SolidWorks® Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible

Chapter 17. Modeling Blends

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Modeling a plastic cover

• Tinkering with the solid

• Modeling a stool concept

• Patching bad geometry

Many people think of blends as the simple equivalent of fillets. To me, blends are a type of geometry that you have to create intentionally and manually rather than automatically like SolidWorks fillets. Blends involve primary surface types being used to transition between bodies. One common example of a blend is the intersection of three or more frame elements, or the base cover for an office chair. You can adapt the blending techniques that this chapter demonstrates to a wide range of actual applications.

This chapter also shows some techniques that are not directly related to blending, but are used to solve problems that come up in this kind of modeling. Some unexpected modeling occurs as a result, showing both the failure of features to work in some situations and ugly hacks to work around software bugs.

Other techniques include patching over bad geometry to smooth over bumps, creases, or edge mismatches.

Modeling a Plastic Cover

In this exercise, I start from a partially completed model and walk you through blending together the legs of a plastic frame–type shape. This section deals with several less–than–ideal situations in a real–world way and helps you see what sort of challenges you will be up against when using SolidWorks for this type of modeling work, without any of the oversimplifications or idealized situations typical in tutorials, training ...