Exercise 1 SOLIDWORKS

Casting

Exercise 1: This cast part has a planar parting

Casting line and parting surface. Use the
steps in the SOLIDWORKS mold
design process to create the mold
inserts.

The mold design process steps are as follows:

1. Open or import a model.
2. Diagnose and fix translation errors (if necessary).
3. Analyze the model.
4. Modify the model (if necessary).
5. Scale the plastic part.
6. Establish the parting lines.
7. Create shut-off surfaces for holes (if necessary).
8. Create the parting surfaces.
9. Separate the tooling into core and cavity solid bodies.
10. Design additional tooling (if necessary).
11. Create individual parts and an assembly from the solid bodies
if required.
12. Complete the mold.
This exercise reinforces the following skills:
 Core and Cavity Mold Design
 Using the Draft Analysis Tool
 Scaling the Model
 Establish the Parting Lines
 Creating the Parting Surface
 Tooling Split
Units: millimeters

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 1
Casting

Procedure
1 Open a part file.
Open Casting .

2 Analyze the model.

Click Draft Analysis .
For Direction of Pull, select the
bottom face.
Click Reverse Direction , if
necessary.
Set the Draft Angle to 1°.
There are no faces that require
additional draft. Click Cancel .
3 Scale the part.
Click Scale .
Select Centroid and Uniform scaling.
Set the Scale Factor to 1.03 (3% larger).
Click OK .
4 Establish the parting line.
Click Parting Lines .
Use the bottom face and a 1°
draft angle to generate the
parting line as shown.
Click Reverse Direction ,
if necessary.
Click OK .

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Exercise 1 SOLIDWORKS
Casting

5 Create the parting surface.

Click Parting Surfaces .
Select Perpendicular to pull.
Set the Distance to 50mm.

Click OK .
6 Sketch .
Select the parting surface as the sketch plane and create the outline of
the tooling.

Exit Sketch .
7 Tooling split.
Click Tooling Split .
Set the Depth in Direction 1 to
65mm.
Set the Depth in Direction 2 to
15mm.

Click OK .

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 1
Casting

8 Results.
There are now 2 new solid bodies in the model resulting from the
tooling split.
9 Hide surfaces and parting line.
Hide the surface bodies by selecting the Surface Bodies folder and
clicking Hide .
Hide the Parting Line1 feature.
10 Rename bodies.
Rename the resulting bodies in the Solid Bodies folder to
Engineered Part, Casting Core, and Casting Cavity.

Casting Core Casting Cavity

11 Exploded View.
Modify body appearances and create
an Exploded View to view all
the solid bodies in the part.
Tip The command search can be a useful
way to find commands not available
on the CommandManager.

Note Exploded views are stored with the active configuration in the
ConfigurationManager. Access an existing exploded view there to
explode and collapse.
12 Save and close the file.

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Exercise 2 SOLIDWORKS
Ribbed Part

Exercise 2: Use the SOLIDWORKS

Ribbed Part mold design process to create
a basic mold for an injection
molded part.
This exercise reinforces the
following skills:
 Core and Cavity Mold
Design
 Using the Draft Analysis
Tool
 Scaling the Model
 Establish the Parting Lines
 Shut-Off Surfaces
 Creating the Parting Surface
 Tooling Split
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Open a part file.
Open Ribbed Part.
2 Analyze the model.
Click Draft Analysis .
For Direction of Pull, select the
top face. Click Reverse
Direction , if necessary.
Set the Draft Angle to 2°.
There are no faces that require additional draft. Click Cancel .
3 Scale.
Click Scale and increase the size of the body by 1.05.
4 Parting line.
Click Parting Lines .
Use the top face to generate the parting line as shown.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 2
Ribbed Part

5 Shut-offs.
Use the Shut-off
Surfaces command
to automatically generate
the shut-offs as shown.
All are Contact type.

6 Parting surface.
Create the Parting
Surface as Perpendicular
to pull.
Set the Distance to 80mm.

7 Sketch .
Select the parting surface as the sketch plane and create the outline of
the tooling.

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Exercise 2 SOLIDWORKS
Ribbed Part

8 Create tooling.
Click Tooling Split .
Set the Depth to 25mm in both directions.

9 Rename bodies.
Rename the resulting bodies in
the Solid Bodies folder to
Engineered Part, Core and
Cavity.

10 Exploded View.
Create an exploded view to view all bodies in the part.
11 Save and close the file.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 3
Dustpan

