SOLIDWORKS Exercise 1

Mouse Model

Exercise 1: Use surface features to create a solid

Mouse Model model. In this exercise you just create
the shape. In a later exercise you will
split out the individual parts.
This lab reinforces the following
skills:
 Construction Surfaces
 Lofted Surface
 Preparation for Using Filled Surface
 Partial Ellipse
 Completing the Solid Model
Design Intent 1. The part is symmetrical with respect to the Right Plane.
2. The bottom face of the mouse should be 123mm x 54mm.
Units: millimeters
1 Create a new part file.
Use the Part_MM template. Name it Mouse.
2 Draw layout sketch.
On the Top Plane, sketch a
rectangle as shown.
3 Exit the sketch.
Name it Size Reference.
This sketch will help you
sketch the freeform splines
approximately the correct size.
4 Sketch the bottom edge.
Open a new sketch on the Top Plane, and sketch a 5-point
spline as shown to represent the bottom edge of the mouse.
Draw only half of the outline, and make it somewhat
peanut-shaped.
Make sure that the endpoints of the spline are Coincident
with the corners of the rectangle in the Size Reference
sketch.

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Mouse Model

5 Add relations.
Use relations on the handles at the ends of the spline to create
tangency across the line of symmetry. There are several ways
to do this. You can:
 Add Horizontal relations to the spline handles; or,
 Add Collinear relations between the spline handles and
the rectangle in the Size Reference sketch; or,
 Add Tangent relations between the spline and the
rectangle in the Size Reference sketch.
Use whichever technique you prefer.

6 Tangent relation.
To make the spline tangent to the rectangle, sketch a short construction
line Tangent to the spline itself, not to a handle or a spline point.
Add a Vertical relation to the construction line.
Make the endpoint of the construction line Coincident with the
rectangle in the Size Reference sketch.

Tangent Vertical Coincident

Note Making the spline tangent directly to the side of the rectangle in the
Size Reference sketch gives very little control over the point of
tangency and makes the shape of the spline difficult to control.

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Mouse Model

7 Adjust the shape of the spline.

Adjust the shape of the spline by adjusting the control
polygon. It is not necessary or desirable to adjust the
handles on the three interior interpolant points.
8 Exit the sketch.
Name it Bottom Edge.

9 Sketch top profile of the parting line.

Open a new sketch on the Top Plane.
Sketch a spline which lies slightly outside of
the Bottom Edge sketch.
The endpoints of this spline should have
Vertical relations with respect to the ends of
the spline in the Bottom Edge sketch and
should be dimensioned as shown.
Add relations to the end handles as you did
in step 5.
Notice the use of Show Inflection Points on
the spline to help define the area of slightly
reversed convexity.

10 Exit the sketch.

Name it PL Top Profile.
11 Sketch the side profile of the parting line.
Open a new sketch on the Right Plane, and draw a spline as shown.
The ends of the spline should have Vertical relations with respect to the
endpoints of the spline in the PL Top Profile sketch.

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Mouse Model

Add a Horizontal relation to the handle at the end of the spline furthest
from the Origin.
Name it PL Side Profile.

Right view

Iso view

12 Create a projected curve.

Click Project Curve .
Use the Sketch onto Sketch
option.
Select the PL Side Profile and
PL Top Profile sketches.
Rename the projected curve PL
Curve.
13 Create loft profile sketch.
Open a new sketch on the Right Plane, and sketch a pair of arcs as
shown.

Both arcs should be coincident to the ends of the Bottom Edge sketch
and be pierced by the PL Curve.
Name it PL End Profiles.
Note Using the SelectionManager, multiple, disjoint profiles in a single
sketch are manageable and valid.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 1
Mouse Model

14 Create third loft profile.

Create a new plane parallel to
the Front Plane through a
spline point from the Bottom
Edge sketch.
Rename this plane Mid Plane.

15 Intermediate profile.
Open a new sketch on the Mid Plane reference plane.
Sketch an arc.
Add the relations shown below.
Draw a construction line between the endpoints of the arc.
Using the Smart Dimension tool, select the construction line, and then
hold down the Shift key and select the arc. This will give a dimension
as if the Min arc condition in the dimension properties was used.
Make this dimension 1.25mm.

