SolidWorks Ladder Tutorial

This tutorial will teach you how to create a part and simulate loading it in a
simplified manner. Here we will create a fixed ladder and apply loads to the
steps to simulate someone standing on the ladder, shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1, Ladder model to be created and a simulated load case.

Sketching
We will begin by learning/recapping some sketching skills:

1. Open SolidWorks. To create a new part go to File > New and then select
the Part button to create a new part.
2. First we are going to create a rail for the ladder. In the FeatureManager
Design Tree, click on the Right Plane. In the Sketch Toolbar, select
the Sketch button. This should open a sketch on the right plane and the
program should automatically adjust to view normal to the plane.
3. Use the Line tool from the Sketch Toolbar to draw a line from the
Origin vertically of an arbitrary length. To do this once the tool is
selected, click on the origin, this should start the line, your second click
will locate the end point. To draw this vertically allow the program to
“snap” this to the vertical, you should see a symbol as in Figure 2 if you
are doing this correctly. If you create a line wrongly, click on it and press
delete on your keyboard.

Figure 2, Drawing a line, snapping to the vertical.

1
4. Use the Smart Dimension tool from the Sketch Toolbar and select the
line you just created. Click to place the dimension away from the line. A
box will pop-up that looks as in Figure 3, click in the space where the
dimension is displayed and write 2000. Click the green tick button to
confirm this and click the green tick in the side bar to indicate you are
finished using this tool.

Figure 3, Smart Dimension pop-up.

5. Continue to draw lines as you have done previously until it looks as in

Figure 4.

Figure 4, Sketching the rest of the geometry.

6. Now we are going to create relations in the drawing, to aid in fully

specifying it. To do this, hold down the Ctrl button on your keyboard and
select the two diagonal lines. In the PropertyManager side bar, under
Add Relations, click the Parallel option. This may have already been
done when you created the lines and this can be seen in the Existing
Relations option. Once you have done this click the green tick to confirm
this.

2
 7. Now to fully define the model you must add more relations and
dimensions. Fully defining a sketch means that no dimension is
unspecified and this can be achieved by using the sketch relations also.
Shown in Figure 5 is a fully constrained sketch of what you have been
drawing with all relations shown, to see this view click View>Sketch
Relations, try to fully define your model by using the steps shown
previously. Once done your model should have all black lines and none
blue and in the FeatureManager Design Tree, you will have Sketch1
rather than (-)Sketch1 as previously.

Figure 5, Sketch relations and rest of the dimensions to fully define the sketch.

Creating a Feature
Now that you have created your first sketch, you can create a solid feature from
it.

1. Whilst still in your sketch, go into the Features Toolbar and select
Extrude Boss/Base. Select everything as specified in Figure 6. Make
sure it is offset in the right direction as shown in the other Figure as well
as the direction of the Blind Direction1 Extrude indicated by the arrow,
if any of these are the wrong way around, click the Reverse Direction
button. Click the green tick icon once done to confirm this extrude
feature.

3
 Figure 6, Extrude feature from a sketch.

Creating a Linear Pattern Feature

Now that we have created the rail of the ladder, we can create the steps on it
too by initially sketching it, then extruding it and finally creating a linear pattern
to create the same step multiple times up the rail.

1. Click on the inside face of the rail, this is to choose the plane we will be
sketching on. Open a sketch on this face. Draw and dimension and create
relations as shown in to create a fully defined sketch.

Figure 7, Step sketch on inside face of ladder.

2. Now use the Extrude Boss/Base feature as previously, but select and
complete entries as shown in Figure 8. To select the Right Plane, click the
FeatureManager Design Tree and select it from there. Ensure the arrow is
pointing towards this plane. Ensure to check the Merge Result check box.
Click the green tick to confirm.

4
 Figure 8, Extrude step.

3. To create a linear pattern, click the Linear Pattern feature in the

Features Toolbar. To create evenly spaced steps only select and
complete entries as shown in the Figure. Click the green tick to confirm.

Figure 9, Linear pattern of the step.

5
Creating Mirrored Features
Rather than having to redraw and create more features, we can mirror ones we
have done previously and can decrease the amount of work you need to do. We
will mirror all that we have currently done.

1. Click on the Mirror tool in the Features Toolbar. We want to mirror

bodies about the Right Plane, so select the options as shown in Figure
10.

Figure 10, Mirroring bodies.

The ladder is now complete! The way we have created this part means that you
can edit certain features and it will update the design rather than having to
redraw it from scratch. This is useful for step profile, ladder angle, step spacing
and other changes.

6
Loading Simulation using SimulationXpress Analysis
Wizard
We can utilise the SolidWorks software to simulate loading on the ladder. The
version you have access to only has the simplified features of the full version but
is useful to understand the stresses the ladder will go under.
1. Click on the SimulationXpress Analysis Wizard in the Evaluate
Toolbar. This opens the task pane for the wizard on the right of the
screen. Click Next to progress.
2. The first page that appears is the Fixtures page. This allows us to
constrain the model. Here we will assume the base faces of the ladder are
fixed to the ground. Select Add a Fixture, and then select the faces as
shown in Figure 11. Click the green tick when done.

Figure 11, Applying fixtures to the model.

3. This will bring you to the Loads page. Select the step shown in the Figure
and apply 800N to it, roughly the weight of a person. Select the options as
in the Figure. Click the green tick when done.

Figure 12, Applying a load to one of the steps.

7
 4. Click Next until you reach the materials page. Click Choose Material, a
window with a materials selection should pop-up, in Aluminium Alloys
select the 1060 Alloy. Click Apply and Close.
5. Click Next and the Run Simulation page should appear, we will use the
default settings in this simulation, so simply press Run Simulation and
let it run until it stops producing automated pop-ups. It will create an
animated and exaggerated deflection model. You can stop it or just
proceed by pressing Yes, Continue.

Here we will go through what is called post-processing of results, which allows

you to see the stresses and displacement of the models.

1. To see the stresses just click on Show Von Mises stresses, for
displacements click the relevant option.
2. A nice feature of this simulation package is seeing the factor of safety with
respect to the yield stress in different areas of the ladder. Type in a factor
of safety in the appropriate box in the task pane. Click Show where the
factor of safety (FOS) is below and in red will be the areas below
which this specified FOS is below in terms of the Von Mises stresses.

Figure 13 shows the plots you should be able to obtain.

Figure 13, Simulation plots from SimulationXpress.

This is the end of the tutorial.