2018 - Swcad - Molde

Mold Design Using SOLIDWORKS
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SYSPRICE - REVENDA SOLIDWORKS
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SOLIDWORKS
Mold Design Using SOLIDWORKS
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Manufacturer: Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corporation, 175 Document Number: PMT1805-ENG
Wyman Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02451 USA.
Contents
Introduction
About This Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Course Design Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Using this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Laboratory Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A Note About Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Conventions Used in this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
About the Training Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Training Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Use of Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Color Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
SOLIDWORKS Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
More SOLIDWORKS Training Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Local User Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Lesson 1
Surface Concepts and Imported Geometry
Course Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Hide/Show Tree Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Accessing Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Importing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3D Model Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Wireframe Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Surface Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Solid Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
i
Contents SOLIDWORKS
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Geometry vs. Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
What is a Solid? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Euler’s Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Behind the Scenes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Case Study: Solids vs. Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Extruded Surface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Planar Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Trim Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Untrim Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Face Curves and Mesh Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Four-Sided Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Knit Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Gap Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Creating Solids from Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Thicken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Create Solid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Decomposing a Solid into Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Delete Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Additional Surface Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Edges vs. Holes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Surface Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Importing and Mold Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Modeling Kernels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Contents of a CAD File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Format Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
File Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Why Do Imports Fail? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
SOLIDWORKS Import Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3D Interconnect for Native File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3D Interconnect for Neutral File Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Case Study: Importing a STEP File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Import Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Accessing Import Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Comparing Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Addressing Translation Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Case Study: Repairing and Editing Imported Geometry . . . . . . . . . . 36
Check Entity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Display Curvature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Patching Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Filled Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Another Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
ii
SOLIDWORKS Contents
Procedure for Rebuilding Fillets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Making Copies of Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Offset Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Extend Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Editing Imported Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Delete Hole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Exercise 1: Import Diagnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Exercise 2: Using Import Surface and Replace Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
Core and Cavity Mold Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Steps in the Mold Design Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Summary of Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
SOLIDWORKS Mold Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Case Study: Camera Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Mold Analysis Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
GPU-based Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Analyzing Draft on a Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
What is Draft?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Determining the Direction of Pull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Using the Draft Analysis Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Positive and Negative Draft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Requires Draft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Draft Analysis Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Gradual Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Face Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Find Steep Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Adding Draft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Scaling the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Establish the Parting Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Parting Lines Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Manual Parting Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Shut-Off Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Shut-off Surface Patch Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Manual Shut-off Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Creating the Parting Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Parting Surfaces Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Smoothing the Parting Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Surface Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Creating the Mold Tooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Tooling Split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Seeing Inside the Mold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Interlocking the Mold Tooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Creating Interlock Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Creating Part and Assembly Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Completing the Mold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
iii
Contents SOLIDWORKS
Exercise 3: Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Exercise 4: Ribbed Part. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Exercise 5: Dustpan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Lesson 3
Side Cores and Pins
Additional Mold Tooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Additional Tooling Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Case Study: Power Saw Housing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Thickness Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Detecting Undercuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Undercut Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Trapped Molding Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Side Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Core Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Feature Freeze. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Lifters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Core Pins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Manual Selection Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Selection Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
The Message Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Case Study: Mixer Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Modifying Shut-Off Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Manual Shut-Off Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Manually Selecting Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Completing the Tooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Exercise 6: Towing Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Exercise 7: Completing the Mixer Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Exercise 8: Electrode Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Lesson 4
Advanced Parting Line Options
Case Study: Manual Parting Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Using Split Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Using Entities to Split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Case Study: Splitting a Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Creating Ruled Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Exercise 9: Peeler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Lesson 5
Creating Custom Surfaces for Mold Design
Surface Modeling for Mold Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Case Study: Drill Bezel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Manual Interlock Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Using Select Partial Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Ruled Surface Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Problem Areas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Creating the Parting Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Organizing Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
iv
SOLIDWORKS Contents
Case Study: Router Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Manual Parting Surface Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Organizing Manual Shut-off Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Copying Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Exercise 10: Power Strip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Exercise 11: Router Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Lesson 6
Advanced Surfacing for Mold Design
Surface Modeling for Mold Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
The Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Case Study: Mixer Rear Housing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Manual Parting Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Insert Mold Folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Case Study: Mixer Handle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Manual Shut-off Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
No Fill Shut-off Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Manual Side Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Exercise 12: Mixer Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Exercise 13: Fan Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Lesson 7
Alternative Methods for Mold Design
Alternate Methods for Mold Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
When to use Alternate Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Case Study: Using Combine and Split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Copying Bodies in Place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Creating a Cavity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Case Study: Cavity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Case Study: Using Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Techniques for Mold Tooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Using the Up To Surface Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Using the Split Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Exercise 14: Handle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Exercise 15: Filter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Lesson 8
Reusable Data
Reusing Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Library Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Smart Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
3D ContentCentral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Task Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
SOLIDWORKS Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Design Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Essentials of Using the Design Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Folder Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Main Directory Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
v
Contents SOLIDWORKS
File Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Case Study: 3D ContentCentral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Library Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Two Techniques for Locating. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Case Study: Create A Library Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Library Feature Characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Organizing Library Feature Part Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Replacing Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Renaming Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Sorting Dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Configurations in Library Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Case Study: Water Line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Creating Library Features from Existing Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Smart Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Create the Defining Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Make Smart Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Inserting the Smart Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Inserting Smart Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Exercise 16: Smart Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Exercise 17: Complete Mold Insert Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Developing a Plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Modeling Repairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Runners and Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Side Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Ejector Pins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Core Pins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Creating Individual Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Lesson 9
Completing the Mold Base
Case Study: Mold Base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Organizing the Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Assembly Structure Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Modifying the Lifters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Lifter Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Ejector Pins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Adding the Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Cooling the Mold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Making the Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Making Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Completing the Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
vi
Introduction
1
Introduction SOLIDWORKS
About This The goal of this course is to teach you how to use the Mold Tools in
Course SOLIDWORKS mechanical design automation software. In addition,
manual surface modeling techniques will be introduced which can
assist with solving mold making problems.
SOLIDWORKS Mold Tools are automated to a certain extent, but at
times require manual intervention to complete a mold design. Since the
Mold Tools rely heavily on surfacing, you must have a functional
knowledge of SOLIDWORKS surfacing in order to work effectively
with the Mold Tools. Mold Tools do not use all of the surfacing features
which are used in product design, so in this course you will learn a
subset of the surfacing tools as seen from the tooling design point of
view.
Prerequisites The goal of this course is to teach students how to use the mold specific
tools in the SOLIDWORKS software to assist them in designing molds.
Therefore, this course is not about how to design a mold, students are
expected to know that already, instead it is about mold design tools in
the SOLIDWORKS software.
Students attending this course are expected to have the following:
 Mechanical design experience.
 Experience designing molds.
 Completed the course Advanced Part Modeling.
 Completed the course Assembly Modeling.
 Experience with the Windows™ operating system.
Completing the prerequisites is very important as the tools and
concepts covered in the prerequisites are not explained again in this
course.
Course Design
Philosophy
Course Length The recommended minimum length of this course is 2 days.

Using this Book This training manual is intended to be used in a classroom environment
under the guidance of an experienced SOLIDWORKS instructor. It is
not intended to be a self-paced tutorial. The examples and case studies
are designed to be demonstrated “live” by the instructor.
Laboratory Laboratory exercises give you the opportunity to apply and practice the
Exercises material covered during the lecture/demonstration portion of the
course. They are designed to represent typical design and modeling
situations while being modest enough to be completed during class
time.
2
SOLIDWORKS Introduction
A Note About
Dimensions
Conventions Used This manual uses the following typographic conventions:

in this Book
Convention Meaning
Bold Sans Serif SOLIDWORKS commands and options
appear in this style. For example, Features >
Extruded Cut means click the Extruded
Cut icon on the Features tab of the
CommandManager.
Typewriter Feature names and file names appear in this
style. For example, Sketch1.
Double lines precede and follow sections of
17 Do this step the procedures. This provides separation
between the steps of the procedure and large
blocks of explanatory text. The steps
themselves are numbered in sans serif bold.
About the A complete set of the various files used throughout this course can be
Training Files downloaded from the SOLIDWORKS website,
www.solidworks.com. Click on the link for Support, then Training,
then Training Files, then SolidWorks Training Files. Select the link
for the desired file set. There may be more than one version of each file
set available.
Direct URL:
www.solidworks.com/trainingfilessolidworks
The files are supplied in signed, self-extracting executable packages.
The default extraction location for the training files will be
C:\SOLIDWORKS Training Files.
The files are organized by lesson number. The Case Study folder
within each lesson contains the files your instructor uses while
presenting the lessons. The Exercises folder contains any files that are
required for doing the laboratory exercises. Completed lesson files are
also included and the files names are followed by “_&” to differentiate
them.
3
Training A set of training templates are used throughout the course to

Templates standardize the settings for the new files that are created. These
templates are also supplied in signed, self-extracting executable
packages. They can be downloaded from the same website address as
the Training Files and use the same extraction location.
These templates are used for all SOLIDWORKS core courses.
To access the training templates in SOLIDWORKS:
1. Click Tools, Options, System Options, File Locations.
2. Choose Document Templates from the drop down menu.
3. Click Add and browse to the Training Templates folder.
4. Click OK and Yes on each of the messages.
Accessing Training Once the file location has been added, click the Advanced button and
Templates the Training Templates tab in the New SOLIDWORKS Document
dialog can be used.
Windows The screen shots in this manual were made using the SOLIDWORKS
software running a mixture of Windows® 7 and Windows 10. You may
notice slight differences in the appearance of the menus and windows.
These differences do not affect the performance of the software.
4
SOLIDWORKS Introduction
Use of Color The SOLIDWORKS user interface makes extensive use of color to
highlight selected geometry and to provide you with visual feedback.
This greatly increases the intuitiveness and ease of use of the
SOLIDWORKS software. To take maximum advantage of this, the
training manuals are printed in full color.
Also, in many cases, we have
used additional color in the
illustrations to communicate
concepts, identify features, and
otherwise convey important
information. For example, we
might show a newly created
surface in a different color,
even though by default, the
SOLIDWORKS software
would not display the results in
that way.
Color Schemes Out of the box, the SOLIDWORKS software provides several
predefined color schemes that control, among other things, the colors
used for highlighted items, selected items, sketch relation symbols, and
shaded previews of features.
We have not used the same color scheme for every case study and
exercise because some colors are more visible and clearer than others
when used with different colored parts.
In addition, we have changed the viewport background to plain white
so that the illustrations reproduce better on white paper.
As a result, because the color settings on your computer may be
different than the ones used by the authors of this book, the images you
see on your screen may not exactly match those in the book.
User Interface Throughout the development of the software, there have been some
Appearance cosmetic User Interface changes, intended to improve visibility, that do
not affect the function of the software. As a policy, dialog images in the
manuals which exhibit no functional change from the previous version
are not replaced. As such, you may see a mixture of current and “old”
UI dialogs and color schemes.
5
SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS mold tools are designed around creating the core and
Plastics cavity insert geometry. The cavity inserts are then placed into the mold
base to complete the required tooling. There are partner companies that
specialize in creating download-able pre-engineered mold bases saving
valued time in the preproduction mold design stage. Additionally,
SOLIDWORKS has released an injection molding simulation software,
SOLIDWORKS Plastics, that simulates the Fill and Pack stages of the
injection molding process. Preproduction simulating of the Fill and
Pack stages can save time and cost of lengthy and expensive mold
rework.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/simulation/
plastics.htm
More MySolidWorks.com enables you to be more productive by connecting
SOLIDWORKS you with relevant SOLIDWORKS content and services - anytime,
Training anywhere, on any device.
Resources Plus, with MySolidWorks Training you can enhance your
SOLIDWORKS skills on your own schedule, at your own pace.
Just go to My.SolidWorks.com/training.
Local User Groups Discover the benefits of the SOLIDWORKS User Group Network
(SWUGN). Attend local meetings to hear technical presentations on
SOLIDWORKS and related engineering topics, learn about additional
SOLIDWORKS products, and network with other users. Groups are
led by SOLIDWORKS users just like you. Check out SWUGN.org for
more information, including how to find a group in your area.
6
Lesson 1
Surface Concepts and
Imported Geometry
Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

 Understand the relationships between surface and solid models.
 Import solid and surface geometry from other sources.
 Have a basic understanding of the issues and factors that affect the
transfer of CAD data between systems.
 Diagnose and repair problems with imported geometry using
Import Diagnostics.
 Repair and edit imported geometry using manual, surface modeling
techniques.
7
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
Course There are many steps in the mold making process. However, the overall
Overview process can be broken down into three phases:
 Importing and if need be, repairing the model.
 Creating the core and cavity.
 Creating the completed mold.
In this first lesson, we will review surfacing
modeling and importing concepts. The
information in this lesson is also found in the
SOLIDWORKS Surface Modeling course. As
such, it is up to the instructor and students’
discretion as to how much time is dedicated to
this lesson.
We will then concentrate on using mold tools to
create the core and cavity inserts as well as introduce techniques for
creating reusable data for use in mold design. In the final lesson, we
will add the mold inserts to a mold base and complete the tooling
within an assembly.
Hide/Show Tree Certain items in the FeatureManager design
Items tree are automatically hidden if they are not
used. For this course it is helpful to have some
of the FeatureManager folders always shown.
Click Tools, Options, System Options,
FeatureManager. Under Hide/Show Tree
Items, set the following to Show:
 Solid Bodies folder
 Surface Bodies folder
Accessing To easily access the commands which are used throughout this course,
Commands consider adding the Surfaces and Mold Tools tabs to the
CommandManager. Tabs can be added by right-clicking an available
tab and selecting additional tabs from the list menu.
Some commands may not be available on a toolbar by default. Toolbars
can be customized to add commands as desired using the Customize
dialog (Tools, Customize). Alternately, commands can be located,
launched, and added to toolbars using the Command Search.
8
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Importing Data SOLIDWORKS mold tools are designed around a model of the
finished product. In mold making, models are frequently imported from
other CAD systems into SOLIDWORKS. These models do not always
translate without error, so we are going to examine the import process
to understand what may go wrong and how to fix it.
To understand the import process, it is important to know exactly what
it is that constitutes a surface or solid body. While our end result is a
solid body, solid bodies are made from surfaces that are trimmed and
knitted together. Understanding this will help to understand why there
may be problems when importing and how the surfacing tools are used
to make repairs.
3D Model Types There are three types of 3D models; wireframe, surface, and solid. In
SOLIDWORKS, solid bodies and surface bodies are very nearly the
same. This is one of the reasons it is so easy to use them together in
advanced modeling and mold making.
Wireframe Models Wireframe models are composed entirely of points in space and the
lines, arcs, and splines connecting them. Objects are represented by
only their edges.
Wireframe models are of no real use to us in the molding process, but it
is important to know that they exist as we will see options during the
import process that refer to them.
Surface Models Surface models are composed entirely of surfaces. There is no
requirement that the individual surfaces touch. Surfaces do not even
have to stop when they encounter another surface.
In a surface model, the edges of the surfaces are spanned by
mathematically defined areas.
Solid Models In reality, solid models are really surface models that meet some very
specific requirements.
Solid models are composed of topology that is complete (no missing
faces or gaps), and forms a single closed volume, i.e. it must be able to
hold water.
9
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
Definitions Solid and surface bodies are made up of two types of information:
Geometry and Topology.
 Geometry Point
Geometry describes shape. A 3D model’s Line
geometry can be described by its shape,
size, and the location of geometric Plane
elements such as points, lines, and
planes.
For instance, elements of a model’s
geometry can be flat or warped, straight
or curved. The specific, unique location
of a point is also an element of a model’s
geometry.
 Topology Vertex
Topology describes relationships. A 3D
model’s topology describes how geometric Edge
elements are bounded (forming topological
elements) and how they relate to each
other.
Face
Topological elements consist of vertices,
edges and faces. Some examples of
describing a model’s topology are:
 The inside versus the outside of a solid.

 Which edges meet at which vertices.
 Which edges form the boundaries of which face.
 Which edge is the common boundary between two adjacent faces.
Geometry vs. For a simple cube, the geometry consists of eight points in space. The
Topology points are connected by 12 lines which define six planes. The topology
is defined as six faces that intersect at 12 edges. The edges define eight
vertices.
You can parametrically alter a solid model’s geometry while
maintaining its original topology. For example, the following solids all
have the same topology (relationships between faces, edges and
vertices), but different geometry (shape).
10
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Or, consider the two solids pictured below:
Both are composed of 6 faces, 12 edges, and 8 vertices. Topologically,

they are identical. However, it is clear that geometrically they are quite
different. The solid on the left has faces that are all planar and edges
that are all straight. That is not the case with the solid on the right.
The table below shows the correspondence between the two types of
information:
Topology Geometry
Face Plane or surface
Edge Curve, i.e. a line, arc, or spline
Vertex Endpoint of a curve
What is a Solid? One way to differentiate between a solid body and a surface body is by
this rule: In a solid body, every edge is the boundary between exactly
two faces.
This rule means that in a surface
body, we can have edges that
bound only one face. The surface
shown at the right has five edges,
each the boundary of a single face.
This rule is also why you cannot

create the geometry shown in the
illustration at the right as a single
solid body in SOLIDWORKS. For
this to be a single body, the red
edge would be a boundary
between four faces.
11
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
Euler’s Formula Euler’s formula V – E + F = 2 defines the relationship of a solid

body’s vertices, edges, and faces. This equation is used to prove the
topological correctness of a solid. For a solid to be valid, Euler’s
Formula must be satisfied.
For a cube, there are 8 vertices, 12 edges, 6 faces (8-12+6 = 2), Euler’s
formula is satisfied and the cube is a valid solid.
Behind the Scenes When SOLIDWORKS builds solid models it is really automating a lot
of surface modeling tasks behind the scenes. Every solid feature is
generated by first creating surface bodies and then assembling them to
form a closed volume. One way to get a better grasp of what is going on
is to see what it takes to do the same tasks manually.
Case Study: We will use a simple cylinder as an example to show how solid and
Solids vs. surface modeling are related, and to introduce some of the surfacing
Surfaces tools commonly used in part repair and mold making.
1 Extrude a solid cylinder.

Create a new part file using the Part_MM
template.
On the Top Plane, sketch a circle with a
25mm diameter centered on the origin and
extrude it 25mm.
Three faces have been created, two planar end
faces and the cylindrical face that connects
them.
Save this part. Name it Solid.
12
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Extruded Surface The first step completed by SOLIDWORKS when an Extruded Boss
feature is initiated is to extrude a surface from the entities in the profile
sketch. We will simulate this step using the Extruded Surface
command.
Extruded Surface works exactly like its solid counterpart except that
it produces a surface instead of a solid, it does not cap the ends, and it
does not require a closed loop sketch.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Extruded Surface

 Menu: Insert, Surface, Extrude
2 Extrude a surface.
Create another new part using the Part_MM
template.
On the Top Plane, sketch a circle with a
25mm diameter centered on the origin and
extrude it 25mm.
Save this part. Name it Surface.
3 Tile windows.
Click Window, Tile Vertically to display the
window with the solid and the window with
the surface side by side.
The cylindrical faces of the parts are identical, but the edges of the
Surface part are open edges. Open edges bound only a single face and
are shown in a blue color by default. Open edges are an indication of a
surface body.
13
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
Planar Surface The next step in assembling an Extruded Boss feature is to create the
surfaces that cap the ends of the feature. When possible,
SOLIDWORKS will create four-sided surfaces for end caps and then
trim them to fit. Four-sided surfaces are more robust for downstream
operations such as shelling, and offsetting (see Four-Sided Surfaces on
page 17 for more information). We will simulate this step using Planar
Surface features.
A Planar Surface is created from a non-intersecting closed-loop
sketch, a set of closed edges, multiple co-planar parting lines, or a pair
of planar entities such as curves or edges.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Planar Surface

 CommandManager: Surfaces > Planar Surface
 Menu: Insert, Surface, Planar
4 Create a planar surface.

Working in the Surface part, open a sketch on the Top Plane.
Create a four-sided Polygon .
Add a Coradial relation between the inscribed circle and the edge
of the extruded surface.
Add a Horizontal or Vertical relation to a line in the sketch to
fully define the profile.
Click Planar Surface .
Click OK .
14
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Trim Surface To trim the surface to fit the cylinder, we will use the Trim Surface
command.
The Trim Surface command enables you to cut back a surface using
either another surface, a plane or a sketch. There are two Trim Types
available for this feature:
 Standard
A surface, plane, or sketch is used as the trimming tool.
 Mutual
Multiple surfaces trim one another.
Mutual trim also knits the resulting surfaces together while Standard
trim leaves them as separate surface bodies.
When making selections for the trim, options can be adjusted to Keep
the selected areas or Remove selections.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Trim Surface

 Menu: Insert, Surface, Trim
5 Trim the surfaces.

Click Trim Surface .
Under Trim Type, click Standard.
For the Trim tool, select the cylindrical surface.
Click Keep selections.
Rotate the view so you can easily see the bottom
of the cylinder.
Select the circular area of the planar surface and
click OK .
Portion of surface you want to keep Results
Note In some models you may find it easier to click Remove selections and
select the portions you want to discard.
15
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
Planar Surface To cap the other end of the cylinder, we will use a shortcut. This will
Shortcut demonstrate some of the other capabilities of the Planar Surface
command.
6 Second planar surface.

Change to a Trimetric view.
Select the circular edge at the top of the cylinder.
Click OK .
Untrim Surface The resulting planar surface is identical to the surface created at the
bottom of the cylinder. However, it was accomplished in one operation
instead of two. To demonstrate that the system actually created a four-
sided surface and trimmed it in the background, we’ll explore using
another surface feature, the Untrim Surface command.
With Untrim Surface you can restore a surface to its natural
boundaries. This can be used to remove internal edges to patch a
surface, or to extend the boundaries of a surface. The result of the
operation can be a new surface body or one that replaces the original.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Untrim Surface

 Menu: Insert, Surface, Untrim
7 Untrim Surface.
Click Untrim Surface .
Select the planar surface created in step 6.
The preview verifies that the system actually
created a rectangular surface which was
automatically trimmed to the circular edge.
Click Cancel to quit the command without
untrimming the surface.
16
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Face Curves and Another way to visualize the natural boundaries of a surface is to use
Mesh Preview Face Curves.
All surfaces in
SOLIDWORKS can be
described by a mesh of curves.
When generating some
features, such as Dome, Fill
Surface, Freeform,
Boundary, and Loft, you can
preview this mesh to help
evaluate the quality of the
surfaces being created. You
can also use the Face Curves command to create sketch entities from
the mesh.
Four-Sided In SOLIDWORKS, surfaces tend to exhibit a mesh of perpendicular
Surfaces curves, indicating a four-sided surface. Obviously, SOLIDWORKS
models can have surfaces that are not four-sided. There are two ways
for this to happen:
 An initially four-sided surface is
trimmed to the required shape.
When possible, SOLIDWORKS uses
this technique when building faces of
solid features. Four-sided surfaces
typically cause less problems for
downstream features such as shelling
because the system offsets the
underlying four-sided surface and then
retrims it.
 A surface has one or more sides of
zero length.
Some features may not allow for the
system to develop them as four-sided
and trim. When one or more sides of a
surface is of zero length, the curves in
that direction intersect at a single
point called a singularity. These
surfaces are called degenerate surfaces and can sometimes cause
problems in filleting, shelling or offsetting.
17
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
Being aware of the structure of surfaces can help you recognize where
you should focus your attention if problems occur. Using Face Curves
along with other evaluation tools as discussed later in this lesson can
help you identify problem areas.
Face Curves Face Curves generate sketch curves along a selected face. A number
can be specified for a mesh of curves, or curves can be created from a
specific position or point along the face. When this tool is used outside
of an active sketch each curve is created as a separate 3D sketch in the
model. Alternately, when working in an active 3D sketch, all curves
will be contained within the sketch.
Where to Find It  Menu: Tools, Sketch Tools, Face Curves
8 Apply Face Curves.

Click Face Curves .
Select the top surface of the cylinder.
The preview of perpendicular curves indicates that
this surface was originally four-sided and then
trimmed to fit.
Click Cancel to quit the command without
adding the face curves as sketches.
Knit Surface At this point, the Solid and the Surface models look nearly identical.
However, the Surface part is only a collection of three separate surface
bodies. The next operation in completing a solid Extruded Boss feature
is to knit the separate surfaces together. We can simulate this using the
Knit Surface command.
Knit Surface joins together separate surface bodies into a single
surface body. To knit surface bodies together, their edges must touch or
be within the gap control tolerance.
The Knit Surface command can also be used to copy faces from a solid
body. The result would be a new surface body in the part.
Gap Control When knitting surfaces together, the edges must touch so that the two
edges can be combined into a single edge. Because edges are
mathematical representations, there are many cases where the edges do
not match exactly and small gaps may exist. To allow for these small
openings, Gap Control can be used to specify how big a gap should be
closed or left open.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Knit Surface

 CommandManager: Surfaces > Knit Surface
 Menu: Insert, Surface, Knit
18
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
9 Knit Surfaces.
Currently all three surfaces in the model are
independent of each other.
Click Knit Surface .
Select the three surfaces.
Clear Create solid, if necessary.
Click OK .
10 Examine the results.
The 3 separate surface bodies have been knitted
together into a single body. There are no more
open edges since each edge is now the
boundary of 2 faces.
Creating Solids To create a solid body from surfaces, the surfaces must either form a
from Surfaces completely closed volume or an open surface body can be “thickened”.
With an closed surface body, like our example, there are two methods
to create the solid, using a Thicken feature or the Create solid option
available in some surface commands.
Thicken Thicken creates a solid body by thickening one or more adjacent
surfaces. Surfaces must be knit together before thickening. If the
surface forms a closed volume, the option to Create solid from
enclosed volume will be available.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Thicken

 Menu: Insert, Boss/Base, Thicken
Create Solid When working with some surface tools, if the surfaces created by the
feature result in a closed volume, the option Create solid will be
available. When selected, the volume will be transformed into a solid
body.
Where to Find It  Trim Surface PropertyManager: Create solid

 Knit Surface PropertyManager: Create solid
 Fill Surface PropertyManager: Create solid
19
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
11 Form a solid.
Select the Surface-Knit1 feature and Edit Feature .
Select Create solid.
Click OK .
The Surface-Knit feature now results in a
solid body in the part.
The Solid and Surface models are now
geometrically identical, even though their feature trees are quite
different.
Summary In summary, creating a solid feature is an automated way of surface

modeling. The solid feature automates creating the faces, trimming
them if necessary, knitting them together, and converting them into a
solid.
Now, to demonstrate the interoperability between surface and solid
bodies, we will explore how to modify the Solid part into a surface
body.
Decomposing a There is no command that is the reverse of Knit Surface. So there is no
Solid into convenient way to reduce a solid down to a collection of surfaces.
Surfaces However, there are a number of techniques that are useful:
 Deleting a face of a solid reduces the solid to a surface body (see
Delete Face on page 21).
 Faces of a solid can be copied to generate a surface body (see
Making Copies of Faces on page 43).
20
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Delete Face The Delete Face tool removes one or more faces from the model.
Options within the Delete Face command include:
 Delete: removes face(s) leaving open edges in the model. This
results in a surface body.
 Delete and Patch: removes face(s) and patches the open area by
extending the boundaries of adjacent faces.
 Delete and Fill: removes face(s) and fills gap with a new surface.
The new face can be created with tangency to the adjacent faces.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Delete Face

 Menu: Insert, Face, Delete
 Shortcut Menu: Right-click a face and under the Face category
click Delete
13 Activate the part named Solid.
14 Delete face.
Click Delete Face . Select the top face of the model.
Under Options, select Delete and click OK .

The solid body is now a surface body. There is
an open edge at the top of the cylinder.
16 Save and close all files.
21
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
Additional As you can see, solid and surface bodies are very closely related.
Surface Besides understanding the interoperability between the two, there are
Concepts some additional concepts related to working with surface bodies that
you should be familiar with: the concept of Edges vs. Holes and the
different Surface Types you may work with within SOLIDWORKS.
Edges vs. Holes What we perceive as holes in a solid model are really edges at the face
or surface body level. This is why when working with surfaces, you
cannot add a cut or hole wizard feature, but you can trim a surface to
create new edges. When cut features are added to a solid model, new
edges are created that define boundaries in the faces. When these edges
are removed, the underlying surfaces are restored. This concept is key
to the interoperability of solids and surfaces.
Surface Types There are several classes of surface geometry. Although there are
others beyond those listed here, the major types are:
 Algebraic surfaces can be
described with simple algebraic
expressions. These include
surfaces that are flat, spherical,
cylindrical, conical, toroidal, and so on. Face curves on algebraic
surfaces are straight lines, arcs or circles.
 Ruled surfaces are
surfaces where every
point on the surface has
a straight line that
passes through it and
lies on the surface.
 Developable surfaces are a

subset of ruled surfaces, and can
be flattened without stretching
the surface. These include planar,
cylindrical and conical surfaces.
This surface type is important
because SOLIDWORKS sheet metal functions can only flatten
these shapes. Besides sheet metal, developable surfaces are widely
22
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
applied in shipbuilding (for easily formed flat plates or sheets of

fiberglass) and label application (labels will stretch or pucker on
non-developable surfaces) among many others.
 NURBS (non-uniform rational
b-spline) is a surfacing technology
widely used by CAD and computer
graphics software. NURBS surfaces
are defined by face curves that are
splines, and the surface is
interpolated between the splines.
Algebraic, ruled, and developable surfaces are sometimes referred to as
analytical surfaces. NURBS surfaces are often called algorithmic
surfaces.
Importing and Often times, the product models used in the mold design process are
Mold Design imported from other CAD systems or from neutral file formats. To help
understand how translation between CAD systems work, we will first
introduce some common concepts and terms commonly used through
out the CAD industry. Understanding, modeling kernels, the contents
of a CAD file, and file formats will provide a deeper knowledge of how
file translation in SOLIDWORKS works.
Modeling Kernels Modeling kernels are the engines of solid modeling software. They
contain the core solid modeling code where creation and editing
functions are accessed. Modeling kernels take the information provided
by the CAD program and generate the solid body.
Modeling kernels are very complex, so many companies do not spend
the time and effort to create and maintain modeling kernels. Parasolid
and ACIS are examples of modeling kernels that are licensed by
multiple companies. Other companies have developed their own
proprietary kernels.
 Parasolid Kernel
This is the modeling kernel used by SOLIDWORKS, early versions of
Solid Edge and Unigraphics. The Parasolid model is a licensed kernel
owned by Siemens PLM Software.
 ACIS Kernel
This is the modeling kernel used by AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop,
early versions of Inventor, CADKEY, and IronCAD. The ACIS
modeling kernel is a licensed kernel owned by Spacial Technologies,
now part of Dassault Systèmes.
 Proprietary Kernels
Some examples of companies using proprietary kernels include Pro-
Engineer, Inventor, UPG2, and think3.
23
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
Contents of a CAD To help understand what is actually transferred between programs it

File helps to know what is included in the contents of a CAD file. An easy
way to think of a CAD file is to think of it as being made of three parts;
the header, feature instruction set, and the database or resulting body.
 Header (Windows Properties)
All windows files have a file header which contains information about
the file such as its format, file name, type, size, properties, and both 2D
and 3D previews.
 Instruction Set (Features)
The instruction set can be thought of as the FeatureManager design tree
in binary form. The instruction set is sent to the modeling kernel and
used to build the model. This is that part of the various solid modeling
programs that is proprietary. The instructions are unique to the modeler
and modeling kernels.
 Database (Resulting Body)
The output of the modeling kernel and instruction set is a database
consisting of the topological definition of the solid body. This resulting
body is what is seen in the graphics area.
File Formats To store a file on a computer, it is formated to encode and organize the
data that makes up the file. Some file formats are specific to the
program that created the file. For instance, a part created in
SOLIDWORKS is formated as a “solid part” which has an extension of
*.sldprt. These are referred to as native file formats. Other formats are
designed to be shared by multiple applications. These are referred to as
neutral file formats. Neutral file formats for CAD data form a common
reference for CAD programs to exchange data, but are not used directly
by any CAD program. Some of the most common neutral file formats
encountered in mold design are listed below.
 Parasolid (*.x_t, *.x_b)
Parasolid is the native modeling kernel for SOLIDWORKS. Therefore,
a Parasolid file is a direct read into SOLIDWORKS and the database
does not need to be translated when importing the file. However, the
data included within the Parasolid file format only defines the solid
body itself (faces, edges, and vertices), and does not include historical
data on how the solid was created. So just as with other neutral file
formats, Parasolid files will not include editable features in the
FeatureManager tree.
24
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
 STEP (*.step, *.stp)

STEP stands for Standard for the Exchange of Product Data. STEP is
also known as ISO 10303, the International Standard for the computer-
interpretable representation and exchange of product data. This file
format was designed to describe product data throughout the life cycle
of a product, independent from any particular system. The nature of
this description makes it suitable not only for neutral file exchange, but
also as a basis for implementing and sharing product databases and
archiving.
 IGES (*.igs)
IGES stands for Initial Graphics Exchange Specification. The initial
version of IGES was published in 1980 and included only basic
capabilities for drawings created with wireframe geometry. The
specification has evolved over the years to include current solid
modeling formats.
For translation to IGES, each entity in the model or drawing file will be
assigned an entity type number to define the type of entity. This process
maps the sending entities to IGES entities.
There may be multiple ways to map an entity to the available IGES
entities, the way the choices are made is called flavoring.
 ACIS (*.sat)
ACIS is a 3D modeling system that provides curve, surface, and solid
modeling in an open object-oriented architecture. Spatial introduced
the ACIS Geometric Modeler in 1990 as the world's first commercial,
object-oriented, 3D geometric modeling tool kit. This product was
designed for use as a “geometry engine” within 3D modeling
applications.
ACIS is similar to Parasolid in that it is a standard modeling technology
which is used in numerous applications.
Format In newer versions of SOLIDWORKS, there are many native file
Recommendations formats that can be opened without translation. See 3D Interconnect for
Native File Formats on page 27 for more information.
If a neutral file format must be used, Parasolid should be the first
choice. If Parasolid is not available, the next preference would be STEP
or ACIS. These formats are better suited for solid body translation than
IGES.
25
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
File Translation Translating data is very much like translating spoken languages. The
translated words do not always carry the same meaning as the original.
What do we do when there is no exact word or phrase for that which we
are translating? Generally we have to use a word or phase that is close
in meaning, even if it is not an exact match. CAD systems have the
same difficulties when features in one system do not have equivalents
in the other system.
Let’s take a detailed look at translating an IGES file, for example.
When data is formated to an IGES file, each face is defined as an entity
type, such as “Type122 - Tabulated Cylinder Entity” or “Type 190 -
Plane Surface Entity”. Problems can develop when a surface fits more
than one entity type. The translator will have to choose which entity
type to use. This is called flavoring.
Additionally, the IGES
format does not support
some periodic surfaces such
as 360° cylinders and
spheres. To work around
this, these surfaces are split
into multiple faces when
translated. For example, the
faces of the simple flange
shown would result in the individual colored faces when translated to
an IGES file.
Why Do Imports Beside producing slight differences in 3D model topology, some
Fail? imported files may fail to even produce usable surfaces and solid
bodies. This can happen for several reasons. A basic understanding of
why imports fail can make it easier to troubleshoot problems.
The primary issue when translating between different CAD systems is
that they all use different mathematical representations, or algorithms,
for representing 3D objects. It is this difference that creates
interoperability problems when sending or receiving 3D models. More
specifically:
 Different tolerances
CAD systems do not all work to the same precision. Rounding off
values in the sending system may cause the entities to be outside the
receiving system’s tolerance to stitch them together.
Some CAD systems have the capability to change the file tolerance for
file output or adjust the modeling tolerance before beginning the
model. Knowing what these setting are and setting up some preferences
before exporting the model may greatly reduce the amount of cleanup
needed in SOLIDWORKS once the file is imported.
26
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
 Translation mapping
Not all CAD systems support the same features. If a receiving system
doesn’t support a 3D entity the import will either fail or not be an exact
match of the model sent.
 Missing entities
There are times when surfaces do not translate between systems
leaving a missing surface in the imported model. If the hole is
sufficiently large, the automatic healing tools may not be able to close
the hole.
SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS includes several options that can be modified to
Import Options control how files are imported. For many file types, the default import
option is to use 3D Interconnect functionality which provides a link to
the file in its current format rather than translating it.
3D Interconnect 3D Interconnect allows users to open 3D CAD data in SOLIDWORKS
for Native File in its native format without converting it to a SOLIDWORKS file. By
Formats using this functionality, users can bypass the translation process
required to convert data and avoid translation errors. 3D Interconnect
retains a link to the CAD data so that if it is modified in its original
authoring application, the data in SOLIDWORKS can be easily
updated.
Currently, formats from the following CAD applications are supported
in 3D Interconnect:
CAD Application File Formats Versions
CATIA® V5 *.CATPart, *.CATProduct V5R8 - 5-6R2016
Autodesk® V6 - V2017 (for *.ipt)

*.ipt, *.iam
Inventor V11 - V2017 (for *.iam)
PTC® *.prt, *.prt*, *asm, *.asm* Pro/ENGINEER® 16 -

Creo 3.0
Solid Edge® *.par, *.asm, *.psm V18 - ST8
NX™ software *.prt UG 11 - NX 11
For more information on using and updating native files imported with
3D Interconnect, explore the SOLIDWORKS Help documentation.
27
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
3D Interconnect 3D Interconnect can also be used for importing neutral file formats
for Neutral File such as STEP, ACIS, and IGES. Just like with native file formats, using
Formats this functionality can workaround errors that may occur with
converting the neutral file to a SOLIDWORKS file format. However,
there may still be errors in these files resulting from the translation
from the native format.
Note Parasolid files are do not make use of 3D Interconnect functionality
because they do not require translation. The database contained in the
file can be read directly by SOLIDWORKS.
Case Study: Let’s take a look at an example of importing a STEP file into
Importing a SOLIDWORKS. We will first use the default option of importing using
STEP File 3D Interconnect. Then, we will import the model by translating it to a
SOLIDWORKS part and compare the results.
This example will also allow us to explore the diagnostic and repair
capabilities built into SOLIDWORKS.
1 Open a STEP file.

Open baseframe.STP from the Lesson01\Case Study folder.
Once the STEP file is opened in SOLIDWORKS, a feature in the

FeatureManager design tree provides a link to file.
2 Run Import Diagnostics.
Click Yes to the message
regarding Import Diagnostics.
28
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Import SOLIDWORKS provides several tools to assist with diagnosing and

Diagnostics repairing geometry problems. One tool, Import Diagnostics, is
included as part of the importing process. This tool has the unique
ability to not only identify problem areas in a model, but also has built
in capabilities to repair faulty faces and gaps. If gaps are present, the
model will not be able to form a solid body and will result in a surface
body instead.
When importing a model, users are automatically prompted to run
Import Diagnostics. This tool can also be used at any time in the design
process, but in order for it to work the Imported feature must be the
only feature in the tree. If additional standard features are added to the
model, Import Diagnostics will no longer be available.
It is best practice to use this tool immediately when importing data to
identify and fix problem geometry.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Evaluate > Import Diagnostics

 Menu: Tools, Evaluate, Import Diagnostics
 Shortcut Menu: Right-click an Imported feature in the
FeatureManager design tree and click Import Diagnostics
3 Evaluate errors.
The import diagnostics tool has identified
several faulty faces in the STEP file.
You can select the faces in the list to highlight
them on the model.
Hovering the cursor over the face in the list will
display a tooltip with some information about
the problem.
However, healing capabilities are currently
limited as noted in the message at the top of the
PropertyManager.
In order to modify the body and repair the faces,
the link to the STEP file must be removed.
4 Click OK .
29
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
5 Dissolve the link.

Right-click the baseframe.stp
feature.
Click Dissolve Feature from the
menu.
In the warning message, click Yes,
break the link.
6 Results.
The link is dissolved and a single Imported1 feature now appears in
the tree.
30
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1

Click Import Diagnostics .
The PropertyManager now includes options for
healing the errors in the model and instructions
are presented in the message at the top.
8 Attempt to Heal All.

Click Attempt to Heal All.
9 Results.
The Import Diagnostics tool was able to fix the
faulty faces, but the resulting geometry is not
very good quality.
Let’s try another importing option and compare the results.

10 Save the file.
Save the file as baseframe_3DInterconnect.
Accessing Import Next, we will modify the default importing options to see if translating
Options the STEP file directly to a SOLIDWORKS part will improve the
quality of the resulting geometry.
Import options can be accessed from the Options dialog in System
Options.
11 Modify Import Options.

Click Options .
On the System Options tab, click the
Import category.
Clear the option Enable 3D Interconnect.
Click OK.
31
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
12 Open the STEP file.

Open baseframe.STP from the Lesson01\Case Study folder.
The file is translated and the imported body is presented in the graphics
area.

Click Yes to the message regarding Import
Diagnostics.
14 Evaluate errors.
Notice there are different areas of the part
identified as being faulty using this workflow.
15 Attempt to Heal All.
32
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
16 Results.
In this case, there is one faulty face that cannot be repaired by the
automatic healing tools.
Hover the cursor over the face to view the tooltip regarding the
problem with the face.
Select the remaining faulty face to see where it is located on the model.
Or right-click and select Zoom to Selection from the menu.
17 Click OK .
18 Save the file.

Save the file as baseframe.
Comparing To decide which baseframe model to move forward with, we will

Geometry compare them side-by-side. Often times a visual comparison is
sufficient enough to make decisions, but SOLIDWORKS also provides
several comparison tools that can assist with identifying differences.
For this example, we will make use of the Compare Geometry tool.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Evaluate > Compare Documents ,

check Compare Geometry option
 Menu: Tools, Compare, Geometry
33
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
19 Compare the models.

Click Tools, Compare, Geometry .
In the Task Pane, select
baseframe_3DInterconnect for the
Reference Document.
Select baseframe for the
Modified Document.
Click Run Comparison.
Click Yes to the warning message regarding
the failed check. This is do to the faulty face
remaining in the baseframe model.

Select Face comparison, then click the view icon for
Unique faces.
Examine the different areas of the part to compare the results.
In this case, we’ve determined the baseframe model includes higher

quality surfaces, even though it still includes a faulty face. We will
learn how to address this in the next Case Study.
34
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Addressing When an imported model is failing to produce a valid solid body and
Translation Errors the repair capabilities in Import Diagnostics are not able to heal the
faulty faces and gaps, you may need to consider other options for
addressing the translation problems. Some options include:
 Change the import type
There are generally several translators available between the sending
and receiving systems. If one type does not give satisfactory results, try
another.
 Export and re-import as Parasolid
If you are not able to request another import type from the receiving
system, you can try saving the imported file as a Parasolid from
SOLIDWORKS and re-importing it.
 Change the tolerance
Several import methods allow the stitch tolerance to be adjusted. By
loosening the tolerance, edges that were beyond the range to stitch can
now be stitched automatically.
In some cases, the sending CAD system may be able to be set to a
tighter tolerance and the model can be reimported.
 Manually repair using surface tools
Problem areas in the imported model can be manually repaired by
using surface features such as:
 Delete Face
Some surfaces may be too hard to fix. Another approach is to delete
the problem surface and replace it with something better.
 Extend Surface
Surfaces that are too short to reach the next surface can be extended
to get within the range of the stitcher.
 Trim Surface
Surfaces that extend past the desired boundary can be trimmed
manually.
 Filled Surface
The Filled Surface command can be used to create both planar and
non-planar patches to close holes in the model.
35
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
Case Study: Since we don’t have access to the original CAD data for the
Repairing and baseframe to try some of the other techniques listed above, we will
Editing manually repair the remaining faulty face in the model using surface
tools.
Imported
Geometry We’ll start by exploring some additional tools used for evaluating
model geometry in SOLIDWORKS, beginning with the Check Entity
tool.
Check Entity Check Entity is a utility that identifies geometry problems and in some
cases can provide suggestions on how to address issues. It can be used
to locate invalid faces or edges that may exist in the model and can also
check for the minimum radius of curvature. Additional settings can
help identify open edges, short edges, and gaps.
By default the entire model is checked, but options can be adjusted to
only check selected areas.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Evaluate > Check

 Menu: Tools, Evaluate, Check
21 Close the Compare pane.

Close the Compare utility in the Task Pane.
22 Close the baseframe_3DInterconnect part.
Close the baseframe_3DInterconnect part and maximize the
baseframe document window.
23 Check the model.
Click Check .
For this example, we will
use the default settings in
the dialog.
Click Check.
36
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
24 Results.
The Check Entity tool identifies the faulty face that was not able to be
repaired by Import Diagnostics and provides some information on how
to possibly address the problem.
The message at the bottom of the dialog states:

A general geometry problem was found. If this data is
imported, this problem may be due to the precision of the
data from the originating system; please adjust the model/
export settings in the originating system and re-import the
model. If this is a SOLIDWORKS part, please report the
problem to your local support representative.
Since we do not have access to the originating system for this file, we
will have to repair this face manually.
Click Close.
Display Curvature Another tool that can be used to evaluate geometry is the Curvature
tool. Displaying curvature will render faces of a model in different
colors according to the local curvature values. This tool can be useful to
help analyze the quality of surfaces in a part.
Curvature is displayed for the entire model by default. To limit the
display to individual faces, they can be preselected before activating
the tool.
37
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Evaluate > Curvature

 Menu: View, Display, Curvature
 Shortcut Menu: Right-click a face and click Curvature (the menu
may need to be expanded to access this command)
25 Display Curvature .
26 Evaluate the faulty face.

The curvature display indicates the
radius of the problem face is not
constant, which is what we would
desire in this area.
To fix the problem, we will remove
the faulty face and manually build a
better quality surface.
We can leave the curvature display
turned on as we modify the model to
evaluate results.
27 Delete Face.
Click Delete Face .
28 Delete and Fill.

The first thing to try is use the capabilities built in to the Delete Face
command.
Click Delete and Fill and Tangent
fill.
Click OK .
29 Evaluate results.
The face built by the Delete Face tool
is not of acceptable quality.
30 Delete face.
Select the DeleteFace1 feature and
Edit Feature .
Select the Delete option.
Click OK .
Removing this face turns the solid
model into a surface body.
38
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Patching There are many surface features that can be useful for patching holes
Strategies like the one in our example. Each feature contains different options, so
often a trial and error approach is recommended to identify the best
result. Some strategies for patching holes include:
 Using a Filled Surface .
 Loft between edges.
 Creating a Boundary surface between edges.
 Removing surrounding geometry and rebuilding faces.
Filled Surface The Filled Surface feature constructs a surface patch with any number
of sides, within a boundary. The boundary can be defined by existing
model edges, sketches, or curves. In some instances, a filled surface
can be created without a closed boundary by using the Fix up
boundary option.
If edges are selected for a filled surface boundary, boundary conditions
such as Contact, Tangency, or Curvature may be selected to relate the
new surface to the adjacent faces.
The Filled Surface can knit itself into the surrounding surface bodies,
knit an enclosed volume into a solid, or integrate itself directly into a
solid body.
The Filled Surface works by creating a four-sided patch and trimming
it to fit the selected boundary.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Filled Surface

 CommandManager: Surface > Filled Surface
 Menu: Insert, Surface, Fill
31 Patch using Filled Surface.

Click Filled Surface .
Select the three edges of the open area.
Under Edge settings, select Tangent and
click Apply to all edges.
Click Merge result to knit the new surface
with the surrounding faces.
Click Create solid to transform the closed
volume into a solid body.
Click OK .
39
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
32 Results.
In this case, Filled Surface gives us a poor
quality face.
We need to look for another answer.
33 Undo.
Click Undo to remove the surface.
34 Loft the patch.

Click Lofted Surface .
For the Profiles, select the two vertical open
edges.
For the Start/End Constraints, select Tangency
To Face.
Leave the Tangent Length vectors at their
default values of 1.
For Guide Curves, select the third open edge.
Set the Guide curves influence type to Global
and set the Edge Tangency type to Tangency
To Face.
The loft will result in a surface with a singularity,
but it may still be valid.
Click OK .
40
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
35 Evaluate the results.

The colors indicate there are areas of
small radius of curvature and
inconsistent curvature throughout.
Let’s evaluate it further using the
Check Entity tool.
36 Minimum radius of curvature.

Click Check .
Click Selected Items and select the lofted surface.
Select Minimum radius of curvature and click Check.
The minimum radius of curvature is about 0.0002mm. This indicates
that although the lofted surface looks better, it is still not a good
solution.
Close the Check Entity dialog box.
37 Delete.
Delete or Undo the lofted surface.
38 Turn off Curvature.
Toggle off the Curvature display.
Another Strategy We can tell by observation that

the face we are trying to patch
was originally formed where
three separate fillets came
together. Another strategy to fix
this area is to delete and
recreate those fillets letting the
Fillet command create the
blended corner face.
For this strategy, we will first
need some information about
the fillet radii. This is another
function we can use the Check
Entity tool for.
41
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
39 What are the radii of the fillets?

Click Check .
Click Selected items and select Minimum radius of curvature.
Turn on the face selection filter by pressing x on the keyboard.
Select the three fillets indicated and click Check.
Selecting each face in the Result list highlights the face and notes its
minimum radius.
2.8mm 3.0mm
2.79992mm
The three radii are 3.0mm, 2.8mm, and 2.79992mm which we will
round up to 2.8mm.
Turn off the selection filter by pressing x on the keyboard.
Close the Check Entity dialog.
42
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Procedure for The next steps in recreating these fillets will be:
Rebuilding  Copy the faces being blended together.
Fillets We will copy the faces of the model that are blending together at the
problem corner. It will be easier to extend and trim these faces as
individual as surface bodies, rather than modifying them while they
are knitted with the rest of the model.
 Delete the faces to be replaced.
We will then remove the faces that will be replaced in model. This
includes the fillet faces and the faces that are blended with the fillet.
 Extend and trim surface edges.
The edges of the copied surfaces will be extended and trimmed
together to form corners where new fillets can be applied.
 Add a Fillet feature.
A new fillet feature will be created to automate the blend at the
problem corner.
 Knit surfaces.
The modified surface body with the new fillet will then be knitted
with the main surface body. We will use the create solid option
from within the feature to transform the model back into a solid
body.
Making Copies of The first step in rebuilding the fillets is to copy the faces we need to
Faces modify. There are two techniques you can use to make copies of faces:
 Knit Surface
 Offset Surface
In order to use Knit Surface, the faces you want to copy must be
connected. If they are not connected, use Offset Surface with an offset
distance of zero.
Offset Surface The Offset Surface command creates a new surface body at a
specified offset distance from an existing set of faces. The offset
distance can be set to zero to copy a face. When offsetting surfaces fail,
it is usually because the offset distance is greater than the smallest
curvature on the face. In this way it is similar to offsetting sketch
entities.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Offset Surface

 CommandManager: Surfaces > Offset Surface
 Menu: Insert, Surface, Offset
43
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
40 Copy faces.
Since the faces we need to
copy are disconnected, use the
Offset Surface .command
to create the copies.
Set the offset distance of zero.
Click OK .
41 Hide surface bodies.

Hide the three surfaces
created in step 40.
42 Delete faces.
Use Delete Face to Delete the original faces that you copied plus
the three fillets we are going to replace.
43 Hide and show.

Hide the main surface
body.
Show the three copied
faces from step 40.
44
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Extend Surface The next step in the procedure is to extend the surface edges so they
can be trimmed to form a new corner.
Surfaces can be made larger by extending along selected edges, or all
edges. The extension can be an extrapolation of the existing surface, or
a linear surface that is tangent to the existing surface.
The Same surface option attempts to extrapolate the curvature of the
existing surface. On analytical surfaces this option works very well and
results in a seamless extension. On algorithmic surfaces this option is
typically only useful for short distances.
The Linear option (tangent extension) works on any type of surface but
often creates a broken edge.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Extend Surface

 Menu: Insert, Surface, Extend
44 Extend Surface .
Extend the two edges of the bottom surface
as shown. These are the edges that were
trimmed by the original fillet.
For End Condition, select Distance and
set the value to 5.00mm.
For Extension Type, select Same surface.
Click OK .
Note The value for Distance has to be greater than the largest radius value,
3.00mm.
45 Repeat.
Repeat this process for the edges of the other two surfaces.
Note Only one surface body can be extended at a time.
45
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
46 Mutual trim.
Trim the three surfaces to their mutual
intersections. This will also sew them into
a single surface body which will make the
filleting operation in the next step easier.
47 Multiple radius fillet.

Click Fillet .
Create a multiple radius fillet
using the values we obtained in
step 39 as shown.
48 Results.
The Fillet command gives us a perfectly blended corner.
46
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
49 Knit the surface bodies into a solid.

Show the other surface body.
Knit the two surface bodies together
and turn the resulting enclosed volume
into a solid body.
Editing Imported Many of the techniques we just used for repairing and patching
Parts imported geometry can also be used for other design tasks with
imported bodies.
This imported part has some features we would like to eliminate. We’ll
first take a look at how the Delete Face command can be used to
modify the part effectively, then we’ll introduce anther technique called
Delete Hole.
50 Remove boss and counterbored hole.

On this part, we want to remove the small boss, the through hole, and
the corresponding counterbore. The part in this area has a curved face.
47
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS
51 Delete face.
Click Delete Face .
Select all the faces of the affected features. There will be nine selected
faces all together.
Use the Delete and Patch option and click OK .
52 Results.
By using the Delete and
Patch option, the edges left
by the removed faces are
extended to patch the hole.
This results in a perfectly
smooth face, as if there had
never been anything there at
all.
53 Edit the DeleteFace2 feature.

Now let’s examine another technique.
Edit the DeleteFace feature and select the Delete option.
54 Results.
The result this time is a surface body instead of a
solid. There are open edges where the feature faces
were.
48
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 1
Delete Hole The Delete Hole command is similar to Untrim Surface except that it
only works on closed interior loops. Using Delete Hole can be an
effective technique to close holes and patch gaps in a model.
Where to Find It  Keyboard: Select the edge of a closed interior loop on a single
surface body and press Delete
 Menu: Select the edge and click Edit, Delete
55 Delete Hole.
Select the edge of the hole and press Delete.
The system will prompt you, asking if you want to
delete the feature or delete the hole(s).
Click Delete Hole(s) and click OK.
There is one more method to examine.

56 Untrim surface.
Rotate the part so you can see the open edge on the
other side of the part.
Select the edge of the hole.
Click Untrim Surface .
Click Extend edges and Merge with original.
Click OK .
57 Thicken .
Make the surface body into a solid.
58 Save and close the file.
49
Exercise 1 SOLIDWORKS
Import Diagnosis
Exercise 1: Import legacy data with problem

Import geometry and use a combination
Diagnosis of automatic and manual
techniques to repair the defects.
This exercise reinforces the
following skills:
 Import Diagnostics on
page 29
 Delete Face on page 21
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Open a Parasolid file.
Open repair2.x_b from the Lesson01\
Exercises folder.
Note If you are prompted to select a template, choose
Part_MM.

If you are not prompted to run Import Diagnostics, run it manually by
right-clicking the Surface-Imported1 feature and clicking Import
Diagnostics .
3 Problem area.
Import Diagnostics found a gap
between faces. Click on the gap
symbol in the list and the open
edges highlight in the graphics
area.
50
SOLIDWORKS Exercise 1
Import Diagnosis
4 Heal all.
The system patches the gap with
multiple faces. However, the
repair is incomplete. The system
issues this message:
The last operation to repair a
face failed. You can remove Patches
the failing face from the
geometry and re-model it
manually.
5 Faulty face.
Click on the face symbol in the
list and the remaining faulty face
highlights in the graphics area.
Remaining faulty
face
6 Heal all again.

The system repairs the remaining faulty face and the surface body is
automatically knit into a solid body.
Click OK to close the Import Diagnostics PropertyManager.
7 Closer look.
The patches and the original face
with the gap are all planar. This
can be determined by clicking the
faces and seeing if the Insert
Sketch command appears on
the context menu. If it does, the
Coplanar
face is planar.
Tip Curvature can also be used to determine flat and coplanar faces.
Flat faces appear as black when curvature display is on.
51
Import Diagnosis
Simplify the Since the faces are all planar, and in fact, are coplanar, they can be
Geometry merged into a single face.
8 Delete and patch.
Click Delete Face .
Select the patches. There were
twelve in this example.
You will have to zoom in tightly
to see all of them. Some are very
small.
Use the option Delete and Patch
and click OK .
9 Results.
The separate faces are removed and the surrounding edges are extended
to path up the area. This results in a single planar face.
52
Using Import Surface and Replace Face
Exercise 2: This exercise demonstrates some

Using Import techniques for modifying imported
Surface and models. A surface is imported from a
Parasolid (x_t) file and used to replace
Replace Face
a face in the solid.
This exercise reinforces the following
skills:
 Editing Imported Parts on page 47
 Delete Face on page 21
 Move/Copy Bodies which was
covered in the Advanced Part Modeling course
Units: millimeters
Procedure
Open Button.x_t from the Lesson01\
Exercises\Replace Face folder.
Note If you are prompted to select a template,
choose Part_MM.
Click Yes to run Import Diagnostics.
The model imports as a solid with no
faulty faces. Click OK .
The face to be replaced is highlighted in
blue.
2 Delete faces.
Before we can replace the face, some
fillets have to be deleted.
Click Delete Face .
Select the faces shown.
53
Be sure to zoom in on the corners.

There are some small faces there.
You will select a total of seven
faces.
Select the option Delete and
Patch and click OK .
3 Import Surface.
Import a surface into the part using Insert,
Features, Imported .
Select the Parasolid file named New Surface
from the Lesson01\Exercises\
Replace Face folder.
The surface color was changed for clarity.
4 Move the surface.

Click Insert, Features,
Move/Copy .
Select the imported
surface.
Use the Translate option.
Enter 63.5mm for
Delta Y .
Click OK .
5 Replace face.
Click Insert, Face,
Replace .
Replace the top face of the
part with the imported
surface.
54
6 Hide the surface.