Pierce
PL Curve

Coincident to
spline point

16 Exit the sketch.

Name it Intermediate Profile.

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Mouse Model

17 Create the surface loft.

Use the SelectionManager to select open profiles
at the ends. The Intermediate Profile sketch will
not require the Selection Manager.
For Guide Curves, select PL Curve and Bottom
Edge.
For Start/End Constraints, use Normal to
Profile for both ends so that it is smooth across the
plane of symmetry.
Click OK .

View was rotated for clarity.

Lighting and Color You can use the optical properties of a color to make it easier to
Tips evaluate the quality and smoothness of a surface. Typically this means
increasing the Specularity setting to 1.00. However, under certain
lighting conditions, this can result in strong highlights that completely
wash out the color of the surface.
You can mitigate this effect by adding color to the environment lights.
In the illustrations below, RealView Graphics has been enabled. The
color assigned to the part is Red = 33, Green = 177, and Blue = 170. By
assigning that same color to the environment lights, the highlights can
be toned down.

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Mouse Model

18 Draw the top shape of the mouse.

Open a sketch on the Right Plane and sketch a partial ellipse at an
angle.
2

4 3

Sketch a construction line from the center of the ellipse to the end of
the minor axis to control the angle.
Add the relations shown below.

Pierce
PL Curve,
Coincident
between
endpoint
Pierce of ellipse
PL Curve and major
axis.

19 Extrude a reference
surface.
Filled Surface requires a
reference surface to define
the tangency condition along
the top.
Extrude the partial ellipse
sketch away from the rest of
the model. The distance
doesn’t matter.

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Mouse Model

Creating the Top There are several ways of

Surface of the creating the surface on the
Mouse top of this mouse. The
easiest is probably to loft
from 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 Preview of Loft Surface
reasonably nice shape, but
notice the mesh lines at the ends. This creates a singularity which may
cause problems in filleting, shelling, offsetting, or even 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.

20 Filled surface.
Click Filled Surface .
Select the edge of the extruded surface and the
edge of the lofted surface.
Use the end condition Tangent for the extruded
surface and Contact for the lofted surface.
Notice that with Optimize surface selected, the
surface again becomes degenerate. This is
because the Optimize surface option applies a
simplified surface patch that is similar to a lofted
surface.
Clear Optimize surface and you will get a better, four-sided patch.
Click OK .

Optimize surface selected Optimize surface cleared

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Mouse Model

21 Mirror the surface bodies.

Hide the extruded surface.
Click Mirror .
Select the Right Plane as the mirror
plane.
In the Bodies to Mirror selection list,
select the lofted and filled surfaces to
be mirrored.
Click the Knit surfaces check box. Click OK .
Note Notice that even with the Knit surfaces option
checked, the Mirror command still produced two
separate 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 you should
leave the Knit surfaces option cleared and just manually knit the
surfaces together. This way there is no confusion about what will or
will not be knit by the Mirror feature.
22 Clear the Knit surfaces option.
Edit the Mirror1 feature and clear the Knit surfaces options.
Click OK .
23 Planar surface.
Select the edges of the lofted surface
and mirrored loft on the bottom and
create a planar surface.

24 Knit.
Knit the five surface bodies into a
solid.

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Exercise 1 SOLIDWORKS
Mouse Model

25 Save and close the file.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 2
Bar of Soap

Exercise 2: 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.

This lab reinforces the following skills:

 Construction Surfaces
 Preparation for Using Filled Surface
 Lofted Surface
 Completing the Solid Model
Units: millimeters
1 Open a part file.
Open 100 gram Bar of Soap.sldprt.
Take advantage of the symmetry in the part. Build one quarter and then
mirror it.

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Exercise 2 SOLIDWORKS
Bar of Soap

2 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.

3 Create three new

sketches.
Sketch1 - 12mm line on Sketch3
Right plane tangent to arc
in Side Layout Sketch.
Sketch2 - 12mm line on
Front plane tangent to arc
in Front Layout Sketch.
Sketch1 Sketch2
Sketch3 - fit a spline on
Top plane referencing Top Layout Sketch.
4 Loft with guide curves.
Loft a reference surface using Sketch1
and Sketch2 as profiles and Sketch3 as a
guide curve.
Use Normal to Profile for Start and End
Constraints.
5 Extrude a surface.
Create a spline to replicate the
upper-right quadrant of the Front
Layout Sketch.
Extrude a reference surface a
distance of about 12mm.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 2
Bar of Soap

6 Extrude another surface.

Create a spline to replicate the
upper- left quadrant of the Side
Layout Sketch.
Extrude a reference surface a
distance of about 12mm.

7 Fill.
Create a Filled Surface tangent to
the three reference surfaces.

Strategy For the next portion of the model, we could create an n-sided opening
and patch it with a Fill Surface. While a Fill Surface does produce
good results, the geometry does not align as nicely with the Front
Layout Sketch as we want. The following steps show another method
for filling an n-sided opening and produce more acceptable results for
this model.
8 Hide the surfaces.
Hide all four surface bodies so it will be easier to work on the lower
portion of the part.
9 Reference surface.
Create a sketch on the Right Plane.
Convert the arc and horizontal
construction line from the Side Layout
Sketch.
Create the 8.2mm radius sketch fillet as
shown.
Create a spline to fit the converted geometry and extrude a reference
surface.

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Exercise 2 SOLIDWORKS
Bar of Soap

10 Reference surface.
Create a sketch on the Front
Plane.
Create a spline to replicate the
lower-right quadrant of the Front
Layout Sketch.
Extrude a reference surface a
distance of about 12mm.

11 Loft a reference surface.

Create two profile sketches as
you did in Sketch1 and
Sketch2 of step 3 on page 12.
Loft a reference surface using
the two lines as profiles and the
edge of the filled surface as a
guide curve.

12 Sweep surface.
Create a sketch on the Right
Plane for the profile. Use
Convert Entities to copy the
edge of the reference surface
into the active sketch.
Drag the endpoint of the
converted edge approximately
as shown.
Likewise, convert the edge of
the other extruded reference
surface to create the sweep
path on the Front Plane.
Note Be sure Start tangency type is set to None.
13 Trim surface.
Open a new sketch on the
Top Plane.
Sketch a spline to trim the
swept surface. The spline is
tangent to the horizontal and
vertical construction lines.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 2
Bar of Soap

14 Split lines.
Use split lines to split the two
extruded reference surfaces. The
split lines should line up exactly
with the vertices of the trimmed
surface.

15 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,
use Tangency To Face.
For Guide curves influence,
use To Next Guide.
Guide #2
For Guide tangency type, use
Tangency To Face.
16 Evaluate the results.
Hide the reference surfaces.
Show the filled surface, the trimmed surface, and the lofted surface.
Show the Front Layout Sketch and the Side Layout Sketch.

17 Knit.
Knit all of the surface bodies (not
including the reference surfaces) into a
single surface body.

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Exercise 2 SOLIDWORKS
Bar of Soap

18 Intersect.
Using the Front and Right reference
planes and the knit surface, create a
solid body using the Intersect tool.

19 Mirror.
Mirror the solid body first with respect to the Right Plane, and then
with respect to the Front Plane.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 2
Bar of Soap

20 Evaluate the section view.

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 customer supplied.
21 Save and close the file.

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Handle

Exercise 3: This lab reinforces the following skills:

Handle  Construction Surfaces
 Lofted Surface
 Completing the Solid Model

Design Intent The design intent for this part is as follows:

1. Part is symmetrical about the Right Plane.
2. Surfaces are smooth.
3. Some dimensions for the part have been provided.
Units: millimeters
1 Create a new part file.
Use the Part_MM template. Name it Handle.
2 Create a size reference sketch.
Open a new sketch on the Right Plane.
Create the sketch shown below. The sketch consists of three concentric
circles and a vertical line.

3 Exit the sketch.

Rename it Size Reference Sketch.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 3
Handle

4 Sketch a spline for a projected curve.

Open a new sketch on the Right Plane.
Select the 32mm circle and Convert Entities .
Create one spline tangent to the circle at the top and another spline
tangent to the circle at the bottom, similar to as shown.
Use Trim Entities and Fit Spline to complete the sketch.

