Laying the Groundwork

IN THIS PART
Chapter 1
Understanding Basic Concepts
Chapter 2
Surfacing Primer
E
veryone has a different idea of what the words basic and advanced
mean. In general terms, some users might consider everything in this
book advanced, and others might consider it basic. Still, in order to
progress, the concepts have to start from somewhere, and so the initial con-
cepts will form the basis for the more advanced material to come later.
SolidWorks probably has more surface and complex shape functionality than
you realize, especially if you are coming to this book from a machine design
background. Some of the tools are matured, having been available for quite
some time, and some are newly added to the software, with some occasional
kinks still left to work out.
Regardless of how you have arrived here, surfacing and complex shapes are
areas of the SolidWorks software that have been flourishing in recent years,
and improve with each new release of the software. Still, it is an area that
doesnt get as much traffic as, say, the extrudes, revolves and fillets, and so
bugs, or quirky functionality, can still be found from time to time.
Figure 1.1 shows an example of some of the modeling that you will find in
the pages of this book. This is a SolidWorks model of the SolidWorks
Roadster, a Shelby Cobra kit car built by SolidWorks employees, and dis-
played at SolidWorks World 2007. This rendering was done by Matt Sass for
the PhotoWorks contest on Rob Rodriguezs site, www.robrodriguez.com.
3
IN THIS CHAPTfR
Assumed basic skills
Concepts, tools, techniques,
and stratcgics
Understanding the differcncc
bctween design and modeling
Understanding Basic
Concepts
FIGURE 1.1
Model of the SolidWorks Roadster
Rendering b` Matt Sass
Assumed Basic Skills
The SolidWorks Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible is intended for a diverse cross-section
of readers. The first type of reader is the SolidWorks user who is otherwise knowledgeable about
the software, but wants to learn about surfacing and complex shape-creation techniques. This
reader may have come from another type of design, and is more mechanical than artistic in method.
The second is the user of another surfacing program who has learned SolidWorks basics and wants
to transfer surfacing skills from the other program to SolidWorks. This reader is more likely an
industrial designer or otherwise artistically inclined. This book assumes you already have a good
grasp on the basics, such as sketching and sketch relations, the basics of parametric relations between
features, and commonly used terminology in SolidWorks. The SolidWorks Bible can help bring you
to this level, and is a great companion to this book for reference on the more basic concepts.
You will find a small amount of overlap between the current edition of the SolidWorks Bible and the
SolidWorks Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible. The overlapping topics are splines and
multi-body modeling. Both of these skills are essential to working with surfaces and complex shapes,
which is why you find them again here, although discussed from a slightly different perspective.
This book was written using early versions of SolidWorks 2008, but most of the concepts dis-
cussed can be effectively applied to versions earlier and later. I have tried to make minimal refer-
ences to version-specific aspects of the interface, but have pointed out where necessary the
functional differences if any between features in prior versions.
4
laying the Groundwork
Part I
Assemblies are only discussed in this book in a couple of areas, such as master modeling tech-
niques and multi-body techniques. You will find no reference to any of the specialty techniques
such as sheet metal or weldments.
Beyond that, a firm grasp of high school geometry concepts and terminology is necessary.
Analytical geometry and simple calculus concepts come into play in the form of tangency, rate of
change, and derivatives discussions. Because this book is primarily for actual users of the SolidWorks
software, and actual users may or may not have an engineering math background, I will not
involve any math or equations directly except for c = 1/r (curvature equals the inverse of radius).
You will find plastic-molded part terminology sprinkled throughout this book, with common refer-
ences to parting lines, draft, and direction of pull. I have assumed that the reader has a passing
familiarity with some form of plastic molding process such as thermoforming, injection molding,
rotational molding, or blow molding. A background in metal injection molding, casting, or even
forging may also be helpful, as many of the same concepts employed by these manufacturing tech-
niques are also applicable to plastics processes.
Although you will not find drawings discussed in this book, basic mechanical drawing skills are
required to get the most out of this book. You must understand basic terminology, such as section,
projected view, and orthogonal views.
I intend this book to be primarily for the use of professional CAD operators, whether artist or tech-
nical, as opposed to casual or hobbyist users. If you are looking to make characters or equipment
for games, SolidWorks may not be your best option. One of the polygonal modelers would be a
better bet. Any type of casual user will probably find that complex shapes are easier to create in
other software because, as CAD software, SolidWorks tends to require more precision than a tool
like Maya or modo, or any of the freeware mesh modelers available.
Concepts, Tools, Techniques,
and Strategies
The SolidWorks Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible is organized into four parts that
discuss the concepts and tools (two sections are dedicated to the tools), and finally combine tech-
niques and strategies into a series of longer hands-on model walk-throughs. I believe that this
approach answers the how and why questions in addition to explaining and demonstrating what
individual button clicks do. Tutorials on their own do not explain the decision-making process, but
they do demonstrate the workflow. Lectures on their own do not demonstrate the tools in action.
Concepts, of course, are useless without application to realistic scenarios.
Demonstrating techniques and strategies gives you, the reader, a head start with visualizing the
application of the tools to real-world modeling scenarios. Most of the models used as examples
have been adapted from real-world work projects, to keep them as realistic as possible. Techniques
in particular will cover topics such as capping rounded ends, making blends at complex intersec-
tions, making sharp edges fade into smooth faces, how to use images as reference, how to deal with
draft at the edges of complex surfaces, and many other commonly encountered situations.
S
Understanding Basic Concepts
1