Select the surface body and click
Hide .
7 Fillet .
Add a 0.635mm fillet as shown.
55
56
Lesson 2
Core and Cavity

 Build core and cavity mold tooling for an existing part.
 Analyze a model to check for proper draft.
 Apply draft to faces of a model.
 Scale a model to allow for shrinkage.
 Determine parting line edges and build parting surfaces.
 Create shut-off surfaces.
 Create a tooling split.
 Create interlock surfaces.
 Create an assembly from the multibody part.
57
Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
Core and Cavity The SOLIDWORKS Mold Tools are designed to automated the
Mold Design creation of Core and Cavity tooling from an existing part model. The
tools essentially will copy all the surfaces from each side of a part’s
parting line and knit them into solid blocks to create the core and cavity
mold inserts.
Once you have the model for which you want to design a mold, you
need to follow several steps to complete the process. For simple parts,
the automatic tools can easily create the surfaces needed. For more
complex designs, manual surface modeling techniques may need to be
used. The basic steps in SOLIDWORKS mold design are listed below
with a brief description of the process.
Steps in the Mold
Design Process
 Diagnose and Fix Translation Errors.
If the part has been imported, it may have translation errors. The
Import Diagnostics command can be used to find and fix errors or
surface modeling techniques may need to be used.
 Analyze the model.
Use analysis tools, such as Draft
Analysis, to determine any area
of the model that may cause
problems for manufacturing.
 Modify the model as required.
Features may need to be added to
a model or faces may need to be
modified to ensure the part can be
manufactured. For instance,
additional draft may need to be
added.
 Scale the plastic part.
When the hot injected plastic cools during the molding process, it
hardens and shrinks. Before creating the mold tooling, the plastic part
is scaled slightly larger to compensate for shrinkage.
 Establish the parting lines.
Parting lines must be established on the part. The parting lines are the
boundary edges between the core and the cavity surfaces. Often, the
parting lines can be automatically determined based on a draft analysis.
58
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
 Create shut-off surfaces.

Shut-off surfaces must be created in open
areas of the part. The surfaces for the core
and cavity must be water tight to create
the solid bodies of the tooling. Therefore,
surfaces must be created to close holes
and windows of the model. These surfaces
result in an area where two pieces of mold
tooling will contact each other. Not all
parts require this step.
 Create the parting surface.
The parting surface is projected from
the parting line edges all around the
part’s perimeter. Typically, these
surfaces are perpendicular to the
direction of pull, although there are
other techniques to model them. The
parting surface defines the surface
boundary between the core and cavity.
It should extend further than the size
of the tooling blocks unless an
interlock surface will be included in the design.
 Separate the tooling into separate solid bodies.
Using the surfaces that have been created, solid bodies for the Core and
Cavity can now be produced.
 Design additional tooling.
Some parts may require additional tooling beyond the core and cavity.
Examples include side cores, lifters, core pins, and ejector pins. See
Lesson 3: Side Cores and Pins on page 57.
 Create individual parts
and an assembly from
the solid bodies.
From the multibody part,
save each body as an
individual part and create
an assembly if required.
 Complete the mold.
To complete the mold, the
mold assembly is joined to
a mold base and the
remaining features such as
runners, gates, cooling
lines, etc. are added. Cavity body reversed for clarity
59
Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
Summary of Steps In summary, the basic workflow for creating mold tooling with
SOLIDWORKS automated tools would be:
1. Open or import a model.
2. Diagnose and fix translation errors (if necessary).
3. Analyze the model.
4. Modify the model (if necessary).
5. Scale the plastic part.
6. Establish the parting lines.
7. Create shut-off surfaces for holes (if necessary).
8. Create the parting surfaces.
9. Separate the tooling into core and cavity solid bodies.
10. Design additional tooling (if necessary).
11. Create individual parts and an assembly from the solid bodies
if required.
12. Complete the mold.
SOLIDWORKS The dedicated set of SOLIDWORKS commands that is used for the
Mold Tools process of creating molds can be found on the Mold Tools
CommandManager tab. The default arrangement of the commands
organizes them in the order that the steps are normally done. Therefore,
using the tools from left to right provides a general workflow.
Surface Creation Model Preparation Mold Creation

Modify Imported Models or Analyze and Modify the Model
Manually create Mold Tooling
Note All the mold-related commands can also be found in the Insert, Molds
menu.
Case Study: For the first example of using Mold Tools,

Camera Body we will create the core and cavity mold
inserts for the Camera Body pictured. This
part was designed in SOLIDWORKS rather
than imported, so the first step will be to
analyze the model.
60
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
Mold Analysis Mold analysis tools are used by designers of molded plastic parts and
Tools by designers of the mold tools used to manufacture those parts. Mold
analysis tools include:
Used to identify and visualize areas with

Draft Analysis insufficient draft.
Used to identify and visualize trapped
Undercut Analysis areas that would prevent the part from
ejecting from the mold.
Used to visualize and optimize possible
Parting Line Analysis parting lines.
GPU-based SOLIDWORKS uses the graphics processing unit (GPU) of your

Processing computer to perform these analyses. GPU-based processing enables
real-time updates of the analysis results as you change analysis
parameters and part geometry. The results remain visible after you
close the PropertyManager.
Analyzing Draft To analyze the draft on a molded part, the Draft Analysis command
on a Model can be used to help find draft and design errors. We will be using this
tool to identify if the faces of the Camera Body are drafted properly.
What is Draft? Draft is the amount of taper applied to
faces of molded or cast parts. A part
intended for molding or casting must be
engineered and drafted properly so that it
ejects from the surrounding tooling.
Draft angles are applied in opposite
directions from an intended parting line.
PARTING LINE
DRAFT
ANGLE
If the faces of the part are not drafted properly, it may be scored or even
get stuck in the tooling when it is ejected from the mold.
61
Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
Take a look at the cupcake in the illustration below. Notice that the
bottom of the cupcake is drafted. This is done so that the cupcake does
not get stuck in the pan. The same idea is used on molded parts. They
must be drafted properly or the part may get stuck in the surrounding
tooling. To do draft analysis on a plastic part, the direction of pull needs
to be known.
Determining the The direction of pull is the direction in Direction of Pull
Direction of Pull which the part will be ejected from the
tooling. A simple way to think of this is to
picture the direction a cupcake falls out of
the pan. The direction of pull is also
analogous to the “path of least resistance.”
Keeping this in mind, mold designers
typically design a mold so that the part can
be easily ejected with the least amount of
tooling as possible. This will help keep the
cost of the mold down.
Using the The Draft Analysis command is used to make
Draft Analysis sure the faces of a part have enough draft. Draft
Tool analysis is run by specifying the direction of pull
and the required draft angle. The direction of
pull can be specified as normal to a selected
plane, face, or surface, or in the direction of a
selected line, edge, or axis. If there is no
geometry available to specify the proper
direction of pull, the Adjustment triad option
can be selected to use an on-screen triad to
define the direction.
Once the Analysis Parameters are selected, all
faces of the part are assigned colors to show the
amount of draft relative to the Draft Angle
setting.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Draft Analysis

 CommandManager: Evaluate > Draft Analysis
 Menu: View, Display, Draft Analysis
62
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
1 Open a part file.

Open Camera Body from the
Lesson02\Case Study folder.
2 Check the part for proper draft.

Click Draft Analysis .
For Direction of Pull, select the Front Plane.
Tip In general, the green, Positive draft faces in the
analysis should represent the Cavity side of the
mold tooling and the red, Negative draft faces
should represent the Core.
Set the Draft Angle to 3°.
63
Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
Positive and So, what’s the difference between positive and negative draft? Imagine
Negative Draft shining a beam of light at the part, opposite to the direction of pull. If
the light can illuminate the face, it has positive draft and is colored
green. The faces that do not get hit with the light beam have negative
draft and are colored red.
Direction
of Pull
Where appropriate, the green, Positive draft faces in the analysis

should represent the Cavity side of the mold tooling. The cavity is
generally the side of the mold that is concave. The red, Negative draft
faces should represent the Core. This is generally the side of the mold
that is convex.
Requires Draft If faces in either direction do not meet the specified Draft Angle, they
require additional draft and are colored in yellow.
Tip When the draft analysis colors are displayed, the cursor can be floated
over the part to identify the draft angle at any location.
Draft Analysis By default, 3 colors are used to indicate faces that have Positive or
Options Negative draft or Requires additional draft. Additional options can be
used to modify how colors appear on the model and identify specific
faces.
Gradual Transition The option for Gradual transition can be used
to display a range of colors for the areas
requiring draft representing the range of angle
values.
64
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
Face By using the Face Classification option, each

Classification face receives a specific color and the number
of faces for each color is identified in the
PropertyManager. Additionally, Straddle
faces are identified.
Straddle faces are faces that straddle the
parting line. Straddle faces must be split into
two pieces to create the faces necessary for the
Core and Cavity tooling. Splitting the face can
be done manually with the Split Line
command or it can be done with options in the
Parting Line command. See Case Study:
Splitting a Part on page 159.
Straddle
Face
Parting
Surface
Find Steep Faces When Face Classification is turned on, steep

faces can also be identified with unique colors.
Steep faces include portions of the face that
have less than the required draft.
The Show/Hide buttons can be used to

hide or show the faces with different types of
draft. Sometimes these surfaces are very small
and hard to find on the part when all surfaces
are visible.
65
Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
3 Modify Draft Analysis options.

Click Face Classification and Find Steep
Faces.
4 Results.
There are 16 faces that require draft.
These are the side faces of the Stand-offs
feature. Because of how the feature was created,
the draft will need to be added as a separate
Draft feature.
5 Keep draft analysis colors.
Click OK .
The colors will remain on the model and will
update as changes are made. They can be
removed by toggling off Draft Analysis in the
CommandManager or View, Display menu.
Adding Draft Many features allow for draft to be added

during feature creation, such as Extruded Boss
and Extruded Cut. However in some designs,
or in imported models, draft must be added as
a separate feature. The Draft feature has
several types of drafts that can be created and
also includes a DraftXpert mode for allowing
the system to manage the feature order. Here is
a brief summary of the types of draft:
 Neutral Plane
If there is a plane or face that can be selected which represents the
direction of pull as well as the location the draft angle should be
applied from, Neutral Plane draft can be used.
Note This is the only type of draft that can be created with DraftXpert.
DraftXpert can assist with face selections and will automatically order
draft features appropriately in feature history. DraftXpert can also be
used to easily change existing draft features.
66
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
 Parting Line
When draft needs to be applied from edges that are not planar, Parting
Line edges can be selected which define where the draft angle should
begin.
 Step Draft
This draft type allows for step faces to be created at the parting line.
Part with Parting Line Parting Line Draft Step Draft
Drafting the Stand- The draft for the Stand-off feature will be a Neutral Plane draft type.
off Feature The draft will be applied from the top face of the feature, which will
retain the feature dimensions, and draft outward from there. We will
use DraftXpert to assist with selecting the faces of the feature that
require draft.
6 DraftXpert.
Click Draft .
Select DraftXpert.
Draft Angle = 3°.
For the Neutral Plane select a top face of the
Stand-offs feature similar to as shown.
Select Auto paint to apply draft analysis colors
according to the selections.
67
Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
7 Face selection.
To assist with face selection, hide the faces that do not require draft by
selecting Hide/Show for Positive and Negative draft.
Press Ctrl+A to select all remaining faces.

Click Apply and click OK .
8 Optional: Move feature.
Move the draft feature into the
Model folder.
9 Turn off Draft Analysis display.
All faces are now properly drafted
in the part.
Toggle off Draft Analysis.
Scaling the Mold tooling is manufactured slightly larger than the plastic part
Model produced from the mold. This is done to compensate for the shrinkage
that results as the hot, ejected plastic cools. Different plastics,
geometry, and molding conditions all have an effect on the shrink
factor. Cast parts are scaled in a similar fashion.
The Scale feature can be used to increase or decrease the size of a
model. There are 3 options for what to scale the model about:
 Centroid
Scales the model about its system-calculated centroid.
 Origin
Scales the model about the model Origin.
 Coordinate System
Scales the model about a user-defined Coordinate System.
The Uniform Scaling option applies the same scale factor in all
directions. This is the default setting. It can be cleared to specify a
different scale factor for each axis.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
Note The Scale command changes the size of the part, but it does not change
the dimensions of preceding features.
Important! When scaling a part with non-uniform scaling, cylindrical holes may no
longer be cylindrical. You may have to change the model to
compensate for this before you create the mold tooling.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Scale

 Menu: Insert, Molds, Scale
 Menu: Insert, Features, Scale
10 Scale.
Click Scale .
Scale about the Centroid.
Set the Scale Factor to 1.05 (5% larger).
Click OK .
Establish the Parting lines are the edges of the molded plastic part that border the
Parting Lines cavity and the core surfaces. The edges of the parting line are the edges
used to separate the surfaces that belong to the core and to the cavity.
They are also the edges that form the inside perimeter of the parting
surfaces.
The Parting Lines command allows the designer to automatically or
manually establish the parting edges. Later, this parting line feature will
be used to create parting surfaces. A draft analysis is done as part of the
Parting Line command. Typically, edges on the model where faces
classified as positive and negative draft meet are selected as a parting
line edges.
Parting Lines The options in the Parting Lines command determines how the Parting
Options Line will be used.
 Use for Core/Cavity Split
There may be more than one parting line feature in a model. The option
Use for Core/Cavity Split is used to specify which parting line is
intended for the creation of the mold tooling. When this option is
selected, a set of core/cavity surfaces will be created automatically
when the Parting Lines feature is completed, if possible.
 Split faces
When straddle faces exist with no edges that form a natural parting line,
Split Faces can be used to split the face along the draft transition from
positive to negative. See Using Split Faces on page 155 for more
information.
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Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
 Entities to Split
When you need to force a parting line to cross a planar face, you can
select either pairs of vertices, or sketch entities. See Using Entities to
Split on page 156 for more information.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Parting Lines

 Menu: Insert, Molds, Parting Line
11 Parting Lines Draft Analysis.

Click Parting Lines .
For Direction of Pull select the Front Plane.
Select Use for Core/Cavity Split.
Clear Split Faces.
Click Draft Analysis.
12 Parting Line edges.

When the Draft Analysis is complete, all of the
edges that are shared by green and red faces are
automatically selected and added to the Parting
Lines list.
Note The message in the PropertyManager indicates the core and cavity
surfaces cannot yet be created. Shut-off surfaces are required to close
the open areas of the part.
Click OK .
70
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
Manual Parting Because this example has a relatively simple parting line boundary, the
Lines edges are easily automatically selected. However, sometimes the
parting line may be more complex and the software may not be able to
find the full parting line automatically, or the automatic selections may
need to be modified. For more information on manually selecting
parting line edges, see Manual Selection Techniques on page 119.
Shut-Off After the parting lines are established, the

Surfaces next step is to determine any open molding
areas on the plastic part that need Shut-off
Surfaces.
Shut-off surfaces are used to define the
boundary between the core and cavity Tapered Through hole
halves of the mold when there is no
physical boundary in the part itself. These
open molding areas are where two pieces
of tooling will touch coincidentally to form
the hole.
SOLIDWORKS will attempt to
Shut-off Surface
automatically select the appropriate edges
for the shut-off boundaries, or manual selection techniques can be used.
A copy of the shut-off surfaces is then automatically knit into the Core
and Cavity surfaces and used for creating the solid tooling blocks.
Shut-off Surface There are 3 different patch types available for shut off surfaces:
Patch Types
 Tangent
Creates a patch which is Tangent to adjacent faces.
 Contact
Creates the simplest patch which contacts adjacent faces.
 No Fill
Defines a patch boundary without creating a surface. This patch
type is used for a shut-off that will be built manually. See No Fill
Shut-off Surfaces on page 217 for more information.
The patch types can be globally changed by selecting the appropriate
type from the Reset All Patch Types groupbox in the
PropertyManager. To select a different patch type for individual areas,
click the callout in the graphics area.
71
Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
The following table shows the results of the different patch types.
Tangent patch type – tangent to faces below the loop
Tangent patch type – tangent to face above the loop
Contact patch type
No Fill patch type
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Shut-off Surfaces

 Menu: Insert, Molds, Shut-off Surfaces
72
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
13 Shut-offs.
Click Shut-off Surfaces .
The system automatically selects
edges of open areas where
positive and negative draft meet.
Contact type is also
automatically selected.
Click OK .
Manual Shut-off For this simple example, edges for the shut-off surfaces are easily
Surfaces automatically selected. However, sometimes the surfaces to be created
may be more complex and the software may not be able to identify the
edges automatically or the selections may need to be modified. For
more information on manually creating shut-off surfaces, see Manual
Selection Techniques on page 119.
Creating the The system now has all the surface
Parting Surface information required on the model to create
the faces of the core and cavity, as indicated in
the PropertyManager message. However, one
additional surface needs to be created to define
the faces of the tooling which surrounds the
part. The Parting Surfaces feature is
designed to automate the creation of these faces by automatically
extending surfaces from the parting line. The parting surface should
extend further than the intend tooling block size, unless an interlock
surface will be included in the design (see Interlocking the Mold
Tooling on page 81).
The Parting Surfaces command creates surfaces that extrude from the
parting line in a perpendicular direction to the direction of pull, normal
to the adjacent model surfaces, or tangent to the adjacent model
surfaces. There are also settings provided to control the Smoothing of
the surfaces if required.
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Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
Parting Surfaces There are three ways to align the Direction of Pull
Options parting surface. To demonstrate, we
will use a hemisphere with the cross
section shown.
Parting Line edge
 Tangent to Surface Reference Surface

The parting surface is tangent to
the surface of the model that is
closest to being normal to the
direction of pull. In the image,
this is the top face of the
hemisphere.
 Normal to Surface
The parting surface is normal to
the face which is closest to
being parallel to the direction of
pull. In the image, this is the
exterior wall of the hemisphere.
Reference Surface
 Perpendicular to Pull
The parting surface is
perpendicular to the direction of
Direction of Pull
pull. This is the most commonly
used option.
74
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
 Angle
This defines the limit for the angle between the pull direction and the
normal to the parting surface. This is only applicable to the Tangent to
Surface and Normal to Surface options. Consider the illustration
below. The picture shows the parting surface tangent to the reference
surface.
The blue line represents the normal to the parting surface. It is at a 15°
angle to the direction of pull because the reference surface was cut at a
15° angle to the horizontal. Any value of Angle that is equal to or
greater than 15° has no effect on the parting surface.
Direction of Pull
Reference Surface
In the illustration below, the value of Angle is set to10°. This limits the
angle of the parting surface to no more than 10° from the direction of
pull.
Direction of Pull
Reference Surface
Therefore, when using Angle with the Tangent to Surface option, the
parting surface will be tangent to the reference surface unless being so
would cause it to be more than the Angle value from the direction of
pull.
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Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
Smoothing the When creating mold tooling, remember that the tooling is
Parting Surface manufactured directly from the design. There are several processes that
take place in the machining of the tooling. Two of these processes are
CNC milling and EDM machining.
CNC milling requires end-mills with rounded tips (ball-mills) to
machine the 3D shapes into the metal. When there are tight or sharp
transitions in the 3D shape, a ball-mill cutter may not fit in the area to
machine it. When an end-mill cannot fit into the more complicated
geometry transitions, another manufacturing process called EDM
machining is used to eliminate the material that the end-mill could not
remove. EDM machining is a very time consuming process. The more
EDM machining you can eliminate from the manufacturing process,
the faster the mold can be manufactured.
To address this, the Parting Surfaces command includes a
Smoothing option to adjust the parting line geometry, minimizing
sharp corners that are inaccessible to the ball-mill. Although it may not
completely remove the sharp areas, it can drastically cut down on the
amount of EDM machining needed to create the tooling.
This ball-mill does not fit in the corner Smoothing allows ball-mill into corner
Another benefit of smoothing the parting surfaces is to eliminate the

sharp edges on the parting surfaces. Sharp edges on the tooling wear
out faster than rounded corners. The smoothing process allows longer
lasting tooling to be designed.
Sharp Edges wear faster Rounded edges last longer
76
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
The Parting Surfaces Smoothing option rounds off sharp transitions in

the parting surface. The Distance setting defines the maximum
dimension between adjacent edges. The higher the value, the smoother
the transition.
Additional Options Checkboxes at the bottom of the Parting Surface PropertyManager

include:
 Knit all surfaces
Automatically knits all parting surfaces to form a single surface body.
This option may be cleared if manual surface modeling techniques are
required.
 Show Preview
Displays a preview of the parting surfaces in the graphics area.
 Manual Mode
Displays handles that allow the parting surface to be manipulated
manually. See Manual Parting Surface Techniques on page 186 for
more information.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Parting Surfaces

 Menu: Insert, Molds, Parting Surface
77
Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
14 Parting surface.
Click Parting Surface .
The parting line feature specified for Core/Cavity Split is automatically
selected.
Click Perpendicular to pull.
Set the Distance to 50mm.
Click OK .
Note The parting surface for this model is planar, so Smoothing settings are
not required. For an example of using smoothing settings, see Parting
Surface Smoothing on page 97.
15 Hide the parting line.

Select Parting Line1 and click Hide .
Surface Bodies Completing the Parting Lines, Shut-off

Surfaces, and Parting Surfaces commands
results in surface bodies being created.
SOLIDWORKS automatically creates three
surface body folders to organize these bodies
for the tooling.
When manual methods are required to create
the necessary surfaces, these folders can also
be added by using the Insert Mold
Folders command.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
Creating the All the surfaces required to create the mold tooling are now existing in
Mold Tooling the part and are organized in the correct surface body folders. We can
now create the mold tooling.
Tooling Split The Tooling Split command automates the creation of the solid bodies
that represent the cavity and core of the mold tooling.
The Tooling Split feature requires a sketch at the proper location for the
core and cavity split and at the desired size of the mold inserts. The
command then uses the surfaces in the Surface Bodies folder to create
the faces of the core and cavity solid bodies.
The Cavity Surface Bodies and the Parting Surface Bodies are
combined and used to cut a solid block for the cavity side of the mold.
Simultaneously, a mold core is created by combining the Core
Surface Bodies with the Parting Surface Bodies. These surface
bodies are cut from the same solid block.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Tooling Split

 Menu: Insert, Molds, Tooling Split
16 Sketch .
Select the parting surface as the sketch plane.
Create the outline of the tooling.
Exit Sketch .
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Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
17 Create Tooling.
Click Tooling Split .
Set the Depth in Direction 1 to 38mm.
Set the Depth in Direction 2 to 12.5mm.
Note The surface bodies from the Mold Folders are automatically selected in
the PropertyManager.
Click OK .
18 Results.
There are now 2 new solid bodies in the model resulting from the
tooling split.
Seeing Inside We now have three solid bodies in the part. To see the individual pieces
the Mold better, we can use one of the techniques described below, or a
combination of these options.
 Hide/Show bodies
You can choose to Hide , Show , or Isolate individual bodies to
keep only the body or bodies of interest visible. From the keyboard,
Tab can be used to hide a body the cursor is over and Shift+Tab can be
used to show a hidden body.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
 Move bodies
Individual bodies can be moved to different positions using the Move/
Copy Bodies command or by creating an Exploded View .
 Change the appearance of the bodies
Transparency or different transparent appearances can be added to the
bodies to help differentiate them from one another.
19 Hide the surfaces.

Select the Surface Bodies folder and click Hide .
20 Isolate.
Right-click one of the mold tooling bodies and click Isolate.
Exit Isolate to return to the previous display.
Isolate the other tooling body to see the results.
Cavity Core
Click Exit Isolate.
Interlocking the The Tooling Split command includes an option to automatically create
Mold Tooling an Interlock surface. Interlock surfaces are tapered from the parting
surfaces and help the mold seal properly. They also help guide the
tooling into place when the mold closes and keep the tooling aligned
when the mold is closed. The taper also keeps the steel that forms these
surfaces from galling when the mold is open or shut.
Creating Interlock To demonstrate using an interlock surface, we will modify the Camera
Surfaces Body example to use this option. Interlocks are extended from the
parting surface to the splitting plane similar to a ruled surface.
Therefore, when creating an interlock, the parting surface cannot
extend past the tooling block size, as is required without interlocks. So
the first step to creating interlocks for the Camera Body will be to
modify the parting surface distance. Then a new plane will be required
for the tooling block sketch. This plane will be positioned at the new
split location for the tooling block. The interlock will extend to this
plane.
81
Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
21 Rollback.
Position the rollback bar above Tooling Split1.
22 Edit the parting surface.
Select Parting Surface1 and click Edit
Feature .
Change the Distance to be 10mm.
Click OK .
23 New plane.
Click Plane .
Offset the Front Plane 6mm towards the
back of the part.
24 Roll forward.
Move the rollback bar to the end of the FeatureManager design tree.
Note The Tooling Split1 feature is
now exhibiting an error. This is
because the parting surface is no
longer large enough to split the
tooling block. This error will be
addressed by creating interlock
surfaces.
25 Edit sketch plane.

Select the tooling split sketch.
Click Edit Sketch Plane .
Select Plane1. Click OK .
26 Edit tooling split.
Select Tooling Split1 and click Edit
Feature .
Click Interlock surface and set the angle to 3°.
Click OK .
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
27 Results.
Modify the appearances
of the bodies and their
positions to view the
results.
Note If using the Exploded
View command to move
bodies, be advised that
some functions will be
unavailable while the
model is in the exploded
state.
Creating Part This final step for the model inserts is to save the bodies as individual
and Assembly parts and use them in an assembly. These steps can be automated using
Files the Save Bodies command. The default file name for parts created
with this tool will be the names of the solid bodies. We will rename the
bodies of the part to automate the correct part file names.
Note For detailed information on using the Save Bodies feature, see the
Advanced Part Modeling course.
28 Rename bodies.
Rename the solid
Camera Core
bodies:
 Camera
 Camera
Cavity
 Camera Core
Camera
Camera Cavity
83
Lesson 2 SOLIDWORKS
Core and Cavity
29 Save bodies.
Right-click the Solid Bodies folder and click
Save Bodies.
Tip Exploded views will need to be collapsed to
use this feature.
Select all 3 bodies to be saved.
Clear Consume cut bodies.
Select Propagate visual properties.
Under Create Assembly, click Browse.
Name the assembly Camera Mold and save it
to the Lesson02\Case Study folder.
Click OK .
30 Results.
The new parts and assembly is created. The new assembly has been
opened in a separate document window.
Activate the Camera Mold document window.
Each of the three parts in the assembly have external references back to
the solid bodies in the Camera Body part.
84
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 2
Core and Cavity
31 Optional: Create an exploded view.

Create an exploded view to show the individual parts.
32 Save and close the files.
Completing the Now that we have individual parts for the two plates of our mold, we
Mold would create the remaining geometry such as runners and gates,
cooling lines, etc. and parts to place the plate in a mold base. As we
only need core SOLIDWORKS functionality to do these tasks, we will
not do them here, but will complete a mold base in a later lesson.
85
Casting
This cast part has a planar parting

line and parting surface. Use the
steps in the SOLIDWORKS mold
design process to create the mold
inserts.
The mold design process steps are as follows:

1. Open or import a model.
2. Diagnose and fix translation errors (if necessary).
3. Analyze the model.
4. Modify the model (if necessary).
5. Scale the plastic part.
6. Establish the parting lines.
7. Create shut-off surfaces for holes (if necessary).
8. Create the parting surfaces.
9. Separate the tooling into core and cavity solid bodies.
10. Design additional tooling (if necessary).
11. Create individual parts and an assembly from the solid bodies
if required.
12. Complete the mold.
This exercise reinforces the following skills:
 Core and Cavity Mold Design on page 58
 Using the Draft Analysis Tool on page 62
 Scaling the Model on page 68
 Establish the Parting Lines on page 69
 Creating the Parting Surface on page 73
 Tooling Split on page 79
Units: millimeters
86
Casting
Procedure
1 Open a part file.
Open Casting from the
Lesson02\Exercises folder.
2 Analyze the model.

For Direction of Pull, select the
bottom face.
Click Reverse Direction , if
necessary.
There are no faces that require
additional draft. Click Cancel .
3 Scale the part.
Click Scale .
Select Centroid and Uniform scaling.
Click OK .
4 Establish the parting line.
Use the bottom face and a 1°
draft angle to generate the
parting line as shown.
Click Reverse Direction ,
if necessary.
Click OK .
87
Casting
5 Create the parting surface.

