SolidsWorks is an independent guide to SOLIDWORKS for students, makers and designers who need to get set up and then build parts that survive a revision. I'm David Foster, and I write it around one question: what change was this model meant to support, and which reference now gets in the way? An editable part needs a clear reason for its dimensions and relationships, and a rebuild error is often where an overlooked dependency first shows itself.
What the guides cover
- Getting started: the Windows computer SOLIDWORKS needs and how to read its certification list, your options on a Mac, the default keyboard shortcuts and custom keys, and what the Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate exam involves.
- Licenses, plans and cost: which routes to SOLIDWORKS are free, from the student offer and trial to makerspace and startup programs and the free viewer, and what a student license includes and leaves out.
- Parts and features: cosmetic and modeled threads with the Hole Wizard and the Thread feature, and changing a part's material so mass, BOM entries and Simulation inputs follow.
- Sheet metal: building a part from a base flange, setting thickness and bend data, adding edge flanges and sketched bends, then flattening it and exporting a DXF for the shop.
- Drawings: placing a section view on a drawing, setting its cutting line, label and hatch, leaving chosen components uncut, and fixing a section that shows the wrong geometry.
How I write a SOLIDWORKS guide
I start with the change the part is meant to support. A guide names the sketch relation or feature reference involved and the rebuild behavior to expect, so a later edit to a dimension doesn't surprise you further down the feature tree or across an assembly.
Dassault Systèmes' documentation is my reference for software terms and commands. A version update may change the workflow, yet it can't establish that a physical part is suitable for manufacture or service, so a guide explains what the software does and leaves that judgment with your design review.
About David Foster
My role here is SOLIDWORKS mechanical-modeling editor. Sketch constraints and feature order come up again and again in what I write, along with reference stability, assembly mates, configurations and the drawings they feed.
The first successful rebuild is only one stage of a model. A part can look right while it depends on fragile references, so I favor a readable feature tree and a diagnosis tied to the rebuild problem in front of you. The next altered dimension or replacement part shows whether the original relationships were clear enough.
SolidsWorks is an independent guide and is not affiliated with Dassault Systèmes. SOLIDWORKS is a trademark or registered trademark of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries.