Jonathan Morgan

190 WPI & Mass Academy
60 Ford and Kingman High
1626 Falcon Robotics

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Jonathan is currently a sophomore at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is pursuing a Degree in Robotics Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. He has been involved with FIRST since 2003. He is the Founder of Team 1626 Falcon Robotics and now mentors teams 190, 1626 and 2557.

Solidworks 2007 Basic CAD Class

by Jonathan Morgan

This curriculum is based around a 2 month (8 week) class schedule with class meetings once a week for two hours. We will cover all of the basic features of Solidworks that will be required for manufacturing simple parts, assemblies and drawings. Each class will be based around a goal(part, sketch, assembly, drawing) that will be created by the end of the class.

TAG(S): Mechanical, CAD

Week 1: Introduction

This class is focused on getting the students really interested in Solidworks. The included zip Solidworks_Pictures includes a few interesting snapshots that show the capabilities of Solidworks. There a few topics that need to be talked about before the students can truly understand Solidworks and its uses.

Topics that need discussion:

•  Use in Design Process
  • Checking for interferences
  • Seeing if they meet design criteria
  • Designing for manufacturability
• Use in Analysis Process
  
  • Mass properties
  • Center of gravity calculations
  • CosMotion
• Use in Sales Process
  
  • Photoworks
  • Proof of concept without manufacturing costs

It is very important the above topics be discussed. The pictures provided will be able to help with the explanations, but a personal real world applicable story would be the best example.

Week 2: Sketches

During this week’s lecture the students will be introduced to creating sketches in Solidworks. They will be shown the basics of sketching with geometric shapes to begin with. Then they will be shown how to use some of the more interesting features in sketching; such as dimensions, linear patterns, and mirrors.

Show the student sketch of Rev_Part, then show them how to get there. Then allow them to get there on their own.

Lesson Plan:

• Show how to start sketch
• Run through what all of the basic geometric sketch tools do
• Show how to use cut (all of the different forms)
• Show how to use Dimensions
• Show how to use linear patterns
• Show how to use mirrors
• Discuss what constrains are
  
  • Show them some
  • Have them use some
• Show them Printout of ScreenShot009
• Have them make the sketch pictured in ScreenShot009
• Tell them that they have to use both mirror and then linear patterns
• Have them save it as Rev_Part
• Have them sketch a Circle with Diameter 2in about the origin and save it as Stepper

Week 3: Basic Parts
 

During this week’s lecture the students will be introduced to creating parts in Solidworks They will implement the sketches they created in Week 2 to create parts. They will initially be shown the basics of creating parts; including extrusions, cutting and revolving. After creating a few basic shapes they will move onto more complicated parts creation tools; such as linear patters, circular patterns, dynamic editing, and the hole wizard.

There will be two main sections of this class: using the revolve function and using other part features. The part named Rev_Part will be used for the revolve function and the file named Stepper will be used for the other features.

Show the student the final part of Rev_Part and Stepper, then show them how to get there. Then allow them to get there on their own.

Lesson Plan:

• Initially the class will go over standard extrude, the final version of Stepper is provided.
• Extrude the Circle in Stepper
• Draw Square on the face of the circle
• Extrude square
• Draw Circle on the face of square
• Extrude Circle
• Draw Circle on face of Circle, on centerline
• Extrude Cut up to face of Square
• Use Circular Pattern
• Draw sketch on side of extruded square
• Cut extrude through all
• Use Linear Pattern
• Give example of Dynamic editing
  • Double click on one extrusion and change the dimension
  • Click rebuild

The revolve section is very uneventful for this lesson, but it is critical that the students understand how revolve works. There will be two revolve actions performed on the part Rev_Part.

• The first revolve will be made about the side of the sketch
• Edit the sketch Feature
• Revolve the sketch about the construction line that was constructed

Week 4: Basic Drawings

During this week’s lecture the students will be introduced to creating drawings in Solidworks They will implement the parts they created in Week 3 to crate drawings. They will initially be shown the basics of creating drawings; including placing single view and multiple view parts, proper dimensioning, and editing sheet format.

Show the student the final drawing of Stepper, then show them how to get there. Then allow them to get there on their own.

Lesson Plan:

• Show how to bring in a single view to a Drawing
• Show both with and without hidden lines
• Dimension Drawing
• Show how to bring in multiple views to a Drawing
• Show how to insert sectional views
• Show how to edit sheet format

Week 5: Project Part 1 (creating Parts)

Give the students Drawings: Piston, Link, and Crank

Lesson Plan:

•  They should be using the knowledge they gained in weeks 2-4.
• There is no right or wrong way to construct the parts, but express the importance of having fully defined parts

Week 6: Project Part 2 (singe assembly)

Give the students Drawings: Piston_Assembly. Then show them the assembly on the big screen and show them the range of motion it allows.

Lesson Plan:

• Explain to them that they have to make It so none of the parts are completely fixed
• Give them some hints
  
  • Mate planes
  • Play around with Axis

Week 7: Project Part 3 (multiple assemblies)

Give the Students Drawings: 4_Cylinder. Then Show them the Assembly on the big screen and show them the range of motion it allows. Proceed with closing Solidworks. Next open up file INLINE_4_MOVIE and show them how they can make any Assembly into a video that can display for proof of concept or a presentation to a company.

Lesson Plan:

• This lesson is intended to focus on the use of feature driven pattern and the use of photoworks.
• Instruct them to create the file INLINE_4 and then insert it into an Assembly
• Tell them that they have to use the file Piston_Assembly they created in the last weeks class.
• Let them put in the effort to mate all of the parts one sub assembly at a time
• Give example of feature driven patterns use Base_Pattern as the fixed part in assembly and use the part Screw as the driven part
• Instruct them to recreate what they just made using feature driven pattern
• Give a brief explanation of photoworks with the aid of the Piston_Assembly, and explain the difference between a simulation and a strict photoworks animation
• Instruct the students to animate the INLINE_4 asembly

Week 8: Project Part 4 (assembly drawings)

Provide for the students all of the parts and assembly files for INLINE_4. This week they will be creating the final assembly drawings for this INLINE_4 assembly.

Lesson Plan:

• Show them the final drawings of the assembly and explain what the critical parts in this drawing are
• Let them make their own drawings
  • Have them print out their drawings
  • Go over the missing features in their drawings
     

References:

http://www.cgw.com/Media/News/wrench.jpg
http://www.algor.com/news_pub/tech_reports/1999/virtual_development/1suspension.jpg
http://www.opalkelly.com/images/misc/test3010-3d-320x215.png
http://www.fea.ru/spaw2/uploads/images/SolidWorks-2008-Unveiled.jpg
http://andrewpowellonline.com/images/gk-sr-05.jpg