Board logo

More SOLIDWORKS Help please...
Steve Hignett - 14/2/10 at 03:24 PM

Hi Again - anyone getting annoyed as me yet?

I drew the part below.

It is 290mm wide (15mm smaller than a 12" steering wheel) and would like to "shrink" the part so that it would be 240mm to suit a 10" wheel. I need to make a 12" one for the car I'm building and a 10" for someone else, so need both sizes!

I've been trying to scale the dwg and have not been succesful! Is there a simple way of doing it please???

TIA
Steve


MikeCapon - 14/2/10 at 04:12 PM

Hi Steve,

From a SolidWorks amateur here's my take. If you want to produce different models based on different ODs then the way you draw your first model is important. You need the OD to be the first sketch and then the other features need to be 'driven' from the OD. Then when you change the OD the other features will keep their relationship to the OD.

You can use mathematical equations too. There's a tutorial based on a hinge mechanism that deals with this. Again though this needs to be built in when you do your first model.

I hope I've understood what you want and that this helps.

Having said all that it would probably only take you 5 minutes to redraw for the 10" wheel model?


Miks15 - 14/2/10 at 04:23 PM

I woul have thought drawing it from scrath would have been easier.

Because i assume alot of the holes have to be the same siz (large center hole, mounting moles, cable mounts etc.) would have tobe the same size. If you try to reduce the overall size, you will probably also reduce the size of these holes meaing you will have to go back thrught the diagram to increase all these holes. So you probably wont save much time doing that.


Steve Hignett - 14/2/10 at 04:31 PM

Well, guess what I did

It takes me quite a while to draw stuff, so it wasn't just 5 mins, but it didn't take too long.

I also drew it as a half and mirrored it this time, which is something that I've not done before...


SW
SW


MikeCapon - 14/2/10 at 04:32 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Miks15
I woul have thought drawing it from scrath would have been easier.

Because i assume alot of the holes have to be the same siz (large center hole, mounting moles, cable mounts etc.) would have tobe the same size. If you try to reduce the overall size, you will probably also reduce the size of these holes meaing you will have to go back thrught the diagram to increase all these holes. So you probably wont save much time doing that.


What you need to do is 'drive' the sizes you want to change from the OD. The features you don't want to change just need to be sized independantly. Needs some thought in the inital drawing process though....