Select Perpendicular to pull.
Click OK .
6 Sketch .
Select the parting surface as the sketch plane and create the outline of
the tooling.
Exit Sketch .
7 Tooling split.
Set the Depth in Direction 1 to
65mm.
Set the Depth in Direction 2 to
15mm.
Click OK .
88
Casting
8 Results.
There are now 2 new solid bodies in the model resulting from the
tooling split.
9 Hide surfaces and parting line.
Hide the surface bodies by selecting the Surface Bodies folder and
clicking Hide .
Hide the Parting Line1 feature.
10 Rename bodies.
Rename the resulting bodies in the Solid Bodies folder to
Engineered Part, Casting Core, and Casting Cavity.
Casting Core Casting Cavity
11 Exploded View.
Modify body appearances and create
an Exploded View to view all
the solid bodies in the part.
Tip The command search can be a useful
way to find commands not available
on the CommandManager.
Note Exploded views are stored with the active configuration in the
ConfigurationManager. Access an existing exploded view there to
explode and collapse.
89
Ribbed Part
Use the SOLIDWORKS

mold design process to create
a basic mold for an injection
molded part.
following skills:
 Core and Cavity Mold
Design on page 58
 Using the Draft Analysis
Tool on page 62
 Scaling the Model on
page 68
 Establish the Parting Lines on page 69
 Shut-Off Surfaces on page 71
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Open a part file.
Open Ribbed Part from the Lesson02\Exercises folder.
For Direction of Pull, select the
top face. Click Reverse
Direction , if necessary.
There are no faces that require additional draft. Click Cancel .
3 Scale.
Click Scale and increase the size of the body by 1.05.
4 Parting line.
Use the top face to generate the parting line as shown.
90
Ribbed Part
5 Shut-offs.
Use the Shut-off
Surfaces command
to automatically generate
the shut-offs as shown.
All are Contact type.
6 Parting surface.
Create the Parting
Surface as Perpendicular
to pull.
7 Sketch .
Select the parting surface as the sketch plane and create the outline of
the tooling.
91
Ribbed Part
8 Create tooling.
Set the Depth to 25mm in both directions.
9 Rename bodies.
Rename the resulting bodies in
the Solid Bodies folder to
Engineered Part, Core and
Cavity.
10 Exploded View.
Create an exploded view to
view all bodies in the part.
92
Dustpan
Exercise 5: Use the SOLIDWORKS mold design

Dustpan process to create the mold inserts for
a Dustpan. This imported part will
require some repairs to the geometry
and will include interlock surfaces.
Once the bodies of the tooling are
complete, save them to individual
part files and create an assembly.
following skills:
 Core and Cavity Mold Design on
page 58
 Using the Draft Analysis Tool on
page 62
 Scaling the Model on page 68
 Establish the Parting Lines on
page 69
 Creating Part and Assembly Files on page 83
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Import a Parasolid file.
Open Dustpan_Source.X_T from
the Lesson02\Exercises folder.
2 Analyze imported geometry.
The FeatureManager Design Tree
shows this model has imported as a
surface body.
For the dialog regarding Import
Diagnostics, click Yes.
Note If the dialog has been dismissed, Import Diagnostics can be accessed
from the Evaluate CommandManager tab or by right-clicking an
imported feature.
93
Dustpan

Faulty faces and gaps are preventing
the model from knitting into a water
tight solid body.
Right-click the first face in the
Faulty faces list.
The shortcut menu allows several
options for working with faulty
faces.
Click Zoom To Selection on the
shortcut menu.
4 Click What’s Wrong.

Right-click the first face again in the Faulty faces list and click What’s
Wrong. The message indicates that this face has a General Geometry
Problem.
You can also hover the cursor over faces in the list to see tooltips
describing the problems.
5 Inspect the gap.
Right-click Gap<1> in the Gaps between faces list and click Zoom
To Selection.
Inspect the highlighted edges on the model. Zoom in closer if
necessary. Notice the gaps where these edges come together.
94
Dustpan
6 Repair the model.

Inspect the edges. The edges between the faces
are more precise and the gap has been closed.
Notice also the model is now a water tight solid
body.
Click OK .
Tip Use the Attempt to Heal All button to automatically fix the problems
on an imported model. If the results are not satisfactory, use the
commands on the shortcut menus for the Faulty faces list, or the
Gaps between faces list to fix the problems individually.
7 Save .
Save the Dustpan_Source.sldprt to the Lesson02\Exercises
folder.
8 Check the part for proper draft.
Select the top planar face of the dust pan for the
Direction of Pull.
Click Reverse Direction so the core side of

the mold is represented in red.
Select Face Classification and Find Steep Faces.
The direction of pull is normal to the top face of the dust pan.
95
Dustpan
9 Analyze the part.

Examine the model to view the faces which require draft and are
classified as steep.
We have determined that these small faces are acceptable and will not
interfere with the manufacturing of the part.
Click Cancel
10 Scale the plastic part.
Click Scale .
Click OK .

For Direction of Pull select the top face and
Reverse Direction .
Select Use for Core/Cavity Split.
Clear Split Faces.
All of the edges that are shared by green and red
faces are automatically selected and added to the
Parting Lines list.
Click OK .
96
Dustpan
12 Create the shut-off surfaces.

Set the Patch Type to All Tangent .
If necessary, toggle the tangency arrow to
align with the outer faces as shown.
A message in the PropertyManager
indicates:
The mold is separable into core and
cavity.
Click OK .
13 Results.
The surface bodies for the cavity and core are created and organized in
the Surface Bodies folder. They are assigned red and green colors and
are overlaying the faces of the model.
Parting Surface To complete the necessary surfaces for the tooling, the parting surface
Smoothing must still be defined. Since this model has a non-planar parting line, the
parting surface will also be non-planar and will require smoothing. We
will use this example to demonstrate the difference between the Sharp
and Smoothing options within the Parting Surfaces command.
14 Create the parting surface.

Click Parting Surfaces .
For Mold Parameters select Perpendicular to pull.
Set the Smoothing option to Sharp .
Click OK .
97
Dustpan
15 Examine the sharp corners.

Zoom to view the sharp corners on the parting
surfaces.
These areas may cause problems for
machining the mold tooling.
16 Edit the feature.
Select Parting Surface1 and click Edit
Feature .
17 Use the smoothing option.

Under the Smoothing options, click
Smooth .
Set the Distance to 5.5mm.
Click OK .
18 Examine the model.

Now examine the same area.
The sharp corners have been rounded.
This option provides better machining
conditions, and makes the parting surfaces
last longer when the mold is in production.
Click OK .
19 Create an offset plane.

To prepare for the tooling split with interlock surfaces, a plane is
needed where the tooling blocks will be split.
Select the planar top face of the dustpan and create an offset plane
25mm above it.
98
Dustpan
20 Sketch .
Select Plane1 as the sketch
plane and create the outline of the
tooling as shown.
Exit Sketch .
21 Split the tooling.

Select Interlock surface.
Click OK .
99
Dustpan
22 Results.
Isolate the solid and surface bodies one at a time to examine the
tooling.
Solid Bodies Surface Bodies
Molded Part Parting Surface
Cavity Surface
Cavity Solid
Core Surface
Core Solid
100
Dustpan
Tooling Split The Tooling Split command

Results did a lot of work. It created a
block based on the sketch and
then split the block using
different combinations of the
surfaces from the three
Surface Bodies folders.
To create the surface used for
the cavity, the outer surface of
the dustpan (blue) was knit to
the shutoff surface and the
parting surface (green). This
knit surface was then knit to the
interlock surface (yellow) and the parting surface (red) which were
automated based on our sketch plane.
To create the core, all the same surfaces were used except that the
inside face of the dustpan was used instead of the outside.
It is important to understand how the surfaces in each of these folders is
used. In this case, we did everything automatically because this was a
relatively simple mold. In later case studies we will examine more
difficult models where some of these surfaces must be created
manually and added to the appropriate folders.
Creating Part and The last step in completing the mold inserts for the Dustpan will be to
Assembly Files use the bodies for the creation of new parts and an assembly. Before
using the Save Bodies command, we will rename the bodies to
organize them in the part and automate the file names for the new
documents.
Additionally, we will add a Coordinate System feature that can be
used to orient the new parts correctly. For the new parts that are
created, we want the coordinate system to be aligned with the tooling
blocks, instead of orientated with the Dustpan design as the bodies
currently are.
Current Right View in Desired Right View for new

Dustpan_Source parts
101
Dustpan
23 Rename the solid bodies.

Rename the bodies in the Solid Bodies folder as follows:
 Dustpan-part
 Dustpan-core
 Dustpan-cavity
24 Add a Coordinate System.
Click Coordinate System .
Tip The Coordinate System feature can be found on the
CommandManager Features tab under Reference Geometry.
For the Origin , select the lower right
corner of the tooling block.
For the X axis, select the front
horizontal edge of the block as shown.
For the Y axis, select the front vertical
edge as shown.
Click OK .
25 Save Bodies.
Save Bodies.
Select the first body to be saved in the
PropertyManager.
Activate the Origin Location selection box
and select the Coordinate System1 feature
from the flyout FeatureManager tree.
Repeat for the 2 additional bodies.
Note The Origin Location must be selected for
each body being saved. Click each body in
the table to verify the new coordinate system
has been chosen for each.
Click OK .
Note We will create the assembly separately rather than from the Save
Bodies command so the new coordinate system for the parts will be
used.
26 Optional: Open the 3 new part documents.
Open the new parts that were create and to examine the results.
102
Dustpan
27 Open a new assembly.

Click New and choose the Assembly_MM template.
28 Begin Assembly.
Select the Dustpan-part and use the Green Check to drop it on
the assembly Origin.
29 Insert components.
Click Insert Components .
Select the Dustpan-cavity and use the Green Check to drop it on
the assembly Origin.
Repeat for the Dustpan-core.
30 Save the assembly.
Save the assembly as Dustpan Mold in the
31 Evaluate assembly.
The new assembly is created and opened in a
separate document window.
Each of the three parts in the assembly have
external references back to the solid bodies
in the Dustpan_Source part.
32 Create an exploded view.
Create an exploded view and modify the part
appearances as desired.
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Dustpan
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 Utilize thickness and undercut analysis.
 Use the Core command to create additional tooling.
 Manually select parting line edges.
 Manually select Shut-off Surface edges.
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Additional Mold So far, we have created molds with only two pieces of tooling: core and
Tooling cavity. However, molds can be much more complicated. Some molding
areas require tooling that does not travel in the same direction that the
plastic part ejects from the mold. This requires engineering tooling
such as side cores and lifters.
Additionally, areas of small detail in a model may be designed with
core pins to prevent wear to the core and cavity. Ejector pins may also
be incorporated into the design to assist will ejecting the part from the
mold.
SOLIDWORKS software provides commands to help automate the
creation of tooling that travels in a different direction than the primary
direction of pull.
Rendered with Real View Graphics
Additional Tooling For the Power Saw Housing illustrated above, several pieces of
Design Process additional tooling are required including a side core, lifter, and several
core pins. The key steps in designing additional tooling are listed
below:
 Analyze the model.
Use the SOLIDWORKS Evaluate tools to identify areas that may
provide manufacturing challenges such as inconsistent material
thickness or undercut areas.
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 Establish side cores and lifters.

When necessary, an optional design step is applied to separate “side
cores” and “lifters” from the core and cavity bodies. This creates
tooling that does not travel in the same direction as the primary parting
direction of the tooling.
 Create pins.
Core pins are created to form detail areas in the plastic part. These
molding areas are areas that can wear faster than the other faces of the
tooling. By creating molding areas with core pins, the mold can be
easily repaired by switching out core pins, rather than replacing an
entire piece of tooling.
Ejector pins may also be required to complete the mold tooling. These
pins are used to assist with ejecting the part from the core and cavity.
Additional tooling can often be created using the SOLIDWORKS Core
command. The Core feature extracts additional bodies from the
existing tooling to generate cores and pins as required.
Case Study: For the Power Saw Housing

Power Saw example, the core and cavity
Housing tooling has already been
created. In the first steps of this
case study, we will roll back
the model, analyze the part,
and determine how the tooling
split was generated.
An Undercut Analysis will
then be done to find molding
areas where additional tooling
is required.
1 Open part.
Open Power Saw Housing from the Lesson03\Case Study folder.
2 Rollback the part.
Right-click Scale1 in the
FeatureManager design tree and click
Rollback .
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Thickness Thickness analysis is done to determine areas that may be either too
Analysis thick or thin for molding. If the part is too thick, it may develop a sink
area or warp. If it is too thin, the mold may not fill properly.
The Thickness Analysis tool examines the geometry of the part and
identifies areas that are thicker or thinner than specified values. The
analysis results can be shown as either a continuous range of color or
discrete colors on the model. The results of the analysis can be saved as
an HTML report, eDrawing or both.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Evaluate > Thickness Analysis

 Menu: Tools, Thickness Analysis
Analyzing the Power For the Power Saw Housing, the design specification is for a wall
Saw Housing thickness of 2.5mm. Using Thickness Analysis, we will check to
make sure that the model does not have any areas that are thinner, or
more than 150% thicker than intended.
3 Thickness Analysis.
Click Thickness Analysis .
4 Set thickness parameters.
Type 2.5mm for the thickness.
Click Show thick regions. A second thickness
box will appear.
Type 3.8mm in this box.
5 Set color parameters.

Under Color Settings, select Full color range.
Click Discrete and increase the value to 8 to
show eight colors.
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6 Calculate thick regions.

Click Calculate and examine the results.
The Thickness scale is shown in the PropertyManager and we can see
that there are no areas over our limit of 3.8mm.
7 Calculate thin regions.

Select Show thin regions and then Calculate.
We see several areas that are not shown in the ideal thickness colors.
This indicates that the part thickness does not meet the minimum,
desired thickness.
The Thickness Analysis command does not fix the problem with the
model. It only does the analysis and presents the results. It is up to the
designer to fix the problem. In this case, we are going to let the areas
stay as they are, but in many cases you may have to modify the model
or go back to the original designer for resolution.
Click OK to close the command.
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Detecting Undercut Analysis finds trapped molding areas on the part. A trapped
Undercuts molding area is an area on the part that cannot be released from the
tooling using the primary direction of pull. This command can help
locate areas that will need tooling such as lifters and side cores.
Undercut Analysis The Undercut Analysis command helps determine where there are
trapped molding areas by classifying and color coding faces.
To determine which faces are undercut, the Undercut Analysis
command looks down the pull direction from both directions and
determines which faces are not visible.
Like the Draft Analysis command, Undercut Analysis is done on the
GPU and the colors remain active and update immediately when
changes are made.
The Undercut Analysis command has both a simple and complex
mode. In the simple mode, faces are classified based on their visibility
looking along the parting vector. In complex mode, face classification
is modified based on your specified parting line.
If the part contains a parting line feature, it defines the direction of pull.
If there is no parting line feature, you must define the direction of pull.
The undercut analysis is parting line
dependent. If we examine the simple part
shown: The highlighted portion of the face
shown may or may not be undercut,
depending on how the parting line is
defined.
If the parting line is planar and goes
around the middle of the part, then the face
indicated will be undercut.
Parting Line Undercut
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If the parting line goes around the protruding boss, the there is no
undercut.
Parting Line No Undercut
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Undercut Analysis

 CommandManager: Evaluate > Undercut Analysis
 Menu: View, Display, Undercut Analysis
8 Check the model for

undercuts.
Click Undercut Analysis .
Choose the Top Plane as the
Direction of Pull.
Zoom in on the battery pack and
the trigger location to see the
faces that are colored red.
These areas require tooling that
travels perpendicular to the
direction of pull.
Click Cancel to close the PropertyManager without saving the
colors.
9 Examine the parting lines.
Move the Rollback bar to just after Parting
Surface2 in the FeatureManager design tree.
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10 Examine the parting surfaces.

Notice that this part has two parting lines and two parting surfaces.
SOLIDWORKS allows the use of multiple instances of these features
where appropriate.
Parting Surfaces
11 Roll to end.
Right-click anywhere in the FeatureManager design tree and click
Roll to End.
Trapped Red faces in the undercut analysis indicate trapped areas that will
Molding Areas prevent the plastic part from ejecting from the tooling. To form these
areas and allow for the part to release from the mold, additional tooling
such as side cores and lifters will need to be designed. Ideally,
additional tooling should be kept to a minimum. When there are no side
cores or lifters, the mold is less expensive to design and manufacture.
However, trapped molding areas cannot always be avoided.
Side Cores A side core is a piece of tooling that slides out of the mold
perpendicular to the direction that the part is ejected from the mold.
Core Feature The Core command creates side cores or other additional tooling
pieces based on an active sketch and geometry of existing tooling
blocks.
To create a Core, first create a sketch around the area that requires new
tooling. The sketch profile can be designed parallel or perpendicular to
the direction in which the side core travels away from the plastic part.
The Core feature then uses the sketch profile to extract a new solid
body from the core or cavity tooling.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Core

 Menu: Insert, Molds, Core
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Feature Freeze Freezing a portion of a model can be useful if you work with complex
models with many features. In mold design, it may make sense to
freeze features before adding mold features to improve performance.
Feature Freeze allows you to exclude features from rebuilds of the part,
while still having them represented in the model (unlike suppressing
features). Not only can freezing features help to reduce rebuild time, it
can also prevent unintentional changes to the model.
Where to Find It  Menu Bar: Options , System Options, General,

Enable Freeze bar to activate the functionality
 FeatureManager design tree: Drag the freeze bar down below the
last feature you want to freeze
Freezing Features of To prevent changes to the mold tooling features that already exist in the
the Power Saw Paw Saw Housing example, we will freeze them in the model. This
Housing may also help to reduce rebuild times for the part as we continue to add
features.
12 Freeze the features.

In the Options dialog box under
System Options, General, enable the
freeze bar.
In the FeatureManager design tree, drag
the freeze bar below Tooling Split1 to
freeze that feature and all the features
that precede it.
freeze bar
13 Examine the Side Core Sketch.

Select and edit the sketch named
Side Core Sketch.
This sketch was created on an inside
face of the cavity body that is drafted
5°. The extraction direction for the
Core feature will be defined by this
sketch plane by default.
Note For an example of designing a the core profile parallel to the direction
that the side core will travel. See Exercise 13: Fan Bezel on page 232
for an example.
14 Exit sketch .
Exit the sketch without changes.
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15 Create the side core.

Select the Side Core Sketch from the
FeatureManager design tree.
Click Core .
The face that the Side Core Sketch was
sketched on is automatically selected as the
extraction direction.
The Cavity is automatically selected as the
Core/Cavity body because the sketch plane for
the Core Sketch is a face of the Cavity body.
Set the Draft Angle to 5° with the Draft outward
option.
Set the first direction

End Condition to
Through All.
Set the second End
Condition to Blind.
Set the second Distance
to 7.5mm.
Click OK .
Creating the Side Core
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16 Examine the Solid Bodies folder.

Notice that there is now a new folder named Core bodies.
The Core command created a new solid body for the side core.
This command created the body, and then subtracted it from the cavity
body.
Any bodies created by the Core command are stored in this new folder
in the FeatureManager design tree.
The cavity and plastic part were hidden to show the resulting body of the Core command
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Lifters A different technique is needed when there is

a trapped molding area that not even a side
core can create. Look to the trigger area of the
saw bezel. There is a key shaped opening that
is used for a safety lock. Because there is
limited room in the trigger area, adding a side
core is problematic. In this situation, mold
designers create a mechanical device called a lifter.
This piece of tooling is moved by the ejector box. As the ejector box
strokes forward, it pushes the lifter upwards and backwards on an
angle, leaning away from the molding area. As it slides up and away
from the molding area, it helps to lift the plastic part off of the core.
The lifter slides upwards and away from the molding area.
17 Edit the Lifter Sketch.

The shank of the lifter is leaned
back 15° from the direction of pull.
Notice also the 5° angle on the
front of the profile. This acts as an
interlock, and keeps the part from
sliding all the way through the
bottom of the core.
18 Exit sketch .
Exit the sketch without changes.
19 Hide the cavity body and the plastic part body.
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20 Create the lifter.

Select the Lifter Sketch from the
FeatureManager design tree.
Click Core .
Select the blue Core body of the tooling for the
Core/Cavity body. This defines the body from
which the lifter will be subtracted.
Turn off Draft.
Set both End Conditions to Blind.
Set both of the Depth along extraction
direction values to 12.5mm.
Click OK .
21 Rename bodies.
Notice that this new body is listed in the Core bodies folder.
Rename this body Lifter.
The lifter was moved using the Move/Copy Bodies command for illustration purposes.
Rename the other tooling bodies as follows:

Core1[2] to Side Core.
Core1[1] to Tooling Cavity.
Core2[1] to Tooling Core.
Note Generally, once a body is renamed it no longer inherits the name of the
last feature applied. However, when new bodies are created as the result
of a feature, the bodies will inherit the name of the feature. Renaming
bodies help keep the model organized.
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Core Pins The Core command can also be

used to separate the core pin
molding areas from the tooling.
Core pins are created to form
detail areas in the plastic part
that tend to wear faster than the
surrounding tooling. For the
Power Saw Housing, we will
add core pines for the mounting
hole areas of the part.
22 Core pins.
Show the Tooling Cavity body.
Select the Core Pin Sketch.
Click Core .
The face that the Core Pin Sketch was sketched
on is automatically selected as the extraction
direction.
The Tooling Cavity is selected as the Core/
Cavity body.
Turn off Draft.
Set the first End Condition to Through All.
Set the second End Condition to Blind and set
the Depth away from extraction direction to
0.0mm.
Note It may be necessary to reverse the extraction direction if the first
direction is not going into the cavity.
Click OK .
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All of the core pins (10 solid bodies) are added to the model and are
listed in the Core bodies folder.
Rename the last feature to Core Pins and hide all of the solid bodies
except the plastic part and the core pins to view how the surfaces are
related.
Note The plastic part has been made transparent for illustration purposes.
Manual With complex molded parts which require multiple directions of pull
Selection and pieces of tooling, features such as Parting Lines and Shut-off
Techniques Surfaces may not be able to automatically recognize all edges for
selection. Additionally, the automated selection may need to be
manually modified to get a desired result. When these situations occur,
manual selection techniques can be used.
Manual selection techniques include:
 Using the selection tools in the PropertyManager (see Selection
Tools on page 119).
 Directly selecting using the mouse.
 Using the system selection commands such as Select Tangency
and Select Loop (right mouse button), or Propagate .
Selection Tools When manual selections are required, selections tools are visible in the
PropertyManager. The selection tools are:
 Add the current edge to the selection (keyboard shortcut = “y”).
 Flip to an alternate edge (keyboard shortcut = “n”).
 Zoom the display to the current edge.
If you change your mind or make an incorrect selection, click Undo in
the PropertyManager.
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The Message Pane As soon as proper selections have been made for the Parting Line and/
or Shut-Off Surfaces the system will create the core and cavity surface
sets and organize them into the Mold Folders. The message pane in the
PropertyManager of these tools indicates when the tooling surfaces are
complete. The messages are color coded to indicate the state of the
model:
 Green - the parting line is complete
 Yellow - additional actions are required, such as shut-offs
 Red - problems exist, such as multiple loops
Note There is a selection in the PropertyManager to disable knitting of the

surfaces. This is useful if manual surface modeling techniques are
intended to be used. See Lesson 5: Creating Custom Surfaces for Mold
Design for more information.
Case Study: In this case study, we will create the core and cavity mold inserts for
Mixer Base one component of a hand held mixer. This part has some easy shut-offs
that can be done automatically, and others that will require a little more
work.
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1 Open part.
Open Mixer Base from the Lesson03\Case Study folder. This part
was imported from another CAD system and has already had Import
Diagnostics run and import errors repaired.
2 Draft analysis.
For Direction of Pull, select a
planar face of one of the
standoffs.
Click Reverse Direction so
the red faces represent the core
side of the mold.
Set the Draft Angle to 1° and select the planar face on one of the
standoffs to define the pull direction and reverse the direction as
necessary.
3 Show only faces that require
draft.
Click Face classification.
Click Show/Hide for Positive
draft, Negative draft and
Straddle faces.
We now see only the faces that
have less than 1° of draft. Many of
these are undercut faces that will
require further analysis. the other faces in the part have been
determined to be acceptable.
Click Cancel .
4 Scale the part.
Scale the part about its Centroid.
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5 Parting line.
Click Parting Line .
For Direction of Pull, select
a planar face of one of the
standoffs.
Click Reverse Direction .
Set the Draft Angle to 1° and
click Draft Analysis.
With this part, the parting line is relatively simple and the selected
parting line is satisfactory.
Click OK .
6 Create shut-off surfaces.
Examine the preview and the message in the PropertyManager.
The shut-off surface for multi-sided opening in the middle of the part
needs to be modified. Click the flag attached to this loop to change the
patch type to Tangent. Ensure the direction is correct as indicated in
the illustration.
Click to change direction if necessary Correct intended direction
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7 Evaluate hole shut-offs.

The 3 through holes in the stand off features require a different edge
selection. To make the change, the existing loops will need to be de-
selected.
Modifying Shut- The Shut-off Surfaces command will attempt to automate creating
Off Surfaces surfaces to fill holes in the core and cavity based on the previously
created parting line feature, the draft angle transitions and open loops
(holes) recognized by the system. Options for removing the automatic
selections are as follows:
 Right-click in the selection list and click Clear Selections to
remove all selections.
 Left-clicking a selected edge will toggle off the selection.
 Right-click individual loop flag callouts and click Delete.
 Right-click individual loop edges and click De-select Loop.
Once selections have been removed, use manual selection techniques
(page 119) to select new edges or build them manually using surface
features.
Manual Shut-Off If the shut-off surface built by the system is not of the correct shape or
Surfaces cannot be built, it is still possible to make it using other
SOLIDWORKS surface functions. This technique will be covered in
detail in Lesson 6: Advanced Surfacing for Mold Design.
8 De-select loops.
Remove the selections for the 3 through holes using the techniques
described above.
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9 Select new edges.

Select the appropriate hole edge as shown.
Manually Selecting The undercut areas of the model are not automatically selected for shut-
Loops off surfaces. These loops will need to be selected manually. We’ll use
several techniques just to demonstrate the different types. In a practical
application, you would most likely use just one or a few methods based
on your needs and preferences.
10 Manually select loops.

Zoom in to the area shown.
Use the different methods in the list below to create the shut-off
surfaces.
 Right-click edge 1 and 6
7
5
click Select Tangency. 3
4
1 2
 Right-click edge 2 and
click Select Loop.
 Select edge 3 and then
Propagate . This will
select all but the last edge,
click the edge to select it
and complete the loop.
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 Select edge 4. In the PropertyManager, click Add Selected

Edge three times and the edge will propagate until the entire
loop is selected.
 Select edge 5. In the graphics area, select the remaining three edges
that form this opening.
 Select edge 6. Use the keyboard shortcut “Y” to select the next three
edges.
 Select edge 7. Click Zoom to Selected Edge in the
PropertyManager, this will zoom in on the selected edge. Click Add
Selected Edge three times in the PropertyManager. The zoom
point will follow the propagation.
11 Add remaining shut-off surfaces.
Zoom in on the other end of the model. Use any of the methods from
the previous step to create the seven additional shut-off surfaces.
Note At this point, the message will change to green

and tell us that the mold is separable into core
and cavity. If it is not green, you missed one or
more of the holes.
12 Click OK to create the shut-off surfaces.
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13 Create a parting surface.

Create a Parting Surface using the
Perpendicular to pull option.
Set the Distance to 37.5mm.
14 Sketch .
Select the parting surface as the
sketch plane.
Create the outline of the tooling.
Exit Sketch .
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15 Create a tooling split.

Type 50mm and 25mm for the depths of the two halves of the mold.
Clear Interlock surface, if necessary.
Click OK .
16 Results.
There is now three solid bodies in this part, the part itself plus the core
and cavity bodies.
17 Hide the surfaces.
Select the Surface Bodies folder and click Hide .
Select Parting Line1 and click Hide .
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19 Apply appearances.
Click the Appearances tab on the Task Pane.
Locate the appearance blue glass in the Glass, Gloss folder.
Drag the appearance from the Task Pane onto the
cavity body. Click Body on the toolbar.
Repeat and apply green glass to the core body.
Apply yellow high gloss plastic to the entire
part.
We can now see through the core and cavity
bodies.
20 Exploded view.
Create an exploded view to
separate the bodies to see the
individual features.
On the ConfigurationManager,
right-click the Default
configuration and click
New Exploded View .
Tip The Exploded View
command can also be accessed
from the Insert Menu.
Create Explode Steps to
generate a view similar to as
shown. Click OK .
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21 Collapse the view.

Double-click ExplView1 or right-
click and select Collapse.
22 Save and close the part.
Completing the This part will require some

Tooling additional tooling such side cores
and pins to properly manufacture
some features. This will be
completed as an exercise following
this lesson.
See Exercise 7: Completing the
Mixer Base on page 137.
129
Towing Mirror
This model of a Towing Mirror

requires additional tooling after the
core and cavity to create the
openings in each side. Create the
tooling split, then use the Core
feature to develop to tooling
required.
following skills:
 Detecting Undercuts on
page 110
 Manual Selection Techniques
on page 119
 Side Cores on page 112
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Open an existing part.
Open Towing_Mirror from the Lesson03\Exercises folder.
2 Undercuts.
Perform an Undercut
Analysis on this model.
Select the thickness face as
the Direction of Pull.
The faces that fall into the
Occluded Undercut
category (red) will require a
side core.
Cancel Undercut Analysis to discard the colors.
3 Draft analysis .
Check the draft using the
thickness face as the Direction
of Pull and 2° of draft.
Click Reverse Direction

so the red faces represent the
core side of the mold.
The faces of the core and
cavity have acceptable draft.
Since the faces of the Side_Hole feature will be included in side core
tooling, they require analysis using a different pull direction.
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Towing Mirror
Change the Direction of

Pull to the Front Plane.
The faces of the Side_Hole
feature require draft in this
direction.
Click Cancel .
Adding Draft to the Since the 2 side holes have opposite directions of pull, 2 separate draft
Side Holes features will be required. Additionally, since not all edges of the
Side_Hole lie on the same planar face, a parting line draft type will be
need to be used rather than a neutral plane draft type.
4 Add draft to first side.

Click Draft .
Click Manual, if
necessary.
For Type of Draft, use
Parting Line.
Set the Draft Angle to 2°
For the Direction of Pull,
select the Front Plane.
For the Parting Lines, select the inside edges of the Side_Hole feature
as shown.
Tip There are 6 edges that need to be selected. The "g" key can be used to
activate the Magnify Selection command and locate small edges.
Click OK .
5 Add draft to the second side.
Repeat step 4 for the opposite side.
Be sure to Reverse the Direction of Pull so it is pointing towards
the back of the part.
6 Optional: Move features.
Move the new Draft features into the Model folder.
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Towing Mirror
7 Scale the part.

