SolidWorks 2022 Intermediate: Surfaces

Name: SolidWorks 2022 Intermediate: Surfaces
Author: William Tenney

Learn surface modeling techniques and tools.

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Course: On-Demand

Hi, my name is Will Tenny, and in this lesson, we discuss the basics of what surface modeling is. So, here we have drawn on the front plane two identical squares. On a separate sketch, I converted the entities on the left square and created this solid cube. We know it's solid because we can see the material within. And we also have one next to the solid bodies drop down menu in the future manager. For the second, I only converted this top line, the right line, to the bottom line. Used the same feature and was forced to use the extrude thin. As we know, it asked me what thickness I want that line to be, I designated 10 millimeters, and that's what that looks like. Let's delete these. So why does that matter with surface modeling? With surface modeling, it really doesn't matter if we have closed contour sketches or open contour sketches. It'll still extrude a surface in XYZ space that relates to a line that you assign it to. So, let's take a look at what that looks like. Here, I extrude a closed contour sketch and use the extrude surface tool to get there. By the way, if you don't already have surfaces tabs, you can right click anywhere on the command manager, go to tabs and select surfaces to add that tab and tool set to your command manager for easy accessibility. Next, I decided to close off this open face and then do the same thing to the back. Here we go. Now we have a full cube. I then patterned that cube and applied what's called a surface knit to this right hand cube. So what does the surface knit matter? Well, if we go to the surface bodies here to the left, it's telling us that there are four even though we see two cubes, so what's going on? Well, if we drop down and we highlight, we can see the surface bodies that you're referring to. There's one, there's another, there's another in the back, and then the cube on the right is the complete surface body in and of itself. Well, that surface knit is able to take multiple surface bodies and make them one. And we know that a surface knit has taken place because here, there are all black edges telling us that at each surface transition, they are part of the same body. Whereas here, there are blue edges telling us that even though these look like they're next to each other or tied to each other, they're actually not. This front face is a completely different surface body than the four faces that it touches. Let's go ahead and delete those. And we can hide this sketch. Last, we're going to talk about the difference between tangency and curvature because you'll need to understand both when doing surface modeling. So the first thing is I created two arcs on a sketch and used the extrude surface to just blow them out into space. Now these have the exact same curvature because they are made from the same arc entity or congruent arc entities. Let's put it that way. If you go to the evaluate tab, we have over here some nifty curvature analysis tools that we can use to take a look at what this curvature is actually doing. Let's look at the zebra stripes first. I like this one a lot. It's pretty clear. If we move the item in space, we see the zebra stripes move and they stay consistent in the direction. They are nice and tight. There's no sharp bends. Basically tells us that the curvature of these pieces is continuous and seamless. And that's what we're looking for. We also have something called curvature combs. This tells us two things. It has all these offshoot sketch lines at different points at the surface. At each point of the surface, it's actually telling us what that normal two vector is at that exact point at that surface. And the height of the line tells us the magnitude of that curvature at that same point. All of these heights are consistent with each other because they are all made from the same arc. So the curvature is the same. But the directions are different because this arc is traveling over space. Okay. And then next we have this curvature tool. It provides us a heat map of what that curvature looks like because the curvature is exactly the same. There is no color change. Had these been drifting around in space, the color may go from cool colors to warm colors to hot and even to black depending on how that surface transitioned throughout. So next, I created a new set of surfaces. Let's take a look at the sketch. And there are basically just two splines connected to these arcs. On the left, there's a tangent relationship between the spline and the arc. And on the right, there is a curvature relationship between the spline and the arc. We selected, we can see here, equal curvature is one of those shared relationships. Tangency just implies that two curves when they meet are traveling the same direction. That's it. Automatically implies tangency, but it also tells us that at the moment that those two curves meet, they also have the exact same curvature, even though this one can change later down the spline. Here, the spline curvature and the arc curvature are exactly the same. Let's go back to the surfaces and let's evaluate using the same tools. First, with zebra stripes, we can see that as we move the object in space, the stripes don't change the refinement or the direction. It's as if this surface and this surface were made from the exact same sketch entity. We go over here to the tangent relationship. At that same point, you can see the zebra stripes both change size, direction, and clarity at the moment of that surface transition. That's because they are drastically different in their curvatures. Let's turn that off and look at curvature combs. Here, as we go from arc to spline, the height or magnitude of the curvature drastically changes. There's no seamless transition. Over here, there is a seamless transition, and it's reflected by this row of lines here. It grows in curvature and diminishes in curvature seamlessly. Then last, we go to the curvature heat map, and we can see the notable differences here. On the tangent line, the curvature changes drastically and therefore there is a hard break in between the green color and the blue, whereas on the right, there is a smooth color gradient from green to blue, and then back to green. So why does this matter? Well, if you're designing surface bodies, it depends on what those bodies can be used for. If you're an engineer designing the wings on a plane, you want the curvature to be perfect across all the surfaces of those wings. Also if you're designing a product that's going to be very reflective, that's, say, made out of chrome or aluminum or silver, you know what those curvature transitions to be seamless as possible because you're going to catch reflections and highlights that show all the imperfections. For something that's more matte or something that doesn't necessarily have to perform with an airfoil or anything crazy like that, tangency is probably fine because you'll be able to get away with smooth surface transitions without having to align curvature as well. Thanks for listening. In the next lesson, we learn the basic extrude type surface tools.

