
and repair errors, so we will employ that now.
Introducing: Import Import Diagnostics is a tool that helps locate and fix problems with
Diagnostics imported geometry. In order for Import Diagnostics to work, the
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Imported feature must be the only feature in the tree.
Where to Find It Q Click Import Diagnostics on the Tools toolbar.

Q Or, click Tools, Import Diagnostics.
Q Or, right-click on the Imported feature in the FeatureManager and
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select Import Diagnosis.
Repairing and Editing Imported Geometry 51

5 Import Diagnostics.
Right-click on the Imported feature and select
Import Diagnostics.
The PropertyManager for this function has
identified a third faulty face. Hovering the cursor
over one of the fault symbols in the Import
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Diagnostics PropertyManager shows a tooltip of
what is wrong with each face.
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6
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Attempt to heal all.
Click the Attempt to Heal All button. This
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command may or may not solve 100% of the
imported problems, but any manual work that it
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saves you is a benefit. Import Diagnostics comes back with two of the
surfaces healed and one still faulty.
7 Accept the diagnostics.
Click OK to accept the results of the diagnostics.
Nothing that you do with Import Diagnosis can be undone except by
reimporting the part. There is no feature history of what it has done
behind the scenes.
8 Manually repair the remaining faulty face.
The remaining faulty face is a three-sided patch
with a singularity point, which we have already
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identified in the previous lesson as often

problematic.
9 Delete Face.
Using a Delete Face feature and the Delete
option, we eliminate the face and turn the solid
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model into a surface.

Note Notice how the open edges of the hole in the surface are shown in a
different color. This is due to a setting in Tools, Options, Display/
Selection.
52 Repairing and Editing Imported Geometry

Faulty faces can also be deleted from the Import Diagnostics window
by right-clicking a faulty face from the list and selecting Delete Face.
10 Patch the hole.
The first choice for patching a gap like this
should automatically be the Fill feature. In this
case, however, the Fill surface gives us a poor
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quality face. Neither the Resolution Control
slider nor the curvature/tangency option rescues
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the patch, so we need to look for another
answer.
11 Loft the patch.
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Lofting a patch will result in another
surface with a singularity, but the only other
alternative is a revolved surface which also
has a singularity on it. In this case, the loft
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works perfectly, although it needs some
coaxing. Be particularly careful about the
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Global guide curve influence setting.
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12 Knit the surface body into a solid.

Use a Knit feature to knit the loft into the rest of the surface body and
turn the resulting enclosed volume into a solid body.
Editing Imported This imported part has some features we would like to eliminate. There
Parts are no features in a tree that can be deleted to do this, and we will not
do it by cutting and filling with solids. First, we will show an
automated way of doing this, and then go back through and see how to
do this with a little more manual control.
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1 Remove boss and

counterbored hole.
On this part, we want to
remove the small boss, the
through hole and the
counterbore on the outside.
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The part in this area is a
curved face.
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2 Delete Face.
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Create a Delete Face feature that selects all the
faces of the affected features. There should be nine
selected faces all together. Use the Delete and
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Patch option.
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3 Results.
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The Delete Face feature

results in a perfectly smooth
patch as if there had never
been anything there at all.
4 Edit the Delete Face
feature.
That was too easy, let us see
it again in slow motion.
Edit the Delete Face feature
to use the Delete option instead of the Delete and Patch.
5 Results.
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The result this time is a surface body instead of a

solid, with gaps in the surfaces where the feature
faces were. Notice again the color of the open edges
of the surfaces.
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Introducing: Delete The Delete Hole feature is like the Untrim feature we learned about in
Hole the first lesson, except that it only works on closed interior loops.
Where to Find It Q Select the edge of a closed interior loop on a single surface body

and press Delete on the keyboard.

Q Or, select the edge and click Delete from the Standard toolbar
or Edit menu.
6 Delete Hole.
Select the edge of the
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hole and press Delete.
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When you click OK, the
hole is gone, again filled
in as if it never existed.
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There is one more
method to do this before moving on.
7 Untrim surface.
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Rotate the part to see the hole left by removing the
counterbore on the other side of the part.
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Select the edge of the hole and click Untrim Surface
from the Surface toolbar. Use the default settings, and
click OK.
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Exercise 4: This demonstrates some techniques

Using Import for modifying imported models.
Surface and The lab uses a surface imported
from a Parasolid (x_t) file. The
Replace Face
surface is moved to a new position
and used to replace a face in the
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solid.
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This lab uses the following skills:
Q Delete Face
Q Import Surface
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Q Move/Copy Bodies
Q Replace Face
1 Open existing file.
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Open the existing Parasolid file named
Button.x_t. It is found in the
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Replace Face folder.
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Note If you are prompted to select a template,
choose Part_IN.
op A
The face to be replaced is highlighted in
or
green.
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2 Delete faces.
Before we can replace the face, some
fillets have to be deleted. Click
Delete Face on the Surfaces toolbar.
Select the faces shown.
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Be sure to zoom in on the corners. There

are some small faces there.
Tip Drag a selection box around the corners
Do
to be sure to select the small faces.

Select the option Delete and Patch, and
click OK.
Exercise 4: Using Import Surface and Replace Face 57

3 Import surface.
Import a surface into the part using Insert,
Features, Imported. Select the Parasolid file
named New Surface.
The surface color was changed for clarity.
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4 Move the surface.
Click Insert, Features,
Move/Copy, or click Move/
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Copy Bodies on the
Surfaces toolbar.
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Use the Translate option.
Enter 2.5” for Delta Y.
Click OK.
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5 Replace face.
Replace the top face of the part
with the imported surface.
Click Insert, Face, Replace, or
click Replace Face on the
Surfaces toolbar.
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58 Exercise 4: Using Import Surface and Replace

6 Hide the surface.

Right-click the surface, and select Hide
Surface Body.
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7 Fillet.
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Add a 0.025” fillet as shown.
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8
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Save and close the part.
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Exercise 4: Using Import Surface and Replace Face 59

Exercise 5: This lab includes two small exercises

Using Surfaces in using surfaces to create solids.
to Create Solids Q The first one creates a solid by
lofting between two surfaces.
Q The second uses the method of
knitting surfaces to combine
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multiple bounding surfaces into a
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solid.
Q Lofting between surfaces
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Q Importing an IGES file
Q Repairing missing surfaces
Q Knitting surfaces
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Lofting Between Lofting can be accomplished using sketches, faces or surfaces. In this
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Surfaces
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example, lofting is performed between two surfaces to form a solid.
1 Open the part.
Open the existing part named
op A
LOFT_SURF. The part consists of
or
two imported surfaces.
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2 Insert loft.
Using Insert, Boss/
Base, Loft, select
the two surfaces as
the Profiles of the
loft.
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Pick the surfaces

near mating corners,
like you would
using sketches.
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The result is a single

solid body.
60 Exercise 5: Using Surfaces to Create Solids

3 Fillets and shell.

Add fillets of radius 0.5” and a
shell of 0.125” to complete the
body.
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Repair and Knit Knit surface allows you to combine several surfaces into a single,
Surface larger surface or in some cases, a solid. For a solid, the surfaces must
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comprise a closed volume. If surfaces are missing from the imported
data, the gaps must be filled.
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1 Import an IGES file.
Click File, Open, or click Open
. Set Files of type: to IGES
Files (*.igs;*.iges). Select the file Surface Repair.IGS.
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2 Click Options.
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Verify that the option Try forming solid(s) is selected and click OK.
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Exercise 5: Using Surfaces to Create Solids 61

3 Click Open from the Open dialog.

If you are prompted to select a template, choose Part_IN.
4 Results.
The individual surface
patches are knit into a single
imported surface. However,
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there are some gaps.
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5 Click Filled Surface .

Set Edge settings to
Tangent.
Select the Apply to all
edges check box.
6 Select edges.
Right-click one of the edges
of the opening, and select
Select Open Loop.
Select the Merge result
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check box.
Click OK.
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62 Exercise 5: Using Surfaces to Create Solids

7 Results.
A surface patch is created to fill in the
opening. It is shown here in a
different color for illustration
purposes.
Since the Merge result option was
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selected, the new patch has
automatically been knit to the existing
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surface.
8 Repeat.
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Repeat this process for the remaining
three openings.
Important! When doing the last opening, also select the option Try to form solid.
This will thicken the resulting knit surface into a solid.
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9 Results.
Although the graphics look the same, a solid has
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been formed. Only by looking at the Solid
Bodies folder can you tell the model is now a
solid.
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Exercise 5: Using Surfaces to Create Solids 63

Exercise 6: A finial is a decorative end cap, in this case

Finial Wrap intended for a curtain rod. This finial model has
several features which will be completed over the
course of several exercises. In this exercise, you
will create the wrapped pattern around the lower
band on the finial.
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From a design point of view, a real part would
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not likely have such a cacophony of style
elements, but bringing them together allows one
part to serve as a showcase for several
techniques.
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Q Wrap sketch onto a surface
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Q Thicken surface
Q Loft surface from solid edges
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Replace face
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Q

Open Finial_Wrap.SLDPRT.
op A
Notice that there is existing solid geometry and
or
two sketches. The sketches have been provided
in order to get consistent results.
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Introducing: Offset The Offset Surface feature creates a new surface body from an existing
Surface set of faces. The faces may be solid or surface faces. When Offset
Surfaces fail, it is usually because the offset distance is greater than the
smallest curvature on the face. In this way it is similar to offsetting a
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sketch.
Offsets are sometimes made at a distance of zero to copy faces.
Where to Find It Q Click Offset Surface on the Surfaces toolbar.

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Q Or, click Insert, Surface, Offset.
2 Create two copies of surface.

Using the Offset surface feature, create two separate copies of the
cylindrical face indicated by the red arrow. The offset distance should
64 Exercise 6: Finial Wrap

be zero.
Two copies are needed because you will create two Wrap features, each
of which consumes one surface body.
3 Hide bodies.
Hide the solid body and the all of the surface bodies except one of the
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offset surfaces.
4 Initiate the Wrap feature.
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Wrap.
At the prompt, use the Fly
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Out FeatureManager to select the sketch Wrap1. Also select the face of
the remaining shown surface.
The long red rectangle represents the cylindrical surface flattened onto
st
the sketch plane.
Make sure the Scribe option is selected and click OK.
5
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Delete face.
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Click Delete Face from the Surfaces toolbar
and select the cylindrical surface outside of the
scribed pattern. Use the Delete option rather
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than the default Delete and Patch.
Click OK.
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6 Repeat the Wrap steps.

Show the second offset surface body, and repeat
steps 4 and 5 using the surface that was just shown
and sketch Wrap2.
7 Thicken the surface bodies.
Click Insert, Boss/Base, Thicken.
You will need to create two Thicken features. The
first feature should be made from the surface
scribed by the sketch Wrap1. Do not merge the
first Thicken feature. The first Thicken should
have a thickness of .050”
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On the second Thicken feature, use merge, but

edit the Feature Scope to only include the other
solid body created by the first Thicken feature.
The second Thicken feature should have a
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thickness of .040”.
Exercise 6: Finial Wrap 65

8 Create a Split Line.

Open a new sketch on the Top reference
plane, and draw a line approximately as
shown.
Create a split line on the outer face of the
solid body.
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9 Loft a surface.
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Loft a surface between the newly created
split line and the edge at the intersection
of the two bodies.
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The loft should use Curvature to Face on
both ends. Be careful at the edge indicated
by the arrow because there are
perpendicular faces that the face could
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select. If it selects the wrong face, use the
Next Face button for that edge.
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Introducing: Extend
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Extending a surface can be done by making the extension tangent to the
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Surface
or
existing body, or part of the same face of the existing body. The Same
Face option attempts to extrapolate the changing curvature and
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continue that. This option is typically only useful for short distances,
but it results in a seamless extension, where the tangent extension often
creates a broken edge.
Where to Find It Q Click Extend Surface on the Surfaces toolbar.

Q Or, click Insert, Surface, Extend.
10 Extend the surface to one side.

We are going to use this lofted surface to
replace the face of the solid. In order to do
that, the lofted surface needs to extend past
the solid body.
no
Extend the surface past the sides of the

solid.
Do

11 Replace face.
Replace the face of the solid with the new surface
body.
Hide the remaining surface body.
The surface color has been changed here for
e
clarity.
12 Pattern the body.
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Use the Circular Pattern
feature to make 9 total
instances of the body around a
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Temporary Axis.
13 Merge the new bodies with
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the existing body.
Show the Revolve2 solid body.
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Click Insert, Features, Combine.
Select all solid bodies either from the Solid
Bodies folder or from the graphics window.
op A
or
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Additional exercises using this part are in the labs

for Lesson 3: Surface Modeling.
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Exercise 6: Finial Wrap 67

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Lesson 3
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Surface Modeling
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Create extruded, ruled, lofted, and planar surfaces.
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Q Modify surfaces by trimming.

Q Create filled surfaces for blending.
Q Convert surfaces into solids.
Q Use surface intersections to create 3D curves.
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Do
69
Surface Modeling
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70
Surface Modeling
Stages in the Some of the key stages in the

Process modeling process of this part are
given in the following list:
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Capture the design intent.
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Q
The industrial designer provided concept sketches of the remote
control. These were scanned to create image files that can be inserted
into a sketch. The sketch pictures will serve as a guide when modeling
the remote control.
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Q Parting lines and draft angles.
As a general rule you should begin modeling by defining the parting
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line and setting up the draft angles using reference surfaces. With the
vast majority of free-form parts, you must build draft in as you model.
Generally you cannot add draft later as a local feature.
op A
Q Splines.
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Consumer products are characterized by smooth, curvature continuous
shapes that cannot be modeled using lines and arcs. Splines are the
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curves that in turn create the surfaces.

Q Lofted and swept surfaces.
One portion of the remote control will be lofted using a series of
profiles and guides. Another portion will be swept using guide curves.
Q Blending surfaces to fill in gaps.
Not all the necessary surfaces can be created using loft or sweep. The
remaining portion will be created as a filled surface.
Q Knitting.
Once the surface model is complete, the surfaces are knitted into a
solid.
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Q Symmetry.
The knitted solid is mirrored.
Q Associativity and design changes.
After evaluating the model, we will change the underlying curves.
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Using Sketch We will start the modeling process with a couple of sketches of the
Picture to Capture design concept provided by the industrial designer. These will be used
Design Intent as guides as we create the basic curves.
Stages in the Process 71

Surface Modeling
Procedure Begin by opening a new part with units set to inches.

1 Side view sketch.
Open a sketch on the
Right reference
plane.
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Sketch a horizontal line as shown. This reference line will be used in
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subsequent operations.
2 Sketch picture.
Click Tools, Sketch Tools, Sketch Picture.
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In the Case Study folder for this lesson, browse
to the Remote Control\Sketches from ID
folder.
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Select the image Remote-side-view.tif
and click Open.
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The picture will come in very large. Note that the
Width is over 42 inches.
op A
3 Resize the picture.
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Make sure Lock aspect ratio is checked and scale the image to
approximately the correct size by setting the Width to 5.75in.
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Fine tune the position of the picture by dragging and resizing it.
The objective is to line the picture up with the sketched reference line.
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72 Stages in the Process

Surface Modeling
4 Transparency.
Expand the Transparency options. Select User
defined and click the white background area of
the picture to define the transparent color.
Set the Transparency slider to 1.00.
Click OK.
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5 Top view sketch.
This one will also come in large. And it is
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rotated.
Rotate the image by setting the Angle to 90°.
Make sure Lock aspect ratio is selected and
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scale the image to approximately the correct
size by setting the Width to 5.75in.
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Fine tune the position of the picture by dragging
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and resizing it.
Line it up with the reference line in the first
sketch.
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Set the Transparency to 1.00 and select the
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white background of the picture as the

transparent color.
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Surface Modeling
6 Sketch the parting line.

Use Convert Entities to copy the reference line from Sketch1
into the active sketch.
Using tangent arcs and lines, sketch the parting line shown here in
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green for clarity.
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7 Dimension the sketch.
Sketch1 is hidden for clarity. Do not worry about the values of the
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dimensions. Your values may vary. The goal right now is to constrain
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the sketch.
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Note The dimensions are shown in 6 decimal places just to illustrate that we
are not worrying about the exact dimension values at this time.
8 Fit spline.
Click Fit Spline on the Spline Tools toolbar.
Clear the Closed spline check box.
Right-click the line and select Select Chain.
The system creates a spline and converts the
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original sketch entities to construction geometry.

The spline is related to the original sketch entities
by a FitSpline relation as indicated by the
symbol.
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Surface Modeling
9 Change the dimensions.

Fine tune the parting line geometry by editing the dimension values as
shown below. Notice that the spline updates accordingly.
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Extrude the parting line
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sketch so that it extends
beyond what will be the
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edge of the model. A
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distance of 1.5” works
well.
It is only necessary to
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or
extrude in a single
direction because we are
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going to take advantage of the part’s symmetry and use mirroring.