Click Scale .
Click OK .
Add a Parting Line using
the thickness face as the
Direction of Pull and click
Reverse Direction .
9 Shut-off surfaces.
Because of the varying pull
directions for the side holes, the
edges are not selected
automatically.
Use manual selection techniques to select the inside edges of the hole
in each side of the body. Some edges are small so be sure to zoom in or
use the selection tools to properly select the full loop.
10 Parting surface.
Click Parting
Surface .
Create a surface
Perpendicular to
Pull with a Distance
of 75mm.
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Towing Mirror
11 Tooling split.
Create a sketch for the Tooling Split as shown.
For the tooling size, set the Depth in Direction1 = 50mm and Depth in
Direction2 = 25mm.
Clear Interlock surface, if necessary.
Rename the solid bodies to be Engineered
Part, Core, and Cavity.
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Towing Mirror
13 Isolate the Cavity.

Right-click the Cavity body and click Isolate.
This is the body the side core will be extracted from.
14 Sketch .
Begin a sketch on the front face of the Cavity.
15 Change the display style.

Change the display style of the part to be Hidden Lines Visible so
the edges of the side hole can be easily referenced.
16 Side core profile.
Create a sketch on the Cavity body as shown.
There is a Midpoint relation between the end of the centerline and the
edge of the Side Hole.
The profile is symmetrical over the centerline.
Note Over-building the profile at the top allows for draft to be applied in the
Core feature and still include the top face of the Cavity body.
Exit Sketch .
17 Change display state.
Change the model display state back to Shaded with Edges .
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Towing Mirror
18 Exit Isolate.
Click Exit Isolate to show the other bodies in the part.
Click Core and select the side core sketch.
The sketch plane is automatically selected as the
extraction direction.
The Cavity body is automatically selected and
the body to extract from.
Click Draft and specify 2°
Clear Draft outward.
For the first direction End Condition select
Blind, 50mm.
Note We just need to extrude the side core far enough
to capture all the required faces in the Cavity
body.
Leave the second direction at 0.
Click OK .
20 Results.
The sketch is used to separate a new solid body from the Cavity. It is
stored in the Core bodies folder.
21 Repeat for other side.
Repeat the procedure, using the same sketch geometry, for the opposite
side.
Tip Open a sketch on the far side of the Cavity body. Select the sketch you
created in step 16 and click Convert Entities .
135
Towing Mirror
22 Exploded View.
Modify the appearances of the solid bodies and create an
Exploded View to view all pieces of the mold.
136
Completing the Mixer Base
Exercise 7: Create the additional

Completing the tooling required for the
Mixer Base Mixer Base.
This exercise reinforces
the following skills:
 Detecting Undercuts
on page 110
 Side Cores on
page 112
 Core Pins on
page 118
Units: millimeters
Procedure
Open Mixer Base_Exercise
from the Lesson03\
Exercises folder.
2 Hide bodies.
Hide the core and cavity bodies to
show only the engineered part.
137
3 Perform an undercut analysis.

Because we have a parting line feature,
the direction of pull is already defined.
We have occluded undercuts in the seven
vent holes and will have to create a side
core in the mold.
Click Cancel to end the Undercut Analysis.
Cores As mentioned in the previous lesson, cores are pieces of geometry

extracted from the core and cavity bodies. The cores required for this
example will include:
 Side core
 Core pins
 Ejector pins
To create each of the core features for the Mixer Base we will:
 Create a sketch that defines the outline of the core.
 Use the Core feature to define and extract a body from the existing
tooling.
4 Create the side core sketch.

Show the core and cavity bodies.
Create a sketch on the back face of the cavity as shown. The profile is
symmetrical across the centerline.
Notice the sketch is overbuilt at the top to allow for the draft of the core
feature. Options in the Core PropertyManager will be used to only cut
the cavity body of the mold, so this upper portion of the profile is
ignored.
138
5 Exit the sketch.

Click Core .
The extraction direction and body are selected automatically based on
the sketch.
Add a Draft of 2°.
Use an end condition of Blind and a Depth of 30mm.
Click OK .
7 Results.
A new solid body is created and stored in the
Solid Bodies\Core bodies folder in the
Tip The Core command works like the Split
command to divide a body into two or more
bodies.
Isolate the side core body to view the results.
Exit Isolate.
139
8 Optional: Modify appearance.

Note When new bodies are created as
the result of a feature, the
identities of the existing bodies
change. This can result in the loss
of custom body names as well as
the loss of appearances that had
been applied to the body
geometry.
Use the Task Pane, the Display
Pane, or the context menu to modify the body appearances as desired.
9 Create the core pin sketch.
Isolate the green core body.
Seven core pins will be needed.
Create a sketch on the top face of the core
and convert the edges of the seven faces
shown in red.
10 Exit the sketch.
11 Create the core pins.

Click Core . Turn off Draft.
Use a Through All end condition to create
the core pins.
140
Ejector Pins Ejector pins are created using the same Core command. However, there
are some additional steps required because ejector pins are not
axisymmetric and must have the tops of the pins fit the mold profile.
Additionally, the heal end of the ejector pins must be kept oriented
correctly and fit into recesses in the core body.
12 Create the ejector pin sketch.

We want to add four ejector
pins. They are created in
exactly the same way as the
core pins except that we will
also add a locating lug.
Open a new sketch on the top
face of the core and create the
sketch shown.
13 Create the ejector

pins.
Use the Core
command to create
the four pins from the
sketch.
Use the Through All
end condition.
141
14 Ejector pin lugs sketch.

We now must add locating lugs
to the ejector pins to insure that
they line up correctly. We will
use standard multibody design
techniques to add the recessed
cut and the lugs to the pins.
Create the sketch shown on the
top face of the core body.
Note Transparency has been removed
for clarity.
15 Extruded Cut .
Extrude a cut into the core body to a depth of 10mm. Use the
Feature Scope to cut only the core body and not the ejector pins.
16 Extruded Boss .
Use the same sketch and extrude a boss. In the
Feature Scope, turn off Auto-select and
select the four ejector pins.
This will allow the feature to merge with the
pins, but not the tooling block.
Click OK .
142
17 Examine the pins.

Hide the core body and to examine the results.
Show the Core body.

Exit Isolate.
18 Optional: Modify
appearances.
Press Ctrl+Q to
force rebuild the
part and
appearances.
Modify
appearances of to
differentiate the
pin bodies from
the core body.
143
Creating the Mold The next steps will be to create individual parts from the bodies of the
Assembly mold tooling and create the mold assembly. To prepare the model, we
will first rename the bodies of the part. The body names will then be
used as the file names for the new part documents that will be created.
19 Rename bodies.
Rename the bodies as shown.
Save the part.
20 Create the assembly.
Save Bodies.
Click the Save column header to select

all bodies in the part.
Clear Consume cut bodies, if necessary.
Click Propagate visual properties.
Under Create Assembly, click Browse and
navigate to the Lesson03\Exercises folder.
Name the assembly Mixer Base Mold.
Click OK .
21 Open the assembly.
The newly created assembly will be open in a separate document
window.
144
22 Optional: Exploded View and appearances.

Create an Exploded View in the assembly to view the individual
parts.
145
Electrode Design
Exercise 8: Besides side cores and pins, external tooling such as EDM electrodes
Electrode may be required for the manufacture of the core and cavity.
Design EDM electrode design is another challenging part of a mold design and
manufacturing. Electrodes are used to remove steel from areas on the
tooling that cutting tools like end-mills and ball-mills cannot reach or
fit into. SOLIDWORKS provides great modeling tools to produce
accurate and complicated electrodes. This case study demonstrates how
multibody design techniques can be used to create electrodes.
Additionally, the Move Face command will be used to modify faces of
the electrode that may interfere with areas that do not require
machining.

 Multibody Design Techniques from the Advanced Part Modeling
Course
 Move Face from the Advanced Part Modeling Course
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Open a part file.
Open Electrode from the
Lesson03\Case Study
folder.
This part has two solid bodies.
One represents the cavity for
the Power Saw Housing, and
the other represents an
electrode.
146
Electrode Design
2 Hide the Electrode Body.
3 Examine the area that the

electrode will burn.
End mill cutters cannot be used to
machine the highlighted edges.
The cutters are round and these
corners are sharp. Electrode
machining is the only way to
accurately machine these parts of
the cavity.
4 Show the Electrode Body.
5 Make a copy of the cavity body.

To match the electrode geometry to the tooling, we will Combine the 2
bodies using a subtract operation. However, this would eliminate the
cavity body from the model. Since we want the cavity body to remain
in the part, we’ll create a copy of the body that will be used for the
subtraction. Later, the original cavity body will be used to visualize the
clearance between the cavity and the electrode.
Use the Move /Copy command to make a copy of the cavity body
in place.
6 Subtract the copied cavity body from
the electrode body.
Click Insert, Features, Combine .
Select Subtract for the Operation Type.
For the Main Body, select the Electrode
Body.
For Bodies to Combine, select the copied
cavity body.
Click OK .
Examine the resulting body. More work
needs to be done to finish the electrode. Electrode clearances will need
to be added.
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Electrode Design
Electrode To compete the electrode, the areas that do

Modifications not require EDM machining need to be
removed or have clearance added between
the electrode and the tooling.
For this example, the faces highlighted in
red in the image will be deleted from the
electrode. And the faces highlighted in blue
will be moved to provide clearance.
Discharge Gap The electrode faces that contact the tooling should also be offset away
from the tooling due to allow for a discharge gap. The discharge gap,
which is sometimes referred to as a spark gap, provides the clearance
necessary to generate sparks between the electrode and the tooling. The
size of the clearance necessary is determined by the power settings of
the EDM machine. Other terms for this clearance include overburn and
overcut.
Orbiting To make up for the discharge gap, electrodes are orbited in the area that
they are to machine. Orbiting the electrode will help the machinist
achieve the exact dimensions of the shape in the steel being machined.
Also, the wider the orbit, the faster the unwanted metal can be removed
from the tooling.
The section views below show different ways this electrode might be
orbited. As the orbit is made larger, more steel will be removed
wherever the electrode makes contact with the steel.
Orbiting on Right Plane Orbiting on Top Plane
Tip Offsetting the electrode geometry can either be done on the CAD
model, or the tool paths can be offset in the CAM system to achieve the
same effect.
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Electrode Design
Modifying Faces One easy way to modify the faces of the electrode is to use direct
editing tools such as Delete Face and Move Face. When using these
features to modify faces, adjacent surfaces can be automatically
extended and trimmed to accommodate the modification.
7 Remove the pins.

Use the Delete Face command with the Delete and Patch option
to remove the faces that make up the pins and the radii around them.
Important! There are 6 faces total to delete, including 2 small sliver faces located
on the rounded shoulders of the electrode near the base of the pins.
Before After
8 Move the faces.

Click Move Face .
Click Offset.
Select the 3 faces in the diagram below and flip
the direction if necessary.
Move these three faces downwards
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Electrode Design
9 Inspect the adjacent faces.

Notice how the adjacent faces were extended and trimmed to the new
moved faces.
Before After
Note If the electrode was cleared back by extruding cuts straight down
without extending the angled surfaces, witness lines could appear in the
cavity where these surfaces originally ended. The witness lines would
show up in the cavity after the EDM machining was completed.
10 Move two more faces.
Click Move Face .
Click Translate and select the 2 faces shown in blue.
Set the End Condition to Up to Vertex.
For the Parameters, select the vertices and edge in the part as indicated.
This electrode can now be orbited without burning the lands for the
interlocks.
From Entity
To Entity
Direction Ref,
The electrode now has plenty of clearance
11 Show the cavity body.

Show the Cavity Body again and inspect the electrodes clearances.
150
Electrode Design
Keeping the Sharp One more thing to keep in

Edges mind when modeling
electrodes is that sharp edges
on the tooling must be kept
sharp. This electrode is
currently burning too much of
the cavity, and will cause some
critical sharp edges to become
dull, or rolled over. If this
electrode was orbited from the
top plane, these critical edges
would become rounded or
Critical edges must stay sharp!
dulled.
Flash The highlighted edges above are critical tooling edges. These edges
need to be kept sharp or the plastic part may acquire flash around its
edges during the molding process.
Flash is unwanted plastic that forms around the parting lines when the
sharp edges are not created properly or when the mold does not seal
properly.
To avoid this situation, this electrode
will be cleared back so that it only
burns one area of the cavity. The area
that is not burned by this electrode
would then have to be modeled as
another electrode and burned
separately. Burning these areas
separately will ensure that these edges
stay sharp. To keep the edges sharp,
the first electrode can be orbited from
the top plane, and then the secondary
electrode can be orbited from the side
plane.
This plastic part has flash.
151
Electrode Design
12 Clear back the electrode.

Open a sketch on the narrow face
of the step in the electrode and
convert the edges.
Extrude a cut specifying the Up To
Next end condition.
Use the edge to define the direction
of the extrusion as shown.
13 Examine the finished electrode.

The electrode can now be used to
machine this area in the cavity and
the critical edges will remain sharp.
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Lesson 4
Advanced Parting Line
Options

 Understand the options available with the parting line feature.
 Use the parting line command to split straddle faces.
 Use the Split Entities options within the parting line command.
 Use the parting line command to split a solid body.
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Lesson 4 SOLIDWORKS
Case Study: The molded part shown below does not have existing edges at the
Manual Parting desired parting line location. In cases such as this, the parting line
Line command is not able to automatically make the appropriate selections.
To complete the parting line, advanced options within the Parting Line
PropertyManager can be used to manually make selections and define
new edges.
Existing Part Desired Parting Line

Open Manual Parting Line from the Lesson04\Case Study
folder.
2 Scale about the Origin.
Click Scale .
Scale About the Origin using a scale factor of 1.05.
Note Scaling about the Origin, rather than the Centroid, allows the Origin
location to remain associated with the Right Face of the model. You can
control the scaling from an manually pre-defined location by placing a
Coordinate System feature in the model and scaling about its location.
3 Default parting line.
Try to create a parting line based
on the Front Plane and 1° draft.
The initial attempt will yield a
parting line that is an internal loop
in the trigger area. We can also see
that there are many straddle faces
(shown in blue).
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 4
Using Split Faces The Split faces option within the Parting Line command can be used to
automatically split straddle faces. Straddle face are the faces that
“straddle” the area of the desired parting line. Splitting these faces
creates new edges which can be selected to establish the parting line.
Note This option produces similar results as a Split Line feature.
The split for the straddle faces can be specified
in one of two ways:
At +/- draft transition
This option positions the split line at the
transition between positive and negative draft.
At specified angle
This options positions the split line at the
specified draft angle.
4 Split faces.
Select Split Faces, At +/- draft transition.
The straddle faces are now split and have edges that can be selected.
The flat faces on each end of the model however, are not split. These
areas will need to be split using the Entities to Split options.
155
Lesson 4 SOLIDWORKS
Using Entities to The Entities to Split area in the Parting Line command is used to
Split manually define a split line across a face. This option may need to be
used for flat faces that span the parting line. Since these faces have no
angle and there is no transition from positive to negative draft, the Split
Faces option cannot automatically define the split line.
To define the split line for Entities to Split, vertices or an existing
sketch segment can be selected.
5 Split end faces.

Click in the Entities To Split groupbox to make
it active.
Select the two vertices shown. A split line will
be created.
6 Repeat.
Repeat this procedure on the other end of the
part by selecting the two vertices on the small
round surface.
We now have all the edges required to define the
desired parting line.
7 Clear selections.
Right-click within the Parting Lines selection box.
Click Clear Selections.
156
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 4
8 Select edges.
Select one of the edges for the parting line, then click Propagate .
The parting line will not propagate all the way around the part and will
stop at the faces we split manually. Use manual selection techniques to
select edges all the way around the part.
Click OK .
9 Create a Shut-off Surface.

Define a Shut-off Surface in the trigger opening.
Use manual selection techniques to select the loop of edges at the
parting line.
The Message Pane should state “The mold is separable into core
and cavity”.
10 Create a Parting Surface.

Create a Parting Surface that extends 150mm.
157
Lesson 4 SOLIDWORKS
11 Tooling split sketch.

Create the tooling split sketch on the parting surface.
The block profile is 300mm by 230mm.
12 Tooling Split.
Use Tooling Split to create a block 75mm by 75mm.
158
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 4
Case Study: The functions in the Parting Line command can be useful for more
Splitting a Part than just establishing the parting line. They can also be a valuable tool
for discovering the proper location to split a part into multiple bodies.
In this case study, a phone cradle has been modeled using a master part
technique where the entire assembly has been modeled as a single part.
It does not have a natural edge where the part needs to be split into two
bodies so we will use the Parting Line command to determine the best
place to split the model.
1 Open a part file.

Open Phone Cradle from the
This is a single solid body. We need
to split the body into an upper and
lower section, which is how the
design will be manufactured. The
split line will go somewhere on the
highlighted faces.
2 Parting Line.
For Direction of Pull select the Top Plane.
Draft Angle = 1.00°.
Clear Use for Core/Cavity Split.
Note This parting line is not intended for use for mold tooling and will be
used exclusively for splitting the part. Therefore the Core/Cavity option
is not needed.
159
Lesson 4 SOLIDWORKS

We can see that the side faces are
all straddle faces meaning they all
contain both positive and negative
draft.
3 Split faces.
Select Split faces and At +/- draft
transition.
The straddle faces are now divided
into areas of positive and negative
draft.
4 Create a parting line.

Select a split line edge, then click
Propagate .
Edges all the way around the
model are added to the selection.
Click OK .
5 Examine the parting line.

We can see that the parting
line is non-planar.
To split the part into 2
bodies, there are several
techniques that can be used.
In this example, we will
create a Ruled Surface from the parting line edges and use that surface
for a Split feature.
160
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 4
Creating Ruled The Ruled Surface is the most widely used surface in mold making
Surfaces and is often used for model repair, interlocks, manual shut-off surfaces,
and manual parting surfaces.
The Ruled Surface command is used to create surfaces at selected
edges of a model. The ruled surface can be related to the existing
geometry in several ways using the options within the command.
In general, a Ruled Surface can be thought of as an
infinite number of line segments connecting
corresponding points on opposite sides of the surface.
In the case of a SOLIDWORKS ruled surface, one
edge is defined by the edge or edges of existing
geometry. The other edge is calculated by the system
based on the options you choose.
You can think of a ruled surface as being created by sliding a ruler or
straight edge along model edges. The ruler is oriented by one of the
following methods:
 Tangent to Surface
The ruled surface is tangent to a
surface at the selected edge.
The Alternate Face option can be
selected to determine which face the
surface is tangent to.
 Normal to Surface
The ruled surface is normal to a
surface at the selected edge.
The Alternate Face option can
be selected to determine which
face the surface to is normal to.
 Tapered to Vector
The ruled surface is created at a
specified angle to a direction
vector.
The Alternate Side option can
be selected to determine which
direction the taper is applied.
161
Lesson 4 SOLIDWORKS
 Perpendicular to Vector
The ruled surface is
perpendicular to a
specified vector.
The Alternate Direction
option can be selected to
determine which direction the surface is created.
 Sweep
The ruled surface is built by
creating a swept surface using
the selected edges as a path.
Note For more information on controlling Ruled Surface direction, see Ruled
Surface Direction on page 176.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Ruled Surface

 Menu: Insert, Molds, Ruled Surface
6 Hide Parting Line1.

Hide the Parting Line so the
edges generated by the split can be
accessed.
162
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 4
7 Ruled Surface.
Click Ruled Surface .
For Type, select Perpendicular to Vector.
Set the distance to 10mm.
For Reference Vector, select the Top Plane.
Right-click on a split line edge and click Select Tangency.
Click Reverse Direction so the surface extends into the part.
Click OK .
8 Split the body.

Click Insert, Features, Split .
Use Ruled Surface1 to split the solid body into two bodies.
We now have two bodies that can be
saved as separate parts.
163
Peeler
Exercise 9: Use functions of the

Peeler Parting Lines command
to create the parting line
edges for the Peeler
concept model.
This exercise reinforces
the following skills:
 Using Split Faces on
page 155
 Using Entities to Split on page 156
 Manual Selection Techniques on page 119
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Open part.
Open the existing part Peeler from the Lesson04\Exercises folder.
Click Scale .
Scale About the Origin using a scale factor of 1.02.
3 Default parting line.
Try to create a parting line based on the Front Plane and 1° draft.
The automatic selection tools are not able to find the parting line edges.
The straddle faces shown in blue need to be split to produce the
necessary edges.
164
Peeler
4 Split faces.
Select Split Faces, At +/- draft transition.
The straddle faces are now split and have edges
that can be selected.
5 Evaluate the parting line.

On the underside of the model, there are some faces that are classified
as requiring draft. Since there is no transition between positive and
negative draft for these faces, they were not able to be split
automatically. For these faces, we will use the Entities to Split options.
6 Split faces.
Click in the Entities To Split
groupbox to make it active.
Select the two vertices shown. A
split line will be created and the
resulting edge is added to the
parting line edges.
165
Peeler
7 Repeat.
Repeat this procedure for the other
face by selecting the two vertices
as shown.
We now have all the edges
required to define the desired
parting line.
8 Select edges.
Activate the Parting Lines selection box.
Use manual selection techniques to select the parting line edges.
The PropertyManager message will indicate when you have selected a
closed loop.
Click OK .
Conditions for The functions of the parting line work well for splitting faces in certain
Parting Line conditions. Primarily, as long as the faces requiring to be split meet any
Functions of the criteria below, the parting line functions can be used.
 The face straddles the parting line and has detectable draft.
 There are available vertices which can be selected to properly split
the face.
 There is an available sketch entity that can be selected to properly
split the face.
There are times, however, when none of these conditions are met or the
parting line split produces undesirable results. When this occurs,
another option is to use a Split Line feature to create the required edges
before the Parting Lines command.
166
Peeler
Using Split Lines Beside providing an alternative for parting line split functions, the Split
Line feature can be used to create the additional edges for any
requirement. In the case of the Peeler model, the hole at the back of the
part requires a shut-off surface, but there is no edge to select that would
be the appropriate boundary between the 2 halves of the mold. To
produce the edge that we need, we will create a split line.
Note For detailed information on the Split Line command, review the
Advanced Part Modeling course.
.
9 Split Line.
Click Split Line .
For Type of Split, select Intersection.
For the Splitting Bodies/Faces/Planes, select
the Front Plane.
For the Faces/Bodies to Split, select the hole
face as shown.
Click OK .
10 Create a Shut-off Surface.
Use the new edge to define a Shut-off Surface in the hole opening.
The Message Pane should state “The mold is separable into core
and cavity”.
Click OK .
167
Peeler
11 Create a Parting Surface.

Create a Parting Surface that extends 50mm.
For Smoothing, select Smooth and accept the default value.

Create the tooling split sketch on the Front Plane.
168
Peeler
13 Tooling Split.
Use Tooling Split to create a block 40mm by 40mm.
169
Peeler
170
Lesson 5
Creating Custom Surfaces for
Mold Design

 Manually create interlock surfaces.
 Organize custom surfaces into Mold Folders.
 Use Parting Surface Manual Mode.
 Use surface modeling features to modify the parting surface.
 Create and organize custom shut-off surfaces.
171
Lesson 5 SOLIDWORKS
Surface Mold designers have different uses for surfaces than part designers and
Modeling for engineers. Part designers may use surfaces to create esthetically
Mold Design pleasing shapes or complex surfaces that can not be done in solid
modeling. In mold making, surfaces are primarily used for two
functions: to repair imported geometry and to manually create the
surfaces of the mold tooling.
SOLIDWORKS Mold Tools automate many surface modeling
operations when possible. However, there may be times when the
automated tools may need to be supplemented with manual surface
body creation to achieve a desired result.
Some examples of when surface modeling techniques are used in mold
design include:
 Imported parts have missing or faulty faces.
 A Draft feature cannot be directly applied due to geometry
conditions, such as adjacent fillets.
 A complex parting line is not producing a satisfactory parting
surface.
 A complex parting surface is not able to generate Interlock
surfaces.
 Shut-off areas are too complex.
 Designing a multi-
impression mold.
When custom surfaces are
required, they need to be
properly organized into the
Mold Folders to be
recognized by the Tooling
Split feature.
In this lesson, we will take a look at some examples where interlocks,
parting surfaces, and shut-offs need to be created manually. We will
also learn how to organize custom surfaces in order to use them for a
Tooling Split feature.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 5
Case Study: In this case study, we will be creating the tooling for the plastic bezel of
Drill Bezel a cordless drill. Because of the complex parting line and parting surface
for the model, the desired Interlock surfaces are not able to be
automated and will need to be built manually. Additionally the parting
surface where the tooling blocks split will need to be created.
1 Open part.
Open Drill Bezel from the Lesson05\Case Study folder.
This part has all required features for the tooling split.
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Lesson 5 SOLIDWORKS
2 Tooling Split.
Select the Tooling Split Sketch.
Set the Block Size to 75mm by 50mm.
Click Interlock surface and set the Angle to 5°.
Click OK .
3 Rebuild Error.
An error message states “Failed in creating interlock surfaces”.
Click Cancel .
Manual Interlock Automated interlocks are extended from the existing parting surface
Surfaces similar to a ruled surface feature. When the parting surface has sudden
changes in direction, as is the case with the drill bezel, these automated
surfaces may interfere with each other and are not able to be created.
Problem Areas
The Ruled Surface command can be used to create many of the

tapered, ribbon like, surfaces that form the interlocks for the Drill
Bezel. We will combine ruled surfaces with other surface features such
as Lofted Surfaces to create the interlocks in the problem areas
indicated above.
Tip To access the full set of Surface Modeling tools in the
CommandManager, right-click an available tab and select Surfaces
from the list of available toolbars.
174
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 5
Using Select The parting surface for the Drill Bezel contains many edges. To assist
Partial Loop with selecting a group of connected edges, the Select Partial Loop
selection tool can be used.
To select a partial loop:
1. Select an edge at the end of a chain of edges.
2. Right-click the edge at the other end of the chain.
3. Click Select Partial Loop from the shortcut menu.
The chain direction is based on where you select the second edge:
 Left of midpoint – chain moves left.
 Right of midpoint – chain moves right.
4 Ruled surface.
Click Ruled Surfaces .
Select the Tapered to Vector option.
For Reference Vector, select the Top Plane.
Set the Angle to 5°.
5 Select a partial loop of edges.
Activate the Edges selection box. Select the first edge on the parting
surface as shown in the illustration.
Right-click on the second edge as shown. Select it near the end that is
closest to the first edge selected.
Tip To assist with selecting small edges, consider activating the Magnified
Selection tool. This tool can be toggled on and off with the “g” key.
Click Select Partial Loop from the shortcut menu.
1.) Select edge
Partial Loop Selected
2.) Right-click edge

to the right of Midpoint
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Lesson 5 SOLIDWORKS
Ruled Surface The direction and taper of a ruled surface are controlled by the
Direction Reference Vector direction and the “Side” the angle is measured
from. These settings can be controlled from the Ruled Surface
PropertyManager.
 Reference Vector direction
Use Reverse Direction to control which direction the ruled surface
is extended from the selected edge.
 Alternate Side
Depending on the type of Ruled Surface, this option can control the
direction of the taper or which face the ruled surface is tangent or
normal to. This setting can be set individually for each edge. To modify
this setting for multiple edges, use Ctrl or Shift to select multiple edges
in the selection box.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 5
6 Adjust ruled surface options.

Adjust the Ruled Surface settings to set the proper direction and draft.
Select Trim and knit and Connecting Surface.
Click OK .
7 Create two more ruled surfaces.

Use the same technique to create interlock surfaces across 2 additional
partial loops as shown.
Tip You can create discontinuous ruled surfaces within a single feature.
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Lesson 5 SOLIDWORKS
Problem Areas The remaining gaps in the interlock

surface will require alternative surface
modeling techniques. The features used to
address problem areas such as these are
unique to each individual design. One
technique is to use Lofted Surfaces to
bridge gaps in the ruled surface, then
Lofted Surface
extend the surface edges to close the open
area. This is the technique we will use for the Drill Bezel.
8 Create a lofted surface.

Click Lofted Surface .
Select the two edges as shown in the
illustration.
Tip Select edges near corresponding endpoints
to prevent the surface loft from twisting.
Click OK .
9 Repeat.
Create two more lofted surfaces.
Lofted Surfaces
10 Extend surface.
Click Extend Surface .
Select the edge shown.
Drag the handle so that the surface extends
past the highest point on the parting
surface.
Click OK .
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 5
11 Repeat.
Extend the edges of other 2 lofted surfaces.

For Trim Type, select Mutual.
For Trimming Surfaces , select each extended surface and the
Parting Surface1.
Select the Keep selections option.
Click in the Pieces to Keep list.
Select the areas of each surface that should remain in the model after
the trim.
Tip If necessary, press Shift to select faces that are previewed as
transparent.
Click OK .
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Lesson 5 SOLIDWORKS
13 Knit surfaces.
Knit the surface resulting from the trim with the
Ruled Surface bodies.
14 Results.
There is now a single surface body that represents the interlock
surfaces.
Creating the Now that the interlocks surfaces have been defined manually, the lower
Parting Surface parting surface must also be created in the part. This parting surface
will define the boundary between the tooling blocks at the lower edge
of the interlocks. To create this surface, a Planar Surface will be
created and will be trimmed and knit to the interlocks.
15 Planar surface.
Select the Tooling Split Sketch.
Click OK .
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 5
16 Trim Surface.
Use the Mutual option to trim the new planar surface to the interlock
surfaces.
Note A mutual trim type automatically knits the surfaces together.
We now have a complete parting surface.
Organizing To use manually created surfaces for the Tooling Split command, you
Surfaces either need to:
 Manually add the surfaces to the appropriate mold folder.
 Select them as part of the appropriate selection list when creating
the tooling split.
Surface bodies can be moved into existing mold folders using Drag and
Drop in the FeatureManager tree.
17 Parting Surface folder.

