Can anyone recomend a reference book / guide / website / etc. for best practises when doing advanced surface modeling (specifically for product design)?
I am designing for injection molding and want my parts to both look really cool, as well as being constructed (in solidworks) in a robust professional manner.
Thanks!
Other than the official SolidWorks Training manuals, I can recommend you Matt Lombard's Bible:
You can also try the Camaro Tutorial created by Matthew Perez: http://www.solidworkslessons.info/ which is an amazing hands-on experience in surfacing.
Otherwise, if you have time, you can find a lot of information on youtube.
Kevin,
In addition to Alin's excellent recommendations, you might look at Charles Culp's site and Ed Eaton's Curvy Stuff Tutorials:
http://www.dimontegroup.com/Tutorials/SolidWorks_Tutorials.htm
Jerry S.
Thanks for the terrific answers! I have a copy of the Solidworks Surfacing Bible on order and am in the middle of reading through Ed Eatons presentations. I have read through some other Solidworks World presentations before, they all seem really well produced.
In particular I found Slide 84 and 99-103 of Curvy Stuff V part1 to be extremely relevant to some questions that I had been strugling with.
Actually, I have a question about slide 84, perhaps best for a seperate topic but I will try here first:
It talks about creating a Sketch Layout of the design, and how this should be complete as possible. Including tolerancing stackups, drafts, cross sections etc.
My question is, once your Layout Sketch is complete, what is the most "robust" or "best" way to create your surfaces and/or solids?
Should they be driven directly from the Layout Sketch?
Should the Driving Sketces for the Surfaces / Solids be driven by the Layout Sketch?
Should the driving sketches for the surfaces / solids NOT be driven by the Layout Sketch?
Thanks in advance!
Kevin,
I can't really answer for Ed and I don't remember exactly what point he was making in that presentation, but I would not drive the surfaces/solids directly from the master sketch. I would make another sketch and convert entities from the master sketch. That way the master sketch is not consumed in the feature.It sits at the top of the feature tree and is always visible and available.
If you have just been viewing the slide show, you might want to look at the notes for each slide. Ed often includes really thorough notes that explain the reasons for doing things the way that he does them.
Jerry S.
Other than the official SolidWorks Training manuals, I can recommend you Matt Lombard's Bible:
http://www.amazon.com/SolidWorks-Surfacing-Complex-Modeling-ebook/dp/B005USEDJ6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1348531076&sr=8-3&keywords=surface+bible
You can also try the Camaro Tutorial created by Matthew Perez: http://www.solidworkslessons.info/ which is an amazing hands-on experience in surfacing.
Otherwise, if you have time, you can find a lot of information on youtube.