SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [260]
9. Click the surface body in the Surface Bodies folder and either press the Delete key or select Delete Body from the RMB menu. Then click OK to accept the feature. This places a Delete Body feature in the tree. It keeps the body from getting in the way when it is not needed. This is not a necessary step, but many people choose to use it. (Suppress the Delete Body feature, since this body is needed again later.)
Tip
If you delete a body in this way and then need it later down the tree, you can delete, suppress, or reorder the Delete Body feature later in the tree.
10. Now show the solid body. You will notice the color of the surface conflicting with the color of the solid. This mottled appearance is due to the small approximations made by the rendering and display algorithms.
11. Initiate the Split feature by choosing Insert⇒Features⇒Split from the menus or clicking the Features toolbar. Use the surface body to split the solid body. Click the Cut Part button, and select the check boxes in front of both bodies in the list. Click OK to accept the feature. Notice now that the Solid Bodies folder indicates that there are two solid bodies.
12. From the View menu, select the display of Temporary Axes. Initiate a Circular Pattern feature, selecting the temporary axis as the axis, and the split-off leg in the Bodies to Pattern selection box. Set it to four instances, as shown in Figure 19.29.
Figure 19.29
Patterning a body
13. Use the Combine feature to add together all five bodies. You can access this feature by choosing Insert⇒Features⇒Combine from the menus.
Summary
Beginning to understand how to work with multiple bodies in SolidWorks opens a gateway to a new world of modeling possibilities. Like in-context design, multi-body modeling is definitely something that you have to go into with your eyes open. You will experience difficulties when using this technique, but you will also find new possibilities that were not available with other techniques. The key to success with multi-body techniques is understanding the capabilities and limitations of the tools.
When using a model with the multi-body approach, make sure that you can identify a reason for doing it this way rather than using a more conventional approach. Also keep in mind the list of applications or uses for multi-body modeling mentioned in this chapter. For some types of work, you cannot avoid multi-body modeling, such as using the SolidWorks Mold Tools and Weldments.
Chapter 20: Working with Surfaces
In This Chapter
Understanding surfacing functions
Learning surfacing terminology
Exploring surface tools
Applying surfacing techniques
Working with surfaces tutorial
With surface modeling you build a shape face by face. Faces made by surface features can be knit together to enclose a volume, which can become a solid. With solid modeling, you build all the faces to make the volume at the same time. In fact, solid modeling is really just highly automated surface modeling. Obviously there is more detail to it than that, but this definition will get you started.
You can drive a car without knowing how the engine works, but you cannot get the most power possible out of the car by only pressing harder on the gas pedal; you have to get under the hood and make adjustments. In a way, that is what working with surfaces is really all about — getting under the hood and tinkering with the underlying functionality.
The goal of most surface modeling is to finish with a solid. Some surface features make faces that will become faces of the solid, and some surface features only act as reference geometry. Surface modeling is inherently multi-body modeling because most surface features do not merge bodies automatically.
Introducing Surfaces
In the end, you may never really need surfaces. It is possible to perform workarounds using solids to do most of the things that most users need to do. However, many of these workarounds