Drag the trimmed surface into the Parting
Surface Bodies folder.
18 Create the tooling.

Pre-select the Tooling Split Sketch.
Tip This sketch has been absorbed by Surface-Plane1.
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Lesson 5 SOLIDWORKS
19 Adjust the sizes of the tooling blocks.

The Core, Cavity, and Parting Surfaces
selection lists are automatically populated by the
surfaces in the corresponding Surface Bodies
folders.
Click OK .
20 Results.
The tooling split
complete.
Additional tools could
now be used to
compete the mold as
required.
21 Save and close all
files.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 5
Case Study: For this next case study, we will create a mold for the bottom half of a
Router Bottom router case. This model will present some challenges for the parting
surface creation. We will use this case study to examine the use of
Manual Mode within the Parting Surface command, and also will use
some surface features to create faces manually for the parting surface
and a shut-off surface.
Note The Router Top will be Router Top
created using similar
techniques in an exercise
following this lesson.
Router Bottom

Open Router Bottom.x_b from the Lesson05\Case Study folder.
2 Import diagnostics.
Run import diagnostics and correct any errors.
Scale the part about its Origin.
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Lesson 5 SOLIDWORKS
4 Run draft analysis.

Use Draft Analysis and the bottom inside face to check for 1°
draft.
The small faces marked as requiring draft are acceptable for this part.
Click Cancel .

Use the bottom inside face and a Draft Angle of 1°.
The parting line edges are automatically selected.
Click OK .
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 5
Examine the preview. Most surfaces are satisfactory, but three are not.
The large opening and the two keyhole slots will need to be modified.
Tip If the automated Shut-off Surface selections are showing redundant

loops, cancel the command and perform a forced rebuild (Ctrl+Q) and
Save. Then, launch the Shut-off Surfaces command again.
7 Modify patch type.
Click the callout for the large opening to
change the type to Tangent.
If necessary, flip the direction of
tangency by using the red arrow.
8 De-select Loop.
The current shut-off surface for the keyhole area
are on the outside of the part. This would create
a void that we could not mold.
To remove the current Loop selection, right-
click one of the edges of the each keyhole loop
and click De-select Loop.
9 New selections.
For both of the keyhole openings, select the
edges shown.
Change the patch type to Tangent.
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Lesson 5 SOLIDWORKS
10 Create a parting surface.

Create a Parting Surface that
extends 15mm.
Examine the preview. We can see
that the default parting surface is
overlapping in some areas.
Manual Parting When the parting surface generated by the automated tools is not ideal
Surface there are several techniques that can be used to manually adjust it:
Techniques
 Manual mode
The Manual Mode option within the Parting Surface command
provides nodes that can be manipulated to align the faces of the parting
surface.
 Delete Face and Delete Body
Allow the parting surface to be created and then use the Delete Face
and Delete Body commands to remove problem areas. After cleaning
up the parting surface, use surfacing tools such as loft, boundary, and
fill surface to rebuild a more desirable surface.
 New Partial Parting Line
A model can contain multiple parting line features. If the default
parting line is not resulting in an acceptable parting surface, consider
creating another partial parting line which does not include the problem
areas to automate a partial parting surface. The missing areas can be
filled in manually with surface features.
We will use a combination of the first two techniques to adjust the

parting surface for the Router Bottom.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 5
11 Use Manual mode.

Click Manual mode.
The default node locations straighten out the parting surface segments.
Click OK .
12 Evaluate the parting surface.

Hide Parting Line1.
The parting surface could use some improvement. Instead of including
the cut out area in the parting surface, we can simplify the tooling by
extending it straight across.
We will then have to create a shut-off surface manually to close the cut
out area.
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Lesson 5 SOLIDWORKS
13 Delete Face.
Click Delete Face .
Select the 3 faces of the parting surface at the cut out area.
Remove them using the Delete option.
14 Surface loft.
Create a Lofted Surface using the open edges of the parting
surface as profiles.
15 Hide surfaces.
We must now create the surfaces for the core and cavity tooling that
will close off the cut off opening. This will be a type of manual shut-off
surface.
To make selections easier, hide all surface bodies in the part by
selecting the Surface Bodies folder and clicking Hide .
16 Surface loft.
Create another Lofted Surface using the edges shown as profiles.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 5
Organizing Manual The surface we just created is a manual shut-off surface. Shut-off
Shut-off Surfaces surfaces define faces in both the core and cavity, so for the tooling split
to use them, a copy must be available for each side of the mold tooling.
Once a a copy exists for both the core and cavity sides, they can be
organized into the proper mold folder or selected in the proper lists in
the Tooling Split PropertyManager.
Tip If the Tooling Split command fails, it is usually because the core or
cavity set cannot be knitted together to form a water tight surface for
the tooling block. This can be an indication that existing surfaces need
to be modified or additional surfaces, like manual shut-offs, need to be
created or copied.
Copying Surfaces The Offset Surface command can be used to create copies of surfaces
by setting the offset distance to 0. The Offset Surface
PropertyManager banner changes to Copy Surface when the
Offset Distance is set to 0.
17 Copy the lofted surface.

Make a copy of the lofted surface using the Offset Surface
command.
Set the offset distance of zero. Click OK .
18 Show all surface bodies and Rebuild.
Select the Surface Bodies folder and click Show .
Press Ctrl+Q to force rebuild the model.
19 Examine the Surface Bodies folder.
The surfaces created by the mold tools have
been automatically placed into the appropriate
core, cavity or parting surface folders.
The surfaces we created manually are not in
these folders, so we need to do one of two
things:
 Manually add the surfaces to the appropriate mold folders.

the tooling split.
In this case study, we will move them into the appropriate mold folders.
189
Lesson 5 SOLIDWORKS
20 Organize the surfaces.

Drag and drop the surface bodies to the
appropriate folders as shown.
21 Tooling Split.
Select a planar area of the parting surface for
the sketch plane.
Sketch a rectangle as shown.
Extrude the block 50mm in each direction.

Note All the separate surface bodies are located in the
appropriate selection boxes. This is automated
by the Mold Folders.
Click OK .
190
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 5
22 Results.
Use Move/Copy Bodies to open
the mold and inspect the results.
191
Power Strip
Exercise 10: Create custom surfaces for the

Power Strip interlocking tooling of the
plastic power strip.
For this relatively simple part,
SOLIDWORKS does have the
ability to automatically create
the interlocks from within the
Tooling Split command, but
for training purposes use
surface commands as noted to create the necessary surface features.
 Manual Interlock Surfaces on page 174
 Ruled Surface Direction on page 176
 Problem Areas on page 178
 Organizing Surfaces on page 181
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Open part.
Open Power Strip from the Lesson05\Case Study folder.
2 Scale.
Use a Scale Factor of 1.05.
3 Determine the parting line edges.
Use the Parting Lines command and 2° draft angle to establish the
parting lines around the perimeter of the part.
192
Power Strip
Set all patches to Contact .
5 Create the parting surface

geometry.
Create a Parting Surface
that is Perpendicular to pull.
Set the Distance to 12.5mm
and Smoothing to Sharp .
6 Create tapered interlocks.

Create Ruled Surfaces
around the perimeter of the
parting surface.
Taper the surfaces 6° from
the Top Plane.
Tip You can create all the ruled
surfaces in one step.
7 Loft surfaces.
Use the Lofted Surface
command to bridge the
openings in the ruled
surfaces.
Tip When repeating the same
command multiple times, you
can use Enter on the
keyboard to launch the last
used command or use the Recent Commands list from the Shortcut
menu. Just remember to clear any selections before re-launching the
command.
193
Power Strip
8 Fill in the remaining gaps.

Use Extend Surface to
extend the lofted surfaces and
fill the remaining openings.
Tip You can only extend the
edges of one surface body at a
time.
9 Mutual trim the surfaces.

Use Trim Surface with the Mutual and
Keep Selections options.
Tip If necessary, use the Shift key to select faces
that are previewed as transparent.
10 Knit surfaces .
Knit all the ruled surfaces with the trimmed surface.
Create a new Plane 12.5mm below the Top Plane.
Use the new plane for the sketch shown below and create a Planar
Surface .
194
Power Strip
12 Mutual trim the surfaces.

Mutually trim the planar surface to the interlock surfaces.
We now have a complete custom parting surface.
13 Organize surfaces.
Drag the trimmed surface body into
the Parting Surface Bodies folder.
14 Tooling split.
Use the Tooling Split
command to create the core and
the cavity for this tooling.
For the block size, you can re-use
the same sketch that was created
for the planar parting surface.
Optionally, create an assembly
from the resulting bodies.
195
Router Top
Exercise 11: Creating the mold tooling for Router Top

Router Top the Router Top will follow
a very similar workflow as
the Case Study: Router
Bottom on page 183. The
automated parting surface
will be modified and a Router Bottom
custom shut-off surface will
be created.
 Manual Parting Surface Techniques on page 186
 Organizing Manual Shut-off Surfaces on page 189
 Copying Surfaces on page 189
 Organizing Surfaces on page 181
Units: millimeters
Procedure
Open Router_Top.x_b from the Lesson05\Exercises folder.
2 Import Diagnostics.
Run Import Diagnostics and fix any errors, if necessary.
196
Router Top

Use the top planar face and of
2° as the required draft angle.
The parting line edges are
automatically selected.
Click OK .
The automatic selections will need to be modified to create the proper
shut-offs.
The standoffs have a cylindrical
hole, but the hole in the outside
shell is rectangular. The shut-off
surfaces need to be positioned at
the transition between the two
cross sections.
6 Clear selections.
Clear the current selections from
the list.
7 Manually select edges.
Use manual selection techniques to pick
the edges where the square and round
holes meet.
Set all patches to Contact .
Click OK .
8 Parting surface.
Create a Parting Surface that
extends 15mm.
Examine the preview. The default
parting surface is overlapping in some
areas.
197
Router Top
9 Use Manual mode.

Click Manual mode.
The default node locations straighten out the parting surface segments.
Click OK .
10 Evaluate the parting surface.

Hide Parting Line1.
The parting surface could
use some improvement.
Instead of including the cut
out area in the parting
surface, we can simplify the
tooling by extending it
straight across.
We will then have to create a
shut-off surface manually to
close the cut out area.
11 Delete Face.
Click Delete Face .
Select the 3 faces of the
parting surface at the cut out
area.
Remove them using the
Delete option.
198
Router Top
12 Surface loft.
Create a Lofted Surface using the open edges of the parting
surface as profiles.
13 Hide surfaces.
We must now create the surfaces for the core and cavity tooling that
will close off the cut off opening. This will be a type of manual shut-off
surface.
To make selections easier, hide all surface bodies in the part by
selecting the Surface Bodies folder and clicking Hide .
14 Surface loft.
Create another Lofted
Surface using the
edges shown as
profiles.
15 Copy the lofted
surface.
Make a copy of the
lofted surface using the
Offset Surface
command.
Set the offset distance of zero. Click OK .
Note Manual shut-off surfaces must have a copy available to knit to the
cavity side of the mold tooling as well as a copy for the core.
16 Show all surface bodies and Rebuild.
Select the Surface Bodies folder and click Show .
Press Ctrl+Q to force rebuild the model.
199
Router Top
17 Examine the Surface Bodies folder.

The surfaces created by the mold tools
have been automatically placed into the
appropriate core, cavity or parting
surface folders.
The surfaces we created manually are not
in these folders, so we need to do one of
two things:
 Manually add the surfaces to the appropriate mold folders.

the tooling split.
In this example, we will move them into the appropriate mold folders.
Drag and drop the surface bodies to the
appropriate folders as shown.
19 Tooling Split.
Select a planar area of the parting surface
for the sketch plane.
200
Router Top
Extrude the block 50mm in each direction.
Note All the separate surface bodies are located in the

appropriate selection boxes. This is automated
by the Mold Folders.
Click OK .
20 Results.
Use Move/Copy Bodies to open
the mold and inspect the results.
201
Router Top
202
Lesson 6
Advanced Surfacing for Mold
Design

 Use surface features to create a custom parting surface.
 Manually add Mold Folders to a model.
 Create shut-off surfaces using surface modeling techniques.
 Manually create side cores using surface features and the Split
command.
203
Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
Surface In the previous lesson we saw examples where surfaces were created to
Modeling for supplement and modify the geometry generated by the SOLIDWORKS
Mold Design Mold Tools. In this lesson, we will explore some instances where
surface modeling techniques are required to fully create mold design
features including complex shut-off surfaces, custom side cores, and
complicated parting surfaces.
The Mixer The hand held mixer shown below has four key components that are
molded. Each presents certain challenges. We used the mixer bottom in
Lesson 4. The remaining three parts will be used in the case studies and
exercises that follow to explore the use of surfaces and the manual
creation of many of the mold elements.
204
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6
Case Study: The Mixer Rear Housing is a

Mixer Rear challenging part for the mold design
Housing tools because of its “L” shape. In
particular, the parting line and
parting surface will be difficult for
the automatic tools to define.
Because if its complexity, we will
have to manually select the parting line and then use surface features to
create the faces of the parting surface.
1 Open a part file.

Open Mixer Rear Housing from the Lesson06\Case Study folder.
2 Scale the part.
Scale about the part’s Centroid.
3 Parting line.
With the Parting Lines
command, try to create a parting
line. Use the face indicated for the No edge
direction of pull and 1° of draft.
Because there is no draft on the
side faces, the Parting Line
command cannot create a parting
line, so we will have to make the
selections ourselves.
Direction of Pull
Click Cancel .
We plan to create a parting line as shown below, but we have a
problem. The parting line will have to cross a single face. If there were
vertices available to pick at the correct locations, the face could be split
from within the parting line command, but in this case, we will have to
split the face manually.
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Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
4 Split the face.

Create the sketch shown and split
the face using the Split Line
command.
Note This is an alternative technique to
using the Entities to Split option
within the Parting Line command.
5 Create the parting line.

Use the manual selection tools to create the parting line shown below.
Note The parting lines selections are shown using a modified color for
clarity.
206
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6
6 Create shut-off surfaces.

Because of all the changes in
direction of the parting line,
the Shut-off Surfaces
command cannot determine
the correct way to shut off the
holes.
Select the edges shown and
use Contact for the patch
type.
Tip Select Tangency works well
for this.
Click the Knit option, if
necessary, and click OK .
7 Parting surface.
Try to create a Parting Surface using Perpendicular to pull, at a
Distance of 25mm.
The preview shows that there are several areas of difficulty where the
parting surface folds back on itself or is at the wrong angle to the part.
Click Manual mode. Unfortunately for this part it would be a lot of
work to manually adjust the nodes to produce a desired parting surface.
To solve this problem, we will build the parting surface manually.
Click Cancel .
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Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
Manual Parting We saw in a previous example that you can often make use of the
Surface automated tools to produce a partial parting surface. Alternatively,
when the complexity of a part prevents many usable surfaces from
being created, they can be made manually using surfacing tools. The
Ruled Surface command is especially useful for building parting
surfaces and will be the primary surface feature used in this example.

The parting line feature is still important for generating the shut-off
surfaces and identifying changes in draft. However to make edge
selections easier, we will hide it from view.
9 Isolate the solid body.
10 Create Ruled surfaces.

For Type, use Perpendicular to Vector and choose the same face from
the part as was use for the direction of pull.
Change the distance to 25mm.
Choose the 7 edges displayed in the illustration.
Use the Shift key to highlight all edges in the

selection list, then click Alternate Direction.
The preview should match the image below.
208
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6
11 Additional edges.
Select the 3 edges shown surrounding
the snap hook feature. Use the
Alternate Direction button in the
PropertyManager as necessary.
Tip Edges must be selected in the list to
specify Alternate Direction.
Repeat the same edge selections on the
other side of the part.
At the back of the part,

pick the edges as shown,
using Alternative
Direction as required.
Note Other edges selections
have been hidden for
clarity.
There will be a total of 24
selected edges.
Click OK .
12 Additional surfaces.
To complete the parting surface, we will create additional ruled
surfaces to close the gaps at the front of the part.
209
Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS

For Type, use Normal to
Surface.
Set the distance to 5mm and
select the 6 edges as shown
using Alternate Face as
required.
Click OK .

Click Trim Surfaces .
For the Trim Type select
Mutual.
Trim away the lower
portion of the new
surfaces.
14 Knit the surfaces.

Click Knit Surfaces .
Select the parting surfaces and knit them into a single surface body.
15 Check the parting surface.
Hide the solid body and
examine the parting surface.
There are 2 thin areas that
may cause problems in the
tooling. We will use the Move
Face command to modify
these areas.
Click Exit Isolate.
210
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6
16 Move Face.
Click Move Face and click Translate.
Select the face as indicated and choose Up to Vertex for the end
condition.
Use the vertices and edge as shown in the illustration for the additional
Parameters.
Face to move
From Entity
Direction
reference
To Entity
Click OK .
17 Repeat.
Repeat step 16 on the other side of the part.
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Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
18 Manual shut-off surfaces.

The modification to the parting surface leaves an open area that will
need to be shut-off to form the faces of the core and cavity.
19 Filled surface.
Use the Filled Surface command to
manually create the shut-off surfaces for each
side of the part. These will form the face in the
Cavity body.
20 Copy surfaces.
Use the Offset Surface command to create
copies of the surfaces to be used as faces for
the Core body.
Insert Mold When the automated mold tools are used, the three mold folders are
Folders added and surfaces are organized as the appropriate steps are
completed. When surfaces for the mold tooling are created manually,
the folders must be added separately. Insert Mold Folders adds the
three mold folders or any of the three that are missing if some have
already been created. Using the mold folders automates the selection of
the surfaces during the tooling split.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Insert Mold Folders

 Menu: Insert, Molds, Insert Mold Folders
21 Surface Bodies folders.

To identify these new surface bodies as the parting surface and core and
cavity shut-offs, we will add them to the appropriate Surface Bodies
folders.
Expand the Surface Bodies folder in the
FeatureManager design tree. Currently there
is no Parting Surface Bodies folder since
we have not created a parting surface
feature.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6
Click Insert Mold Folders to add the Parting Surface Bodies

folder.
Drag and drop the Move Face2 body into the folder.
22 Move shut-off surfaces.

Drag and drop the manual shut-off surfaces
we created into the appropriate folders:
Surface-Fill1 and Surface-Fill2 into the
Cavity Surface Bodies folder.
Surface-Offset1 and Surface-Offset2 into
the Core Surface Bodies folder.
23 Create the Tooling Split .

For the tooling sketch, use the face
highlighted in green as the sketch plane
and create a rectangle as shown.
Extrude the tooling split 67mm on the
cavity side and 21mm on the core side.
213
Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
24 Open the mold.

Use appearances, Move/
Copy Bodies or
Exploded View to open
the mold and inspect the
results.
Review In this case study, we had a part where the Parting Line command
could not create a parting line due to the lack of a location where draft
changed from positive to negative. This required us to determine where
we wanted the parting line to be and to manually select all the edges.
We also had to create edges to span a section of the model where no
edge existed but we want the parting line to cross.
Because of the rapid changes of direction, the Parting Surfaces
command could not create a suitable parting surface. We manually
created ruled surfaces that would form the parting surface. These had to
be trimmed and knit so that the final result was a single surface. We
also adjusted faces of the parting surface using the Move Face
command and added manual shut-off surfaces to patch the areas left
open from this modification.
We then added the Parting Surface Bodies folder using the Insert
Mold Folders command. All the manual surfaces we created were then
added to the appropriate folders so they would be recognized correctly
during the tooling split.
214
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6
Case Study: In this case study, we will create the mold

Mixer Handle halves for the Mixer Handle. The parting
line and parting surface for this part are
fairly straight forward. However, the shut-
off surfaces and side cores will require us to
create surfaces manually.
Manual Shut-off In general, the Shut-off Surfaces command should be used to

Surfaces automate as many of the required surfaces as possible. Any shut-off
surface the command can create automatically is one less that you must
create manually. The automated selections will work well on planar
openings normal to the direction of pull, but may have less success with
openings parallel to the direction of pull or openings with multiple
edges at many angles.
If the shut-off surface built by the system is not the correct shape or
cannot be built, the surface can be built manually by using the
following procedure:
1. Select a loop within the Shut-Off Surfaces command.
2. Set the fill type to No Fill by clicking the callout on the screen.
3. Complete the shut-off feature.
4. Model the surface you require.
5. Make a copy of the surface you created.
6. Put one copy into the Core Surface Bodies folder and the other
into the Cavity Surface Bodies folder. The system will then use
these when it comes to the tooling split operation.
Tips  If the Shut-off Surfaces command is running slowly, turn off the
preview until the last edge is selected.
 If you want to do a large amount of additional surface modeling to
the core, cavity and shut-off surfaces, turn off the Knit option and a
surface body will be generated for every individual shut-off face.
 Clearing Filter Loops will add every potential open loop to the
shut-off surface.Modify the selected edges if necessary.
215
Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
1 Open a part file.

Open Mixer Handle from the Lesson06\Case Study folder.
2 Scale the part.
Scale about part’s Centroid.
3 Parting line.
Create a Parting Line
using the Top Plane as the
Direction of Pull and 1° of
draft.
Use manual selection
techniques to select the
parting line shown.
4 Examine the part.
There are two shut-offs
needed.
Shut-off surfaces needed
Because of the complexity of the two
openings we will have to make
selections manually.
Clear any edges from the list.
Select the edges to form the loop
shown.
The automated tools are not able to
create a satisfactory patch in this
area. Set the patch type to No Fill.
Do not click OK yet.
216
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6
No Fill Shut-off When the Shut-off Surfaces command is not able to build a suitable
Surfaces surface, the edges still need to be defined. This is because the shut-off
surface command not only defines the face of the core and cavity in
open areas, it is also defining the boundary between the 2 pieces of
tooling.
By defining the edges of a shut-off area and setting the patch type to No
Fill, the Core and Cavity surface bodies can still be created. However,
they will be open surfaces and will require surface features to close the
No Fill shut-off areas before they can be used successfully for the
tooling split.
6 Second opening.
Select the edges around the second
opening as shown.
Change the patch type to No Fill.
Clear the option to Knit because we
do not yet have all the shut-off
surfaces in place.
Important! When you have selected all the
edges correctly, the message in the
PropertyManager will be green and indicate that the mold is separable
into core and cavity.
Click OK .
7 Results.
Expand the Surface Bodies folder.
The Cavity and Core surface bodies are created, but there are still open
areas that need to be patched to create the water-tight surface required
for the solid tooling bodies.
217
Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
8 Isolate the Cavity

surface.
To make selections
easier, Isolate the
cavity surface body.
We will reference the
open edges from this
body to create the
manual shut-offs.
9 Curve through Reference Points.

For the opening at the back, create a Curve
Through Reference Points as shown.
This curve will be used as a boundary for the
required surfaces.
10 Filled surface.
Use the curve and open edges of the cavity to
create the Filled Surface shown.
218
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6
11 Filled surface.
Create another Filled Surface from the
remaining open edges.
12 Knit surfaces.
Use Knit Surface with the Merge
entities option to create a single surface
body for the back shut-off.
13 Planar surface.
Create a Planar Surface between
the two edges shown.
14 3D Sketch.
Use a 3D Sketch to create a
line between the two vertices as
shown.
This sketch plus the existing edges
will define a filled surface for this
area.
Tip Be careful when selecting the
vertices to make sure the fillet
edge is included.
Note Instead of using a line in the 3D sketch, we could have also used Curve
Through Reference Points. Both methods provide an easy way to
create a boundary.
219
Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
15 Filled surface.
Create a Filled Surface using
the 3D sketch line, the edge of the
planar surface and the other 9
edges as shown.
16 Create additional boundaries.

Use 3D Sketch Lines or
Curve through Reference
Points to create additional
bounding entities as shown.
17 Filled Surface.
Use the bounding entities to create 2
additional Filled Surface
features as shown.
220
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6
18 Loft a surface.
Create a Lofted Surface between the open edges shown.
Use the SelectionManager to group the 3 appropriate edges for the
profile on each side.
For the first Guide Curve, use the SelectionManager to select the arc
edges at the lower end.
The second guide curve is the edge of the filled surface.
Change the Guide Curve Influence for both selections to be To Next
Sharp.
19 Filled Surface.
Create another Filled Surface to close
the open area at the front.
20 Knit surfaces.
Use Knit Surface with the Merge
entities option to create a single surface body
for the front shut-off.
21 Exit Isolate
221
Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
22 Copy the surface.

Use Offset Surface to create a copy of each manual shut-off
surface.
Tip To copy a surface body made up of multiple faces, select the body from
the Surface Bodies folder or use the Selection Filter toolbar (F5) to
Filter Surface Bodies .
Move the knit surface bodies into the
Move the copied surface bodies into the
Core Surface Bodies folder.
24 Optional: Examine the results.

The surfaces in each folder provide all the
faces necessary to define each side of the
tooling without open edges.
25 Hide the surface bodies.
26 Parting surface.
Using the existing parting
line, create a Parting
Surface extending
30mm, Perpendicular to
pull.
222
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6

Sketch on the parting surface. Create
a rectangle as shown.
28 Tooling Split .
Create a tooling split by extruding 95mm
on the cavity side and 50mm on the core
side.
223
Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
Manual Side Cores The Mixer Handle requires two side cores to create the hole for the
handle. The Core command is not able to automate these side cores
because there is no stopping face to define the core geometry.
To manually build the side cores, we will create required surfaces as
well as copy the faces of the hole. Once the faces of the side core are
complete, we will use the split command to create new separate bodies.
29 Filled surface.
Hide the two tooling split
bodies and the surface bodies in the
part. Filled surface
Create a Filled Surface to

separate the two side cores. Select edges
30 Knit faces and surface.

Knit the 16 the faces around the
handle opening and the filled
surface created in the previous step.
Important! There is a very small face on the

fillet. Make sure you have it
included in the surface selections.
31 Isolate the new surface body.
32 Ruled surface.
Next we need surfaces to cut
through the rest of the cavity
body. These surfaces must have
draft to allow the core to release
from the cavity.
Create a Ruled Surface
around the 7 open edges of the
knit surface.
For Type select
Tapered to Vector.
For the Reference Vector select the face created by the filled surface.
Set the Distance to 40mm and the Angle to 3°.
224
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 6
33 Knit surfaces.
Knit the surfaces created in the previous two steps using the Merge
entities option.
Note It may be necessary to loosen the Knitting tolerance in order for the
surfaces to knit.
34 Mirror.
Mirror the surface body
about the planar face to create
the symmetrical core on the
other side.
35 Split the cavity body.

Show the cavity body.
Click Insert, Feature, Split .
For Trim Tools, use the Surface-Knit and
Mirror1 surface bodies.
For Target Bodies, select the Tooling Split
body that represents the cavity.
Click Cut Bodies. Select the 3 resulting bodies
and click OK .
36 Hide surfaces.
Hide the two surface bodies.
225
Lesson 6 SOLIDWORKS
37 Show solid bodies.

Show the solid bodies in the part.
38 Optional: Modify
appearances and move
bodies.
Add appearances to the bodies
to improve visualization.
Use Move/Copy Bodies or
Exploded View to open the
mold and inspect the results.
Review In this case study, we manually created surfaces for two purposes:
First, we created surfaces to manually create shut-off surfaces for
complicated openings that the Shut-off Surfaces command could not
build automatically. Once the surfaces were created, they had to be knit
together and copied so that there would be the same surface in each of
the core and cavity surface body folders.
Second, we manually created side cores in the cavity body by creating a
filled and ruled surface, and knit them with copies of faces from the
model. Once the surfaces were created, they were knit and then used to
split the side core body from the cavity body.
226
Mixer Switch
In this exercise, create the surfaces

necessary to create the core and cavity
mold inserts for this part. Due to the
complex parting line, manual surface
creation will be required.
This exercise reinforces the following
skills:
 Manual Parting Surface on
page 208
 Insert Mold Folders on page 212
Units: millimeters
Procedure
Open Mixer Switch.x_b from the Lesson06\Exercises folder.
Run Import Diagnostics and fix and errors, if necessary.
Scale the part about the Origin using a Scale Factor of 1.02.
Create a Parting Line using the surface indicated for Direction of
Pull and a 1° Draft Angle. You will have to manually select the edges
shown.
227
Mixer Switch
5 Hide/show items.
Hide Parting Line1.
Isolate the solid body.
Creating the The parting surface for the Mixer Switch should extend from the
Parting Surface parting line similar to as shown. It must also be large enough to split the
30 x 85mm tooling block size. Because of the complex parting line, the
Parting Surface feature is not able to create all the surfaces
automatically, so some or all of the faces will need to be modeled using
surface features.
As a challenge, attempt to create the parting surface using the images
below.
For more detailed instructions, the steps on the following pages can be
used. There are several different ways the required surfaces can be
created. The instructions represent just one possible solution.
228
Mixer Switch
6 Use surface features to create the parting surface.
 Ruled Surface, Perpendicular to Vector, 10mm
 Ruled Surface, Sweep, 10mm
229
Mixer Switch
 Extend 8 surface edges, 10mm
 Planar surface between edges
 Mutual Trim
 Knit
230
Mixer Switch
Since a parting surface feature was not used
in the model, click Insert Mold Folders
to add the Parting Surfaces Bodies folder.
Drag and drop the parting surface body into
the Parting Surfaces Bodies folder.
8 Tooling Split .
Use the Top Plane to sketch the
tooling block profile.
Extrude the block 25mm in both
directions.
231
Fan Bezel
To create the initial tooling

for the Fan Bezel part
pictured, some complex shut-
off surfaces will need to be
created manually. Then, to
capture the undercut areas,
custom side cores will need
to be extracted from the
tooling blocks.
following skills:
 Manual Shut-off Surfaces on page 215
 No Fill Shut-off Surfaces on page 217
 Manual Side Cores on page 224
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Import a Parasolid.
Open Fan Bezel.x_t from the Lesson06\Exercises folder.
Run Import Diagnostics and fix and errors, if necessary.
Use Draft Analysis to evaluate the faces of the part.
For Direction of Pull, select the Top Plane.
There are many faces around the perimeter of the model that are
classified as requiring draft. However, these faces will not be able to be
captured using the default direction of pull.
Cancel draft analysis.
232
Fan Bezel
Side cores will be required to capture these undercut areas.

