Ok Can someone give me a breif description of how it is used. There has to be some tricks, I never seem to get the option.
I was told that I could take a part and insert a block around it and use the cavity tool to make a cavity in the block and then cut the block to to make a cavity and core if so how does it work in assembly or multi body.
Joe
Scott Thanks for the reply. I am new to Solidworks, I am really a cnc programer kind of switching over to Solidworks and maybe mold design , or at least to help in electrodes. I have watched that video and it seems that is ok for most simple splits. Most molds I build are not that simple. I have been reading some of the posts here and have read alot of them using the cavity function to make a cavity. kind of like a boolean subtract or combine subtract. I need to know how they use it because mine is always greyed out. Is it supposed to be used in a multibody our a part or in an assembly. The help file tells you about it but I guess I need it in a tutorial to see how it is done.
Thanks
Joe
Joe,
If you are attempting this at the part level it won't function. It has to be done at the assembly level.
Other than that,it may be the SW package you are using, I am not sure, but some may not allow this "advanced feature".
I do not recall what lvels of SW are named but our comapny runs the "Professional".
Hope this helps,
regards,
Alan
Joe,
Like Alan said this is only good in the assembly mode.
What version exactly are you running? Standard, premium, student?
Can you post some screen shots of your model and the mold toolbar?
I have the student version at home for my school work.
but I have premium at work really have not tried it at work cause I am usally to busy programing and running the Cncs
Joe,
You might want to try this file at work. I know some of the limitations of the student edition,
but I would not think this would be one of them. Maybe it is, but you will know if you try it at work
with the same step sequence.
Joe,
If you want two halves of a mould, use the mould tools. You make the cavity and core from the part by specifying parting surface and shut-offs. It will also do draft analysis as well. Just cutting a block with a cavity in it is often not good if any of your part features project beyond the parting line.
The result is a multibody part where you can switch between the part and the mould halves and any modification of the part will update the mould.
I have only done this once (on a very complex part) and I was impressed with the result. I was able to complete the process using just the help files.
Check out the tutorials in the solidworks help section.
There is a section dedicated to mold design.
The cavity function has been in SW since somewhere around SW98ish, I do use the mold tools in the part file...BUT sometimes the cavity in an assembly works better because some just don't understand the multi-bodies in a part file.
also if you are making trodes you don't always use the the exact surface that is extracted so then you'll have to cut or offset faces to get the spark gap, so using the cavity may not be the best, you may have to build the trodes with offset surfaces and then trim, extrude and knit the surfaces together to make the solids.
Well thanks for the info I now know it has to be in an assembly. I am not trying to use the cavity tool to make trodes Just trying to learn Solidworks and Maybe someday try doing mold design after building them for over 30 years and complaining about the designers.............. Just kidding.
Thanks again Joe.
Joe,
As you learn more about SolidWorks, you may find that you want to use multi-body parts some of the time instead of assemblies. (Or, you may want to use multi-body parts, followed by splitting into multiple parts in an assembly.) In multi-body parts there is a feature called Combine that can be used like Cavity in an assembly. It is, in some ways, more powerful, as it can Add, Subtract, or Intersect bodies. It is, in other ways, more limited, as you have to duplicate a body before you subtract it if you want to keep both bodies.
Jerry Steiger
You can see a quick tutorial on how to do what you describe below:
Joe,
You are exactly correct. That is how I have used it.
Check out this instructional video in Youtube using the cavity command.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgwdhh-JtmY