First, move the sketch easily
This trick is one of the most insidious yet easiest to use tools when you are not satisfied with where your sketch is relative to the origin or for other reasons. It is always difficult to move the sketch in the sketch editing environment, especially when the sketch we are defining is copied and pasted from DraftSight or other 2D software.
Most users have trouble with this, feeling like they should be able to select all sketch entities in the sketch window, then grab a point and drag the entire sketch (to a new location). Although this idea sounds logical, it is not the case in reality. You could also try using the Move Entity command, but it doesn't always snap to your desired final position.
The method described below is perfectly valid and very easy to do, you just need to know the order of the clicks.
1. Box select the sketch entity you want to move.
2. Hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard, select a point in the sketch and drag the selected entities.
The trick here is that Ctrl+drag selects and the windows are copied. The trick is to notice the little (+) sign under the cursor. If you release the left mouse button at this point, the sketch will be copied.
Conversely, if you release the Ctrl key while still holding your mouse during the "Copy Sketch" operation, the small (+) sign will disappear, and the entire operation will become a move command. When your selected point is in the correct position or snapped to the origin, just release your cursor.
All in all, thousands of functions are in the millions of codes of SolidWorks, these are some very useful but well hidden common functions. I hope you find some features you didn't know existed that can help you improve the quality of your designs and most importantly, help save you time and energy in your design work.
Second, copy the surface
Copying surface surfaces from one part to another is a very useful tool when you want to establish relationships between parts in the middle of the following, especially when you get an input file of irregular shape with thousands of surfaces surface, you only need to extract a partial surface of it.
As you've done in the past, you'll probably need to use an application that works on virtual surfaces or builds surfaces. Just thicken its surface as a new feature. What you may be asking yourself is: this sounds great, but there is no "copy surface" command? You are absolutely correct in thinking this way!
Many users try to use the stitch surface command, but this is not the best choice. Unless you select faces that are adjacent to each other and form a single seamable surface. However, there is a simple trick to solve this problem, and that is the Offset Surface command. Select a face or face, whether adjacent or disjoint, and select Offset Surface.
When the feature management tree is displayed in the "offset surface" state, when you set the offset distance to zero, the feature management tree dialog box will automatically display as "copy surface". You can use this functionality in assemblies, but only for editing part states. You can also select faces and copy surfaces from other parts. This will create an interconnected surface. This tool has been practically used in dozens of cases.
Third, the control of the explosion direction
Like several other functions in the SolidWorks software, the control of the triad orientation can be controlled through the ALT key and triad drag and drop.
Simply start the explode command, or edit an existing explode view and start a new explode step. The triad always follows the triad orientation of the part or assembly. To move and readjust the triad, simply hold down the ALT key, use the blue sphere to select and drag the triad to move it in X, Y, and Z to suit your requirements, then drag it over other geometry. This feature allows quick selection of linear edges, hidden planes, hole features or cylindrical shaft features. This adjusts the new orientation and position of the triad.
Consider this trick as long as you are working with the SolidWorks triad. Such as moving or copying entities, moving and triads, etc.
Fourth, select the closed contour
You must be using the Convert Entities feature a lot, but wondering why when you select a plane to convert entities, only the outermost edges are converted? You must be tired of manually selecting each edge of the interior contour?
With two simple clicks, you can easily solve your problem!
When you create a new sketch, just hold down the CTRL key while selecting the same plane as the normal conversion entity to add a selection element, which is an edge of the inner contour! This is the closed contour selection to be introduced next. By doing so, the edges referencing the inner contour of the selected planar outer loop (default) will be transformed.
Usually select the plane and convert the entity reference to get the outer ring (default)
After the CTRL key selects the plane and an internal edge, convert the entity reference to get the internal loop
Select closed silhouette edges:
This trick also works for selecting inner closed silhouette edges if you want a fillet or chamfer to be added to the inner closed silhouette edge but not applied to the outer loop edge. This has the added benefit that if you were to make changes affecting the inscribed sketch shown above, your fillets or chamfers would not go wrong when adding or removing cutout silhouette edges.
If you select all internal edges (fillet or chamfer), or if you change the number of internal edges, you will get a wrong fillet or chamfer. It will be necessary to fix this error by editing the applied feature to account for missing or added edges.
Fifth, select an edge to create a sketch
This particular feature simply lets you do a few things to create SolidWorks features with a minimum of steps.
Just select any edge of any entity, and then click "Insert" - "Sketch", the base plane of the sketch will be created automatically. After a normal edge is selected, the endpoint of the created sketch plane will be automatically placed at the nearest endpoint of the selected edge.
This operation supports almost all edge types from edges and prismatic edges or edge lines generated after lofting. You can also use the "Insert" - "Reference Geometry" function to add a plane perpendicular to the curve. This will skip all the steps normally required and start a new sketch directly.