Cancel undercut analysis.
Tooling The planned tooling for the Fan Bezel is pictured below. There are
Challenges several challenges with this part to produce the desired result including
manually creating complex shut-off surfaces and creating the side
cores.

Scale the part about the Origin using a Scale Factor of 1.02.
233
Fan Bezel

Create a Parting Line
using the Top Plane for
Direction of Pull and a 1°
Draft Angle.
Use the Shut-off Surfaces command to create the simple shut-offs
in the part.
For the large openings in the center of the Fan Bezel, change the patch
type to No Fill. These surfaces will be created manually.
Modify the patch type for the surfaces indicated in green to be
Tangent. Change the direction of tangency as required.
Clear the Knit option.
The message in the PropertyManager should state:
The mold is separable into core and cavity.
234
Fan Bezel
7 Hide/Show.
To build the manual shut-off
surfaces that are required, we
will reference the open edges of
the core.
Hide the solid body.
Hide the cavity surfaces.
Tip You can hide all the cavity surfaces by right-clicking the Cavity
Surface Bodies folder in the FeatureManager tree and clicking
Hide .
8 New Reference Plane.
Create a Plane that is Parallel to the
Top Plane and Coincident to a vertex at
the open edge as shown.
9 Planar Surface.
Use the new plane to create the sketch
and Planar Surface as shown.
Be sure to use the open edge as the
reference for the larger diameter.
Tip An open edge is an edge which bounds only one face. The default color
for open edges is SOLIDWORKS is blue. Open edges indicate a
surface body. All edges in a solid body are the boundary of 2 faces.
This is necessary to form the water-tight volume required for solid
geometry.
235
Fan Bezel
10 Extrude a surface.
Convert the inner edge of the planar surface into a new sketch as
shown.
Use the sketch for an Extruded Surface
Extrude up to a vertex at the upper open edge with a 10° draft.
11 Ruled Surfaces.
Create a Ruled Surface feature from the 2 open edges as shown.
Repeat at the 4 similar locations around the part.
Four separate features will be required due to the different sweep
directions.
236
Fan Bezel
12 Planar Surface.
Sketch the circle shown on the
top center face of the core.
Use the profile for a Planar
Surface .
13 Mutual Trim.
Using a Mutual trim type, trim the
custom surfaces to each other resulting in
the surface shown.
14 Standard Trim.
Using a Standard trim type, use the core surface to trim the shut-off
surface.
15 Inspect the results.
Hide the Core Surface Bodies to
evaluate the results.
One of the surface bodies requires
additional trimming.
16 Sketch and trim. Remove Selection

Create a new sketch on the top planar face.
Convert edges from the core surface and use
them to trim the shut-off surface.
17 Results.
The manual shut-off surfaces
are now complete.
The next step is to copy the
custom surfaces so they can be
used by both the core and
cavity.
237
Fan Bezel
18 Copy surfaces.
Use the Offset Surface feature to create copies of the custom
shut-offs.
Tip To copy a surface body made up of multiple faces, select the body from
the Surface Bodies folder or use the Selection Filter toolbar (F5) to
Filter Surface Bodies .
Drag and drop the trimmed shut-off surfaces into the
Drag and drop the copied surfaces into the Core Surfaces Bodies
folder.
20 Parting Surfaces .
Create a parting surface extending 20mm.
21 Tooling Split .
Use the parting surface to sketch
the tooling block profile.
Extrude the block 20mm in
Direction 1 and 35mm in
Direction 2.
238
Fan Bezel
Creating the Side The next challenge for the

Cores Fan Bezel tooling is creating
the side cores. For this
example, it will be easier to
create the side cores
manually by splitting the
existing tooling body, rather
than sketching a profile and
using the Core feature.
To split the tooling for the
side cores, we will create
reference planes at the
proper locations and use
them to define Split features.
22 Isolate.
Isolate the engineered part.
23 New plane.
Create a new Plane that is coincident with the
indicated face.
This plane represents the location of the bottom
faces of the side cores.
24 Hide/Show.
Hide the engineered part.
Show the lower half of the
tooling.
25 Split part.
For Trim Tools, select the new plane.
For Target Bodies, select the lower tooling body.
Click Cut Bodies.
239
Fan Bezel
For Resulting Bodies, select only the top outer body. The inside
portion of the tooling will not be split.
26 Results.
The lower tooling is split into 2 bodies. One of which will be used to
create the side cores.
27 Isolate.
Isolate the side core solid body.
28 New plane.
Create a new Plane referencing
the 3 vertexes as shown.
240
Fan Bezel
29 Split part.
For Trim Tools, select the new plane.
For Target Bodies, select the side core body.
Click Cut Bodies.
Select both resulting bodies. Click OK .
30 Results.
The mold tooling is complete.
Use Appearances , Move/Copy Bodies , or
Exploded View to explore the results.
241
Fan Bezel
242
Lesson 7
Alternative Methods for
Mold Design

 Use alternate methods to create mold tooling.
 Use Combine to create a cavity in a multibody part.
 Use the Cavity feature to create tooling from within an assembly.
 Manually create the surfaces required for a mold.
 Use different techniques to generate the mold tooling from existing
surfaces.
243
Lesson 7 SOLIDWORKS
Alternate In mold design, your primary concern is to build a parting surface

Methods for between cavity and core sides of the mold. This is generally
Mold Design accomplished using the procedures defined in the Lesson 2: Core and
Cavity and subsequent lessons.
The parting surface is shared by both sides of the mold and by
combining it with faces from the part impression the surfaces of the
core and cavity mold inserts are defined. The surface data used to
create the solid models for the mold components can be done manually
when the standard mold tool features will not work due to geometry
conditions.
When to use In this lesson, we will introduce alternative methods for creating the
Alternate Methods necessary surface data for mold tooling. These methods are generally
applicable when the Parting Line or Parting Surface tools cannot be
used effectively.
Case Study: In cases like this casting, the tooling
Using Combine that is formed consists of two
and Split cavities and one engineered part, no
cores.
The engineered part does not contain
any topological edges that represent
the parting lines. Despite that, this is
a case where the parting surface
surrounding the part should be
planar.
One shortcut method to accomplish
the desired result for this part is to
use Combine to remove the engineered part volume from the tooling
block and Split to break the tooling block into two solid bodies.
1 Open part.
Open Hook_Using Combine from the
2 Scale.
Scale the body 1.05 about its Centroid.
244
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 7
3 Parting line.
For Direction of Pull, select the Right Plane.
Enter 2° for the Draft Angle.
To create edges for the parting line geometry, select Split faces.
Select the parting line edges. Try using Propagate to automate
selections.
Click OK .
4 Parting surface.
Due to the shape of the parting line
geometry and the way the parting
surface is generated, two situations
occur:
1. The parting surface is not planar.
2. The parting surface is incomplete.
5 Delete.
Delete the Parting Line1 and
Parting Surface1 features.
245
Lesson 7 SOLIDWORKS
6 Make extruded block.

Create a sketch on the
Right Plane as shown.
Extrude the profile using
Mid Plane and a Depth
of 100mm.
Clear Merge result and
click OK .
Note There will be 2 bodies in
Solid Bodies folder.
Copying Bodies in The Move/Copy Body command can be used to copy surface or
Place solid bodies in place, or to move or rotate them with or without
copying.
We are going to create the cavity by subtracting the engineered part
from the extruded block. The Combine command absorbs the “tool”
body. So that we do not lose the engineered part during the Combine
command, we will make a copy of it first.
This command was introduced in the Advanced Part Modeling course.
7 Copy body in place.

Hide the extruded solid
body.
Click Move/Copy and
select the Engineered Part
body.
If the PropertyManager shows
Mate Settings, click
Translate/Rotate.
Click Copy and OK .
A message dialog appears:

Neither a translation nor a rotation is specified.
Do you want to proceed?
Click OK.
8 Rename the new solid body.
Rename the body Remove.
246
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 7
9 Hide and show.

Hide Engineered Part and Show Boss-Extrude1.
10 Subtract.
For Operation Type, select Subtract.
For Main Body, select Boss-Extrude1.
For Bodies to Subtract, select Remove.
Click Show Preview and OK .
This creates a void in the block.
The copied body created in step 7 is consumed by
the Combine operation.
11 Split.
Click Insert, Features, Split and select
Right Plane as the Trim Tools.
For Target Bodies, select Combine1.
Click Cut Part and select both resulting bodies.
Click OK .
The block has been split into two tool bodies.

247
Lesson 7 SOLIDWORKS
Creating a In the previous example, the mold was created as bodies within the
Cavity same part document. When working within the part environment,
Combine is used to perform a Boolean subtraction of the volume of the
molded part from the mold halves. An alternative method is to work
within an assembly and use the Cavity command to create the void in
the mold block.
The Cavity command is very similar to subtracting one body from
another using Combine. Cavity is different only in that it works
between parts in an assembly.
Like the previous case study, this method works well when a mold or
casting has two cavity halves and a planar parting surface.
Where to Find It  Menu: Insert, Features, Cavity

 Menu: Insert, Molds, Cavity
Note To access the Cavity command, you must be editing a part within an
assembly.
Case Study: In this case study we will create the same mold as in the previous
Cavity example, however we will create this mold in an assembly using the
Cavity feature.
1 Create a mold half.

Create a new part using the
Part_MM template.
This part will be one half of the
mold.
On the Front Plane, sketch a
rectangle centered on the origin
200mm x 300mm.
Extrude the sketch 75mm.

Save the part as Mold Top.
2 Create the second mold half.

With the part Mold Top still open, click Save As.
Click Save as copy and open in the dialog and name the new part
Mold Bottom.
248
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 7
3 Edit Mold Bottom.

Edit the extrude feature and reverse the
direction.
This will properly align the origins of the 2
mold halves allowing them to be dropped
directly into the assembly.
Save the part.
4 Create an assembly.
Create a new assembly using the Mold Bottom
Assembly_MM template.
Mold Top
Use the Green Check in the Insert
Component command to fix each mold
half to the assembly origin.
Note Alternately, mates can be used.
5 Insert the molded part.

Insert the part Hook_Using Cavity
into the assembly.
Mate the hook so that it is centered
between the mold halves.
6 Save the assembly.

Name it Cavity Mold.
7 Edit the Mold Bottom.

Select the Mold Bottom part and click
Edit Part .
249
Lesson 7 SOLIDWORKS
8 Create the cavity.

Click Cavity .
Select the hook part as the Design Component.
Select Uniform scaling and set the scaling to
3% about the Component Centroids.
Click OK .
Return to Edit Assembly mode.
Important! Scaling is different in the Cavity command when compared to the

Scale command. In Scale, we would have set the scale factor to 1.03 to
increase the part size by 3 percent. In Cavity, we just specify 3%.
9 Repeat.
Edit the Mold Top component and repeat step 8.
10 Create an exploded
view.
We have essentially the
same results as we
obtained in the previous
case study except the
result is 3 part files in an
assembly instead of 3
bodies in a part.
250
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 7
Case Study: In this next example, we

Using Surfaces will use surface features
to develop the mold
tooling parting surfaces
for a simple part.
1 Open part.
Open Rocker Arm from the Lesson07\Case Study folder.
Click Scale and increase the size of the body by 1.03 about the
Origin.
Note Since the part is not symmetric, scaling about the centroid would have
changed the location of the split line relative to the Front XY
reference plane.
3 Faces for mold tooling.
Click Offset Surface .
Select all the faces on one side of the
parting line as shown, including the
filleted faces.
We will copy these faces in order to use
them in the front half of the mold
tooling.
Tip One technique to easily select all the
required faces is to switch to a Front
View , then box select all visible
faces.
251
Lesson 7 SOLIDWORKS
4 Copy surfaces.
Set the Offset Distance to 0.
Click OK .
5 Modify appearance.
Change the appearance of the surface body to be
a different color.
6 Hide the solid.
Hide the solid body and verify all required
faces have been copied. Make any modifications
as required.
7 Sketch parting surface.
Open a new sketch on the
Front XY plane.
Right-click an open edge of the
Surface-Offset1 body and click
Select Tangency.
Click Convert Entities .
8 Planar surface.
Use the sketch for a Planar Surface .
9 Knit surfaces.
Use Knit Surface to create a single
surface body from the two surfaces.
252
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 7
10 Copy the planar face.

Using Offset Surface with a
Distance of 0, make a copy of the
planar face.
11 Hide and show.
Hide the knit surface from step 9.
Show the solid body.
12 Knit surface.
Another way to copy
faces is to use Knit
Surface. This option
can copy and knit in
one operation, but the
faces selected must
share common edges.
Click Knit
Surface .
Select the faces on the opposite side of the engineered part and the
copied planar surface you made in step 10.
Click OK .
Note If the part was symmetric, Mirror could have been used.
13 Hide the solid body.
253
Lesson 7 SOLIDWORKS
Techniques for At this point we have manually created the faces necessary at the
Mold Tooling parting surface for the 2 halves of the mold tooling. There a 2
techniques that will be demonstrated in the remainder of this lesson that
allow us to easily make use of these surfaces:
 Using the Up To Surface Method on page 254
 Using the Split Method on page 255
Using the Up To Using an Extrude feature with an Up To Surface end condition is one
Surface Method technique to make use of existing surface bodies. With this technique,
be sure the extrude sketch is not any larger than the surface body.
14 Offset plane sketch.

Create a Plane offset from the planar surface.
Set the distance to 100mm in the -Z direction.
Create a sketch on that plane.
Use Convert Entities to copy the outer edges of the planar surface.
15 Extrude up to surface.
Extrude the sketch using the Up To Surface end condition.
Clear Merge result to create this feature as a separate solid body.
Click OK .
16 Isolate.
Isolate the knit surface body that was first created.
254
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 7
17 Repeat.
Repeat the procedure in step 14 to
create a plane and sketch for the other
half of the mold.
Extrude the sketch using Up To
Surface, selecting the first knit
surface.
Be sure to clear the Merge result
check box.
Note The Up To Body end condition also
works in these situations.
18 Exit Isolate.
19 Results.
The result is that there are now
3 solid bodies in the part: 2
cavity bodies and 1 engineered
part.
20 Save the part.
Using the Split The Split method uses the two surface bodies to split a single solid
Method block.
This method is similar to Case Study: Using Combine and Split on
page 244, but it uses multiple surfaces, rather than a plane, to split the
tool body.
21 Delete.
Delete all features and absorbed features after the second Knit
Surface feature.
Hide the solid body and Show the two surface bodies.
255
Lesson 7 SOLIDWORKS
22 Extrude.
Create a new sketch on the
parting plane (Front XY)
and use Convert
Entities to copy the
outer edges of the planar
face.
Extrude the sketch
200mm using a Mid Plane
end condition.
Clear Merge result and
click OK .
23 Split.
Click Split and select both surface bodies as the Trim Tools.
For Target Bodies, select the extruded block.
Click Cut Part and select the 2 sides of the block.
Click OK .
24 Extra solid body.
The disadvantage to this method is that you end
up with a duplicate of the engineered part.
The Split results in the halves of the tooling, but
also splits the inside volume away from the rest
of the block, creating the duplicate.
25 Delete body.
Use the dynamic preview to find
and right-click the duplicate solid
body.
Click Delete/Keep Body .
For Type, select Delete Bodies.
Click OK .
Only the three solid bodies that are
needed remain.
256
Handle
Create a basic mold with a planar

parting line for a cast part using
alternative methods.
following skills:
 Alternate Methods for Mold
Design on page 244
 Using the Up To Surface Method
on page 254
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Open a part file.
Open Handle from the
2 Scale.
Scale the part about its
Centroid.
3 Copy surface.
Use Offset Surface to copy
the surfaces shown.
4 Hide the solid body.
257
Handle
5 Sketch .
Create a sketch on the Right YZ plane using a rectangle and converted
edges as shown.
6 Surfaces.
Using the sketch geometry,
create a Planar Surface .
Combine the two surfaces into
one surface body using Knit
Surface .
258
Handle
7 Mirror.
Mirror the surface body across the Right YZ plane.
8 Extrude.
Create a Plane offset 50mm from the surface.
Use Convert Entities on the outer edges and Extrude Up To
Surface.
259
Handle
9 Repeat.
Repeat step 8 for the mirrored
surface body using the same
settings.
Be sure to clear the Merge
result check box.
10 Results.
260
Filter
Exercise 15: To create the tooling for the

Filter Filter pictured, use alternative
techniques as described in the
procedure steps.
following skills:
 Case Study: Using Combine
and Split on page 244
 Using the Split Method on
page 255
Units: millimeters
Procedure
1 Import a Parasolid.
Open Filter.x_t from the Lesson07\Case Study folder.
Choose Part_MM if prompted for a template.
2 Import Diagnostics.
Run Import Diagnostics on the part and fix any errors, if necessary.
3 Scale about the centroid.
Scale the part about its Centroid.
4 Copy surface.
Click Offset Surface and set the Offset Distance to 0.
Right-click on an inside face of the bottom of the Filter and click
Select Tangency. Click OK .
Select an inside
261
Filter
5 Select the holes.

Hide the solid body to make it easier to select the surface edges.
Hold Ctrl and select one edge from each hole that needs to be shut off
in the surface. All the triangular shaped holes and the larger holes that
stretch across the bottom faces need to be shut off.
Tip Use the Filter Edges selection filter to make it easier to pick only
edges. The default keyboard shortcut to toggle this filter on and off is
the “E” key.
6 Delete the holes.

Press the Delete key.
Choose the Delete Hole(s)
option from the dialog and click
OK.
262
Filter
7 Results.
The holes in the surface body are removed and the underlying surface
restored.
8 Copy surface.
Show the solid body.
Click Offset Surface .
Right-click on an inside face
near the top of the Filter and
click Select Tangency.
Also select the narrow
horizontal face as shown.
Set the Offset Distance to 0
and click OK .
9 Knit surfaces.
Click Knit Surface , select both surface bodies and click OK .
10 Create a new sketch.
Select the thickness face as
shown and create a new sketch.
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11 Parting surface.
Right-click on an outer edge of the thickness face and click Select
Tangency.
Click Offset Entities and offset the edges 5mm toward the outside.
Right-click on an inner edge of the thickness face and click Select
Tangency.
Click Convert Entities .
Use the Planar Surface command to create the parting surface.
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12 Interlock surfaces.
Click Ruled Surfaces .
Select the Tapered to Vector option.
For the Reference Vector, select the planar
surface.
Set the Angle to 5°.
For Edge Selection, right-click on an outer edge
of the parting surface and click Select
Tangency.
Select Trim and Knit.
Click OK .
13 Tooling block surface.
Create a Plane parallel to the Top Plane
and passing through a vertex on the ruled
surfaces as shown.
Name this plane Tooling Plane.
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14 Sketch the perimeter of the tooling.

Create a new sketch on the Tooling Plane.
Use Select Open Loop from the right-click menu to select the open
edges of the interlock surface.
Use Offset Entities to offset the edges 40mm.
Use Convert Entities to include the edges in the sketch.

Use Planar Surface to create the bottom tooling block surface
from this profile.
16 Knit Surface.
We now have all the surface necessary for the Core tooling.
Use Knit Surface to create a single surface body.
Optional: Change the appearance of the core surface body.
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Completing the To complete the tooling for the Filter, we will use a combination of the
Tooling techniques demonstrated in the lesson. We will first extrude the tooling
block, then use the core surface to Split the block into 2 separate
bodies. For the cavity half of the mold, we will then use the Combine
command to subtract the Filter model from the body.
17 Sketch .
Create a new sketch on the Tooling Plane as shown.
18 Extrude the tooling block.

Extrude the sketch.
Direction 1 = 20mm
Direction 2 = 60mm
Clear Merge result.
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19 Split the tooling block.

For Trim Tools, select the knit surface body.
Fore Target Bodies, select the tooling block.
Click Cut bodies.
Select both resulting bodies for the split.
Click OK .
20 Results.
There are now 3 solid bodies in the part.
Currently, the faces of the Cavity body exactly match the face of the
Core body.
To complete the cavity side, the engineered part will be subtracted from
the tooling body using a Combine feature. Since the Combine feature
absorbs the body that is subtracted, we will first create a copy of the
Filter body that can be used for the operation.
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21 Copy body in place.

Click Move/Copy Bodies .
Select the engineered part body.
If the PropertyManager shows Mate Settings,
click Translate/Rotate.
Click Copy and OK .
A message dialog appears:
Neither a translation nor a rotation is
specified.
Do you want to proceed?
Click OK.
Rename the body Remove.
22 Subtract bodies.
For Operation Type, select Subtract.
For Main Body, select the lower tooling block.
This is the cavity body.
Click in the Bodies to Combine selection box
and select the Remove body created in step 21.
Click OK and examine the results.
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 Understand the Design Library.
 Insert library features.
 Modify existing library features.
 Create new library features.
 Create Smart Components.
 Locate parts and assemblies in 3D ContentCentral.
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Reusing Data While each mold is different, there are many repetitive tasks with
similar parts and features. In this lesson we will look at some ways to
save time by reusing data instead of recreating items each time. Data
can be reused in the form of library features, smart components, and
downloaded files from websites such as 3D ContentCentral®.
Library Features Library features include one or more features that can be inserted into a
part in a single operation. They can either be created from scratch or
from existing features in other parts. They are flexible enough to
contain variable dimensions and configurations. Inserting library
features into a part was covered in the prerequisite courses
SOLIDWORKS Essentials and Advanced Part Modeling. Our focus in
this lesson will be the method to create library features specifically for
mold making.
Smart Smart components are parts that have intelligence built in enabling
Components features to be created in surrounding parts within an assembly. Smart
components may also include the option to have additional components
inserted with them and can include the ability to auto-size. Using and
creating Smart Components was covered in the prerequisite course
Assembly Modeling. In this lesson we will apply those concepts to mold
components.
3D ContentCentral 3D ContentCentral provides an online library of models that can be
downloaded. Parts and assemblies can be directly used or inserted into
SOLIDWORKS designs without having to remodel them, thus saving a
lot of time for components that will be purchased.
Task Pane The Task Pane provides access to
resources as well as library and file
locations where reusable data may be
available. The pane appears on the right of
the graphics area by default but it can be
moved and resized.
The tabs of Task Pane discussed in this
lesson include:
 SOLIDWORKS Resources
(page 273)
 Design Library (page 273-
page 275)
 File Explorer (page 277)
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SOLIDWORKS The SOLIDWORKS Resources window

Resources includes links for some SOLIDWORKS
Tools and online resources.
The Welcome dialog seen when first
opening a SOLIDOWRKS session can
also be accessed here by clicking the
Welcome to SOLIDWORKS link at the
top of this pane.
Design Library The Design Library window is devoted to

the storage of, and easy access to reusable
data. Not only is the default Design
Library accessible here, but also
SOLIDWORKS Toolbox and links to 3D
ContentCentral and download-able
SOLIDWORKS Content.
We will be focusing on the design library
for this section.
Items from the design library are inserted
using standard drag and drop techniques.
SOLIDWORKS comes pre-loaded with
many files in the design library. Additional
files and file locations can be added using
the icons across the top of the pane.
Buttons here also assist with navigation within the Design Library.
 Navigation Tools
Use these buttons to go back or forward to a previous folder or use
browse recent folders.
 Add to Library
Use this button to add selected features or parts to the Design
Library.
 Add File Location
Use this button to add an existing file location to the Design
Library. This can also be done through Options ,
System Options, File Locations.
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 New Folder
Use this icon to create a new folder within a selected directory. This
command can also be accessed from the shortcut menu when right-
clicking a library folder.
 Refresh
Use this icon to refresh the window with changes that have been
made to the folder since it was opened.
 Up One Level
Moves up one level in the folder structure.
 Configure Toolbox
Use this button to launch the Configure Toolbox tool.
Essentials of Taking full advantage of the design library requires an understanding of

Using the Design the file and folder structure it uses. Although some features and parts
Library come with the SOLIDWORKS software, the real power of the Design
Library is in creating and using your own folders and library parts.
This next section provides detailed information about the structure of
the default design library. When creating your own library features and
parts, you are highly encouraged to create folder locations outside the
default directory to store your custom files. This allows custom files to
be managed separately and prevents any loss of data if SOLIDWORKS
is ever completely removed from the system.
Folder Graphics The lower pane of the Design Library is used to preview a folder’s
contents and can be displayed in several styles using icons or lists.
Right-click in the lower pane to choose an option.
Large Icons List, Large Icons
Small Icons List, Small Icons
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Tooltips Positioning the cursor over

an icon gives a larger tooltip
that includes the full name.
The name of the icon comes
from the name of the file as
it appears within the folder.
Main Directory The default location for the SOLDIWORKS Design Library is on the
Structure local hard drive in:
ProgramData\SOLIDWORKS\SOLIDWORKS <version>\
design library
This folder is the main directory for the design
library. The sub-folders annotations,
assemblies, features, forming tools, and
parts contain different types of data for different
purposes.
Annotations The annotations folder contains annotation

favorites and blocks that can be used in
drawings.
Assemblies The assemblies folder contains sub-folders of assemblies and

associated part files.
Any folder that contains assemblies should be designated as an
assemblies folder. To designate a folder as an assemblies folder, right-
click the folder in the top pane and click Assemblies Folder. Once
designated as an assemblies folder, only assemblies will be visible in
the bottom pane. Part files will not be visible.
Features The features folder contains all the library
features that are shipped with the Design
Library. There are two main subdirectories:
inch and metric. Each has the same
subdirectories, including fluid power
ports, hole patterns, keyways, o-ring
grooves, retaining ring grooves, and slots. The example at the
right is for the metric\keyways folder. All documents here are
library feature part files (*.sldlfp).
The Sheetmetal subdirectory contains common cutouts that may be
used in sheet metal designs.
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Note Many library features included with the software contain multiple
configurations for defining standard sizes.
Forming Tools The forming tools folder includes a set of
common stamped or punched features for
sheet metal designs. The subdirectories
include embosses, extruded flanges,
lances, louvers and ribs. The illustration at
the right is of the forming tools\lances
folder.
SOLIDWORKS part files (*.sldprt) that are
intended to be used as forming tools must be located in a folder
designated as a forming tools folder. To designate a folder as an
forming tools folder, right-click the folder in the Design Library top
pane and click Forming Tools Folder.
For more information on Forming Tools, see the SOLIDWORKS
Sheet Metal course.
Motion The motion folder contains common
features for use in Motion Studies. These
include forces, motors, dampers, and springs.
Parts The parts included with the design library are

found in the parts folder. The subdirectories
include hardware, inserts, knobs, and
sheetmetal. The illustration at the right is of
the hardware folder.
Routing For SOLIDWORKS Premium licenses, the
routing library folder provides common
components used for the design of piping, tubing,
and electrical routes. The SOLIDWORKS
Routing add-in is only available with Premium
licenses.
Smart Components The smart components directory contains

several examples of parts that are saved with
smart features. When used in an assembly,
these parts can automatically add associated
features and/or additional components.
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File Explorer The File Explorer window is used to

browse for, preview, open, and insert
SOLIDWORKS files. The top level
items that appear in File Explorer are
controlled in Options ,
System Options, File Explorer.
Tooltips are accessible by

hovering over
SOLIDWORKS
documents and provide a
preview and detailed
information about the file.
The Shortcut menu in File Explorer

includes options to preview or open any
existing file configuration.
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Case Study: 3D 3D ContentCentral provides a quick way to locate parts you may need
ContentCentral to purchase and also allows you to download CAD models for use in
your assembly. Many parts in 3D ContentCentral are configurable so
you can size the models before downloading.
In this case study we will obtain mold base components from 3D
ContentCentral and store them in our Design Library.
Note The content of 3D ContentCentral is continually changing as more
material is added. This may result in some of the following images
from the site being different than what you see on the screen. These
differences will not affect the outcome of the lesson.
Note Part of this case study requires access to the Internet. If Internet access
is not available, you can use the file provided in the Lesson08\
Case Study\L8 reference folder.
1 Define a Design Library location.

