SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 384 - Belt & Mechanism Tools Revisited

Belt & Mechanism Tools Revisited:

This podcast covers some tools in SolidWorks to conceptualize mechanisms and other mechanical interfaces. Topics covered:

- Creating belts in sketches

- Inserting belts into assemblies

- Interface options

- Traction relation

- Make path options

- Applications

It has been a couple of busy weeks and I have not been able to sit down and dig into a few shows that I have been planning, but the show must go on.  In lieu of that, I have reached back into the archives, about 5 years ago, and pulled up one of my favorite tool sets in core SolidWorks.

For those of you who have to do R&D or any sort of "idea storming", the layout tools are great to help verify before any real heavy modeling has to take place.  I typically have used these tools for verifying things like range of motion and sketching seems to be the best way to tweak the design in the early stages.

Once in 3D many of these relationships can be utilized for easy of not only fit, form and function testing but also for animations and other visual content creation.  If it has been a while since you have tried them out, lookup "Layout Sketches" or "Belts and Pulleys" in the SolidWorks help. ~Lou

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