SolidWorks - Fillet and Chamfer

Fillet

Fillet is used to create a rounded profile on an edge. The edge can be an external of internal profile of a part. SolidWorks fillet function gives a wide flexibility from simple fillet (constant radius) up to an advanced options. However, most of the time user would only use constant radius fillet.

Edge before fillet (left) and after fillet (right)

The function can be accessed by clicking Insert > Features > Fillet/Round, or you can just simply click Fillet icon on the Features ribbon.

The important parameter that user need to know on the function is mainly the fillet radius size and the geometry selection. Two type of geometry can be selected on fillet function, which can be either edge or surface. When edge is selected, the selected edge would be replaced with a rounded profile with the specified radius. When a surface is selected, SolidWorks would automatically select all edges that forms the surface. See the difference in the two images below.

Fillet with edge as selected geometry

Fillet with surface as selected geometry

Chamfer

Chamfer works almost the same as fillet, only that it creates a bevel on the edge instead of rounded profile.

The feature can be accessed by clicking Insert > Features > Chamfer, or by clicking the small drop down arrow below the fillet button on Features Ribbon to reveal the shortcut.

SolidWorks allow user to determine the chamfer size using two method: angle distance, and distance distance.

On angle distance method, user determine the distance of the bevel and the angle of the bevel. By default, the default angle would be set to 45 degree. User can input the bevel angle between 0 to 90 degree. On distance distance method, user is prompted to enter the distance of the two edges of the chamfer.

The geometry selection on chamfer is exactly the same as on fillet, which can be either edges or any face. The edge that form the face would be automatically selected when surface is selected as the input geometry.

Tutorial - Nut Modelling

Tutorial: Modelling standard metric nut. The dimension shown in this tutorial would follow standard dimension for size M3 nut. For any other size of nut, please refer here.

Feature used: Extrude boss/base, Extrude cut, Revolve, Chamfer.

1. Open up SolidWorks and click New > Part

2. On the Family Tree, right click on the Top Plane and select sketch.

3. On the Sketch ribbon, select the Polygon button. On the Polygon option, enter 6 on the Number of Sides field.

4. Sketch a hexagon and give enter the dimension using Smart Dimension such that you obtain a sketch as shown below.

5. Extrude boss/base the sketch with the Mid-Plane end condition, extrusion depth of 2.4. You would get something like shown below.

6. Select the top surface of the nut, right click and select sketch.

7. Sketch a circle with the same center as the hexagon and using smart dimension, give the diameter as shown below.

8. Perform Extrude Cut with Through All end condition. Your model is shaping up!

9. On the Family Tree, select the Front Plane > right click > Sketch
10. Draw a vertical center line at the center of the coordinate and sketch that looks like below.

11. Perform Revolve Cut with the vertical center line as your center of rotation.
12. Select Chamfer, and select the two edges of the center hole. Put 0.3 on the chamfer size.

13 And your model is done! Congratulation!

SolidWorks - Loft

Loft is another function other than sweep that requires at least two sketches. To get an idea how a loft function differs from other function, see here.

Loft function is very useful especially if you want to control the shapes of the two end faces. The main difference between sweep and loft is that:

• Sweep: is defined by the path and cross sectional area. The shape of the cross section area is uniform all along the path.
• Loft: is defined by the shape of the cross section area at the end of the solids. The path in between the two ends can be defined by user but by default it would be automatically fitted by the software.

In SolidWorks, a typical loft operation would follow this step:
1. Draw a sketch on a plane.

First sketch

2. Create a reference plane and draw the second sketch.

Second sketch on a plane offset of the first plane

3. If needed, additional sketch can be created on another reference plane. The third sketch and onwards is not mandatory. At minimum, loft function requires two closed-loop sketch.

Third sketch is defined

4. Draw the "Guide curve" for the loft operation. This step is not mandatory, only if user requires the profile to follow defined path.

Guide curve is added

5. Perform the loft operation.

Resulting solid when the guide curve is used

Resulting solid when the guide curve is not used

New Project - Mitsubishi Lancer

Recently I'm starting to do another 3D model of a car shell, this time round is Mitsubishi Lancer. No particular reason why I decided to do this car model. As for now, the work is still in progress, struggling to find free time to finish it off.

