SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [181]
Many more types of errors exist, and rather than going through an exhaustive list, which would require another book of its own, I would like to impart to you some guidelines to help you find a useful answer. Hopefully you only have to figure out an error once, and you will remember it the next time you see it. Here are some general guidelines for troubleshooting errors with causes that aren't obvious:
• CAD in general does not like line-on-line geometry. In SolidWorks, you don't get extra points for being close. Most features require you to be exact or so close that it looks exact. It is often a good idea to “overbuild” geometry so that it is bigger than it needs to be if it is going to merge with other geometry.
• Zero thickness errors. Zero thickness errors can be some of the most difficult for users that are new to 3D to diagnose. Much in the same way that CAD doesn't like line-on-line geometry, it doesn't like edges that create a section of a single body where there is air on two sides of an edge. If you were to extrude two rectangles that touch at a point, SolidWorks would create two separate bodies from that point, because it physically would fall apart if it were a single body. If the two touching rectangles were also trying to merge with an existing solid body, you would get an error.
• Planar means planar. If you click on a face, and it just won't let you open a sketch, maybe the face is not planar. Errors of this sort can happen in surfacing applications and imported geometry quite often. I use the Sketch icon as a quick test for whether or not a face is planar. SolidWorks doesn't really give you another way to measure this. Non-planar faces can also cause a lot of trouble with assembly mates.
• Even if it's planar, is it square to the coordinate system? If you work with plastic parts or castings, or anything else that requires draft, you can and probably do have faces that are not perpendicular or parallel to the standard reference planes. This can cause problems with projections (a circle projected at an angle becomes an ellipse, and an ellipse projected at an angle becomes a spline) and extrusion directions.
• If it doesn't like one method, try another that produces similar results. One common example of this is when a constant radius fillet will not work, and you think it should work. In this case, try to use a variable radius fillet with all the same radius values.
For most errors, a rational reason exists. Belief in supernatural forces is not likely to be useful when troubleshooting errors in SolidWorks. If you are using very common features such as extrudes and cuts and you run into errors, it is very unlikely that you have found a bug (although bugs in sketches are quite common). Generally speaking, the more traffic a feature sees, the less likely you are to find bugs with it. Sometimes just determining whether the problem is with the software or with something you are doing is the toughest thing to troubleshoot. In general, users are far too eager to assign blame to the software.
Using SolidWorks RX and Performance Benchmark
SolidWorks provides a couple of automated troubleshooting tools: SolidWorks RX and Performance Benchmark. SolidWorks RX troubleshoots your system, or at least records facts about your system so someone trained in how to view the results can diagnose the problem.
Using SolidWorks RX
SolidWorks RX is a diagnostic tool that SolidWorks provides to help support techs solve your problem or to help you solve it yourself. You can access SolidWorks