Matt Lombard - SolidWorks 2011 Assemblies Bible

SolidWorks 2011 Assemblies Bible

Matt Lombard

SolidWorks 2011 Assemblies Bible

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Copyright 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-00276-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Matt Lombard is an independent engineering consultant specializing in plastic parts and complex shapes. He also writes a blog on SolidWorks, which you can find at www.dezignstuff.com/blog . Matt lives in the picturesque Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he enjoys reading the classics and fishing.

Credits

Senior Acquisitions Editor

Stephanie McComb

Project Editor

Jade L. Williams

Technical Editor

Charles Culp

Copy Editor

Marylouise Wiack

Editorial Director

Robyn Siesky

Business Manager

Amy Knies

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Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

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Kristie Rees

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Christine Sabooni

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BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

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Marilyn Hummel

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the efforts of the staff at Wiley for their dedication in editing the text of these books. It can be a difficult job making sure that a technical subject is treated properly. I'd also like to thank Charles Culp, the technical editor, for taking the time out of his schedule to make sure the material is accurate. Thanks also to Kim and Zoey, who help with the details in life allowing me to do this kind of work.

Introduction

SolidWorks is a huge, sprawling topic. There is a lot for you, the reader, to know, and for me to write about. As a result, with the 2011 edition, I have taken this book from a single volume of an immense scope to two individual volumes, each still fairly large, one covering parts and part drawings, and the other covering assemblies and assembly drawings. There is some overlap between these topics, but I have tried to divide the material evenly and in a way, that makes the most sense for the reader. Depending on your needs, you will probably find both volumes to be very useful references.

This book is primarily meant as an encyclopedic desk reference for SolidWorks Standard users who want a more thorough understanding of the software and process than can be found in other available documentation. As such, it is not necessarily intended to be a guide for beginners, although it has elements that beginners would find useful. Nor is it necessarily intended as a classroom guide, but I have seen people use it for that as well.

Beginners will find the step-by-step tutorials useful. However, because you are only a beginner for a short period of time, the book is intended to be most useful when you reach an intermediate level, as it takes a more conceptual approach to explaining functionality. I try to help you make the decisions about how to apply the tools to your tasks rather than demonstrating simple tasks that you will never need to do again. You will not learn to model a teapot in this book, because in your work, knowing how to model a teapot will probably not help you. However, you will learn how to make decisions that should enable you to model just about anything you want, including teapots.

To keep the size of the book manageable, I have tried to avoid topics found only in SolidWorks Professional or Premium, although I do talk about these topics when they are relevant.

While the book does point out limitations, bugs, and conceptual errors in the software, and from time to time ventures into the realm of opinion, in every case this is meant to give you a more thorough understanding of the software, and how it is applied in the context of everyday design or engineering practice.

The overall goal of this book is not to fill your head with facts, but to help you think like the software, so that you can use the tool as an intuitive extension of your own process. As your modeling projects become more complex, you will need to have more troubleshooting and work-around skills available to you. Along with best practice recommendations, these are the most compelling reasons to use this book.