Anyway, see the image below for the gradual progression of the model. Enjoy!

Supposedly is the real car!

Starting off with the blueprint.

I always start from the side door

And progressing towards the front of the car 

The roof start to form

And front hood

More details added!

Rear windshield formed

And the front bumper..

Well, this is what I've done so far. Things getting more challenging here! Hopefully I can finish it soon :)

Keyshot - CAD Rendering Software

Some of the CAD software come with build in rendering tool. SolidWorks is pretty famous for its build-in rendering tool as the result produced is considered very good with wide selection of material library.

However, there are some software that is designed to be dedicated only for rendering. Recently I tried one of them. The software name is Keyshot.

Compatible for both Windows 32-bit and 62-bit, this software allow you to have 14 days of trial. Download the trial here if you're interested.

For first time user, this software is relatively easy to use. The material library provided is considered pretty wide and it allow you to "custom" made your own material. Assigning material and appearance can be done as easy as using drag-and drop thingy.

Even though Keyshot is an independent software company and is not tied in with any CAD software system, it is capable to import most of the popular CAD files. Assembly file can also be imported directly to Keyshot without losing its relationship. Just click the import button, and you will see your assembly almost instantly.

Despite all the good things about it, by not linked to any CAD software means that the relationship defined in the assembly is also not important. This can become pretty troublesome especially when you need to do rendering of two identical assembly with different instances as you can not modify your assembly in Keyshot. You would need to import it two times and assign the same material twice. That's double the work.

In conclusion, this software has pro and cons. If you need to do rendering on the same assembly with different arrangement/instances, this software might not be suitable for you. However, overall this software can produce decently presentable result and is very user friendly and easy to use.

Some renderings that I've done using Keyshot:

Tutorial - Lego (2)

This tutorial is a continuation of the previous tutorial here. If you haven't completed the first part, it is advisable to complete the first part before doing this part.

In this part, now we're going to assemble few pieces of the Lego together to make some shape. After the completion of this tutorial, you can build your own 3D Lego!

1. Click File => New, and select Assembly.

2. The default setting for SolidWorks would automatically run the "Insert Components" feature. You can see it on the left side bar. Click on the "Browse" button, and locate the Lego piece you made in Part 1 of this tutorial. If you haven't closed it yet, it should appear on the "Open Documents" window above the "Browse" button. 

3. Now you should see your Lego piece displayed on the display window. Left click to confirm the placement of the piece. Now to insert another piece, click the "Insert Components" button located at the "Assembly" ribbon.

4. Same thing as step 3, left click anywhere to confirm the placement of your second Lego piece. You should see something like shown below.

5. After having two pieces together, now its time to arrange the placement of the pieces. Click on the "Mate" button located at the "Assembly" ribbon. You should see the Mate tab on the left side of the screen.

6. On the Mate tab on the left, select "Coincident" from the Standard Mates, and select the side of the first Lego pieces (Shown blue in figure below).

7. Now select the same side of the second piece. A pop-up box should appear after selecting the two surfaces. Click on the green thick button on the pop-up box.

8. Do the same thing as above, click Coincident, but now select the bottom surface of the the piece.

9. Then select the bottom surface of the second piece. Click the green thick on the pop-up box.

10. Same again, apply Coincident Mate (or some people call Constrain) on the two surfaces of the piece shown below. Click OK (green thick button) after that. Now your Lego piece should be arranged nicely, adjacent to each other. By now you should understand how to apply a simple Coincident mate according to your design intent.

11. Repeat step 3 and 4 to insert another piece of Lego.

12. Click on the Mate button. Now on the left side tab, click on the Concentric mate, and select the two cylindrical surface as shown below. 

13. Now give Coincident mate on the side surface of the piece as shown below.

14. Finally, give Coincident constrain on the top surface of the previous piece and the bottom surface of the third piece. Click OK to finalize the Mate.

15. Now you have completed the first series of tutorial to build a simple Lego assembly. You can have an experiment yourself to build a more complex Lego assembly :)