11 Hide surface.
In the graphics area, right-click the extruded surface and select Body,
Hide from the shortcut menu. This will make it easier to see what we
are sketching in the next step.
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Surface Modeling
12 Sketch a 4-point spline for top view of parting line.

Make both ends Coincident to the ends of the reference line in
Sketch1.
Make the tangent handles at both ends Perpendicular to the reference
line in Sketch1.
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Turn on the curvature combs. Adjust the positions of the points and
drag handles until you are satisfied with the spline and how it fits the
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sketch. When finished, exit the sketch.
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13 Trim the parting surface.
op A
Click Trim Surface .
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For Trim Type, click Standard.
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For the Trim tool, select the sketch we just created

in step 12.
Click Keep selections and click in the selection
list. Identify the portion of the parting surface that
you want to keep.
Click OK to complete the trimming operation.
Portion of surface you want to keep
Trim tool
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Surface Modeling
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Introducing: Ruled Ruled surfaces were defined in the Introduction to Surfacing lesson. In
Surface SolidWorks, they are created from selected solid or surface edges and
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may be created normal or tangent to the face, perpendicular or at some
angle to a reference or as a sweep, which is parallel to a reference.
Ruled surfaces are frequently associated with creating drafted surfaces,
and are often used as construction or reference surfaces.
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Where to Find It Q Click Ruled Surface on the Surfaces toolbar.
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Or, click Insert, Surface, Ruled.
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Q
14 Ruled surface.
In this case we want to create a reference surface
op A
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that follows the edge of the parting surface and that
has 3° of draft with respect to the Top reference
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plane. We will use this surface in subsequent steps

to help define the geometry of the part.
For Type, select Tapered to Vector.
For Distance enter 0.5”. The distance is not critical.
We just need something big enough to work with
easily.
For the Reference Vector, select the Top reference
plane and click Reverse Direction.
Set the Angle to 3.00°.
For Edge Selection, select the edge of the trimmed
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surface.
Verify that the ruled surface tapers outward. If it
does not, click Alternate Side.
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Surface Modeling
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Click OK.
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15 Offset plane.
Create a plane offset from the Top plane. This will be used for
sketching the area around the keypad.
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In this case, the offset was 0.480”. Depending on how you scaled the
sketch picture, your results may differ.
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op A
or
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Note From the looks of the sketch picture, it appears the upper face of the
remote control is angled with respect to the Top plane. However, we
checked with the industrial designer and were told that the two should
indeed be parallel.
Lofting The surface that will actually be part of

Surfaces the finished model is one half of the
upper part of the housing. This will be
a lofted surface and to create it, we
need several profile and guide curves.
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16 Sketch a 3-point spline for outline of the keypad area.

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Make both ends Coincident to the ends of the reference line in

Sketch1.
Make the handles at both ends Perpendicular to the reference line in
Sketch1.
78 Lofting Surfaces
Surface Modeling
Turn on the curvature combs. Adjust the positions of the points and
drag handles until you are satisfied with the spline and how it fits the
sketch. When finished, exit the sketch. This will be one of the guide
curves.
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Note Since the spline is not dimensioned, it is under defined and appears
blue in the sketch.
17 First profile curve.
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Create a new sketch on the Right reference plane.
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The profile is a 2-point spline. Creating this is a multistep process:
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1. Sketch the spline. The ends are Coincident
to the end of the guide curve (step 16) and
the corner of the ruled surface.
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or
Note: For clarity, the sketch picture is not
shown.
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2. Make the spline tangent to the edge of the

ruled surface. This is necessary to maintain
the 3° draft angle when we loft the surface.
3. Sketch a construction line tangent to

the other end of the spline. Create an
angular dimension between it and the
plane the guide curve is on (step 15).
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Set the angle to 2.00°.

Do
Lofting Surfaces 79
Surface Modeling
4. Display the curvature combs

and show the sketch picture.
Adjust the lengths of the tangent
handles until you are satisfied
with the shape of the spline.
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Tip The PropertyManager is very useful for making
small adjustments to the length of the tangent
handles.
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5. Exit the sketch.
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18 Second profile curve.
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Repeat the preceding procedure for the profile
or
curve on the front end of the remote control.
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19 Offset plane.
Create a plane offset 0.75” from the Front
plane. This will be used for sketching a third
profile curve.
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80 Lofting Surfaces
Surface Modeling
20 Third profile curve.

Create a new sketch on Plane2.
Switch to a Front view orientation.
Sketch a 2-point spline. Add Pierce
relations between the ends and the
e
guide curve and the edge of the ruled
surface.
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Sketch two construction lines tangent to
the spline and dimension their angles as
shown.
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Display the curvature combs and adjust
the lengths of the tangent handles until you are satisfied with the shape
of the curve. In this case, the sketch pictures do not offer any guidance
use your best judgement.
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21 Loft the surface.
Select the three profile
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curves.
For Start/End Constraints,
select Normal To Profile for
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both.
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For Guide Curves, select
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Sketch6 (step 16) and the

edge of the ruled surface.
For the edge tangency, select
Tangency to Face. For Sketch6, select None. Click OK.
22 Evaluate the results.
Use Display Curvature and Zebra
Stripes to evaluate the results of the
loft.
Sometimes it is also helpful to add
another directional light to give more
illumination to the side of the model,
no
or use a reflective RealView material.

Surface quality is evaluated
subjectively by how the surface, and more often than not how the edge
between surfaces, reflects light.
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Looking at the Front view, the surface does not look

rounded enough in the area indicated.
Lofting Surfaces 81
Surface Modeling
23 Add a loft section.

Right-click the lofted surface, and
select Add Loft Section from the
shortcut menu.
The system generates a section plane
and a profile curve through the
e
surface.
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You can move and rotate the plane by
dragging it.
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24 Use selected plane.
In the PropertyManager, select the Use selected
plane check box.
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Select the Front reference plane and click OK.
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25 Show sketch.
In the next step we will edit the new loft section. Before we do that,
show the sketches for the second profile and the guide curve.
26 Edit the new loft section.
View the sketch relations. If there are not
already Pierce relations between the
ends and the guide curve and the edge of
the ruled surface, add them.
Sketch construction lines tangent to each
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end of the spline. Add Parallel relations

between them and the construction lines
in the second profile.
Display the curvature combs and adjust
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the spline until you are satisfied with the

shape.
Exit the sketch to rebuild the lofted surface.
82 Lofting Surfaces
Surface Modeling
Modeling the We will use a similar approach modeling the lower half as we did for
Lower Half the upper half. Namely, we will use the sketch picture as a guide to help
establish the shape of the part. However, instead of lofting, we will use
Sweep with Guide Curves and Fill Surface.
27 Ruled surface.
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Create a second ruled surface also with
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3° of draft. This time, it should extend
upwards from the edge of the parting
surface.
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This will be used as a reference when
modeling the lower half of the remote
control.
28 Spline.
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Open a new sketch on the Right reference plane. Show the side view
sketch picture.
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Create a 5-point spline. You need Coincident relations between the
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endpoints and the corners of the ruled surface. Add Tangent relations
between the spline and the edges of the ruled surface.
op A
Display the curvature combs and adjust the shape of the spline until
or
you are satisfied. Then exit the sketch.
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This is the second guide curve for the sweep.

29 Offset plane.
Create a plane offset 1.750” from the Front plane. This will be used
for sketching a the sweep profile.
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Modeling the Lower Half 83

Surface Modeling
30 Sketch the sweep path.

Open a new sketch on the Right
reference plane. Sketch a horizontal
line through the origin.
One end of the line is coincident with
the end of the spline. The other end is
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coincident with Plane3.
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Exit the sketch.
Introducing: Sketching a partial ellipse is similar to sketching a centerpoint arc:
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Partial Ellipse
Q Position the cursor where you want the center and drag the mouse
to establish the length of the major axis. Then release the mouse
button.
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Q Next, drag the outline of the ellipse to establish the length of the
minor axis.
Q Finally, click where you want the ellipse to start, and drag the
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mouse to establish the length of the circumference.
Important! To fully define an ellipse you must dimension or otherwise constrain

the lengths of the major and minor axes. You must also constrain the
op A
orientation of one of the two axes. One way to do this is with a Hori-
or
zontal relation between the ellipse center and the end of the major axis.
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Where to Find It Q Click Tools, Sketch Entities, Partial Ellipse.

Q Or, click Partial Ellipse on the Sketch toolbar.

Open a new sketch on Plane3.
The sweep profile is a partial ellipse. Sketching this is a multistep
process:
1. Click Partial Ellipse on the Sketch toolbar.
Sketch a partial ellipse as shown. It should be
approximately the lower-right quarter of a
no
complete ellipse.
It is good if the start point of the ellipse is
below the end of the minor axis.
Sketch it out in space so as not to inadvertently
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capture and unwanted relations.
84 Modeling the Lower Half

Surface Modeling
2. Add a Horizontal relation between the center

and the point at the end of the minor axis.
Note: Sketch relations have been turned on for
illustration purposes.
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3. Sketch construction lines from the end of the
minor axis to the center and then to the end point
of the ellipse.
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Dimension the angle between them and set the
value to 3.00°.
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4. Add a Pierce relation between the end point of
the ellipse and the bottom edge of the ruled
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surface.
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5. Add a Coincident relation between the other
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end point of the ellipse and the end of the major

axis.
Then add a Pierce relation between the end point
of the ellipse and the sketched guide curve.
32 Sweep the surface.
Select the profile, path, and both
guide curves to sweep the surface.
Note An extra guide curve callout has
been shown for illustration
purposes.
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Filling in Gaps There are situations where special tools are needed to fill in areas of a
model with surfaces. For example:
Do
Q Blending shapes.
Sometimes the shape you need cannot easily be created using fillets,
sweeps, or lofts.
Filling in Gaps 85
Surface Modeling
Q Repairing gaps or incorrect geometry in imported surfaces.

Sometimes imported surfaces lack the completeness or precision to be
knit into a solid. In these situations a tool is needed to fill in missing
surface patches.
Q Closing holes in a part.
In preparation for modeling a core and cavity mold, through holes in
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the part have to be closed off. Surfaces are used to do this. However,
when the edges of the hole are not planar, creating a surface patch
ut
requires a special tool.
Preparation for To properly blend the filled surface to its adjacent boundaries, you
Using Filled
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should not rely on using curves for boundaries. It is much better to use
Surface the edges of surfaces. This however, usually requires you to create
reference surfaces prior to using the Filled Surface command.
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33 Trim surface.
Trim the 3° draft reference surface using
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Plane3 as the trimming tool.
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This will serve as one of the reference surfaces
for the filled surface.
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or
Keep this piece
34 Extrude a surface for the second reference.
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Open a new sketch on the Right reference

plane.
Use Convert Entities to copy the sketched
guide curve into the active sketch.
Sketch a vertical construction line, coincident to
Plane3, and use it to trim the converted curve.
Extrude a surface 0.5” in the direction shown. Do not use draft.
35 Filled surfce.
Click Filled Surface on
the Surfaces toolbar.
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For Edge settings, select

Tangent.
Select the edges of the three
surfaces.
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Click OK.
36 Hide and show surfaces.
Hide the reference surfaces and show the lofted
surface.
86 Filling in Gaps
Surface Modeling
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37 Zebra stripes.
Click Zebra Stripes on the View
toolbar. Evaluate the quality and
smoothness of the surfaces. Pay
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particular attention to the filled surface
and how it blends with the swept
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surface.
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To review Zebra Stripes as well as
other techniques for evaluating surface quality, refer to the Advanced
Part Modeling course book.
op A
or
Introducing: Curve Through Reference Points creates a curve feature through
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Curve Through sketch points, vertices, or both.

Reference Points
Where to Find It Q Click Insert, Curve, Curve Through Reference Points.

Q Or, click Curve Through Reference Points on the Curves
toolbar.
38 Click Curve Through Reference

Points .
Select the two vertices shown, creating
a straight spline.
no
Note This would also work as a sketch line,

but the Curve Through Reference
Points is faster, particularly if the line
does not lie on a plane.
Do
Filling in Gaps 87
Surface Modeling
39 Planar surface.
Click Insert, Surface, Planar or click
Planar Surface on the Surfaces
toolbar.
Select the curve you just created and
the open edge of the lofted surface.
e
Click OK.
ut
40 Results.
The resulting planar surface fits exactly
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across the opening of the lofted surface.
st
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41 Another planar surface.
di
Click Planar Surface, then select the open edges of the surfaces which
lie on the plane of symmetry. Click OK to accept the planar surface.
op A
or
It’s Not a Solid – Yet Although the collection of surfaces looks solid, it is not. It is an
infinitely thin shell. To transform these surfaces into a solid, two more
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steps are required:

1. All the surfaces must be knit into a single surface body.
2. The resulting surface body must be filled to make a solid.
Creating a Knit Knit Surface is used to combine several surface bodies into a single
Surface surface body. If the knit surface encloses a complete volume, with no
gaps or overlaps, it can be filled to become a solid.
42 Knit surfaces.
Click Insert, Surface, Knit or click Knit Surface
on the Surfaces toolbar. Select all of the sur-
no
face bodies surfaces by either clicking them in the

graphics window or the FeatureManager design
tree.
Select the Try to form solid check box.
Click OK.
Do
88 Filling in Gaps
Surface Modeling
43 Results.
The resulting solid doesn’t look much
different from the surfaces. However,
the FeatureManager design tree
indicates that a solid body now exists
in the part.
e
A Solid Bodies folder appears.
ut
44 Mirror.
Click Mirror on the Features
toolbar. Select the planar face
rib
(step 41) as the Mirror Face/Plane.
Expand the Bodies to Mirror list and
select the solid body.
Make sure Merge solids is selected
st
and click OK.
y FT
di
Design Let’s evaluate the design so far. There are three areas that don’t look
Changes quite right.
1. The curves of the parting line and the edge of the area where the
op A
or
keypad goes do not compliment each other well.
2. Also, the front end of the remote control isn’t rounded enough.
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3. The area where the keypad goes is boring – it is flat.
2
no
Do
Design Changes 89
Surface Modeling
Dynamic Feature The curve that ultimately controls the outline of the remote
Editing control is the parting line and it is embedded under the
trimmed surface.
When you edit
this sketch, the
part is rolled
e
back and all the
geometry
ut
disappears. Fixing the overall shape of the remote control would take a
long process of trial and error because you would be working blind.
rib
Dynamic feature editing enables you to make changes to features and
sketches without rolling back the part. This way you can see the effects
of the changes as you make them.
Introducing: Move/Size Features enables you to dynamically edit features. When
st
Move/Size Features you drag the entities of a sketch, either with or without opening the
sketch itself, the preview updates when you release the mouse button
y FT
after dragging.
di
Where to Find It Q Click Move/Size Features on the Features toolbar.
op A
or
1 Click Move/Size Features .
Expand the trimmed surface and show the underlying sketch. Adjust
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the shape of the spline by dragging the interpolant points.

Before
Drag these two points

After
no
Do
90 Design Changes
Surface Modeling
2 Dynamically edit a sketch.