Tip You can temporarily disable automatic sketch relations by holding

down the Ctrl key while sketching or dragging.
5 Exit the sketch.
Rename it Side Profile.
6 Sketch the second spline for a projected curve.
Open a new sketch on the Top Plane.
The sketch is displayed below in two different views to show it in its
normal projection and also how it relates to the previous sketch.

Add Horizontal
relation to this
spline handle

Where the spline meets the plane of symmetry, add a Horizontal

relation to the spline handle.
Use a Horizontal construction line to relate the other end of the spline
to the 35.5mm circle in the Size Reference Sketch.

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Handle

7 Exit the sketch.

Rename it Top Profile.
8 Projected curve.
Use the Top Profile and Side
Profile sketches to create a
projected curve, using the
Sketch on Sketch option.

9 Create center profile sketch.

Open a new sketch on the Right Plane.
Select the 35.5mm circle from the Size Reference Sketch and
Convert Entities .
Create one spline tangent to the circle at the top and another spline
tangent to the circle at the bottom, similar to as shown.
Add Coincident relations between the ends of the splines and the ends
of the spline in the Side Profile sketch.
Use Trim Entities and Fit Spline to complete the sketch.

Note This spline defines the shape of the surface at the plane of symmetry –
the silhouette edge.
10 Exit the sketch.
Rename it Center Profile.
11 Hide and show.
Hide all of the sketches except the Center Profile.
Make sure the projected curve is visible.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 3
Handle

12 Create a guide curve.

Open a new sketch on the Top Plane.
Near the end with the loop (near the Origin),
sketch a two point spline, and add Pierce
relations between the ends and the Center
Profile sketch and the projected curve.
At the end pierced by the Center Profile, add
a Horizontal relation to the spline handle.

13 Exit the sketch.

Rename it Guide Curve.

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Handle

14 Create the lofted surface.

For the Profiles, select the Center Profile
sketch and the projected curve.
Set Start/End Constraint for the Center Profile
to Normal To Profile.
Note Pay attention to which profile you select first so
you will know whether the tangency condition for
the Center Profile sketch is the Start constraint
or the End constraint.
For the Guide Curves, select the Guide Curve
sketch.
Set the Guide curves influence to Global.

Note The ends of the lofted surface form a singularity. In this case we will
allow this to remain, although if we were shelling the part we would be
wise to trim off the ends and use Filled Surface to recreate better faces
in these areas.
Note An appearance of Polished Brass with a Plain White scene has been
used in the images.
15 Sketch for construction surface.
Open a new sketch on the Right Plane.
Sketch and dimension an arc as shown, with its
endpoints Coincident to the corners of the lofted
surface.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 3
Handle

16 Create the construction surface.

Extrude the surface away from the lofted surface. The distance doesn’t
matter since this is only a construction surface.

17 Split faces.
Sketch a line on the Front Plane
through the Origin. Use it to split the
lofted surface in a single direction as
shown. This is done to split the surface
into two faces so the edges can be
used as separate profiles.

18 New Sketch.
Sketch an arc on the Front Plane. The arc height is 1.25mm and its
ends have Pierce relations to the edge of the lofted surface.

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Handle

19 Reference plane.
Make a plane offset from the Front Plane by 102mm.
20 New Sketch.
Sketch an arc on the newly created plane. This arc has the same
dimensions and relations as the other guide curve (1.25mm arc height
and Pierce relations).

21 Create a Boundary Surface.

For the Direction 1, select the long edges of
the surface we split.
The Tangent Type for both edges will be
None.
For Direction 2, select the sketches from
step 18 and step 20 and the edge of the
extruded reference surface. Add Tangency to
Face at the edge.

Click OK .

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 3
Handle

22 Hide.
Hide the extruded, reference surface.
23 Knit Surfaces.
Knit the lofted surface and the boundary surface together.
24 Make it solid and mirror it.
This is a basic task so we won’t
provide detailed, step-by-step
instructions here.

25 Save and close the file.

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Handle

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