Chapter 4: Creating Simple Parts and Drawings
IN THIS CHAPTER
Establishing design intent
Building a simple part
Creating a simple assembly tutorial
Making a simple drawing tutorial
Good modeling practice is based on robust design intent. This just means that you should try to build parts that can adapt easily to changes. This section of the book begins with things you need to know about a design in order to make good models.
Beginning to create simple parts will help you understand techniques used in more complex modeling projects. Learning on simple tools and then expanding your skills helps you to understand best practice issues, which makes you a better contributor to a team environment.
Discovering Design Intent
By knowing the right information about the part's function before you start modeling or designing, you can create a model that will be easier to edit, easier to properly place into an assembly, easier to detail in drawings, and easier for other SolidWorks users to understand when someone else has to work on your models. The term design intent is a statement of how the part functions, the major features of the part, and how the model reacts to modeling changes.
It may help if you try to put the design intent into words to help you focus on what is important in the design. An example of a statement of design intent is “This part is symmetric about two planes, is used to support a 1.00" diameter shaft with a constant downward load of 150 pounds using a bronze bushing, ...