Expand the lofted surface feature and double-click the sketch that
defines the edge of the flat area where the keypad will go.
Tip Use viewports to see the top and front views at the same time.
Before
e
ut
rib
After
st
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Tip
di
If you decide to dimension the sketch,
op A
or
turn off Move/Size Features for
improved performance. With Move/Size
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Features on, the model will rebuild each

time you add a dimension.
3 Edit the other sketches.
Repeat this procedure as necessary to edit
the other sketches that make up the lofted
surface.
Note This is an exercise in judgement and
esthetics. There is no unique right or wrong
solution.
Replacing a Face We will create a new, concave face to replace the planar face.
4 Sketch an arc.
no

reference plane.
Sketch a 3 Point Arc and
dimension it as shown.
Do
The endpoints have Coincident

relations with the vertices at the
ends of the planar face.
Exit the sketch.
Design Changes 91
Surface Modeling
5 Create a plane.
Create a reference plane parallel to the
Front plane, passing through the
centerpoint of the arc you just sketched in
Centerpoint of arc
step 4.
e
ut
6 Sketch a second arc.
Create a new sketch on Plane4, the plane
you just created.
rib
Sketch a Centerpoint Arc . The two
endpoints have Pierce relations with the
edges of the planar face. First arc
st
Create a reference point on the arc. Relate it
to the arc in the previous sketch with a Pierce
y FT
relation.
di
Add a Coincident relation between the arc’s
centerpoint and the Right reference plane.
op A
or
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7 Exit the sketch.

no
Do
92 Design Changes
Surface Modeling
8 Filled surface.
Click Filled Surface on the
Surfaces toolbar.
For Edge settings, select Contact.
Select the two edges of the planar
e
face.
Under Constraint Curves, select
ut
the two arcs.
Under Options, select Merge
rib
result.
Click OK.
The planar face is replaced with the
concave face.
st
y FT
di
Merge Result The behavior for this option depends on the boundaries. When all the
boundaries belong to the same solid body, you can use the filled surface
to replace a face of the solid. This streamlines your work, eliminating
op A
the need to use the Replace Face command.
or
9 Sketch.
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Open a sketch on the Right

reference plane.
Sketch a line tangent to the
silhouette edge as shown.
Split the line and change the left-most portion to construction
geometry.
Adjust the angle of the line so it barely intersects the bottom of the
front portion of the remote control.
10 Cut through all.
Click Extruded Cut . Since this is
no
an open profile, the end condition will

be set to Through All automatically.
The goal is to create a small flat spot
to the remote can be set on a table
without falling onto its side.
Do
If the area of the cut is too big or too

small, use Move/Size Features to adjust the sketch dynamically.
Design Changes 93
Surface Modeling
11 Dome.
Create a Dome feature about 0.065”
deep. The exact depth is not critical.
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ut
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st
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di
op A
or
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Do
94 Design Changes
Exercise 7: Use surface features to create a

Mouse Model solid model. In this exercise you
just create the shape. In a later
exercise you will split out the
individual parts.
e
Design Intent Q The part is symmetrical.
Q The bottom of the part is somewhat peanut-shaped.
ut
Q The top of the part is ellipse-shaped.
Procedure
rib
1 Draw bounding box
or layout sketch.
Open a new part using
the Part_IN
st
template.
On the Top reference
y FT
plane, sketch a
di
rectangle as shown.
Convert the rectangle to construction lines.
Exit the sketch and rename it Size Reference.
op A
or
This sketch will help you sketch the freeform splines approximately to
correct size.
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2 Sketch the bottom edge.

Open a new sketch on the Top reference plane, and
sketch a spline as shown to represent the bottom edge of
the mouse. Draw only half of the bottom, and make it
somewhat peanut-shaped.
Use Horizontal relations on the spline handles to create
tangency across the line of symmetry.
Make sure that the endpoints of the spline are Coincident
with the corners of the Size Reference rectangle.
3 Partially constrain the spline.
no
To get the spline to be tangent to the rectangle, draw a

short vertical construction line, and make it Tangent to
the spline itself, not tangent to a handle or a spline point.
Make the endpoint of the short construction line
Coincident with the spline, and then with the rectangle.
Do
Note Making the spline directly tangent to the side of the rectangle will
result in uncontrollable geometry.
Exercise 7: Mouse Model 95

Exit the sketch and rename it Bottom Edge.

4 Sketch parting line top profile.
Sketch a spline which lies slightly outside of the
Bottom Edge sketch. Notice the use of Inflection
Point display on this spline to limit the area of
e
slightly reversed convexity.
ut
Again, this spline should have Horizontal relations
on the end handles.
Exit the sketch and rename it PL Top Profile.
rib
5 Sketch the parting line side profile.
Open a new sketch on the Right reference plane
and draw a spline as shown. The ends of the spline
should have Vertical relations to the endpoints of the
st
PL Top Profile sketch.
Put a Horizontal relation on the end of the spline furthest from the
y FT
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Origin.
op A
or
Exit the sketch and rename it PL Side Profile.
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6 Create projected curve.

Create a Projected Curve, using the Sketch on Sketch option, using
the PL Side Profile and PL Top Profile sketches.
Rename the projected curve PL Curve.
7 Create loft profile sketch.
Open a new sketch on the Right reference plane, and sketch a pair of
arcs as shown. The arc near the Origin should be tangent to a line 15
degrees from horizontal and the other arc should simply have a radius
of 4”.
Both arcs should be coincident to the ends of the Bottom Edge
no
sketch and be pierced by the PL Curve.

Do
Note In the past it would have been best to have created separate sketches for
these loft profiles, but with the introduction of the Selection Manager,
multiple profiles in a single sketch is manageable and valid.
96 Exercise 7: Mouse Model

8 Create third loft profile.

Create a new plane parallel to the Front reference
plane through a spline point from the Bottom Edge
sketch.
Rename this plane Mid Plane.
e
Open a new sketch on the Mid Plane plane, and make
an arc, on the bottom coincident with the point the plane
ut
was created from and on the top pierced by the PL
Curve.
Draw a construction line between the
rib
endpoints of the arc. Using the
Dimension tool, click on the
construction line, and then hold down
the Shift key and select the arc. This
st
should give a dimension as if the Min
arc condition in the dimension
properties was used. Make this dimension roughly .050”.
y FT
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9 Create the surface loft.
Use the Selection Manager
to select open profiles at
op A
or
the ends. The sketch on the
Mid Plane will not
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require the Selection

Manager.
Use the PL Curve and
Bottom Edge as guide
curves.
Apply end tangency
conditions of Normal to
Profile for both ends so
that it is smooth across the
plane of symmetry.
Click OK to accept the loft
no
feature.
Do

10 Draw the top

shape of the
mouse.
Open a sketch on
the Right
reference plane and
e
sketch a partial
ellipse at an angle.
ut
It may be useful to
draw a construction line from the Origin to one of the axis endpoints
to help create the angle. The endpoints of the ellipse should be pierced
rib
by the PL Curve or the equivalent edge of the lofted surface.
If you find managing the ellipse too difficult, you can draw a spline
instead with approximately equivalent shape.
st
For some surface functions, SolidWorks must work from an existing
surface rather than a sketch. The Fill surface, in order to make a
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tangency at the top, must have a surface to be tangent to. For that
di
reason, extrude the partial ellipse sketch away from the rest of the
model. The distance doesn’t matter.
12 Create the top surface of the mouse.
op A
or
There are several ways of creating the surface on the
top of this mouse. The easiest is probably to loft from
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the edge of the extruded surface to the edge of the

lofted surface. The image to the right shows that this is
possible, and gives a reasonably nice shape, but notice
the mesh lines at the ends. This creates a singularity
point, and may cause problems in filletting, shelling,
offsetting or even downstream in machining from this
data. Degenerate surfaces should be avoided when possible. Although
they “sometimes” function without errors, it is best practice to
complete the task another way when possible.
Note One possibility when working with degenerate
surfaces is to trim off the singularity and use a fill
surface to patch the trim. This is perfectly
no
acceptable modeling practice as long as the edge

between the two surfaces is acceptably smooth.
Deviation Analysis is a great way to help you
quantify what is meant by “acceptably smooth”.
Do
To complete this feature, use the Fill surface instead of the loft. Select
the edge of the extruded surface and the edge of the lofted surface, with
end conditions of Tangent for the extruded and Contact for the lofted.

Notice that with Optimize

Surface checked, the surface
again becomes degenerate. If
this option is checked, clear
it, and you will get a better
four-sided patch.
e
Click OK to accept the
feature.
ut
rib
13 Mirror the surface bodies.
Notice that even though the surface features were created edge-to-edge,
st
they did not automatically knit in the way that solid features
automatically merge. For some surface features there is a knit option,
y FT
but you will find it better to rely on knit features rather than options
di
within features because it is more predictable, and when it fails it will
not affect the feature itself, as you will see shortly.
Hide the extruded surface.
op A
or
Click Mirror on the Features toolbar.
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Select the Right reference plane as the mirror plane.

Activate the Bodies to Mirror list box and select the lofted and fill
surfaces to be mirrored.
Check the Knit Surfaces check box. We will see how this works, then
come back and clear this setting.
Notice that with the Knit
Surfaces option checked,
the mirror feature still
produces two separate
no
surface bodies. The

mirrored loft was knit to
the original loft, and the
mirrored fill was knit to the original fill, but the fill was not knit to the
loft. For this reason, when mirroring multiple surface bodies it is
Do
recommended that you leave the Knit Surfaces box cleared and just
manually knit the surfaces together, so there is no confusion about what
will or will not be knit by the mirror feature.
14 Create a planar surface on the bottom.
Select the two edges of the lofted surface and mirrored loft on the

bottom and create a planar surface.

15 Knit into solid.
Create a knit feature, and knit the five surface
bodies into a solid.
e
ut
16 Save and exit the part.
.
rib
st
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di
op A
or
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no
Do

Exercise 8: Use surface commands to

Halyard Guide model the halyard guide.
This lab reinforces the
following skills:
Q Surface Sweep
e
Q Surface Trim
ut
Q Creating Planar Surfaces
Q Knit Surface
rib
Q Surface Fillet
Q Thicken Surface
Procedure Open a new part using the Part_IN template and name it
Halyard Guide.
st
1 Sketch first guide curve.
Open a sketch on the Right
y FT
di
reference plane, and create the
sketch shown at the right.
op A
or
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2 Offset plane.
Create a plane offset 0.25" below
the Top reference plane.
3 Sketch second guide curve.

Open a sketch on the offset plane
(Plane1 in the illustration above), and
no
create the sketch shown at the right.

Do
Exercise 8: Halyard Guide 101

4 Sketch third guide curve.

Open another sketch on the
offset plane, and sketch a
vertical centerline from the
Origin.
Sketch a second vertical
e
centerline whose lowermost
end is aligned with the
ut
Origin.
Sketch an arc tangent to the
rib
centerline.
Add Symmetric relations between the arc in this sketch and the arc in
the sketch of the second guide curve.
5 Sketch the path.
st
Open a sketch on the Top reference
plane, and sketch a vertical line
y FT
starting at the Origin. Add a
di
relation so the length of the line is
driven by the guide curve sketches.
op A
or
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Open a sketch on the Front
reference plane, and sketch an arc
centered on the Origin. Sketch
two tangent lines as shown.
no
7 Add relations.
Add Pierce relations between the
ends of the tangent lines and the
second and third guide curves.
Add a Coincident relation
Do
between the arc and the end of the

first guide curve. The sketch
should be fully defined.
102 Exercise 8: Halyard Guide

8 Sweep a surface.
Using the profile, path, and three
guide curves, sweep a surface.
Important! Use Path Tangent for the
Start tangency type.
e
ut
9 Trim the surface.
Trim the swept surface using
rib
the Top reference plane as
the trim tool. Keep the
uppermost portion of the
surface.
st
y FT
di
op A
or
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10 Sketch.
Open a sketch on the Top
reference plane. Convert
the edge of the trimmed
surface, and complete the
sketch using the
dimensions given.
no
Do

11 Planar surface.
Click Planar Surface to
create a planar surface using
the active sketch.
e
ut
12 Second planar
surface.
rib
Mirror the first planar
surface to create the
second one.
st
y FT
di
13 Knit the surfaces and
fillet the edges.
op A
Knit the three surfaces
or
together, and then fillet
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the edges shown with a

5⁄32" radius fillet.
no
Do

14 Thicken.
Create the first feature by
thickening the surface 0.08".
Check the preview to ensure
the material is added to the
correct side.
e
ut
rib
st
15 Mirror body.
y FT
di
Use Insert, Pattern/
Mirror, Mirror to create
the other half of the guide
and Merge result.
op A
or
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no
Do

16 Countersunk hole.
Add 4 countersunk
holes. Select the flat
face of the model and
click .
Choose the settings
e
for the description
ut
“ANSI #10 Flat
Head Machine
Screws (100)”.
rib
Tip Use mirroring in the
sketch to facilitate
creating all four holes
st
in one feature.
y FT
di
op A
or
17 Fillet the edges.
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Add a 0.020" radius fillet

to the edges of the part.
no
Do

Exercise 9: We have been faxed this drawing of the preliminary design for a bar of
Bar of Soap bath soap. Use surface modeling techniques to build a solid model of it
for volumetric analysis and tooling design.
e
ut
rib
st
y FT
di
op A
or
t c DR
This lab reinforces the following skills:

Q Splines
Q Loft surface
Q Fill surface
no
Q Sweep surface
Q Trim surface
Q Knit surface
Q Symmetry
Do
Procedure Open an existing part named 3.5 oz. Bar of Soap.SLDPRT.

Take advantage of the symmetry in the part. Build one quarter and then
mirror it.
Exercise 9: Bar of Soap 107

1 Initial sketches.
There are three sketches in the
Layout Sketches folder. Given
the way the customer’s drawing was
dimensioned, the right-side sketch is
under defined.
e
2 Set up the sketches for
ut
Tangent to front sketch
lofting a surface.
Spline
The two lines are tangent to the
arcs in the front and side
rib
sketches. Create a spline to fit Tangent to side sketch
the curve in the Top Layout
Sketch.
3 Loft with guide curves.
st
Loft a reference surface using the two lines
as profiles and the spline as a guide curve.
y FT
4
di
Extrude a surface.
op A
Create a spline to replicate the
or
upper-right quadrant of the Front
Layout Sketch.
t c DR
Extrude a reference surface a

distance of about 0.5 inches.
5 Extrude another surface.

Create a spline to replicate the upper
left quadrant of the Side Layout
Sketch.
no

Do
108 Exercise 9: Bar of Soap

6 Fill Surface.
Create a Fill Surface tangent to the
three reference surfaces.
e
ut
rib
7 Hide the surfaces.
Hide all four surface bodies so it will be easier to work on the lower
portion of the part.
8 Reference surface.
st
reference plane. Use Convert Entities to
y FT
copy geometry from the Side Layout
di
Sketch.
Create the 0.323” radius fillet as shown in
the drawing on page 107.
op A
or
Create a spline to fit the converted
geometry and extrude a reference surface.
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9 Reference surface.
Create a spline to replicate the
lower-right quadrant of the
Front Layout Sketch.
10 Loft a reference surface.

Create two profile sketches as
no
you did in step 2 on page 108.

Use the edge of the fill surface
as the guide curve.
Do

11 Sweep surface.
Open a sketch for the profile.
Use Convert Entities to copy
the edge of the reference
surface into the active sketch.
Drag the endpoint of the
e
converted edge and add a
Vertical relation between it and
ut
the centerpoint of the arc.
Likewise, convert the edge of
rib
the other extruded reference
surface to create the sweep
path.
12 Trim surface.
st
Sketch a spline for the trim contour and trim the swept surface.
y FT
di
op A
or
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13 Split lines.
Use split lines to split the two
no
extruded reference surfaces. The

split lines should line up exactly
with the vertices of the trimmed
surface.
Note
Do
Since the reference surfaces are

two separate surface bodies, it
will take two operations to split
the faces – one for each surface.

14 Loft surface. Guide #1 Profile #1

Loft a surface using the edges Profile #2
of the existing surfaces for
profiles and guides as shown in
the illustration at the right.
For Start/End Constraints,
e
use Tangency To Face.
ut
For Guide curves influence,
use To Next Guide.
Guide #2
For Guide tangency type, use
rib
Tangency To Face.
15 Trim surface.
Experience has shown that the edge of the lofted surface is probably
not planar. Therefore, it probably will not knit when mirrored.
st
Trim the lofted surface using the Top reference plane as the trim tool.
y FT
di
op A
or
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16 Evaluate the results.

Hide the reference surfaces.
Show the fill surface, the trimmed surface, and the lofted surface.
Show the Front Layout Sketch and the Side Layout Sketch.
no
Do

17 Mirror.
Mirror the fill surface, the trimmed surface and the lofted surface, first
with respect to the Right reference plane, and then with respect to the
Front reference plane.
e
ut
rib
18 Knit.
st
Knit all of the surface bodies (not including the reference surfaces) into
a solid.
y FT
di
op A
or
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19 Evaluate the section view.

no
Display a section view using the

Right reference plane. Show the
Side Layout Sketch. Verify
that the results are consistent with
the section view in the drawing the
Do
customer supplied.

Exercise 10: In this exercise you will create the helical scroll
Finial Scroll decorative feature on the bottom of the finial
part.
The skills reinforced in this lab are:
Q Variable pitch helix
e
Q Lofted surface
ut
Q Swept surface
Q Trim surface
rib
Q Fill surface
Q Knit surface
1 Open an existing part.
st
Open the part named Finial_Scroll.SLDPRT.
2 y FT
Draw a circle.
di
Open a sketch on the bottom face and draw a
circle centered on the axis of the part with a
diameter of 4.25”.
op A
or
Exit the sketch.
3 Create a Variable Pitch Helix.
t c DR
Click Insert, Curve, Helix and use the Variable

Pitch option.
Use the circle created in the previous step and the
parameters shown.
no
4 Convert entities.
Open a sketch on the Right reference plane.
Select the Helix created in the previous step and use
Do
Convert Entities to project it into the sketch plane.

Exit the sketch.
Exercise 10: Finial Scroll 113

5 Loft between sketch and helix.

Create a lofted surface between the sketch and
the helix. Use all default settings, although you
may need to straighten the connector depending
on where the entities were selected.
e
6 Sketch a line.
ut
Open a new sketch on the same face
as the circle for the helix.
Sketch a line of approximately the
rib
length shown, with the outer end
pierced by the helix.
If the helix did not have a starting
angle of 0 degrees, then this may
st
work differently for you. Consider
going back to change the starting
y FT
angle.
di
7 Create a surface sweep.
Create the surface sweep using the
straight line as the profile and the helix
op A
or
as the path.
At this point you may want to hide the
t c DR
helix.

Select the two edges shown to create a planar surface.
SolidWorks will still make the surface even if the
boundary is not closed, as long as the entities are
coplanar.
9 Trim surface.
no
Trimming the overlapping surfaces might

be done more efficiently as a single
Mutual Trim, but for visualization and
simplicity, we will do them here as a
series of standard trims.
Do
Use the swept surface as the trim tool, and

trim the lofted surface.
114 Exercise 10: Finial Scroll

10 Knit the planar surface and trimmed loft.

Click Knit Surface from the Surface
toolbar.
Select the planar surface and the trimmed
lofted surface and click OK.
e
ut
11 Trim swept surface.
Use the surface just knit together as a trim
tool to trim the swept surface.
rib
Keep pieces as shown.
st
12 Trim lofted surface with swept surface.
y FT
di
In this image, all other bodies have been
hidden for clarity.
The names of bodies as tracked in the Solid
op A
or
and Surface Bodies folders changes with
each feature that affects the body. Here we
t c DR
will refer to the feature that first made the

faces used for simplicity.
Create another Trimmed Surface using the
swept surface as the tool and keeping the section of the lofted surface
as shown. These bodies will be named for knit and trimmed features, so
selecting from the graphics window may be the most intuitive way to
achieve the correct results.
13 Knit surfaces.
Knit together the two surface bodies used in the last step.
If we had used a Mutual Trim, the finished trimmed surfaces would
already be knit together for us, but visualizing all of the kept and
no
removed pieces would be more difficult.

Do

On the Right reference plane, sketch a
circle concentric with the origin with a
diameter of 2.35”. Extrude the surface 3”.
e
ut
15 Trim surfaces.
rib
Trim the new extruded surface and the scroll
surface with a Mutual Trim keeping the
outside of the scroll and extrude surfaces as
shown.
st
y FT
di
16 Fillet the edges between surfaces.
Apply a .050” fillet to two helical edges as
op A
shown.
or
The surfaces must be part of the same body to
t c DR
fillet the edge between them. If the surfaces

in the last step had been trimmed with 2
separate Standard trims rather than Mutual
trims, they would need to be knitted together
separately, because the Mutual trim
automatically knits the bodies.
17 Create planar caps.
Create Planar surfaces on the top and
bottom openings.
Create a Fill surface using the edges around
no
the opening indicated. Use Contact for all

edges.
19 Knit together surface bodies.
Knit together the scroll surface, two planar surfaces and the Fill
surface.
Do
Check the Try to create solid option.

20 Combine solids.
Use the Combine feature to combine the new
scroll solid with the previous existing solid
body.
e
ut
rib
st
y FT
di
op A
or
t c DR
no
Do

e
ut
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Lesson 4
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Blends and Patches
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Blend smoothly between shapes.
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Q Use curvature continuity on Fill, Loft and Boundary surfaces.

Q Repair areas of the model by trimming and recreating geometry.
Q Use tangency weighting effectively.
Q Use the Freeform feature.
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119
Blends and Patches
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120
Blends and Patches
Complex
Blends
Complex blending
is one of the most
difficult things to
achieve in working
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with surface
models. Examples
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of complex
blending include T,
X, K or Y shaped
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intersections. In this
Bicycle Frame case
study you will learn
how to make
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attractive blends.
Blends like this are
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not made with fillet
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features, but by
trimming out an
area of the bodies to be blended and using a combination of features to
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or
smooth the transition
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T Blend Y Blend K Blend Modified K Blend

Note These initial images were created with PhotoWorks primarily for the
anti-aliasing capabilities and display of smooth shadows. The images in
the remainder of this lesson and selected other lessons in this course
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were captured from the SolidWorks display using RealView. Highly

reflective materials make it easier to detect flaws in surface smoothness
and transitions. It has many of the effects of using Zebra Stripes, but is
easier to look at while modeling. Quality of surface intersections is
qualitatively measured using light reflection, and quantitatively
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measured with Deviation Analysis. Ideally you should not be able to

see a disruption in the reflection at the seam between surfaces. Note
that if the Image Quality setting in Tools, Options for a part is low, this
has a definite affect on the perceived quality of the surface and
transition. Also be aware that there is often a visible gap between
Complex Blends 121

Blends and Patches
surface bodies that are not knit together. Display quality of a transition
is best examined when adjacent surfaces are knit together.
Tip If for this training course you are using a computer which is incapable
of using RealView, you can get some of the same benefits by adding
lights with high specularity.
Stages in the
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For this lesson, we will start
Process with the frame with all of its
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tubes in place as separate
bodies, but without connections
between the tubes. Blends will
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be tackled in order of
complexity, leaving some
blends for exercises at the end
of the lesson.
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Q Trim the tubes back to accommodate the blend.
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The first decision is how far back along each part
should the blend begin and the shape of the target
area. Transitions that are too short may pucker and be
difficult to control. Transitions that are too long may
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or
add to much mass to the joint.
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Q Trim to create distinct edges on each entity.

The blend must be done in segments since it is not
possible to blend all the entities together in one feature.
This technique requires the trimmed edges to be left in
segments, so it is not one continuous edge, but broken
into pieces. Having edges broken up in this way is
usually not seen as desirable, but in this case we do it
intentionally for reasons you will see shortly.
Q Loft to create an enclosed perimeter.

The segmented edges are used to create simple lofts
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which create an enclosed perimeter or boundary around

a more complex patch. These simple lofts usually use
two edges from adjacent tubes and curvature
weighting, but in some cases it is necessary to use a
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guide curve or an intermediate profile to get the correct

shape.
122 Complex Blends

Blends and Patches
Q Fill in the patch.

Irregularly shaped patches like this one are the
unique specialty of the Fill surface. The best
patches result from the use of the Curvature edge
setting. There are times when the Curvature setting
will not work, and you must settle for Tangency.
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Use the evaluation and analysis techniques
techniques discussed above to determine if
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tangency is “good enough”.
Procedure
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Bear in mind that small differences in sketching underdefined freeform
shapes may result in shape differences between the example model and
your model. If you are having difficulty getting a particular step to
work, use the built example file as a reference.
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Open the Bike Frame.SLDPRT part.
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For reference, the various parts of the frame are identified here:
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Top Tube
Seat Tube Head Tube
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or
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Seat Stays
Down Tube
Dropouts
Bottom Bracket
Chain Stays
2 Trim the intersection between the Top and Seat tubes.

This particular blend can be done in a single
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feature because there are only two bodies

intersecting. This makes the trim much easier.
Draw sketch entities as shown to trim the tubes.
In this case a partial ellipse and a straight line
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were used, but you can use any combination of

entities that accomplishes something similar,
such as a spline and an arc. Use Trim Surface and select the pieces to
keep.
Do not cut past the centerline of the Seat Tube.
Complex Blends 123

Blends and Patches
3 Create a loft.
Loft between the two open
edges.
Use Curvature to Face end
constraint setting for both ends.
Adjust the Tangent Length
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arrows either by dragging or by
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using the spin boxes.
You may have to drag the
connector points to either the
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top or the bottom of the
intersection to prevent the loft
from twisting.
Alternately, you could add a connector, clear the
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Apply to all option, and control the curvature
weighting separately.
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The trouble spot to watch out for is in the area of
the tightest curvature, under the Top tube and in
front of the Seat tube. If you push the weighting
too much in that area, you will see some
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or
puckering and bad seams appear.
Click OK to accept the loft feature.
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4 Trim the intersection between the Top,

Down and Head tubes.
This intersection will be more challenging.
Here we must use the technique of segmenting
the edges created by the Trim feature. The way
to do this is to use Split Entities points on
the sketch entities that create the trims. The
arrows show where the Split Entities were
placed.
This was created with a spline, two arcs and
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six Split Entities points.

Use a Trim feature using the Standard option, and select pieces to keep.
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124 Complex Blends

Blends and Patches
5 Begin lofting.
The next step is to begin
lofting pairs of edges. If a
loft twists, remember to use
the connector to straighten it
out.
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Use Curvature to Face end
constraints and adjust the
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weighting to your
satisfaction. Watch the face
and the mesh lines for signs
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of puckering, which will be
a sign that the tangency weighting is too large.
It is best if the edges being lofted are close to the same width. It is not
easy to predict the resulting widths of the segmented edges when
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placing Split Entities points, but you can go back and edit them after
the loft is created.
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6 Continue lofting.
Loft two more features like the last one, one between
the Top and Down tubes and another between the
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Down and Head tubes.
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Tip Lofts like the one between the Top and Down
tubes may tend to create a sharp V shape in the
middle. You can control this in a way similar to
the technique used in the Remote Control
lesson, using Add Loft Section or by manually
creating a plane and sketching a section, and
adding it to the loft.
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Complex Blends 125

Blends and Patches
7 Use Fill surface.

With the three lofted surfaces,
you now have bounded an area
with surfaces. In this situation, a
Fill surface is the best choice.
8 Mirror the fill.
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If the patches on both sides are
symmetrical, you can mirror the
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fill surface body you just
created to the other side of the
frame.
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Note Some Fill surfaces may issue a
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friendly warning for surfaces
which use either Tangency or
Curvature edge settings. This message generally is displayed for Fill
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features which have sharp corners in the patch, or patch between non-
tangent edges, and use Tangency or Curvature on the edges of the sharp
corners. Tangency in perpendicular directions at a sharp corner can be
difficult to maintain. These messages do not constitute errors, but
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or
merely flags where you should inspect the resulting geometry more
closely to make sure it is acceptable.
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Fill Surface Edge You may notice that while you are selecting edges of the
Selection fill surface, the surface may appear before you have
completed your selection. This is a characteristic you
may be able to use on other designs when the boundary of
the face is incomplete.
9 Trim all the tubes around the Bottom

Bracket.
Employing the same technique as above with
the Split Entities points, trim the curved
no
portion of the Seat Tube and the Down

Tube.
You may also choose to trim the Chain
Stays at the same time just to get them out of the way while you work
on the rest of the Bottom Bracket. You may also use Hide Body to
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temporarily remove the Chain Stays from the view. The Chain
Stays will need to be trimmed later, however, so you may as well do
it now.
126 Complex Blends

Blends and Patches
10 Trim the Bottom Bracket.

The Bottom Bracket is a more difficult item to trim. The method
for trimming that we have been using projects a sketch from a plane to
make the trim. On a cylinder, however, if the trim goes around more
than 180 degrees, the projection method will not work.
In this case, we will trim the Bottom Bracket cylinder using the
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Wrap feature with the Scribe option.
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The Wrap feature requires a sketch on a plane parallel to a plane
tangent to the surface on which the sketch will be wrapped, it does not
require that the sketch plane itself is tangent to the surface.
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Open a sketch on the Top reference
plane. Sketch an ellipse positioned and
dimensioned as shown. The centerpoint
and one of the axis points are
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Coincident with the Right reference
plane. The 3.000” dimension is from the
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temporary axis in the center of the
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Bottom Bracket.
Notice the four Split Entities points
indicated by red arrows.
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The rest of the bodies have been hidden for clarity
11 Wrap.
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Click Insert, Features, Wrap,

select the Scribe option, the face
of the Bottom Bracket, and
the sketch in the appropriate
selection boxes.
You may have to tweak the 3.000”
dimension to get the scribed curve
in the correct location.
12 Delete face.
Delete the face inside the scribed curve.
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Notice that the edges of the remaining

surface are broken into segments.
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Complex Blends 127

Blends and Patches
13 Create lofts.
In the same way that you created three lofts
around the intersection between the Top, Down
and Head tubes, do it again here at the
intersection between the Seat, Down and
Bottom Bracket tubes.
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14 Fill the patches.
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Use Fill surface again to patch the hole, then
mirror the other side. Use Curvature to Face
edge conditions.
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We will pick this part back up again for some of
the exercises after this lesson, but for now we will
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move on to smoothing patches.
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Smoothing Often you will build a model

Patches and one area just will not
transition as well as you need it
to. Or you may receive an
imported model which has
some rough spots on it which
need to be smoothed over. In
situations like these, there are
techniques which enable you to
patch over the rough
transitions, replacing them with
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smoother geometry.
Three Alternative In this lesson we examine one such situation and repair an unacceptable
Approaches transition between faces. We will try several approaches that do not
work, and some that do work, but are not acceptable. The reason for
trying several approaches is to get a comparative glimpse at functions
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that may seem equivalent on the surface, to see that tweaks and options
may make a feature work which other wise would not, and to help
round out your toolbox for real world modeling, which is more often
than not an exercise in alternative approaches.
128 Smoothing Patches

Blends and Patches
Procedure
Open the file named
PlasticPart.SLDPRT. This is a
simplified part, with most of the
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finishing details removed.
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2 Examine the part.
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A quick examination shows that
the trouble spot is in front of the
finger grip area.
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Running a
Deviation Analysis
on the trouble spot
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helps us quantify
just how bad the
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situation is. The maximum deviation of over 9 degrees is unacceptable.

3 Split out the affected area.
Create a Split Line using the sketch in the part
called Split Sketch to split the faces as
shown.
The faces to be removed have been colored red
for clarity.
4 Delete faces.
Use Delete Face to remove the faces inside the
split area.
5 Loft the patch shut.
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This is a four-sided patch, so we should be able to patch it loft with a

lofted surface.
All four sides are composed of
multiple edges, so you will need
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to use the SelectionManager.

Select the long sides as profiles
and the short sides as guide
curves. This is done because
guide curves do not have the Curvature to Face edge option available,
Smoothing Patches 129

Blends and Patches
but profiles do.

Set Curvature to Face for the profiles. ...That does not work.
Try it again with Tangency to Face. That
works, but it leaves a small ripple in the face.
Editing the connectors can help smooth
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some of this ripple, but cannot eliminate it
completely. The result is not good enough,
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we will try two more approaches.
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6 Use Fill surface to fill the gap.
Initiate a Fill Surface feature. Using
Curvature on the long sides and Contact on
the short sides gives this result. This result is
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not good enough either.
Using Tangent setting instead of Curvature
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fails outright. We have one option remaining.
Introducing: Boundary surface is similar in some ways to a loft and similar in some
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Boundary Surface
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ways to fill surface. Boundary is limited to four-sided patches which
comprise a single face (a pair of rectangular patches end-to-end will not
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work). It uses selection of pairs of parallel edges in two directions.

Most importantly, boundary curvature continuity and edge weighting
can be set in both directions.
Where to Find It Q Click Boundary Surface on the Surface toolbar.

Q Or, click Insert, Surface, Boundary.
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130 Smoothing Patches

Blends and Patches
7 Use a Boundary surface to fill the gap.

The gap that we need to fill is four-sided, so it fits
the requirements for a Boundary surface.
Click Boundary Surface on the Surface
toolbar.
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Selecting the edges for each direction in this
example will require the SelectionManager..
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The Boundary Surface feature display may
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become bewildering with colors flashing and
extra lines confusing the display. The iso
parameter lines display curvature combs which is
useful in some cases, but you do not need to use
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or
the setting as a default. You can turn off the
display of the curvature combs by right-clicking
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and selecting Hide all curvature combs or by

accessing the setting in the PropertyManager
window for the feature.
Analysis The finished feature visually

Techniques looks good. Deviation Analysis
looks good.
The zebra stripe display
appears to show some
problems.
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Remember that there are three

situations zebra stripes can help
you identify:
Q Contact between faces at an
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edge (no tangency) - zebra

stripes on each side of the
edge do not align
Q Tangency between faces at
an edge - zebra stripes on each side of the edge touch but diverge at
Smoothing Patches 131

Blends and Patches
an angle
Q Curvature Continuity between faces at an edge - zebra stripes flow
smoothly across the edge
The situation shown in the previous image appears to show tangency,
but no continuity.
8 Change Dir 2
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curves
influence
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Edit the feature
and change Dir
2 curves
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influence to To
Next Curve.
With this
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change, the zebra stripes
now show curvature
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continuity across the edges.
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Freeform The Freeform feature enables you to tug and pull points on a face. This
Feature is most commonly used on shapes that are very organic or that may be
difficult to achieve using sketched feature types such as loft.
Introducing: Freeform, like Boundary Surface, is limited to a single four-sided face.
Freeform The face does not need to be rectangular. Freeform is a hybrid tool, it
will operate on both solids and surfaces.
Where to Find It Q Click Freeform from the Features toolbar.

