Drawing the Outer Loop

It is evident from Figure 2­65 that the sketch consists of an outer loop and an
inner circle. Therefore, this sketch will be drawn using
the Line and Circle tools. You will start drawing from the lower left corner of
the sketch. As the length of the lower horizontal line is 150 mm, you need to
modify the drawing display area such that the drawing area in the first
quadrant is increased. This can be done by using the Pan tool.

1. Press the CTRL key and the middle mouse button, and then drag the cursor
toward the bottom left corner of the screen.

You will notice that the origin is also moved toward the bottom left corner of
the screen, thus increasing the drawing area in the first quadrant.

2. After dragging the origin close to the lower left corner, release the CTRL key
and middle mouse button.

3. Choose the Line button from the Sketch CommandManager.

4. Move the line cursor to a location whose coordinates are 40 mm, 0 mm, and 0
mm. Click to specify the start point of the line.

5. Move the cursor horizontally toward the right and click when the length of the
line above the line cursor is displayed as 150.

6. Next, move the line cursor vertically upward and click when the length of the
line on the line cursor is displayed as 40.

The next entity to be drawn is a tangent arc. The tangent arc will be drawn by
invoking the arc mode using the Line tool.

7. Move the line cursor away from the endpoint of the last line and then move it
back to the endpoint; the arc mode is invoked and the line cursor is replaced
by the arc cursor.

8. Move the arc cursor vertically upward to a small distance and then move it to
the left when the dotted line is displayed.
 You will notice that a tangent arc is being drawn. The angle of the tangent arc
and its radius are displayed above the arc cursor.

9. Click when the angle value above the arc cursor is displayed as 180 and the
radius is displayed as 30 to complete the arc.

The required tangent arc is drawn. As mentioned earlier, the line mode is
automatically invoked after you have drawn the arc by using the Line tool.

10. Move the line cursor vertically downward and click when the length of the
line on the line cursor is displayed as 20.

11. Move the line cursor horizontally toward the left and click when the length
of the line on the line cursor is displayed as 30.

12. Move the line cursor vertically downward and click when the length of the
line on the line cursor is displayed as 5.

13. Move the line cursor horizontally toward the left and click when the length
of the line on the line cursor is displayed as 25.

14. Move the line cursor vertically upward and click when the length of the line
on the line cursor is displayed as 5.

15. Move the line cursor horizontally toward the left and click when the length
of the line on the line cursor is displayed as 35.

16. Move the line cursor to the start point of the first line. Click when an orange
circle is displayed.

The length of the line at this point is 20 mm.

17. Right­click and then choose Select from the shortcut menu to exit the Line
tool.

18. Choose the Zoom to Fit button from the View (Heads­Up) toolbar to fit the
 sketch into the screen. This completes the outer loop of the sketch. The sketch
after drawing the outer loop appears, as shown in Figure 2­66.

Tip If the arc mode is invoked by mistake while drawing continuous lines, press
the A key; the line mode will be invoked again.
Drawing the Circle
The circle in the sketch will be drawn using the Circle tool. The centerpoint of
the circle will be the centerpoint of the arc, which is represented by a plus
sign. The plus sign is automatically drawn when you draw an arc. You can
select this centerpoint to draw the circle.

1. Choose the Circle button from the Circle flyout in the Sketch
CommandManager; the Circle PropertyManager is invoked.

2. Move the circle cursor close to the centerpoint of the arc and click when an
orange circle is displayed.

3. Move the cursor toward the left and click when the radius of the circle above
the circle cursor shows 15; a circle of 15 mm radius is drawn. This completes
the sketch for Tutorial 3.

4. Right­click and then choose the Select option from the shortcut menu to exit
the Circle tool.

The final sketch for Tutorial 3 is shown in Figure 2­66.

Figure 2­66 Final sketch for Tutorial 3

Tip You will notice that the bottom horizontal line in the sketch is black and the
remaining lines are blue. In the next chapter, you will learn why some entities in
a sketch have different colors.
Saving the Sketch
1. Choose the Save button from the Menu Bar to invoke the Save As dialog box.

