SolidWorks® Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible

Chapter 15. Modeling a Ladle

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Getting started with a complex model

• Modeling from the available data

• Tidying up the loose ends

Nothing quite matches seeing the tools in actual operation. Each of the chapters of Part 4 walks you through building a model. This is not the highly structured step–by–step instructions of previous tutorials, but rather a conceptual walkthrough. You should have enough knowledge of each of the specific features to use this chapter, along with the provided part, as a guide to rebuilding a similar or identical model.

The previous parts of this book are useful from a reference point of view, but the chapters of Part 4 give you the feel of looking over my shoulder while I build the part, and talk my way through each example. In the real world, things are rarely perfect the first time, and so these chapters reflect that fact. You may need to change your initial modeling approach: Some approaches will turn out to be dead ends, and sometimes you may just want to compare another way of doing things.

Everything that you do in SolidWorks you can probably achieve in multiple ways. This is an important concept. Moreover, it is important to keep a toolbox full of techniques for doing all sorts of things in different ways. The truth is that not all functions work perfectly the way you imagine that they should all of the time. It might turn out to be the fault of the software or the user. Don't be too quick to pass judgment on the software, because as soon as you ...