Q Or click Insert, Feature, Freeform or Insert, Surface, Freeform.
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132 Freeform Feature

Blends and Patches
For this example, we return to the finial part we

have worked with already. We have worked on
the scroll at the bottom as well as the wrapped
pattern that is just above it.
For this example, we look at the leaf pattern on
top of the finial.
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1 Open existing file
Open the file named Finial_Leaf.SLDPRT.
2
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Create a new sketch.
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Open a new sketch on the Front reference
plane.
Offset the existing Leaf Outline sketch
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or
to the outside by .100”.
Draw a line across the bottom to close the
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profile.
Draw a short line at the tip of the leaf as indicated by the red arrow in
the image. Trim the sharp edge off of the splines. This short line is
necessary because the Freeform surface only acts on four-sided faces.
Making the shape similar to the final shape also creates a mesh that
closely fits the final shape. It is easier to create shapes when the mesh is
aligned with features you want to create.
3 Extrude a solid.
Clear the Merge result box.
Extrude the sketch with the offset
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splines .500” using the Mid Plane end

condition.
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Freeform Feature 133

Blends and Patches
4 Initiate a Freeform feature.

Freeform.
Select the flat face of the solid to
go in the Face to deform box.
5 Add curves.
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The points that you can displace
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in a Freeform feature are placed
along curves, and can be selected
in groups of points from a single
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curve (groups of points cannot be
selected from multiple curves).
Place five curves roughly equally
spaced across the width of the leaf as
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shown. A curve’s relative position in
the mesh cannot be moved once
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created.
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If the curves are previewing
perpendicular to the ones shown to
the right, press Tab and they will
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or
change directions.
In this image, the mesh density was
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lowered to help make the light blue

curves more visible.
6 Add points.
One easy way to switch from adding curves to
adding points is to click the right mouse button
after the last curve is placed. This automatically
switches you to Add Point mode. Alternatively,
you can click the Add Points button in the
PropertyManager.
Add three points to the first, third and
fifth curves. Points can only be shown
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on one curve at a time.

The second and fourth curves have
been placed to anchor the face in
between the other curves, which will be
used to give the face some shape.
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Blends and Patches
7 Select a point.
Select the center curve, and the points on that curve
become available. Select one of the points on the
curve. Notice the triad appears.
Move the point using the triad to get a feel for how it
works.
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Using the Triad There are several ways to use the Freeform feature’s triad.
Q Each arrow represents a direction, and if you pull on the arrow, the
point will only move in that direction. This makes working in 3D
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much easier.
Q Between each pair of arrows is a wing. If you select and drag the
wing, you move the point in a plane parallel to the wing.
Q If you select the dot at the vertex of the triad, you can move the
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point freely in 3D space.
Q Multiple points can be dragged simultaneously by holding down
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Ctrl and selecting them.
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Q The orientation of the triad can be controlled in
the Freeform feature’s PropertyManager.
Q Global, Surface or Curve orientation options
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determine if the triad uses the part’s origin, the
or
normal to the surface at the point or the normal
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to the curve at the point. When using Surface or

Curve options, the triad will reorient after
being moved.
Q Triad follows selection means that the triad
will either snap to the selected point (when
checked), or remain in an arbitrary position
(when cleared).
Q The spin boxes also enable you to move triad by discreet amounts
by keying in values, or using the spin arrows or sliders to change
values.
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Blends and Patches
Note Be careful of “teeter

tottering”. The Before
Freeform surface
works like a spline in
that pulling a control
point on one side of a
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fixed curve can cause
the surface to dip on After
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the other side of the
fixed curve. Notice
the dips where
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indicated by the red
arrows.
One tip to eliminate
or minimize the
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effects of teeter
tottering is to place another curve in the depressed area, and then delete
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or move some of the control points on it. (Deleting control points when
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a Symmetry option is active will also delete the symmetric points).
New curves on already deformed faces are created with control points
already in place, much like an intersection spline.
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Just as with splines, smoothness is the key to a good surface, and to get
smoothness, it is best to use as few control points as you can get away
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with.
Undoing Changes There are several ways to undo changes in the Freeform feature.
Q Use the Undo button at the top of the Freeform
PropertyManager
Q Select Reset Curve from the right mouse
button menu.
Q Delete points or curves that have been moved by selecting the point
or curve and pressing Delete.
Q Press Ctrl+Z. Ctrl+Y will redo an undone edit.
8 Select multiple
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points.
Hold down Ctrl and
select all the points on
the center curve. The
triad positions itself on
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the center point. Drag

the arrow to move the points outward from the part.
You may find you need to add points or remove points to keep the
shape smooth.

Blends and Patches
Currently there is no way to move a

point’s position relative to the mesh
once it has been placed. If you place
a point at the middle of a curve
(meaning the 50% position in the
mesh), it will always remain in the
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middle of the curve regardless how
it is moved with respect to the
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overall part. If you move the point to one end of the curve, you will
notice that behind the moved point the mesh is spread out and infront of
it the mesh is crowded in.
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9 Deform the first and fifth
curves.
Follow the same steps of adding
points and moving them to deform
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the surface until you are satisfied
with the shape. It is supposed to
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resemble a leaf.
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or
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Boundary The callout flags around the edges of the Freeform feature determine
Conditions the relationship of the finished face to the original.
Q Contact means that the new faces touches
the edge of the original face, with no other
relation other than the fact that they touch.
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Q Tangent means the new face remains

tangent to the existing face.
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Q Curvature means that the new faces

matches the curvature of the original face at
the edge.

Blends and Patches
Q Moveable means that the edge can move

by extending or trimming back the
adjacent surface.
Q Moveable/Tangent combines the
properties of both conditions.
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10 Add another three points to the
edge.
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Add three points along the outer
edge of the leaf, and set the
boundary condition to Moveable/
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Tangent.
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11 Adjust the points to give some
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shape to the edge.
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The gap and overlap will be taken
care of when the feature is finished.
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or
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12 Examine the results.

Click OK to accept the
feature, and examine the
results.
13 Trim the shape.

The outer shape of the leaf still has the
artificial four-sided shape.
Use the Leaf Shape sketch to cut the
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extrude. Use the Feature Scope to specify

which solid to cut.
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Blends and Patches
14 Apply a fillet to the edges.

Use a variable radius fillet to break the
edges of the leaf and round out the stem
slightly.
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15 Arrange bodies.
Move, rotate, mirror and copy bodies to
arrange the leaves into a a bunch.
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16 Combine all solid bodies.
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or
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Blends and Patches
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or
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Do

Exercise 11: There are situations where

Corner Blend fillets become far too complex
and will not work. The corner
indicated by the red ring
indicates a corner where four
edges come together, and
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filleting becomes complex.
Sometimes these situations can
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be handled using a blend
technique.
Skills this lab reinforces:
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Q Fillets
Q Delete Face
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Q Fill Surface
1 Open existing part.
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Open Corner_Blend.SLDPRT.
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2 Create a filleting strategy.
If you try to apply fillets, you will find that
there are a couple of possible scenarios where
op A
you can get all of the edges around the boss
or
and cut out filleted, but there is no way to
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make the fillet look particularly good,

especially if the filleted edges use different sizes. If the fillets are
applied one edge at a time, there is always an ugly intersection, and if
they are all applied at once, they are limited to all being the same size.
For this reason, we will make the intersection between all the fillets
manually.
3 Remove the corners from the model.
The real problem here are the corners where all the edges come
together. The corner can be removed, allowing you to apply the fillets.
Then the hole where the corner was can be blended over.
4 Create a sketch.
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Open a sketch on the face of the boss.

Sketch two arcs centered on the boss
and a pair of radial straight lines, then
mirror as shown.
5 Create a cut.
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Create an Extruded Cut feature that

cuts .300” into the model and
Through All coming out of the part.
Exercise 11: Corner Blend 141

The cuts should be large enough that the fillets will stop at the cut and
not go around it.
6 Create a fillet feature.
Create a Fillet feature of .100” radius on the
edges shown.
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7 Create another fillet feature.
Create another Fillet feature on the edge as
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shown. This radius should be .15”.
The fillets should stop at the cuts, if not, the cuts
are not big enough or the fillets are too large.
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The smoothness of the blend in the end depends
on making the cuts closely match the fillets, so
do not make the cuts too big.
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8 Delete faces.
Use the Delete Face with the Delete option to
delete all the faces created by the cut features.
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or
Note
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Another equivalent way of doing this would be to use a Split Line

feature, delete the faces inside the Split Line, then fillet the surface
model. Results for the two procedures would be equivalent.
A third method would be to create a Fill surface over the solid cut, and
merge the fill. This would on the face of it be a more efficient method,
but a surface method was chosen because of the relative ease of
selecting an open loop as compared to selecting many edges, some of
them small, and then needing to specify which side of the edge the
curvature setting should apply to.
Initiate a Fill Surface feature. To select the edges,
no
right-click on one of the open edges of the hole in the

surface and select Select open loop, which selects all
of the edges around the hole.
Set the Curvature Control setting to Curvature.
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Also select the Merge Result option. This knits

together the new surface with the existing body.
10 Create another fill surface.
Using the same procedure, create another fill surface on the hole in the
other side.
142 Exercise 11: Corner Blend

Again, use the Merge Result option as well as the Try to form solid
option.
11 Add a counter bored hole for a 1/4” socket head
cap screw.
Add the hole to the flat face of the boss.
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12 Shell the part to .060”, removing the
bottom planar face.
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13 Cut the part into 1/3.
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Using a 120 degree sketch centered on the boss
and hole, cut the model into 1/3.
op A
or
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14 Move face.
Move the end face of the through hole to
shorten the boss by 1.5”. Use the Offset option
to avoid specifying a direction.
15 Pattern the body.
Using the temporary axis through the center of
the part, pattern the body to make 3 instances.
16 Combine the bodies.
Use the Combine feature to join the three patterned bodies into a single
solid body.
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Exercise 11: Corner Blend 143

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144 Exercise 11: Corner Blend

Exercise 12: In this part you will patch

Patches unwanted areas of a model
and replace them with
improved shapes.
Skills used in this lab
exercise:
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Q Split Lines
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Q Surface Trimming
Q Delete Face
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Q Fill Surface
Q Freeform Surface
Q Knit Surface
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1 Open an existing model.
Open the file named Grip.SLDPRT.
2
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Examine the part.
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Notice that at the rounded end of the grip, on both
sides there are small dimples indicated by the red
ring created by the loft features which need to be
op A
or
smoothed over.
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The bumps are in part because of a singularity

due to the way in which the lofts that created
the part were made.
We will also want to add a thumb rest as
shown in the image above.
3 Open a new sketch.
On the Top reference plane, open a new
sketch and draw a circle dimensioned as
shown. The center has a Vertical relation
with the Origin.
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4 Create a Split Line feature.

Using the circle, create a Split Line feature to
split both the top and bottom faces of the part.
Be aware that the faces are split down the
middle, so you will need to select four faces.
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Exercise 12: Patches 145

5 Delete four faces.

Select the four faces inside of the split line and
make a Delete Face feature, using the Delete
option.
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6 Show two hidden
surface bodies.
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Expand the
Surface Bodies
folder and select the
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Surface-Sweep1
surface body and the
Mirror1[4]
body. Right-click and select Show bodies.
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7 Create an Offset Surface feature.
We will need to use part of the reference surfaces later for another task,
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so we need to make a copy.
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Make an Offset Surface with a 0” offset. Rename this feature Top
Skirt Copy, and hide the body.
8 Trim the surface.
op A
or
Re-using the circle sketch from the Split Line
feature, Trim the skirt surfaces leaving the
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pieces shown.
9 Create a Fill Surface feature.

Using the edges of the newly trimmed
reference surface and the lower edges
created by the Split Line feature, create
a new Fill Surface feature using
Curvature to Face for all four edges.
Notice in the preview that the Fill
surface will get a nasty bump worse than what it replaced.
Cancel the Fill Surface feature.
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Expand Folder1 and Surface-Loft1, so you can see Sketch3.

Open a new sketch on the Right reference plane, and use Convert
Entities to copy Sketch3.
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146 Exercise 12: Patches

Insert a Split Entity point on the

converted spline and make it
coincident with the model edge
using a Pierce constraint. Turn the
rest of the spline to construction
geometry.
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Exit the sketch
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Try the Fill Surface again, using
the converted and split spline as a Constraint
Curve.
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The surface is much cleaner.
10 Create a Fill patch for the top
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using the same steps.
Hide the trimmed reference surfaces,
and show Ruled Surface1 and
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Mirror1[3].
Trim Ruled Surface1 and
Mirror1[3] with the circle sketch
op A
from the Split Line feature.
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Create the Filled Surface without a
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constraint curve.
Hide the reference surfaces.
On the Top reference
plane, open a new sketch
and draw the lines and arcs
as shown with dimensions.
The 4.000” dimension
goes to the part Origin.
12 Create a Split Line

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feature.
Create a Split Line feature on
the top faces of the part, then
Use Delete Face with the
Delete option to remove the
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faces.
13 Use a Boundary surface to fill the newly created hole.
Note SolidWorks has two surface types which are limited to four-sided
patches. They are Boundary and Freeform. In cutting this hole, we are

preparing to use a Freeform surface, so since it is limited to four sides,

we will match it with the Boundary surface. The Freeform surface does
not create a surface from an edge selection, it modifies an existing face.
Although the area inside the split line before the Delete Face could be
seen as a four-sided patch, the Boundary suface in SolidWorks requires
a single face with four sides, rather than multiple faces with a four-
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sided boundary.
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Initiate a Boundary
Surface feature, and
select Direction 1
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curves as shown.
Set edges to
Curvature to Face.
You may have to
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change the direction
arrow to get the
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tangency to go the
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correct direction.
If all the visual feedback becomes confusing, you can turn off the
op A
Curvature Combs and mesh display from the right-click menu or the
or
PropertyManager.
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Select the
Direction 2
curves using
the Selection
Manager.
One thing to
notice here is
that at the
sides and ends
of the surface, the curvature combs spike. This indicates a match that is
less than ideal.
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Suppress the Boundary feature. Since we put the effort into creating
it, we will keep it, although it is not a good enough patch for our needs.
14 Create a Fill Surface.
Right-click on one of the open edges and select
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Select Open Loop.

With this selection made, initiate the Fill
Surface, and use Curvature to Face for all
edges.


15 Initiate the Freeform.
Click Insert, Features, Freeform.
Select the Fill surface that was just created from the Graphics Window.
16 Set symmetry setting.
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Check the Direction 2 Symmetry option. This will keep the changes to
the face symmetrical
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17 Add curves.
Click the Add Curves button in the
Control Curves area, and place four
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curves approximately as shown. To
create horizontal instead of vertical
curves, press Tab.
18 Add points.
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When you are done adding curves, the
mouse cursor will look as shown in the
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image to the right. Click OK using the right mouse button, and you will
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automatically be put into the Add Points mode.
Place control points along the plane of
op A
symmetry. It will highlight when the point
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will be placed properly. Place a point on the
symmetry plane for every curve.
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19 Add more points.

Also add two pair of points to the sides for
the center-most curve as shown. When a
Symmetry option is selected, placing a
control point to one side of the plane of
symmetry will also place a symmetrical
point on the other side of the plane as well.
20 Set edge constraints.
The callout flags on each edge determine
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the tangency or continuity between the

faces on either side of the edge. Set each
one to Curvature.
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21 Move points.
Select the center-most
curve, then hold down Ctrl
and select the three control
points on it. The Triad
appears, allowing you to
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drag in specific directions.
Drag the green arrow up,
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then push the blue arrow
slightly backward. We are
trying to create a scooped
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shape for a thumbrest.
If you drag the web between two arrows, the point is constrained to the
plane the web represents.
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When you are done, the
Freeform surface should
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look approximately as
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shown to the right.
When you are satisfied,
click OK to accept the
op A
or
feature.
22 Knit into solid.
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Knit all the surface bodies

except the construction
surfaces into a solid body.
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Exercise 13: In this lab you will create

Bicycle Frame blends between different
tube arrangements.
Skills used in this lab
exercise:
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Q Trimming surfaces
Lofting surfaces
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Q
Q Using Fill surface
Q Knitting surfaces
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Open the file named Bicycle Frame ex13.SLDPRT.
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2 Create simple blend using a loft.
Select the open edges of the surfaces on either side of
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the break in the Seat Tube as indicated.
Create a Loft feature using Curvature to Face end
conditions on both ends.
op A
or
You may have to adjust the connector to straighten it
out.
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Use the mesh display to make sure the loft is not

twisting.
You may use the Tangent Length values to adjust the shape of the
blend to your satisfaction.
Clock OK to accept the feature.
3 Create sketch for Trim feature.
Create a sketch similar to that shown. A straight
line and a partial ellipse are used here.
Do not overlap the ellipse with the blend on the
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other side of the tube.