Exercise 3: Use the SOLIDWORKS mold design

Dustpan process to create the mold inserts for
a Dustpan. This imported part will
require some repairs to the geometry
and will include interlock surfaces.
Once the bodies of the tooling are
complete, save them to individual
part files and create an assembly.
This exercise reinforces the
following skills:
 Core and Cavity Mold Design
 Using the Draft Analysis Tool
 Scaling the Model
 Establish the Parting Lines
 Shut-Off Surfaces
 Creating the Parting Surface
 Tooling Split
 Creating Part and Assembly Files
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Import a Parasolid file.
Open Dustpan_Source.X_T.
2 Analyze imported geometry.
The FeatureManager design tree
shows this model has imported as a
surface body.
For the dialog regarding Import
Diagnostics, click Yes.
Note If the dialog has been dismissed, Import Diagnostics can be accessed
from the Evaluate CommandManager tab or by right-clicking an
imported feature.

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Dustpan

3 Examine the results.

Faulty faces and gaps are preventing
the model from knitting into a water
tight solid body.
Right-click the first face in the
Faulty faces list.
The shortcut menu allows several
options for working with faulty
faces.
Click Zoom To Selection on the
shortcut menu.

4 Click What’s Wrong.

Right-click the first face again in the Faulty faces list and click What’s
Wrong. The message indicates that this face has a General Geometry
Problem.
You can also hover the cursor over faces in the list to see tooltips
describing the problems.
5 Inspect the gap.
Right-click Gap<1> in the Gaps between faces list and click Zoom
To Selection.
Inspect the highlighted edges on the model. Zoom in closer if
necessary. Notice the gaps where these edges come together.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 3
Dustpan

6 Repair the model.

Click Attempt to Heal All.
Inspect the edges. The edges between the faces
are more precise and the gap has been closed.
Notice also the model is now a water tight solid
body.
Click OK .

Tip Use the Attempt to Heal All button to automatically fix the problems
on an imported model. If the results are not satisfactory, use the
commands on the shortcut menus for the Faulty faces list, or the
Gaps between faces list to fix the problems individually.

7 Save .
Save the Dustpan_Source.sldprt to the Lesson02\Exercises
folder.
8 Check the part for proper draft.
Click Draft Analysis .
Select the top planar face of the dust pan for the
Direction of Pull.

Click Reverse Direction so the core side of

the mold is represented in red.
Set the Draft Angle to 1°.
Select Face Classification and Find Steep Faces.

The direction of pull is normal to the top face of the dust pan.

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Dustpan

9 Analyze the part.

Examine the model to view the faces which require draft and are
classified as steep.
We have determined that these small faces are acceptable and will not
interfere with the manufacturing of the part.
Click Cancel
10 Scale the plastic part.
Click Scale .
Select Centroid and Uniform scaling.
Set the Scale Factor to 1.05 (5% larger).
Click OK .

11 Establish the parting line.

Click Parting Lines .
For Direction of Pull select the top face and
Reverse Direction .
Set the Draft Angle to 1°.
Select Use for Core/Cavity Split.
Clear Split Faces.
Click Draft Analysis.
All of the edges that are shared by green and red
faces are automatically selected and added to the
Parting Lines list.

Click OK .

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 3
Dustpan

12 Create the shut-off surfaces.

Click Shut-off Surfaces .
Set the Patch Type to All Tangent .
If necessary, toggle the tangency arrow to
align with the outer faces as shown.
A message in the PropertyManager
indicates:
The mold is separable into core and
cavity.

Click OK .

13 Results.
The surface bodies for the cavity and core are created and organized in
the Surface Bodies folder. They are assigned red and green colors and
are overlaying the faces of the model.

Parting Surface To complete the necessary surfaces for the tooling, the parting surface
Smoothing must still be defined. Since this model has a non-planar parting line, the
parting surface will also be non-planar and will require smoothing. We
will use this example to demonstrate the difference between the Sharp
and Smoothing options within the Parting Surfaces command.

14 Create the parting surface.

Click Parting Surfaces .
For Mold Parameters select Perpendicular to pull.
Set the Distance to 11mm.
Set the Smoothing option to Sharp .
Click OK .

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Dustpan

15 Examine the sharp corners.

Zoom to view the sharp corners on the parting
surfaces.
These areas may cause problems for
machining the mold tooling.
16 Edit the feature.
Select Parting Surface1 and click
Edit Feature .