Intermediate Provider : William Tenney 9 Lessons · 46m in English

Course Description

Module 3 deals specifically with the tools and strategies of surface modeling. Surface modeling has to do with building bodies in part files that have no mass. From there, they can become items of mass using the Thicken Surface or Knit Surface tools. The value of surface modeling is the convenience it offers in crafting organic shapes. Surface modeling (or surfacing) tends to be the method of choice for most CAD professionals. For this reason, the principles learned in this module can carry to a number of other CAD programs. There are basic surfacing tools that will be covered here. These include Surface Extrude, Surface Revolve, Swept Surface, Ruled Surface, and Trim Surface just to name a few. They tend to operate similarly to their solid modeling counterparts. Therefore, many of the concepts learned in past modules dealing specifically with solid modeling can easily cross-apply here and facilitate the learning process. Surface bodies can become solid bodies and vice versa. Understanding the principles behind both methods will greatly improve your skill and confidence as a CAD professional.

What You'll Learn

Learn the general principles and strategies behind crafting surface bodies in SolidWorks
Create basic surface bodies using tools such as Surface Extrude, Surface Revolve, and Swept Surface
Explore more complex surface tools including Boundary Surface and Lofted Surface
Use the Trim Surface tool as a refinement tool
Transform surface bodies into solid bodies and convert solid bodies into surfaces using Thicken Surface and Knit Surface
Apply techniques like knitting surface bodies and deleting faces to create surface bodies

Key Takeaways

Surface modeling involves building bodies in part files that have no mass, which can later become items of mass using the Thicken Surface or Knit Surface tools.
Surface modeling offers convenience in crafting organic shapes and tends to be the method of choice for most CAD professionals.
Basic surfacing tools such as Surface Extrude, Surface Revolve, Swept Surface, Ruled Surface, and Trim Surface tend to operate similarly to their solid modeling counterparts.
Concepts learned in past modules dealing with solid modeling can cross-apply to surface modeling and facilitate the learning process.
Surface bodies can become solid bodies and vice versa, and understanding the principles behind both methods improves CAD skill and confidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

This is Module 3, which deals specifically with the tools and strategies of surface modeling in SolidWorks 2022. It covers basic surfacing tools such as Surface Extrude, Surface Revolve, Swept Surface, Ruled Surface, and Trim Surface, more complex tools like Boundary Surface and Lofted Surface, and how to transform surface bodies into solid bodies and vice versa.

Who is this course best suited for?

It is suited for CAD professionals and learners working in SolidWorks, since surface modeling tends to be the method of choice for most CAD professionals. The principles learned in this module can also carry to a number of other CAD programs.

Will the skills learned here apply to other CAD programs?

Yes. The principles learned in this module can carry to a number of other CAD programs, and many concepts from past solid modeling modules cross-apply to surface modeling.

What is surface modeling?

Surface modeling has to do with building bodies in part files that have no mass. These bodies can then become items of mass using the Thicken Surface or Knit Surface tools, and its value lies in the convenience it offers for crafting organic shapes.

What topics are included in the lessons?

The lessons include an Introduction to Surface Modeling, Extrude Surfaces, Revolve and Sweep Surfaces, Loft and Boundary Surfaces, Unique Surface Tools, the Trim and Untrim Surface Tool, Knitting Surface Bodies and Creating Solid Bodies, Surface Thicken, and Deleting Faces to Create Surface Bodies.