2. Enter c02_tut03 as the name of the document in the File name edit box.
Choose Save and save the file at the location \Documents\SOLIDWORKS\c02.

3. Close the document by choosing File > Close from the SOLIDWORKS
menus.

Tutorial 4
In this tutorial, you will draw the sketch of the model shown in Figure 2­67. The
sketch of the model is shown in Figure 2­68. Do not dimension the sketch as the
solid model and the dimensions are given for your reference only. (Expected
time: 30 min)

Figure 2­67 Solid model for Tutorial 4

 Figure 2­68 Sketch of the model for Tutorial 4

The following steps are required to complete this tutorial:

a. Start SOLIDWORKS and then start a new part document.
b. Invoke the sketching environment.
c. Draw the outer loop of the sketch, refer to Figures 2­69 and 2­70.
d. Draw circles and sketch of inner cavity, refer to Figures 2­71 through 2­73
e. Save the sketch and then close the document.
Starting a New File
1. Choose the New button from the Menu Bar to invoke the New
SOLIDWORKS Document dialog box; the Part button is chosen by default
in the New SOLIDWORKS Document dialog box.

2. Choose the OK button from the New SOLIDWORKS Document dialog box;
a new SOLIDWORKS part document is started. To draw the sketch of the
model, you need to invoke the sketching environment.

3. Choose the Sketch button from the Sketch CommandManager; the Edit
Sketch PropertyManager is displayed.

4. Select Front Plane from the drawing area; the sketching environment is
invoked. Also, the confirmation corner with the Exit Sketch and Delete
Sketch options at the upper right corner of the drawing area is displayed.

Modifying the Unit and Grid Settings You need to modify the initial
settings to change the linear and angular units before drawing the
sketch.

1. Choose the Options button from the Menu Bar to invoke the System Options
­ General dialog box.

2. Choose the Document Properties tab; the name of the dialog box is changed
to Document Properties ­ Drafting Standard.
Note
If you have selected Millimeters as the unit of measurement while installing
SOLIDWORKS, skip steps 3 and 4 in the section.

3. Choose the Units option from the area on the left to display the options related
to the linear and angular units.

4. Select the MMGS (millimeter, gram, second) radio button from the Unit
system area, if it is not selected by default. Also, select the degrees option
from the Angle area, if it is not selected by default.

5. Select Grid/Snap from the area on the left and select the Display Grid check
box, if it is cleared.

6. Set the value in the Major grid spacing spinner to 100 and the value in the
Minor­lines per major spinner to 20. Next, choose the Go To System Snaps
button; the system options related to relations and snaps are displayed.

7. Select the Grid check box from the Sketch snaps area, if it is cleared. Make
sure you clear the Snap only when grid is displayed check box, if it is
selected. Choose OK to exit the dialog box.

Tip If the grid is displayed on the screen when you invoke the sketching
environment for the first time, you can set the option to turn off the grid display.
To do so, right­click in the drawing area to display the shortcut menu. The
Display Grid option has a check mark on its left, indicating that this option is
chosen. Choose this option again to turn the grid off.

Drawing the Outer Loop of the Sketch The sketch of the model
consists of an outer loop that has two circles and a cavity inside it.
You will first draw the outer loop and then the inner entities. The
sketch will be drawn by using the Line and Circle tools.

The outer loop will be drawn using continuous lines. You will start drawing the
sketch from the lower left corner of the sketch.
1. Choose the Line button from the Sketch CommandManager to invoke the
Line tool; the arrow cursor is replaced by the line cursor.

2. Move the cursor in the first quadrant close to the origin; the coordinates of the
point are displayed close to the lower left corner of the screen.

3. Click at the point whose coordinates are 10 mm, 10 mm, and 0 mm, and then
move the cursor horizontally toward the right.

4. Click when the length of the line above the line cursor is displayed as 10; a
horizontal line is created. Refer to Line 1 in Figure 2­69.

5. Move the line cursor vertically upward. The symbol of the Vertical relation is
displayed below the line cursor and the length of the line is displayed above
the line cursor.

6. Click when the length of t