Exit the sketch.
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Exercise 13: Bicycle Frame 151

4 Trim the surfaces with the sketch.

Click Trim Surface from the Surfaces toolbar.
Select the sketch from the previous step if it is not
already selected, and select the pieces to keep as
shown.
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5 Loft between the closed
loop edges.
Initiate a Loft feature and
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select the trimmed edges
as loft profiles.
Set end conditions on both
edges to Curvature to
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Face.
View the part from the
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Right view and zoom up on the area of the loft.
Adjust the connector so that it is on the plane of symmetry, and adjust
the Tangency Lengths of both edges so the loft does not pucker or kink.
op A
or
Click OK to accept the loft.
6 Create the sketch the Trim the
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Seat Stays.
Open a new sketch on the
Seat Stay Plane. You will
need to expand the existing
feature folder to access this
plane.
Sketch lines as shown. Use
either Split Entities or colinear
lines to achieve break points as
indicated by the red arrows.
The 27.000” dimension is
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attached to the part Origin.

The lines are symmetrical about the centerline.
Exit the sketch.
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152 Exercise 13: Bicycle Frame


Select the pieces to keep as shown.
8 Create a lofted surface.
Select the two edges as shown below, set
constraints to Curvature to Face for both
edges, and set the Tangency Length values
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symmetrically to make a nice arch.
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9 Loft another surface.
Use the settings shown to Loft
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a surface to fill the side.
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10 Mirror surface body.
Since the sides of the blend
will be symmetrical, and the
op A
or
trim sketch was symmetrical,
Mirror the lofted surface body
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using the Right reference

plane.
At this point the blend areas
should be fully surrounded by
trimmed tubes and lofted or
mirrored surfaces.
11 Create a fill surface blend.
Initiate a Fill Surface feature. Select
all the edges around the patch, and set
the edge conditions to Curvature for
all edges.
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Fill surfaces like this one will

sometimes get an unsightly bulge.
This can be controlled by adding a
sketch point as a constraint curve or
changing the boundaries by moving
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the Split Entities points or changing

the Tangency Length values for the
surrounding lofts.
Once the surface is smooth and nicely shaped, click OK to accept the
feature.

12 Mirror the surface body.

The fill surface should be symmetrical. Mirror the body about the
Seat Stay Plane.
13 Blend the Chain Stays to the Bottom Bracket.
The Chain Stays have already been trimmed back for you, but you must
next trim back the Bottom Bracket shell to blend into.
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14 Create a Ruled surface.
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Click Insert, Surface, Ruled Surface. Select
the edge of the Chain Stay nearest the
Bottom Bracket.
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Use the Tangent to Surface type, and make it
1.5” long.
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15 Use Move Face to offset the
surface.
The Offset surface creates a new
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surface body. Using the Move
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Face feature with Offset option
simply alters an existing body.
op A
Click Insert, Face, Move Face.
or
Select the Offset option, and set
the distance to .150”
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16 Trim the Bottom Bracket.

Use the body modified in the previous step
to trim the Bottom Bracket.
You will need to select three surface
bodies to be trimmed: the Bottom
Bracket, a loft from the Bottom
Bracket to the curved Seat Tube,
and the Fill surface.
Hide or delete the trimming body. In this
case the Ruled surface and the Move Face features were used as
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reference geometry, and can be hidden or deleted after the trim because
they will no longer be needed.
17 Loft between the end of the Chain
Stay and the trimmed hole in the
Bottom Bracket.
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Try to use Curvature to Face end

conditions, but if that does not work, use
Tangency to Face.
You will need to use the Selection Manager

to select the edges on the Bottom Bracket.

18 Patch a poor quality surface.
One of the faces created by the
loft has a crease in the face. The
rest of the loft is good, but you
need to replace this particular
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face.
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Next we will remove a portion
of the neighboring face and the
face marked in red, and fill the
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hole using a Boundary Surface.
Draw a Spline on Surface approximately as shown.
Make sure the spline touches the edges on both sides
of the surface.
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19 Split the surface using Split Line.
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Initiate a Split Line feature, using the Spline on
Surface to make an Intersection split.
op A
20 Delete two faces.
or
Using the Delete Face feature with the Delete
option, delete the two faces indicated.
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21 Mirror two surface bodies.

Using the Right reference plane, mirror the
portion of the lofted surface body left over after
the split line and delete face operations above.
Also mirror the body created by the Move Face feature.
The mirrored loft body will be used to transition the other Chain Stay
into the Bottom Bracket, and the mirrored Move Face body will be
used to trim the Bottom Bracket to allow the mirrored loft to fit.
22 Trim Bottom Bracket.
Using the mirrored Move Faces body, trim the Bottom Bracket
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and surrounding faces in the same way as in Step 16. Hide the mirrored
Move Faces body.
23 Knit surfaces together.
The edges around the hole created by the delete
face are not all of the correct length to be used to
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patch the hole. Knitting the surfaces together

around the hole will create edges of the correct
length.
Knit all the surface bodies that have an edge on the
hole. There should be five selected bodies.

24 Create a Boundary Surface.

Click Insert, Surface, Boundary
Surface.
In the Direction 1 Curves selection
box, select the edges indicated by
red arrows. Try to apply curvature
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to these edges, or if that does not
work, apply tangency.
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In the Direction 2 Curves selection box, select the edges indicated by
the light blue arrows. The edge at the top of the image is actually made
rib
of three individual edges, and you will need to use the Selection
Manager to select these. Assign curvature to these edges.
25 Mirror the boundary surface.
Using the Right reference plane, mirror the boundary surface body.
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26 Create planar surface.
With a single Planar Surface
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feature, select the edges around
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the five openings in the frame
shown in the image to the right.
The single planar surface feature
op A
will create all of the planar
or
surfaces even though they are not
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coplanar.
27 Knit and solidify the part.
There should be 38 surface
bodies to select. An easy way to
select them all is to go to the
Surface Bodies folder and window-select the bodies in the list. The two
construction surfaces used to trim the Bottom Bracket must not be knit
into the rest of the bodies.
Select the Try to form solid option.
28 Shell the solid.
Shell the frame at .050” thickness, deleting faces for the openings on
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the Head Tube, Seat Tube, and Bottom Bracket.

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op A
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Lesson 5
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op A
or
Create and drive changes from a surface master model
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Q Create and drive changes from a solid master model

Q Add various features commonly associated with plastic consumer
products
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Do
159
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op A
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160
Introduction to If you work with other experienced CAD users (not necessarily just
Master Models SolidWorks users) who have been involved with complex model
development for a while, you may have heard the term “master model”.
Master model refers to a technique of driving many parts from a single
part which contains overall size, location and gross geometry for an
e
entire assembly. Geometry detail is generally found in the individual
part files. Master model techniques can also be used in an in-context
ut
assembly scenario, but in this course we are focused on individual part
techniques.
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There are many variations of the master model concept:
Q Insert Part
Q Insert into New Part
Q Split Part
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Q Save Bodies
Q In-context assemblies
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In this course we will talk about two methods in detail:
di
Q Using the Split feature with a solid master
Q Using Insert Part with a surface master
op A
A surface master model using Insert, Part
or
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Parent multi-
body part
The entire parent model

is brought into each child
and the design for each
component proceeds
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from there.
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Introduction to Master Models 161

A solid master model approach using Save Bodies
Parent multi-
body part
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Children created from the solid master model
(each is an individual *.SLDPRT file)
When using a Master Model, there are some techniques available for
st
solid master models which are not available for surface master models.
In particular these features are Split and Save Bodies. The techniques
available for surface masters are Insert, Part and Insert into New Part,
y FT
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both of which are also available to solid masters.
For Insert Part method, child components can inherit several entity
types from their parents, including solid bodies, surface bodies, axes,
op A
planes and cosmetic threads. However they cannot inherit curve or
or
sketch entities.
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One commonly used workaround for transmitting curve or sketch data

from parent to child is to make a surface from the curve or sketch and
to make sure that is transmitted to the child, similar to the workaround
for mirroring 3D curves within a part.
Push and Pull type When using a master model to create child components, there are four
Operations basic techniques you can work with:
Q Split
Q Save Bodies
Q Insert, Part
Q Insert into New Part
In-context assemblies are covered in a different course, Advanced
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Assembly Modeling.
These four techniques break into two groups, functions that push
bodies from the parent to the child and functions that pull bodies into
the child from the parent. Another distinction is that the push-type
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functions only work on solid bodies.

Of these functions, only Insert, Part is invoked from the child
document, the rest are invoked from the parent.
The following chart lays out the properties of the various functions.
This reiterates some of the information in a chart in the Advanced Part
162 Introduction to Master Models

Modeling course book, Lesson 1: Multibody Solids, but it has more

information on usability and application to Master Model techniques.
Table 1: Master Model Operations
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Push Operation Pull Operation
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Function Name Split Save Bodies Insert, Part Insert into New
Part
Works for: solid bodies Solid Bodies all solid and/or Solid and
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only folder only surface bodies Surface Body
from a parent, Folders and
axes, cos individual
thread, planes bodies
st
Creates feature in yes yes no no
parent? y FT
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Creates feature in yes, Stock yes, Stock yes, Part yes, Stock
child?
Invoked from: parent parent child parent
op A
or
Find parent from yes yes yes yes
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child document?
Find child from yes yes no no
parent document?
Can broken links be yes yes yes yes
repaired?
Are links broken by no no yes yes
renaming parent?
Are links broken by yes yes no no
renaming child?
Can links be yes yes yes yes
no
reestablished
Can you specify yes - a feature yes - a feature no - no
where in the feature resides in tree resides in tree configurations
history the part is where body is where body is could be used to
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saved out? saved saved do this

Can configuration no no yes no
of parent be
specified?
Introduction to Master Models 163

Table 1: Master Model Operations
Push Operation Pull Operation

What happens If Split feature Either a new Any Delete Any Delete
when the number of has to be edited body simply Body feature in Body feature in
bodies in the parent and the number remains as the child which the child which
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changes? of bodies is unsaved, or a cannot find a cannot find a
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reduced, it removed body parent body parent body
requires you to is ignored. will fail until will fail until
reassign file edited and edited and
names and will closed. Some closed. Some
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overwrite all features (such features (such
files. (See * for as Rib) are as Rib) are
workaround) sensitive to the sensitive to the
presence of presence of
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multiple bodies. multiple
bodies.
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Workaround for The workaround mentioned in the chart is to avoid the problem of the
Split Feature* Split feature overwriting files which may include dependent features.
When the number of bodies in the parent has been reduced, and the
op A
or
Split feature has been used to save out bodies, editing the Split feature
will cause it to forget some or all of the file names previously entered
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for the individual part files. Reentering the missing names will cause
the files to be overwritten, which is not a problem as long as there are
no dependent features in any of the parts. If there are dependent
features, they will be lost when overwritten.
The workaround is to copy out the parts with dependent features, edit
the Split feature and overwrite the parts, then move the copied parts
back to the original locations, overwriting the overwritten parts. In this
way, the child components should open with the updated reference and
maintain its dependent features. Depending on the changes, some
sketch relations may be lost or go dangling, but at that point the
problems are not any more pronounced than they would be in a
standard part.
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Summary of To summarize, the best choice of the four methods is Insert, Part
Recommendations because it offers the use of configurations, the most options for entities
to bring forward, and it avoids some of the file management issues
associated with using Split to save out bodies. Split is still appropriate
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to actually cut a solid model into multiple bodies, but you should avoid
using it to create separate part files. In this case, Split can be used in
conjunction with any of the other three options.
The major disadvantages of using Insert, Part are:
Q From the parent document, it is impossible to tell where the parent
164 Introduction to Master Models

has been used.

Q If the parent is renamed, the link is broken.
Q You cannot directly specify where in the parent tree the body
comes from, although configurations would give you a way to
accomplish the same thing.
Surface Master In this example, we look at a simple application of
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Technique the surface master model technique. This
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assembly is made of only two pieces, but the
technique can be extended to models with many
more parts and more parametric sophistication,
including configurations for a family of sizes.
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Both parts here were created from the same
master model, and then reassembled in an
assembly.
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Procedure
1
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Open and examine the master
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model.
Open the file
SpeakerSurfaceMaster.SL
op A
DPRT.
or
Notice that each feature of
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importance is named. This master

model is meant to drive all major
outside shape changes for the
entire product from a single
location.
2 Create a new part.
Using the Part_MM template,
create a new part. Save it as SpeakerHousing.SLDPRT.
3 Insert the master model into the new part.
Click Insert, Part, and browse for the
SpeakerSurfaceMaster.SLDPRT. Make sure that the master
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model is inserted at the new part origin.

4 Delete unnecessary bodies.
For this part, we will only need three of the six
surface bodies. Delete the bodies named Face
of Baffle, Driver Mounts [1] and
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Driver Mounts [2].
Surface Master Technique 165

5 Extend the highlighted edges.

Using Extend Surface features, extend the
highlighted edges about 5 mm each.
Remember that Extend Surface only works on a
single surface body at a time, and these three edge
are on two different surface bodies, so you will
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need to use two features to extend all the edges.
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Tip Extending the surface edges helps with trimming surfaces that touch
line-on-line. This is similar to the preference for overbuilt surfaces and
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splines.
Although it may be tempting to use a Mutual Trim on
this part, use three Standard trim features instead. You
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may find that the mutual trim fails after dimensions in
the master model are changed.
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7 Knit the surface bodies into a solid.
8 Shell the solid to a wall thickness of 3.5 mm.

op A
or
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9 Open another new part.

Create another new part from the Part_MM template,
and again insert the master model at the part origin.
Save this part as SpeakerBaffle.SLDPRT.
10 Extend the edges.
Extend the same edges in this part as in the SpeakerHousing part. It
is probably a good idea to have taken care of any operation you need to
do to every part in the master model, to save some work and ensure that
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it is done the same way everywhere.

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166 Surface Master Technique

11 Trim surfaces.
The surfaces on this part are much more
difficult to trim than on the Housing
part. Even if you use mutual trim, you will
need to use two trim features because
whether you use Keep or Remove
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selections, you cannot select all the faces
you need to select at once (without using
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Select Other). However you choose to
accomplish it, the end result should look
like the image at the right. (Transparent
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surfaces are the ones that have been trimmed away, shown here for
clarity).
12 Knit the surface into a solid.
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13 Create a Ruled Surface.
Select the edges indicated in
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the image to the right, and
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create a Ruled Surface. The
surface should taper in by 20
degrees, using the Front
op A
or
reference plane for the
direction.
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14 Extend the bottom and back

of the ruled surface.
Extend the edges as shown, about 3 mm.
15 Move the ruled surface body.

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To allow a small edge around the part, Use the

Move Bodies feature to move the ruled surface
body 3 mm in the Z direction.
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16 Cut the solid with the extended ruled

surface.
Using the Cut with Surface feature, cut the
solid with the surface. The arrow points to the
material that will be removed.
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17 Shell the model.
Shell the model with a 4 mm thickness, removing
the back face of the baffle.
18 Clean up the left over bodies.
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Right-click on the Surface Bodies folder and
select Delete Body.
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Rename the feature Clean Up.
19 Create an assembly of the two parts.

Create a new assembly using the Make Assembly
op A
or
from Part function. Place both parts at the
assembly origin.
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20 Make changes to
the master
model.
Make changes to
the master model
and watch them
propagate through
the parts and into
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the assembly.
Tile the windows
(master model,
housing, baffle and
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assembly), and make the following changes to the master model:
168 Surface Master Technique

Q In the sketch of the Face of Baffle

revolved surface feature, change the 25 mm
horizontal offset of the top of the arc to 50
mm.
Click through the other windows to watch the
parts update.
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Q Change the offset distance of the Housing
Loft Top plane from 260 mm to 240 mm.
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Q
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the driver mounts.
op A
or
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21 Save and close the parts and assembly.

Save the parts.
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Working with a In this section we will:

Solid Master Q Split the part into separate bodies, each representing major
Model components of the remote control;
Q Shell the part;
Q Define the basic geometry and shape of the keypad;
Q Create specialized features called fastening features;
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Q Save the individual bodies as part files.
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Splitting the Part Splitting a part into multiple bodies was covered in the Advanced Part
Modeling course, in the Multibody Solids lesson.
In this part we return to the Remote Control from Lesson 3:
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Surface Modeling. We will finish the part with all of its internal detail.
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Open the file named Remote Control Master Model-
Lesson5.SLDPRT. The model should look like it did when we left
off with Lesson 3: Surface Modeling.
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or
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2 Extrude the parting

surface.
Reuse the original
parting sketch
and
Extrude a surface.
Use Mid Plane as the
end condition and set
the Depth is such that it
extends beyond the
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body of the part.

