Chapter 1: Understanding Assemblies
In This Chapter
Why use assemblies Creating assemblies Positioning parts into assemblies Working with external references
This chapter serves as an overview of some of the different tools and techniques that are available to SolidWorks users in assemblies. Most importantly, this chapter discusses the various purposes that you might have for creating assemblies. The second emphasis of this chapter is to help you understand various methods for using external references. More than anything, this chapter prepares you for important decisions that you will need to make relating to your modeling methods in SolidWorks found throughout this book.
If you take the SolidWorks training class from a SolidWorks reseller, all assemblies seem to take the same form and have the same function. You may then take this way of working back to your office and start applying it there. However, if you do this, you could be missing out on many other ways of using assemblies. While SolidWorks definitely seems to have a certain orthodoxy in mind for the assemblies functionality, there are actually an array of techniques that you can use to achieve a wide range of goals.
This chapter helps you identify some of the ways in which you can apply SolidWorks assemblies functionality to accommodate your goals and your workflow style. You are encouraged to experiment and evaluate some of these methods to find out what suits your needs best. You don't have to accept the established ...