17 Use the smoothing option.

Under the Smoothing options, click
Smooth .
Set the Distance to 5.5mm.
Click OK .

18 Examine the model.

Now examine the same area.
The sharp corners have been rounded.
This option provides better machining
conditions, and makes the parting surfaces
last longer when the mold is in production.
Click OK .

19 Create an offset plane.

To prepare for the tooling split with interlock surfaces, a plane is
needed where the tooling blocks will be split.
Select the planar top face of the dustpan and create an offset plane
25mm above it.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 3
Dustpan

20 Sketch .
Select Plane1 as the sketch
plane and create the outline of the
tooling as shown.
Exit Sketch .

21 Split the tooling.

Click Tooling Split .
Set the Depth in Direction 1 to 125mm.
Set the Depth in Direction 2 to 75mm.
Select Interlock surface.
Set the Draft Angle to 3°.
Click OK .

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Dustpan

22 Results.
Isolate the solid and surface bodies one at a time to examine the
tooling.

Solid Bodies Surface Bodies

Molded Part Parting Surface

Cavity Surface

Cavity Solid

Core Surface

Core Solid

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 3
Dustpan

Tooling Split The Tooling Split command

Results did a lot of work. It created a
block based on the sketch and
then split the block using
different combinations of the
surfaces from the three
Surface Bodies folders.
To create the surface used for
the cavity, the outer surface of
the dustpan (blue) was knit to
the shut-off surface and the
parting surface (green). This
knit surface was then knit to the
interlock surface (yellow) and the parting surface (red) which were
automated based on our sketch plane.
To create the core, all the same surfaces were used except that the
inside face of the dustpan was used instead of the outside.
It is important to understand how the surfaces in each of these folders is
used. In this case, we did everything automatically because this was a
relatively simple mold. In later case studies we will examine more
difficult models where some of these surfaces must be created
manually and added to the appropriate folders.
Creating Part and The last step in completing the mold inserts for the Dustpan will be to
Assembly Files use the bodies for the creation of new parts and an assembly. Before
using the Save Bodies command, we will rename the bodies to
organize them in the part and automate the file names for the new
documents.
Additionally, we will add a Coordinate System feature that can be
used to orient the new parts correctly. For the new parts that are
created, we want the coordinate system to be aligned with the tooling
blocks, instead of orientated with the Dustpan design as the bodies
currently are.

Current Right View in Desired Right View for new

Dustpan_Source parts

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Dustpan

23 Rename the solid bodies.

Rename the bodies in the Solid Bodies folder as follows:
 Dustpan-part
 Dustpan-core
 Dustpan-cavity
24 Add a Coordinate System.
Click Coordinate System .
Tip The Coordinate System feature can be found on the
CommandManager Features tab under Reference Geometry.
For the Origin , select the lower right
corner of the tooling block.
For the X axis, select the front
horizontal edge of the block as shown.
For the Y axis, select the front vertical
edge as shown.
Click OK .

25 Save Bodies.
Right-click the Solid Bodies folder and click
Save Bodies.
Select the first body to be saved in the
PropertyManager.
Activate the Origin Location selection box
and select the Coordinate System1 feature
from the flyout FeatureManager tree.
Repeat for the 2 additional bodies.
Note The Origin Location must be selected for
each body being saved. Click each body in
the table to verify the new coordinate system
has been chosen for each.
Click OK .
Note We will create the assembly separately rather than from the Save
Bodies command so the new coordinate system for the parts will be
used.
26 Optional: Open the 3 new part documents.
Open the new parts that were create and to examine the results.

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SOLIDWORKS Exercise 3
Dustpan

27 Open a new assembly.

Click New and choose the Assembly_MM template.
28 Begin Assembly.
Select the Dustpan-part and use the Green Check to drop it on
the assembly Origin.
29 Insert components.
Click Insert Components .
Select the Dustpan-cavity and use the Green Check to drop it on
the assembly Origin.
Repeat for the Dustpan-core.
30 Save the assembly.
Save the assembly as Dustpan Mold.
31 Evaluate assembly.
The new assembly is created and opened in a
separate document window.
Each of the three parts in the assembly have
external references back to the solid bodies
in the Dustpan_Source part.
32 Create an exploded view.
Create an exploded view and modify the part
appearances as desired.

33 Save and close all files.

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Exercise 3 SOLIDWORKS
Dustpan

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