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170 Working with a Solid Master Model

3 Split the part.

Click Split or click
Insert, Features, Split.
Select the parting
surface as the trim tool.
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Click Cut Part. The system computes the intersection of the trim tool
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with the part and calculates the results.
We want to create both bodies but we do not want to
save them as separate part files at this time.
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Select the check boxes for both bodies but leave the
file name set to <None>.
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For Resultant bodies state, clear Consume cut
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bodies.
Click OK.
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4 Hide the parting surface.
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5 Rename the solid bodies.

Upper Housing
Expand the Solid Bodies folder.
Rename the bodies Upper
Housing and Lower Housing.
Change the colors of the upper and
lower housing bodies so it will be
easier to tell them apart.
Lower Housing
6 Hide the Lower Housing.
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Modeling the To save time we will use a library feature for the sketch of the holes for
Keypad the keypad. The sketch is straightforward and creating it step-by-step
contributes nothing to this case study about surfacing.
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Working with a Solid Master Model 171

1 Reference plane.
Show the Top reference
plane. This is the plane
onto which we will
insert the library
features (sketch).
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2 Library Feature.
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Drag the library feature named Sketch for
Keypad from the Design Library and drop it onto
the Top reference plane.
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or
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Associate the external references to the target part’s

Right reference plane and .
Click OK.
3 Dissolve the library feature.
Right-click the library feature and select Dissolve Library Feature
from the shortcut menu.
4 Extrude a cut. Draft inward
Extrude a cut Through All in both
directions. Use 1.00° of draft.
A sliver face is left if the cut is not
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extruded in both directions.

Draft outward
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5 Shell.
Shell the Upper Housing using a
Thickness of 0.080 inches.
6 Reference plane.
Create a reference plane offset
0.240” from Plane1 in the
e
direction shown (the new plane is
shown as Plane5). If the plane is
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not already named Plane5, rename it so that it is.
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Note The 0.240” dimension was obtained by adding 0.010” to the sum of
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0.080” (the shell thickness) and 0.150” (the dimension on the arc in
Sketch15).
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7 Intersection curves.
Open a sketch on Plane5.
Click Intersection Curve on the Sketch toolbar.
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or
Select the two faces as shown on the inside of the Upper Housing.
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Turn off the Intersection Curve tool and hide Plane5.

8 Keypad.
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Change the two intersection curves to construction geometry and

sketch the outline of the keypad as shown in the following image. Use
an ellipse and a rectangle and trim as necessary.
Note The intersection curves are used as a guide to make sure the keypad
doesn’t interfere with the inside of the housing.
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9 Planar surface.
Click Planar Surface on the
Surfaces toolbar.
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Create a planar surface using the
active sketch.
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10 Cut with surface.
Click Cut With Surface
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toolbar. Under Surface Cut Parameters, select
the planar surface and the cutting surface.
Under Feature Scope, click Selected bodies and
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select the Auto-select check box.
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Click OK.
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Question: Since the surface we are using is planar, why not just cut using the
reference plane?
Answer: The advantage of using a surface rather than a
plane is that the extent of the cut is limited by the
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boundaries of the surface. If we cut with the

reference plane, the entire body would have been
cut, not just the areas around the keypad holes.
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11 Thicken.
Click Thicken on the Features toolbar.
Select the planar surface.
Set the Thickness to 0.080 inches and clear the
Merge result check box.
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Examine the preview.
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Select either Thicken Side 1
Thicken in this
or Thicken Side 2 as direction
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necessary so that the surface
is thickened away from the
solid body.
Click OK.
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12 Rename.
Name the solid body
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Keypad.
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13 Offset the edges.
Open a new sketch on the uppermost
face of the Keypad. This will be the
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or
sketch for the buttons.
Note The Upper Housing is shown
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transparent for illustration purposes.

Click Offset Entities . Offset the
edges of the keypad holes 0.010”.
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Tip Press the Enter key to repeat the previous command.

14 Extrude.
Extrude the sketch using Offset From
Surface and an Offset Distance of
0.100”.
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Set the Draft Angle to 1.00° and

make sure the draft is inward.
Select Merge result and use the
Feature Scope to select the Keypad.

15 Dome.
Create a 0.050” dome on the top of the round button.
16 Fillet.
Add 0.020” radius fillets to the
edges of the keypad buttons,
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shown here in red for
illustration purposes.
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Reveal The next step in the process is to sweep a
cut to create an appearance gap or reveal
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between the upper and lower housings.
Reveals are often used in plastic parts to
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prevent an edge-to-edge joint between
two parts. Edge-to-edge joints often
emphasize any differences between the Reveal
parts at the parting line. Reveals are also
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or
often used to call attention to an edge or separation between surfaces.
First we will create two 3D curves:
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Q The sweep path

Q The guide curve
Then we will sketch the sweep profile.
1 Hide the Keypad body.
2 3D sketch.
Click 3D Sketch on the Sketch toolbar to open a new 3D sketch.
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Do

3 Fit spline.
Click Fit Spline on the
Spline Tools toolbar.
Right-click the outermost
edge of the Upper
Housing and select Select
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Tangency from the shortcut
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menu.
Tighten the Tolerance until the Actual Deviation is less than 0.001”.
Click OK. This is the path for the sweep.
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Note The resulting spline is shown here in red for illustration purposes only.
It does not mean the spline is over defined.
4 Exit sketch.
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5 Repeat.
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Repeat steps 2 through 4,
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fitting a second spline to the
inside edge of the Upper
Housing. This is the guide
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curve for the sweep.
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Note We could also have used
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Composite Curve for the

path and guide.
6 Profile sketch.
Open a sketch on the
Right reference plane.
Sketch a rectangle as
shown. This is the profile
for the swept cut feature.
The uppermost line in the
rectangle does not need to
be fully defined.
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Do

7 Sweep a cut.
Select the Profile, Path, and Guide
Curve as shown in the illustration.
Expand the Options listing.
For Orientation/twist type, select
Follow part and 1st guide curve.
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Click OK.
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Draft We could have built the required draft angle into the profile sketch.
However, in this case we will add draft using the Draft feature.
Introducing: Draft The Draft features tapers selected faces in the model by a specified
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angle with respect to the pull direction of a mold. You can add draft
using a Neutral Plane or a Parting Line.
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Where to Find It Q Click Draft on the Features toolbar.
Q Click Insert, Features, Draft.
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1 Parting line draft.
or
Click Draft on the Features toolbar.
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For Type of Draft, select Parting Line.

For the Draft Angle, enter 1.00°.
For Direction of Pull, select the Top
reference plane.
Click Reverse Direction.
For Parting Lines, select the model edge
shown and click OK.
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Draft Analysis The Draft Analysis tool is useful in determining whether the part has
sufficient draft to be removed from the mold based on a set draft angle.
Where to Find It Q Click Draft Analysis on the Mold Tools toolbar.

Q Or, click Tools, Draft Analysis....
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2 Draft analysis.
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Click Draft Analysis on the
Mold Tools toolbar, or click
Tools, Draft Analysis.
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For Direction of Pull, select the
Top reference plane.
Click Reverse Direction.
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Set the Draft Angle to 1.00°.
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Select the Face classification
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check box.
Click Calculate.
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The green faces have positive
or
draft with respect to the pull
direction. The red faces have negative draft.
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Click Cancel.
3 Hide and show bodies.
Hide the Upper Housing. Show the Lower Housing.
4 Hole for fastener.
Open a sketch on the Top reference plane and
sketch a 0.250” diameter circle as shown. The
distance from the origin is not critical but it
should be located near the rear of the remote.
Add a Coincident relation between the
circle’s center and the Right reference
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plane.
Extrude a cut as follows:
Q The From position is Offset 0.75” from
the sketch plane.
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Q The End Condition is Through All.

Q The Draft Angle is 1.00°.
Q Select the Draft outward check box.
Q For Feature Scope, select the Lower Housing.

5 Shell.
Shell the Lower Housing
using a Thickness of 0.080
inches.
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6 Clearance hole.
Click Hole Wizard on the Features toolbar.
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Q Standard = ANSI Inch
Q Type = Screw Clearances
Q Size = #4
Q Fit = Normal
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Q End Condition = Through All
Q Feature Scope = Lower Housing
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Add a Concentric relation between the locating
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point and the edge of the cut feature.
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or
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Fastening Fastening Features streamline creation of common

Features features for plastic parts. You can create:
Q Mounting Boss
Q Snap Hook
Q Snap Hook Groove
Q Vent (also useful in sheet metal parts)
Where to Find It Q Click Mounting Boss , Snap Hook , Snap Hook Groove
, or Vent on the Fastening Features toolbar.
Q Click Insert, Fastening Feature, and select either Mounting
Boss, Snap Hook, Snap Hook Groove, or Vent.
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1 Appearance.
Show the Upper Housing.
Make the Lower Housing semi-transparent. A transparency of 0.75
Do
works well.

2 Mounting boss.
Click Insert, Fastening Feature, Mounting Boss. Creating a
mounting boss is a multistep process:
1. Change to a bottom view
orientation and select the
inside face of the Upper
e
Housing. One technique is
to select the face through the
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fastener clearance hole.
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2. To define the direction of the
mounting boss, select the Top
reference plane and click Reverse
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Direction. This orients the mounting
boss correctly with respect to the pull
direction of the mold.
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3. To position the mounting boss, select
op A
or
the edge of the clearance hole.
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4. To define the height

of the mounting
boss, select the
planar face on the
inside of the Lower
Housing as shown.
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Set the Diameter to 0.350” and the Draft Angle to 2.00°.

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5. To orient the fins, select the Right reference

plane. Set the other Fins options as follows:
Q Height = 0.375”
Q Width = 0.060”
Q Length = 0.3125”
Q Draft Angle = 2.00°
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Q Number of fins = 4
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6. A mounting boss can have a
pin or a hole. In this case we
want a hole. Pin
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Q Select Hole
Q Select Enter diameter
Q Diameter = 0.086”
Q Depth = 0.825”
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Q Draft Angle = 1.00° Hole
7. Click OK.
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3 Results.
The mounting boss is added to the inside of the Upper Housing.
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or
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Note The mounting boss is shown in red for illustration purposes.

4 Appearance.
Hide the Upper Housing.
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Remove the transparency from the Lower Housing.

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5 Offset plane.
Show the sketch that was inserted as
a library feature for the keypad
cutout (step 2 on page 172).
Create a plane that is parallel to the
Front reference plane and that
e
passes through the point at the
center of the circular keypad.
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6 3D sektch.
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Open a new 3D sketch.
Insert two points. Make them
Coincident with the inside edges of
the Lower Housing and also
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coincident (On Surface) with the
offset plane.
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7
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Snap hook.
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Click Insert, Fastening Feature, Snap Hook.
or
Select one of the points in the 3D sketch.
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Select the Top reference plane to define the

vertical direction of the snap hook.
Select the Right reference plane to define the
direction of the hook.
Set the Body height at 0.070”.
Enter the Snap Hook Data as shown.
Click OK.
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Do

8 Repeat.
Create a second snap hook using the second point in the 3D sketch.
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9 Show solid body.
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Show the Upper Housing.
10 Snap hook groove.
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You must create a snap hook before you can create
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a snap hook groove.
Click Insert, Fastening Feature, Snap Hook
Groove.
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or
Select the Snap Hook1 feature.
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Select the Upper Housing as the solid body that

the groove will be applied to.
Enter the dimension values as shown.
Note The dimensions of the snap hook groove are driven
by the snap hook. The values in the
PropertyManager are offsets, or clearances, so you
can make the groove slightly larger than the hook.
Click OK.
11 Second snap hook groove.
Repeat this process for Snap Hook2. The results are shown below.
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Do
Section View
Note The cut faces of the section view have been colored for clarity.

Saving the Bodies Save Bodies allows you to save individual solid bodies as part files.
and Creating an You can indicate which bodies you want to save. Optionally you can
Assembly generate an assembly from the saved parts.
To review Save Bodies and Create Assembly, see Advanced Part
Modeling, Lesson 1: Multibody Solids.
12 Save bodies.
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Right-click the Solid Bodies folder and select
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Save Bodies from the shortcut menu.
Save the three solid bodies as:
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Q Upper Housing
Q Lower Housing
Q Keypad
If you want to create an assembly do the following:
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1 In the Create Assembly group box, click
Browse. The Save As dialog opens.
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2 Browse to where you want to save the
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assembly.
3 Give the assembly a name and click Save.
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or
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13 Save and close all the files.
Rapid By using rapid prototypes early

Prototyping in the product development
cycle, you can receive critical
feedback early in the design
process. Rapid prototyping is
sometimes called 3D printing.
The 3D printing process often
takes advantage of a rapid
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prototyping process known as

stereolithography, or layered object manufacture. 3D printers come
with special software that imports the CAD file and slices it into thin
horizontal layers 0.003 inches to 0.01 inches thick. Each thin cross-
section is sent to the 3D printer, which builds up the model, layer by
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layer, starting from the bottom of the part and moving upward. In a
matter of minutes or hours, the model is complete.
Rapid Prototyping 185

Print3D Print3D is a web portal linked to the SolidWorks software. Using

Print3D, you can contact selected rapid part and prototype vendors to
request price quotes or place an order for rapid prototypes of the
currently open part document. Some vendors provide instant price
quotes; others will contact you via e-mail.
Print3D automates the process of requesting a quote or ordering a
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prototype, eliminating the need to search for reliable services, save
parts as STL files, FTP the files to vendors, or perform other
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operations. Model data is encrypted prior to transmission, so your data
is always secure.
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Where to Find It Q Click Print3D on the Standard toolbar.
Note You may have to use Tools, Customize to add the Print 3D icon to the
Standard toolbar.
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186 Rapid Prototyping

Exercise 14: Use a solid model to drive the

Solid Master parts of an assembly, and then
Model use file management techniques
to change the names of the
individual parts while
maintaining associativity.
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Procedure
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Open
Mouse_Master_Model.SLDPRT.
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This is the continuation of the mouse
model created in the Lesson 3: Surface
Modeling lab exercises.
2 Show sketch and construction
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surface.
Notice that there is a sketch named
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Top-Bottom Split Sketch and
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a construction surface named Wheel
Mount Split Surface. Show
both of these.
op A
Note
or
The color of the surface body has been changed to clearly distinguish it
from the solid geometry.
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3 Plan the approach.

The part needs to be split into three pieces, the top cover, the bottom
and the wheel mount. The wheel itself will be added as a separate part
in the assembly.
The split will be completed in two Split features, the first splitting the
top and bottom, the second splitting the wheel mount from the top.
4 Split the top and the bottom.
Because the Wheel Mount Split Surface
needs to split the top only and not the bottom,
create the top-bottom split first.
Click Insert, Features, Split.
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Use the Top-Bottom Split Sketch to split

the top from the bottom.
Check the boxes next to both bodies in the
Resulting Bodies panel. Technically, the result
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will be the same if only one box is checked.

Do not enter a name for either body, and do not
click Save All Bodies. These two actions would
save the bodies out as separate files rather than
Exercise 14: Solid Master Model 187

just leaving them as bodies in the local part.

Make sure Consume Bodies is cleared.
5 Split the top into two pieces.
Using the Wheel Mount Split
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Surface, split the top body into
two.
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Do not split all four bodies, but only
the top two.
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Hide the sketch and the surface
body.
6 Save bodies.
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In the Master Model Techniques lesson, it was stated that the best
method for creating separate parts from a master model was to use the
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Insert, Part technique. That technique will be used in the next exercise.
The other methods are also valid, in order to give you hands on
exposure to both push and pull master model methods, we will go
through the Save Bodies technique in this exercise, since it is suited to
op A
or
solids and does not handle surfaces.
Right-click on the Solid
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Bodies folder. (Verify that

there are three solid bodies in the
folder.) Select Save Bodies.
Name the files to correspond to
Bottom, Top and
WheelMount, or variations of
those names.
Use the Create Assembly panel to assign the
parts to an assembly, named appropriately.
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7 Open the assembly.

The assembly should be open in a window in the
background. Open it and examine the parts.
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188 Exercise 14: Solid Master Model

8 Add features to individual parts.

Open each part individually and add a
.050” Shell feature, removing
appropriate faces, and color each part
separately to aid identification.
The assembly is shown in section view here for clarity.
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9 Make a change to
the Master Model.
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Open the
Mouse_Master_
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model.SLDPRT Original Shape
part.
In the loft named
Surface Loft1,
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there is a projected
curve named PL
Curve, which has
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a sketch under it
named PL Top Modified Shape
Profile.
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Edit PL Top
or
Profile.
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Holding down the Ctrl key, select the three spline points as shown and
drag them all about 1/4”.
You may also want to lengthen the arrow circled in the image to the
right slightly just to keep the shape of the mouse nice.
Exit the sketch and rebuild the part.
Open the assembly that you created
from the split parts.
Notice that the features have rebuild
symbols, so rebuild the assembly by
pressing Ctrl+Q.
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Watch all the parts update in shape.

