In this tutorial, you will find a step by step guide on how to draw the following geometry by using some of the main sketching tools in SolidWorks. The tools we will learn are lines, rectangles, circles, arcs, fillets and how to trim a sketch.
Time required: 40min
Difficulty: Beginner
Software: SolidWorks
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1. Open SolidWorks.
2. Click files on the main toolbar.
3. Click new 
to create a new document.
- You can also press ctrl+n.
4. Choose part 
in the new tab and click ok. Now you can see your new part document.
5. Choose top plane from the design tree and click sketch 
- To have a normal view on the selected plane, choose normal to
from the click options. - You can also press space on your keyboard to see the orientation panel. Then choose normal to.
6. On the sketch tab, click on rectangle 
. As you click on the rectangle tool your mouse pointer will look like this 
- The rectangle tool is one of the main sketching tools. This tool contains four rectangle drawing methods and one parallelogram option.
7. Using the default rectangle tool (corner rectangle), click on origin 
and start to draw by dragging the mouse to the upper right side.
8. Click again on the plane to place the rectangle.
9. Click smart dimension 
10. Set the dimensions for the length and width of your rectangle to the same values as in the example below.
- You can also use rectangle property manager to control the rectangle dimensions.
11. On the sketch tab, select the line tool 
12. Click on L1 side and draw a parallel line to the L2 side, using the vertical guide line.
13. Click smart dimension.
- You can also press the key D on your keyboard as that is the command for smart dimension.
14. Select the W1 and W3 line, dimension the distance between them according to the example.
15. On the sketch tab, click arc 
.
- Arc is a sketching tool which can be used to draw 3 different types of arcs: center point arcs, tangent arcs and 3 point arcs.
16. Select tangent arc.
17. Click on the end point of the L1 side; P1.
18. Drag the mouse to the right to draw the arc.
19. Click on P2 point to place the arc.
20. On the sketch tab, click trim entities 
- Trim entities is a sketching tool that allows you to trim or cut away different parts of your sketch entities, such as lines, curves, etc.
- It has 5 types of trim, which can help you a lot through your sketching.
21. Select trim to closest 
from the property manager.
22. Using this trim tool, select the W2 side to make it bold.
23. Click to trim it away.
24. On the sketch tab, click circle 
- Circle is a sketching tool which enables you to draw circles with two different methods: the center method and the perimeter method
25. Using the default circle tool (center method), select the arcs center point as the circle center point.
- To see the arc center point, hover around the center and you should be able to see the bold point.
- If you cannot see arc- and circle center points or lines midpoints, check whether your dynamic highlight is on. Go to tools-> options-> system options-> display/selection.
26. Drag your mouse to the left or right and click to place the circle.
27. Click smart dimension, and select the circle.
28. On the modification tab, write down your dimension according to the example and press enter.
29. For the final details of the geometry, click sketch fillet 
- The sketch fillet tool trims away the corner at the intersection of two sketch entities to create a tangent arc.
30. Using the fillet tool, click on P3 point to see the fillet preview.
31. Enter 10 as the radius in the fillet property manager. Press enter.
32. Repeat fillet steps for the P4 point.
33. Check if your model is fully defined.
- Usually the black and blue colors represent defined and undefined geometry in sketching mode.
34. Exit your sketch by clicking on 
to keep your drawings.
35. Click file.
36. Click save.
- Press ctrl+s to save your file.
Exercise 2 – Advanced sketching features
- Sketch the following on the right plane.
- Pay attention to different methods that each tool provides you.
- Pay attention because you may need to use the center point arc tool.
