DISQUS

SolidSmack: SolidWorks On Edge Relations: Avoid Them Like Teething Zombie Babies

  • Devon T. Sowell · 1 year ago
    RE:"Use Parallel and Perpendicular Relations
    When creating Library Features and want them to work, use parallel,perpendicular and symmetric relations instead of any others. This will help them work in any orientation."

    That's a great Tip, I always forget this when I make a Library Feature.

    Devon
  • Rod_Uding · 1 year ago
    Devon, could you post an example of a library feature you have done showing how you have used the relations to make the feature more functional.
  • Josh M · 1 year ago
    Hey Rod, here's an example of a mortisse feature I created that uses a minimal number of relations and external relations to place it in a part. two picks and you've got a fairly complicated feature added!
  • Bradley Grzesiak · 1 year ago
    It'd be awfully nice to have a "scale" relation. It'd let me define one line as one half (or any other ratio) of the length as the other. Yes, you can kind of accomplish this with "Equations," but it's just not a very elegant solution.
  • Gerald · 1 year ago
    You can acheive a scale relation using construction lines and entities.
  • Rod_Uding · 1 year ago
    Long post Josh, but very informative. I have one question though, how much longer does the "on edge" relation take during a rebuild? Seems to me that the "collinear" relation would be very similar in taking longer to rebuild also.
  • Josh M · 1 year ago
    Rod, in the tests I did, it took 6%+ to rebuild a feature using 'on edge' relations as opposed to one that used other 'manual' relations. Seems odd huh.
  • Rod_Uding · 1 year ago
    It seems odd to me. If a relation is being generated automatically, you would think that the software would be optimized to use it better. In this case, it takes longer. I need to check to see if the "Close to Model" command is using the "on edge" relation. I have started using it to knock of time closing up sketches.
  • dbo · 1 year ago
    an easy trick around convert entity problems, use composite curve for geometry that you need to convert, then convert the curve into converted entities, easily fixable - rebuilds 90% better than plain convert entities.
  • SDA · 2 weeks ago
    Can you explain more?
  • Richie · 9 months ago
    Now I think I am beginning to understand why certain things get screwed up. This is only the surface of what I still do not yet fully comprehend. Thanks.
  • Josh M · 8 months ago
    Hey Richie! It's not that On Edge relations are all that bad. They can be useful in certain situations. It's just good to know about how they actually work and also how they can cause conflicts. does that make sense?