11 Save and close all the parts and assembly.
12 Rename the parent part.
Using Windows Explorer, rename the parent part from
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Mouse_Master_Model.SLDPRT to include your name or initials.

Note Renaming files in Windows Explorer is generally not considered good
practice. We do it here to create a problem which we will then repair to
demonstrate fixing file management problems.

13 Set Tools, Options setting.

Click Tools, Options, External References. Make sure the setting for
Load Referenced Documents is set to All. This will cause the parent
part of a part created by a Save Bodies or Split feature to be
automatically opened in the background.
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You should get a message that says “Unable to locate the file... Would
you like to find it yourself?” to which you should answer Yes. Direct it
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to the renamed file.
Save and close the assembly and all parts.
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15 Rename the bottom part.
Use Windows Explorer to rename the MouseBottom part to include
your name or initials. This time we are trying to break the link going in
the other direction, and see if we can reestablish it.
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16 Open the master model.
Open the file Mouse_Master_Model.SLDPRT that was renamed
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in a previous step.
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17 Edit the Save Bodies feature.
This should again bring up the warning message that says it is unable to
find the file. Redirect it to the new name for the file.
op A
or
18 Use SolidWorks Explorer.
The above steps are meant to demonstrate the pain involved with doing
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file management operations the wrong way. Losing and reattaching

references is risky (which is a good reason to do it in training class
instead of with production data).
Start SolidWorks Explorer.
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19 Browse to Mouse_Master_Model.SLDPRT.
In the left panel, browse to the Mouse_Master_Model.SLDPRT
that has been renamed.
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190 Exercise 14: Solid Master Model

20 Rename the part.

Select the Mouse_Master_Model part in the window to the left,
and right click it or use the pop-up icon bar to select Rename.
Rename the part, removing your name or initials to make it what it was
originally.
21 Rename MouseBottom part.
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Also rename the MouseBottom part to its original name.
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22 Close SolidWorks Explorer.
23 Open the assembly in SolidWorks.
Open MouseMasterModelAssembly.SLDASM in SolidWorks
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and use File, Find References to check for the correct file names.
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or
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Exercise 15: This model of a laundry

Surface Master iron assembly will be
Model created from a surface
master model.
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1 Open an existing
model.
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Open the part called
Iron_Surface_Mas
ter.SLDPRT.
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Examine the part to see
the various surface
bodies. The model is
incomplete and has
st
several construction
surfaces in it. Notice also
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that although the features
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are not named, the
bodies are. The bodies
will be transferred to
op A
other parts, but the features will not, so it is more important for the
or
bodies to be named.
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2 Create a new part.

Create a new part and save it as Iron_Housing.SLDPRT.
3 Insert part.
In the new part, click Insert, Part, and select the
Iron_Surface_Master part to be inserted
into the Iron_Housing.
Make sure that the Surface transfer option is
checked.
You will use the same Origin for the parts as
was used for the master model.
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Insert the part at the Origin by clicking the

Origin with the part attached to the cursor.
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192 Exercise 15: Surface Master Model

When the named surface bodies come

into the new part, they are shown in two
different locations. First in the normal
Surface Bodies folder at the top of
the FeatureManager, and second in a
folder under the inserted part feature.
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This enables you to distinguish between
surfaces that were brought in from
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possibly different sources and surface
bodies that were created locally in the
current part.
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4 Trim the Main Body
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surface.
Using a Standard Trim, trim
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the Main Body with the
Handle Trim body as
shown.
op A
or
In a second trim feature, trim
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the Main Body again, this time

using the Spray Trim body.
5 Delete bodies.
Select all but the last body and the body
named Heel in the Surface
Bodies folder, and press Delete on
the keyboard. Click OK to delete the
bodies.
6 Mirror the remaining bodies.
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Mirror the remaining two bodies

about the Right reference plane.
Check the Knit Surface Bodies
option.
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Exercise 15: Surface Master Model 193

7 Create a lofted surface.

Create a simple lofted surface between the
back side of the Main Body and the
Heel surface body. This is a straight loft
with no end conditions applied. Use the
SelectionManager to pick two edges for
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both profiles and make sure the connector
is straight.
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8 Knit surfaces together.
At this point there should be three surface bodies. Knit all three of them
together.
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9 Apply a fillet.
Apply a Fillet of radius .15” to the edge as
shown. Notice that this edge flips
convexity, and the fillet also flips
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convexity, going though a singularity point
at the red arrow. Keep this in mind because
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it may cause problems later.
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10 Save the part and put into a new
assembly.
Save the part and put it into a new assembly
op A
or
using the Make Assembly from Part/Assembly tool.
Match the part Origin to the assembly Origin.
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Save the assembly as Iron_Assembly.

11 Create another new part.
Create another new part and save it with the name
Iron_Inside_Handle.SLDPRT.
Again insert the Iron_Surface_Master part into it.
12 Trim the Inside
Handle.
Use the Handle
Trim surface body to
trim the Main Body
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surface body. Keep

the inside of the
handle area of the
Main Body.
Do

13 Create a
second trim
feature.
Use the
Control2
surface body to
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trim the Main
Body. The result
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should look as shown in the image to the right.
14 Delete bodies.
Delete all the bodies in the Surface Bodies folder except the last
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one.
15 Add a fillet.
Add a Variable Radius Fillet to the edge as
shown. The outer edge of the fillet has a zero
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radius, and the inner edge radius is .110”.
16 Mirror the body.
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Mirror the body about the Right
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reference plane. Check the option to
Knit Surfaces.
17 Put the part into the assembly.
op A
or
Save the part, tile the windows (using
Window, Tile Vertically), and drag the
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part into the assembly, dropping it onto the Origin as with the Iron
Housing part.
18 Create Spray Nozzle part.
Open a new part and insert the master model part at the Origin. Save
the new part as Iron_Spray_Nozzle.
19 Trim the surface.
Use the Spray Trim surface to trim the Main Body, this time
keeping the inside piece rather than the outside.
20 Delete and mirror.
Delete all of the bodies in the Surface Bodies folder
except for the last one, then mirror the remaining surface
no
body, using the Knit Surfaces option.

21 Thicken the surface body.
Thicken the Spray Nozzle surface body to the inside by
.100”
Do

22 Create an extruded feature.

Open a new sketch on the
Front reference plane.
Draw a circle centered 2.200”
vertically from the Origin
with a diameter of .650”.
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Create a solid Extrude feature
ut
using a From Offset of 2.000”
and an end condition of Up To
Next. Also apply 5 degrees of
draft, using the Draft Outward
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option.
23 Create the spray nozzle hole.
Create a sketch on the flat end of the spray nozzle, and
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draw a circle with a .400” diameter. Create a Through
All cut.
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24 Chamfer the edge of the hole.
Apply a Chamfer .150”x45 to the edge of the hole.
op A
or
25 Create fillets.
t c DR
Create a Fillet around the top outside of the part with

a .025” radius as shown.
Create a .050” radius Fillet around the edge as

shown.
no
The final fillet for this part is a Face Fillet with a .040”
radius.
Do

26 Save the part and place it in

the assembly.
Again tile the windows and
drag and drop the part onto
the assembly Origin.
27 Create Controls part from
e
the master model.
Insert the
ut
Iron_Surface_Master
into a new part using Insert, Part. Name the new part
Controls.SLDPRT.
rib
28 Delete surface bodies.
Delete all the surface bodies except for Controls 1 and Controls
2.
29 Finish the Controls part.
st
Cap with a Planar surface and Knit the bodies
together.
y FT
di
Apply a .050” fillet to the top edge.
30 Put the part into the assembly.
Save the part as Iron_Controls.SLDPRT and drag it into the
op A
or
assembly as before.
31 Create Base Plate part from the master model.
t c DR
Create a new part, and save it as Iron_Base_Plate.SLDPRT.

Insert the master model part into it, and delete all surface bodies except
the Bottom.
32 Move the body.
The Bottom surface body represents the bottom of the plastic
housings, not the actual heated plate, but you will need to create the
actual heated plate from it.
Move the Bottom surface body down by .050” using the Move/Copy
Bodies feature.
33 Create a ruled
surface.
no
Create a Ruled
Surface feature
using the Taper to
Vector option on
two sides of the
Do
planar surface as
shown.
The surface should
taper out by 20 degrees, and be .25” long extending down (in the

negative Y direction), using the Top reference plane as a reference

Clear the boxes next to both Trim and Knit and
Connecting Surface.
34 Extend the ruled surfaces.
In two separate Extend Surface features, extend the ends of the ruled
e
surfaces so they can be trimmed nicely.
35 Trim the extended ruled surfaces.
ut
Using a Mutual Trim, trim the corner where the
extended ruled surfaces overlap.
rib
Using a second trim feature, this time with
the Standard Trim option, use the Right
reference plane to trim the overhangs from
the two extended ends as shown.
st
y FT
di
36 Mirror the surface bodies.
Mirror the surface bodies about the Right
op A
or
reference plane, using the Knit Surfaces option.
This will leave you with a surface body of the ruled,
t c DR
extended and trimmed bodies as well as a planar

surface body.
Cap off the bottom of the part with a Planar surface.
Knit together the three surfaces, using the Try to form solid option.
On the Right reference plane, open a new
sketch and draw a line in front of the pointed
tip of the Base Plate dimensioned as
shown.
no
Exit the sketch.

39 Use the Deform feature.
Using the Deform feature, select the model
edge as the Initial Curve, and the newly
sketched line as the Target Curve.
Do

Also select the rear face of the plate, shown

here in blue as a fixed face.
e
ut
40 Place the part into the
assembly.
rib
Save the part, tile the
windows and drag the part
into the assembly, with the
part Origin coincident with
st
You may have too many
y FT
windows to display all at
di
once, so minimize a few until only the assembly and the Bottom part
remain.
41 Create Heel part from the master model.
op A
or
Create a new part, and save it as Iron_Heel.SLDPRT. Insert the
master model part into it, and delete all surface bodies except the
t c DR
Heel.
42 Mirror and thicken the surface body.
Mirror the surface body about the Right reference plane, using the
Knit Surfaces option.
Thicken the surface by .200” away from the part Origin.
43 Replace the face for the bottom of the Heel.
Select the bottom face of the Heel and convert entities.
Create a Planar surface from this sketch.
Use a Replace Face feature to replace the existing face
no
of the bottom of the solid with the new planar surface.

Do

44 Put the Heel into the

assembly.
Tile the windows and drag the
Heel into the assembly,
matching the part Origin to
e
Note Breaking a master model into individual parts and reassembling it is
ut
just the beginning of the process. The rest of the process includes the
detail features of the individual parts. Many of the parts are only
surface models at this point and require substantial work to create a
rib
manufacturable solid, and may even need to be broken up further.
45 Make changes to the master model.
As a final step and with the goal of testing the surface master concept,
you will make some changes to the overall outer shape of the Iron and
st
watch the changes propagate through the parts in the assembly.
Open the Iron_Surface_Master.SLDPRT again.
y FT
di
Edit Sketch1 under Loft1.
Change the
shape roughly Original
op A
as shown. The
or
changed areas
are shown
t c DR
circled.
Changed
no
Do

46 Also edit the

3D sketch
under the
Split Line
feature.
Move the
sharp point
e
and the
ut
spline handle
leading out
of it to give
rib
the front
pillar of the
Housing a
bit of a V shape.
st
47 Update the assembly and
parts.
Save and close the assembly
y FT
di
and all parts.
op A
or
t c DR
no
Do

e
ut
rib
st
y FT
di
op A
or
t c DR
no
Do

Index
e
ut
Numerics entities M
rib
3D curves 87 convert 48 master model 161
3D sketches 49 mesh 12
F mirrored curve 20
A face modeling
add loft section 125 delete 41, 54, 57, 129 hybrid 17
analysis replace 41, 43, 58 move bodies 167
st
deviation 129 face curves 12 move surface 58
FeatureManager 9 move/copy bodies 9
B FeatureManager design tree multibody parts
base part 165
y FT
solid bodies folder 89 creating 7
di
bodies fill surface 41, 123, 126 mutual trim 10
move 167 folder 9
body folders O
delete 165, 168 solid bodies 89 offset 41
Freeform 132
op A
up to 42 overbuild 8, 166
or
boolean 9
boundary 7 H P
boundary surface 130–131 hole, delete 54 parameter 12
t c DR
hybrid 41–42 part

C hybrid modeling 17 base 165
configuration 10 derived 165
construction surface 35 I insert 165
convert entities 43, 48 ids 7 partial ellipse 84
curvature comb 131 import perspective 18
curve diagnostics 52 picture
intersection 41, 49 repair 52 sketch 17
mirrored 20 import surface 58 prismatic 19, 41
projected 19 insert projected curve 19
curves ellipse, partial 84
face 12 partial ellipse 84 R
through reference points 87 insert part 161, 165 RealView 122
cut with surface 41, 43 intersection curve 41, 49 rebuild
introduction to surfacing 7 verification 20
D repair import 52
K
no
degenerate 13, 99 replace face 41, 43, 58

delete Knit 53 rollback 10
selected faces of a surface or knit 9, 42
solid 57 surface S
delete bodies 165, 168 knit 41 scribe 127
delete face 11, 41, 54, 129 knit surface 88 SelectionManager 129
delete hole 54 sew surface, See knit surface
Do
derived part 165 L singularity 13, 35, 53, 98

developable 20 layout sketch 18 sketch
deviation analysis 129, 131 loft 128 3D 49
Display Pane 10 add section 125 convert entities 43, 48
surface 124 layout 18
E surfaces 60 partial ellipse 84
ellipse, partial 84 split entities 127
sketch picture 17
Advanced Part Modeling 203

Index SolidWorks 2007 Training Manual
solid bodies folder 89

split 161
split entities 124, 127
surface 9
boundary 130
cut with 41, 43
degenerate 13, 99
developable 20
e
fill 41, 123, 126
knit 9, 42
loft 124, 128
ut
offset 41
thicken 41
trim 10, 44, 123–124, 167
untrim 14, 55
rib
up to 41–42
surface, extruded
extrude 7
surface, planar 8
surfaces
deleting a face 57
st
importing 58
knit 88
loft 60
moving 58 y FT
di
replacing a face 58
symmetry 19
T
tangency 129
op A
thicken 10, 41, 44
or
tools
check 11
t c DR
trim 10
trim 9
trim surface 44, 123–124, 167
U
untrim 14
untrim surface 55
up to body 42
up to surface 41–42
u-v 12
V
verification on rebuild 20
W-Z
watertight. 7
wrap 127
no
zebra stripe 131

Do
204 Advanced Part Modeling

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Palette, PhotoWorks, and XchangeWorks are trademarks of

trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United

All Rights Reserved.

Document Number: PMT0103-ENG

About the Training Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Why use Surfaces? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Working with Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Creating a Knit Surface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Stages in the Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Freeform Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Exercise 12: Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

functions, a process-based training course emphasizes the processes and

situations while being modest enough to be completed during class

About This Course 3

certain techniques in modeling. As a result, the drawings and dimensions

Typewriter Feature names and file names appear in this

Use of Color The SolidWorks 2007 user interface

provide you with visual feedback.

Also, in many cases, we have used additional color in the illustrations

4 About This Course

We can use a simple cylinder as an example.

1 Extrude a solid cylinder.

Save this part as Solid.SLDPRT.

does not require a closed loop sketch.

Where to Find It Q Click Extruded Surface on the Surfaces toolbar

Where to Find It Q Click Knit Surface on the Surfaces Toolbar.

3 Create a planar surface.

4 Copy the surface body.

Where to Find It Click Trim Surface

Working with surface bodies is in many respects similar to working

do not touch at all.

Working with Surface Bodies 9

Managing visibility of surface bodies

5 Trim the surfaces.

Click inside the Pieces to

enclosed volume made of surfaces.

Where to Find It Q Click Thicken on the Features toolbar.

10 Working with Surface Bodies

6 Make the surface into a solid.

We will examine both parts with one more method.

Working with Surface Bodies 11

explore the untrimmed surfaces, but in a different way this time.

Where to Find It Q Click Face Curves from the Sketch toolbar.

number representing the position

in troubleshooting feature failure or unexpected shapes. We will

12 Working with Surface Bodies

these are the major types.

sheets of fiberglass) and label application (labels will stretch or

Working with Surface Bodies 13

always) cause problems in filleting, shelling or offsetting..

Where to Find It Q Click Untrim from the Surfaces toolbar.

14 Working with Surface Bodies

is a huge benefit when removing fillets from an imported part for

create simple cylinders? There are a couple of reasons:

understand how surfaces and solids, imported and native geometry

Why use Surfaces? 15

Q Some shapes can not be created

revolved shapes. Any type of surface feature can be used as

time point of view, surfaces are

16 Why use Surfaces?

the driving measure, and is overridden by actual modeling time.

Solid-Surface Hybrid Modeling.