We will use a folder in the Lesson08\Case Study directory as a new
file location for our custom library files.
Select the Design Library tab in the Task Pane.
Click Add File Location . Browse to the Lesson08\Case Study
folder, select the Custom Library folder, and click OK.
2 Create new folder.
We will create a new folder to store the
Mold Base Assembly and components that
we intend to download.
In the Design Library pane, expand the
new Custom Library and select the
Assemblies folder.
Click the New Folder icon at the top of

the Design Library pane.
Name the folder PCS Mold Base.
3 Define Assemblies Folder.
In order to only view assembly documents in this directory, not
individual parts, right-click the PCS Mold Base folder and click
Assemblies Folder.
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4 3D ContentCentral.
In the Design Library, expand 3D ContentCentral.
Expand Supplier Content and click All Categories.
In the lower pane, click Click here for all categories. A web browser
will open to www.3dcontentcentral.com.
Examine the list of available categories of parts available.
Select Mold Components.
5 Select a company.
The various companies that have mold components
available for download are listed.
Scroll down to PCS Company and click Mold
Bases.
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6 Select a product group.

Select Other Parts in this category as the product
group.
7 Select a mold base.

Select A Series Mold Bases.
8 Preview.
An interactive 3D Preview is available
of the model. The mouse or on-screen
tools can be used to rotate and zoom
within the preview window.
9 Configure and download.

Click Configure and Download.
Click Login.
Note If you are not yet a member of 3D ContentCentral, you will have to
register first.
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In the Configure list, use the default values for all components.
Under Download, for Format select SOLIDWORKS Part/Assembly
and for Version select the newest version available.
Click Download.
There will be a brief message indicating that the assembly and parts are
being configured.
We can now either drag this file into SOLIDWORKS or download it to
a specific directory. Click the link.
Save the file to a Download directory or other folder that can be easily
accessed.
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10 Unzip the files.

Extract the zip file to the PCS Mold Base folder we created.
This folder is located in the Lesson08\Case Study\
Custom Library\Assemblies folder.
Tip If we would have dragged the link into the SOLIDWORKS graphics
area, the files would have unzipped automatically. By clicking the link
as we did in step 9, the zip file is copied to the designated folder and we
have to extract the file manually.
Note If you do not have access to the Internet, a copy of all the extracted files
are located in the Lesson08\Case Study\L8 reference folder. Just
copy the contents of the PCS Mold Base folder to the new folder
created in the Design Library.
11 Examine the Design Library.
Refresh the design library view in SOLIDWORKS.
Select the PCS Mold Base folder. Notice that the individual parts are
not shown.
Right-click the PCS Mold Base folder and clear Assemblies Folder.
All the individual components will now shown in the lower pane.
Right-click the PCS Mold Base folder and click Assemblies Folder
as our interest is the entire assembly rather than the individual parts.
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12 Open the mold base.

In the lower pane of the Task Pane,
double-click the assembly.
Save the assembly to convert it to
the latest SOLIDWORKS version, if
necessary.
We now have a complete mold base
assembly ready for the inserts.
Library The features folder in the Design Library contains library features that
Features are included with SOLIDWORKS. As the features are inserted, they
are copied into the active part and you can decide whether or not to
retain a link to the library feature by using the Link to library part
option.
Two Techniques There are two techniques for locating library features: reattach
for Locating references on insertion, or use Edit Sketch to locate features.
 Reattach references on insertion.
One technique is to include the necessary locating dimensions and
references in the library feature and then redefine the references as the
feature is added from the library.
 Use Edit Sketch to locate features.
The other approach is to not include external references in the library
feature and then add the necessary references during the Edit Sketch
portion of the command. External references in this sense refer to
dimensions and relations to information outside the sketch or feature
included in the library feature.
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Case Study: In this case study, we will create a

Create A simple runner and gate library feature
Library Feature that can be reused when designing
mold tooling. We will keep the library
feature simple, yet flexible enough
that we can adjust its size during the
insertion process.
We will include references with the
library feature that will be used for
locating the runner and gate when it’s
used from library.
1 Create a library folder.

Before creating the library feature we will
create a folder in the Design Library to
store custom mold features.
Select the Design Library tab on the
Task Pane.
Expand the Custom Library and select
the Features folder.
Create a New Folder named Mold
Features.
2 Create a new part file.
Use the template Part_MM.
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3 Create a base feature.

The library feature will be comprised of features that remove material
(a Cut-Revolve and a Cut-Extrude). In order to create these cut
features, we must have some base geometry to cut through. This base
geometry will not be included in the library features that will be reused.
Sketch a rectangle on the Right Plane as shown.
Extrude the block to a depth of 50mm in the -X direction.
Note The size of the block is not critical as we will see later.
4 Ejector slot sketch.
Create a sketch on the right side of the
block.
Notice that the length of the runner is
controlled by the relations to the origin
and the edge of the block. The origin and
edge are external references of the sketch
and these relations will need new
references when the feature is reused.
5 Revolved cut.
Use the sketch for a Revolve Cut .
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6 Tapered slot.
Create a new sketch on the right face of the
block as shown.
Revolve a cut as shown below.
7 Runner and gate.

Create the sketch shown on the same face as
the previous steps.
The circle is centered on the origin and
coincident to the edge of the tapered hole.
Extrude a cut to a Depth of 40mm.
In this feature, we are using a discrete length
for the runner. When we insert this as a
library feature, we will allow the person
using the library feature to input this
dimension as required.
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At the bottom of the hole, convert

the hole edge and create another
Extruded Cut .
Set the Depth to 5mm and the
Draft Angle to 30°.
The section view of the finished
part is shown at the right.
8 Create a library feature.

In the Design Library pane, click Add to
Library .
For Items to Add, use the flyout
FeatureManager to select the two Cut-Revolve
and two Cut-Extrude features.
In the Save To groupbox, name the new file
Runner-4.5 and select the Mold Features
folder.
In Options, type the Description: 4.5mm
runner and gate.
Click OK .
The library feature part will now be visible in
the Mold Features folder.
Close the part without saving.
9 Open the library feature.
In the Design Library, double-click the
Runner-4.5mm library feature part, or right-
click and click Open.
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Library Feature Library Feature Parts differ from part files in file type and other details.
Characteristics The basic differences are outlined here.
 File Type
The file type is Library Feature Part which uses a file extension of
*.sldlfp.
 Marked Features
The features that will be reused when the library part is inserted (Cut-
Revolve1and 2 and Cut-Extrude1 and 2) are marked with a blue “L”
in the FeatureManager tree. Those not used (Boss-Extrude1) have no
markings.
 FeatureManager Folders
Two extra folder appear in the FeatureManager tree which list the
references and dimensions for the marked features.
 References Folder
Items listed in this folder will require
new selections when the feature is
inserted to properly locate the features.
At a minimum there is one: the
Placement Plane.
 Dimensions Folder
The Dimensions folder contains all
the dimensions from the features used
as well as two sub-folders: Locating
Dimensions and Internal
Dimensions.
For more information on using these
folders, see Sorting Dimensions on
page 291.
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10 Library feature part references.

Examine the FeatureManager design tree.
The References folder shows that besides
the Placement Plane there are four
elements that are going to require new
references when this library feature is
reused.
The two edges and sketch point are
external references of the library features.
These are references to the geometry of
Boss-Extrude1 and the Origin.
If desired, these references can be renamed
from the folder to make them easy to
identify.
Organizing Library To make a library feature part easy to

Feature Part understand and modify, it’s best practice to
Dimensions spend some time organizing the
dimensions in the part. Some organization
tasks might include removing unnecessary
dimensions, modifying dimensions to
reference internal geometry to avoid extra
references, replacing dimensions with
geometry relations, and renaming
dimensions.
Replacing Often, library feature dimensions can be simplified by replacing

Dimensions dimensions with sketch relations. Using relations such as Equal,
Parallel, and Symmetric can often be used in place of dimensions.
Take some time to evaluate the library feature dimensions to see if they
can be simplified with relations.
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Renaming Default dimension names are created by the system for each dimension
Dimensions in the model. These default names are in no way descriptive of what the
dimension is used for. To make the dimensions easier for others to
interpret (and for you to remember), you should rename them.
Tip Dimensions can be renamed before the SOLIDWORKS part is saved as

a library features part. All modified dimension names will transfer to
the library feature part.
11 Replacing dimensions.
The diameters for Cut-Revolve1 and Cut-
Revolve2 should always be equal. Instead of
controlling these features with 2 separate
dimensions, an Equal relation can be used.
Select Cut-Revolve2 and Edit Sketch .
Delete the diameter dimension.
Show Sketch2, the profile for Cut-

Revolve1.
Select the edges shown and click
Make Equal .
Exit Sketch .
Hide Sketch2.
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12 Rename dimensions.
Rename the dimensions as shown.
Dimensions can be renamed using the Modify dialog, the Dimension
PropertyManager, or from the Dimensions folder.
Sorting The dimensions of the library feature can be sorted into different
Dimensions folders to specify their type and control how they appear in the
PropertyManager when the library features are reused.
 Dimensions in the top level Dimensions folder are visible for
override when the library feature part is inserted into a design.
 Dimensions in the Locating Dimensions folder will be prompted
for values when the library feature part is inserted. These are
usually dimensions that are used for locating the feature.
 Dimensions in the Internal Dimensions folder are hidden from
view when inserting the library feature. These dimensions cannot
be accessed or changed on insertion.
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13 Change dimension access.

We want the dimensions that we renamed
to be available for change when we insert
the library feature. Those dimensions that
we did not rename should be hidden from
view when we insert the library feature.
Drag each of the dimensions that we did
not rename into the Internal
Dimensions folder.
The location of this library feature will
be determined by references, so we will
not add any dimensions to the Locating
Dimensions folder.
14 Save and close the library feature.
15 Open a part file.

Open Block.sldprt from the Lesson08\Case Study folder.
16 Test the library feature.
Drag the Runner-4.5mm from the design library onto the front face
of the Block.
Use the preview window to
identify and properly select
new references for locating the
features.
Be sure the appropriate Edge2
reference is highlighted in the
selection list when making
selections from the part. Face1
Tip If the Origin cannot be

selected in the graphics area,
Sketch Point1
try picking it from the flyout
Edge1
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17 Change size.
Expand Size Dimensions groupbox and
select Override dimension values.
The thickness of our test block is 50mm, so
change the Runner_Length dimension to
45mm.
Click OK .
18 Results.
The lengths of the cylindrical and tapered holes
are based on the total height of the block and the
sketch point.
The runner goes through the part with the gate
at the back surface.
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Configurations Library features can be made even more flexible by adding

in Library configurations. When you add a library feature with more than one
Features configuration to a part, you can choose the specific configuration to
insert.
Case Study: In this case study, we will create a library feature for a waterline that
Water Line can be used to cool the mold. The waterline needs four configurations:
one where the water line connects to the waterline in the mold base, one
that is just the basic hole, one to be used with an o-ring, and one with
threads for a plug.
When we insert the waterline in the mold insert, we are going to do it
using a 3D sketch to define the waterline path. Therefore, we will base
our library feature on a 3D sketch.
1 Create a new part.

Create a new part using Part_MM template.
2 Create a base feature.
Sketch a rectangle on
the Top Plane, 100mm
square, centered on the
Origin.
Extrude the block to a

depth of 35mm.
3 Create the 3D sketch.

Create a 3D sketch and sketch a
Along Z
single line as shown.
On Plane
Note the Along Z and
On Plane relations.
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4 Hole Wizard Type.

Use the Hole Wizard to create an 8mm hole
using ANSI Metric Drill sizes.
5 Hole Wizard Position.

Use the Positions tab in the PropertyManager to
place the hole center coincident with the end
point of the 3D Sketch line.
6 Hole End Condition.

Up to Vertex
From the Type tab, define the End
Condition for the hole as Up to
Vertex and select the other end of
the 3D Sketch line as shown.
Click OK .
7 Rename the configuration.

Rename this configuration Hole Only.
8 Create three more configurations.
Create new configurations named Connector, O-Ring, and Plug.
Note All four configurations use the 8mm hole feature, so by creating it
before making our other configurations, all configurations will include
this hole.
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9 O-Ring configuration.
Make the O-Ring configuration
active.
Add the following hole coincident
with end of the 3D sketch:
 Hole Type: Hole
 Standard: ANSI Metric
 Type: Drill sizes
 Size: Ø15.5
 End Condition: Blind
 Depth: 1.9mm
Note Because of the default configuration option Suppress new features
and mates, this feature is automatically suppressed in the other
existing configurations.
10 Plug configuration.
Make the Plug configuration
active.
 Hole Type: Straight Tap
 Type: Tapped hole
 Size: M10x1.0mm
 Blind Hole Depth: 15mm
 Tap Thread Depth: 10mm
11 Connector configuration.
Make the Connector
configuration active.
 Hole Type: Hole
 Type: Drill sizes
 Size: Ø19.0
 Depth: 18mm
 Show custom sizing = checked
 Angle at Bottom: 180deg
Note Changing the angle at the bottom of the hole to 180 degrees will result
in a flat bottom.
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12 Add a second hole.

Add the following hole at the
bottom of the Ø19mm hole and
coincident to its center:
 Hole Type: Straight Tap
 Type: Tapped hole
 Size: M10x1.0mm
 Blind Hole Depth: 15mm
 Tap Thread Depth: 10mm
13 Create library feature.
Use the Add to Library command to create a library feature.
Include all the features except Boss-Extrude1 and the 3D sketch.
Name it Waterline and save it to the Mold Features folder.
14 Test the feature.
Open Waterline test block.sldprt from the Lesson08\Case Study
folder. This is just a block with four 3D sketches. We will use it to
insert the four configurations of the library feature.
Insert four copies of the library feature, each using a different
configuration to check the library feature.
Connector
Hole Only
O-Ring
Plug

We will use this library feature in Lesson 9 when we create a complete
mold.
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Reusable Data
Creating Library Library Features can also be created from selected features in existing
Features from parts and placed in the Design Library. In the previous case studies, we
Existing Parts started the library features by making a dummy part and then selecting
the features to include. If the desired features are already available in an
existing part, you can select them from that part instead recreating them
in a dummy part. During the process, SOLIDWORKS will attempt to
simplify the base feature(s) to include only the necessities.
Smart Smart Components can be used to associate common components

Components and features. The insertion of a Smart Component into an assembly
enables easy addition of related components and features in one step.
This Smart Component can then be used in any number of different
assemblies and always have its associated components and features
easily inserted with it with no additional steps.
Creating a Smart Creating a Smart Components is a two stage process. First the
Component component to be made smart must be assembled in a defining assembly
with the appropriate components and any in-context features. The
defining assembly is similar to the base feature used when creating a
Library Feature.
Next the Smart Component is “detached” from the defining assembly,
bringing with it any and all information about the Smart Feature (or
Component) references. There is no residual external reference to the
defining assembly or other components.
Create the The first step in creating a Smart Component is to establish a defining
Defining Assembly assembly. In this lesson, a sprue bushing and its retaining ring and
screws will be used to demonstrate making and using Smart
Components.
Creating the features associated with the Smart Component requires the
use of in-context features which were covered in the SOLIDWORKS
Assembly Modeling course.
1 Open a part file.

Open HASCO Metric Sprue
Bushing.sldprt from the
Lesson08\Case Study\
Smart Component folder.
Ensure the Z512-18x66-3-40
configuration is active.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 8
Reusable Data
Whenever this bushing is used, it

requires an appropriate hole and
recess in the mold base. Additionally,
the locating ring component, its
screws and the screw holes must be
added.
2 Create defining assembly.

Open Defining Assembly.sldasm from the Lesson08\
Case Study\Smart Component folder. This assembly consists of
two blocks simulating the clamping plate and a plate of the mold.
3 Insert component.
Insert the part HASCO Metric Sprue Bushing into the assembly.
Add mates to center the bushing on the block.
4 Distance mate.
Add a Distance mate to
locate the bushing 4mm
below the top face of the
uppermost block.
Note the section view
shown at the right.
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Lesson 8 SOLIDWORKS
Reusable Data
5 First in-context cut.

Select the Block A component and
click Edit Part .
Use Hidden Lines Visible to make
the selection of hidden edges easier.
Create a sketch on the Front plane as
shown. Use Convert Entities to
keep the sketch sized to the sprue
bushing.
Create a Revolved Cut feature.
Rename the feature Cut-Revolve A.
Click Edit Component to toggle
back to editing the main assembly.
6 Second in-context cut.
Select the Block B component and click
Edit Part .
Create a sketch on the Front plane as
shown.
Create a Revolved Cut feature.
Rename the feature Cut-Revolve B.
Click Edit Component to toggle back
to editing the main assembly.
Important! The revolved cuts must have different names in order for the Smart
Component to apply each cut to the correct plate.
7 Add component.
Insert the HASCO Metric
Locating Ring to the
assembly.
Use configuration
K 100-100x8.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 8
Reusable Data
8 Add mates.
Position the locating ring with a Concentric and Coincident
mate.
Mate Plane1 of the locating ring to the Front plane of the Block A to
prevent it from rotating.
9 Add tapped holes.
Edit Block A and add ANSI Metric
Tapped holes concentric to each of
the four holes in the locating ring.
The holes should be M6x1.0 with a
blind hole depth of 17mm.
Return to editing the assembly.
10 Fasteners.
Add the Socket Head Cap
Screw_AM (B18.3.1M-6x1.0x16
Hex SHCS) to each of the four holes.
Note For this example, use the screw
provided in the Lesson08\
Case Study\Smart Component
folder.
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Lesson 8 SOLIDWORKS
Reusable Data
Make Smart To create the Smart Component, the Make Smart Component
Component command is used to select the component, associated components, and
features from the defining assembly.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Assembly > Make Smart Component

 Menu: Tools, Make Smart Component
11 Component selections.
Select the HASCO Metric Sprue Bushing
and click Make Smart Component .
For Components, select the locating ring and
the four cap screws.
For Features, select Cut-Revolve A, Cut-
Revolve B, and M6x1.0 Tapped Hole1.
Click OK .
12 Smart Component icon.
The HASCO Metric Sprue Bushing
component is now marked with a lightning
bolt indicating that it is a Smart Component.
13 Save and close the assembly.
We are done with this assembly and could
delete it, however it is a good idea to test the
Smart Component first.
Inserting the Smart Components are inserted into an assembly using the same
Smart Component techniques as any other component.
Inserting Smart After the Smart Component has been added to the assembly and mated,
Features the smart features and associated components can be added. This is
accomplished using the references and selections made in the defining
assembly.
Where to Find It  Graphics Area: Click Insert Smart Features after inserting a
component
 Menu: Select the Smart Component and click Insert,
Smart Features
 Shortcut Menu: Right-click the Smart Component and click
Insert Smart Features
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 8
Reusable Data
14 Open assembly.
Open the assembly Mold
Base Fixed Half located in
the Lesson08\
Case Study\Mold Base
folder.
Note The panes that will be used
for mating and references are
currently shown in the
assembly.
This is the fixed half of a
mold base we will use in
Lesson 9.
15 Insert Smart Component.

Insert the Smart Component
HASCO Metric Sprue
Bushing.
Use the Top Plane and
Right Plane of the assembly
to mate the Smart Component
in the middle of the assembly.
Add a distance mate to
position the component 4mm
below the top surface of the
clamping plate.
Note The front plate in the image is shown as transparent for clarity.
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Lesson 8 SOLIDWORKS
Reusable Data
16 Selections.
Right-click HASCO Metric Sprue Bushing and click Insert Smart
Features .
Select the components and plane listed under References as shown.
Click Update feature and component size/location when Smart
Component moves/changes.
Click OK .
Note All the options under Features and Components are based on the
selections that were made when the Smart Component was created and
are automatically selected. You can clear them to prevent adding a
particular feature or component.
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SOLIDWORKS Lesson 8
Reusable Data
17 Results.
The associated features and
components are added to the
assembly.
18 FeatureManager design tree.

The FeatureManager design tree
groups the smart component and
related items in a new folder.
305
Smart Components
Exercise 16: Modify the HASCO 4mm

Smart Ejector Pin from the
Components Lesson08\Exercises\
Smart Component folder to
make it a smart component.
The Ejector Pin Defining
Assembly in the Smart
Components folder can be
used to create and capture the
desired smart features.
As shown in the section view at the right, the
ejector pin should create cuts in four separate
plates: the mold insert cavity plate, the cavity plate,
the intermediate plate and the ejector retainer plate.
The top face of the pin should be flush with the top
plate of the assembly.
Tip Be mindful of the relations that are being created
with each feature, as they will require new
references when the feature is reused.
Once the smart component is defined, be sure to test
it in a new assembly.

 Smart Components on page 298
Units: your choice
306
Complete Mold Insert Project
Exercise 17: This exercise is a practical lesson in mold making. You will start with
Complete Mold an imported part and will create the mold inserts required for the mold
Insert Project tooling. In the next lesson, the complete mold will be created by
incorporating the inserts into the mold base and creating the left hand
version.
The mold you will create is for an automobile part: a door handle bezel.
It has been designed by another company and provided as a Parasolid
(*.x_t) file.
The top of the finished part is visible in use and must be free of any
mold marks.
As you go through the process of developing the mold using the tools
introduced in the previous lessons, the workflow and decision process
involved will be discussed.

 Mold Analysis Tools on page 61
 Copying Surfaces on page 189
 Trapped Molding Areas on page 112
 Ejector Pins on page 141
Units: millimeters
307
Procedure
1 Open a part file.
Open Bezel.sldprt from the Lesson08\Exercises folder.
This is an empty part file.
2 Import geometry.
Click Insert, Features, Imported and import Door Handle
Bezel.x_t found in the Lesson08\Exercises folder.
Right-click the Imported1 feature and run Import Diagnostics .
Heal any geometry problems, if necessary.
4 Save the file.
Developing a Plan The first step in the mold design process is to analyze the part and
develop a plan for the mold tooling. Here are a few things to consider:
 Determine the way the mold will separate.
We can use Draft Analysis and select different pull directions
combined with visual observation and experience to determine the
best direction to split the mold and where we expect the parting line
to be.
 Determine if there are undercuts.
Undercuts increase the cost of the mold because of the need to add
sliders or lifters. We need to determine if the undercut areas can be
molded or if a design change is necessary.
 Determine if model modifications are necessary.
Do we have sufficient draft on the entire model to insure that it can
be ejected from the mold? Can undercut areas be modified in a way
to reduce the cost of the tooling?
Naming Solid and surface bodies get renamed each time a feature is applied to
Conventions them. Therefore, the bodies in this example will be referred to by their
functional names.
308
5 Draft Analysis.
Run Draft Analysis using the Front plane to define the pull
direction and 3° of draft.
We can see that there is a clearly defined parting line and a few places
with insufficient draft.
Change the Draft Angle to 2° and then 1°.
As the colors update, we can see that the two mounting tabs have 1° of
draft, but the sides of the “L” tab have zero draft. Hovering the cursor
over these areas can also help identify the draft angle.
Draft = 2° Draft = 1°
"L" tab
Click Cancel .
6 Check for undercuts.
Run Undercut Analysis , using the Front plane as the pull
direction.
Needs side core
Needs lifter
We can see that the "L" tab on the left will required a lifter and the slots
on the mounting tabs will require side cores or sliders.
Click Cancel .
309
Modeling Repairs Since the draft analysis of the part identified areas that had less than the
desired amount of draft, we need to determine if repairs to the model
are necessary.
For this example, after considering the geometry and material that will
be used for the part, and discussing options with the designer, we
conclude that 1° of draft will be sufficient. On the faces that do not
meet this requirement, we will add additional draft.
7 Turn Draft Analysis back on.

Select the Front plane as the Pull Direction, set the Draft Angle to 1°
and click OK .
The colored faces make it easier to see where we need to apply draft.
8 Remove the fillets.
Zoom in on the "L" tab. We need to add
draft to the four faces that make up the
sides of the tab. The problem is
complicated by the fillets as they must be
applied after draft.
Tip If this model contained standard features,
DraftXpert could be used to apply draft
and it would automate the reordering the
fillet after the draft features.
In this case, the plan is to remove the fillets, apply the draft and then
add the fillets back into the model.
Use the Measure command to determine the fillet radius, which is
0.35mm.
Use Delete Face with the Delete and Patch option to remove the
fillet faces at each side of the tab.
310
9 Add Draft .
Use a Neutral plane draft type and the face indicated to add 1° of draft
to the four yellow side faces of the tab.
As soon as the draft is applied, the faces will turn red to indicate that we
now have sufficient draft.
10 Turn off Draft Analysis .
11 Add fillets.
Add a 0.35mm fillet to the edges
as shown.

Scale the part about the Origin.
Click Parting Line to create a
parting line based on the Front
plane and a Draft Angle of 1°.
Notice the warning message that
the parting line is complete but
shut-off surfaces are still required.
311
14 Create shut-off surfaces .

The openings are relatively easy to fill. Use Contact for the circular
opening and Tangent for other opening.
Change the tangent direction by clicking the red arrow to correctly
apply the tangent surface.
Notice that the message has now changed to green and says:
The mold is separable into core and cavity.
Click OK .
15 Parting surface.
Examining the model, we would like the parting surface to be an
extension of the existing face of the model (shown in blue).
To start, we will try to create the parting surface with the Parting
Surfaces command.
312
When we change among the three options available, none of the

previews look like what we want the parting surface to be.
Perpendicular to pull Normal to surface
Tangent to surface
Click Cancel .
16 Copy the face.
We can use the existing surface of the model by just extending it and
trimming it to size.
Hide the parting line and the core and cavity surface bodies and
show just the solid body.
Select the face shown below and click Knit Surface . This makes a
copy of the face.
Select this face
313
17 Untrim and extend the surface.

Click Untrim Surface . Select the face we just copied.
Note Untrim Surface does not work on the faces of solid bodies, only on
surface bodies. Therefore there is no danger of accidentally selecting
the face of the solid and thus, no need to hide the solid.
For Distance, enter 15%. This extends the surface 15% beyond its
original boundary.
Under Options, select External edges and Merge with original.
Click OK .
18 Results.
We now have our parting surface.
The plan for the Bezel tooling is to include interlock surfaces.
Therefore, we will need to trim the parting surface to create the edge
where the interlocks will be added.
We will create two sketches. One will be the size of the mold insert
tooling block. The second sketch will be used to trim the parting
surface. It will be based of the tooling block profile.
19 Hide the parting surface.
314
20 Create sketches.
On the Front plane, create the sketch as shown. Name the sketch
Insert Profile.
Create another sketch on the Front plane as shown. Name this sketch
Trim Profile.
315
21 Trim the surface.

Show the parting surface.
Click Trim Surface and select Standard for the Trim Type.
Select the Trim Profile sketch as the Trim tool.
Make selections to keep the part of the surface shown in purple.
Under Surface Split Options select Natural.
22 Hide and show.

Hide the solid body and Show the core surface body.
The parting surface was copied from a face of the solid body. As a
result, it overlaps the corresponding face of the core surface body.
Overlap
316
23 Trim the surface.

Use the Parting Line feature as the Trim tool and trim the inside edge
of the parting surface.
24 Add folder.
To automate the selection of the parting surface
during the tooling split, we will add it to the
Parting Surface Bodies folder.
Click Insert Mold Folders . This will add the
additional folder we need.
Drag the surface body Surface-Trim2 into the
Parting Surface Bodies folder.
25 Tooling Split.
Select the sketch, Insert Profile, then click
Tooling Split . Extrude the two halves to
40mm and 30mm as shown.
Select Interlock surface and set the Draft
Angle to 3.0°.
We now have the core and cavity inserts.
317
Runners and The SOLIDWORKS modeling techniques needed to create runners and
Gates gates are not unique to mold making. We can either create the runners
and gates directly using extruded or revolved cuts, or we can use library
feature parts to speed the process. For this example, we will make use
of some existing library feature parts.
The top part of this bezel is visible when it is installed in the
automobile, so we want to have the gate positioned to inject the part
from underneath. We have designed a sub-gate that will inject into the
ejector pin hole. Later when we create the injector pins in the mold
base, we will create a channel in this one pin.
26 Add file location to Design library.

Expand the Design Library in the Task
Pane.
Click Add File Location and browse
to the Lesson08\Exercises\Library
folder.
27 Add runner and gate.

Click the Library folder in the Design Library
pane to access the library features for this lesson.
Drag the library feature Sprue-Runner-Gate to
the face as shown.
Select the back vertical edge, the Origin, and the
Top plane as the references to locate the library
feature.
Click OK .
318
28 Results.
Hide all the surfaces and the bezel so
that only the two mold halves are visible.
Change the transparency of the mold
halves.
The gate does not enter the cavity of the
mold because we have not yet created the
ejector pin holes. This will be taken care
of in a later step.
Note The library feature is colored magenta for
illustrations purposes.
Side Cores The next step is to create the tooling necessary to deal with the
undercuts we found during the analysis stage of the process. We will
create both side cores and a lifter.
29 Create a sketch plane.

Isolate the cavity body.
Create a Plane parallel to the

Right plane and through the midpoint
of an edge of either of the tabs.
Rename this plane Side Core Plane.
319
30 Click Hidden Lines Visible .
31 Side core sketch.

Open a sketch on the Side Core Plane.
Select the three edges of the mold insert and
the inside face of the tab and click Convert
Entities .
Sketch, trim, and dimension the remaining
lines.
Sketch a centerline from the Origin to the

midpoint of the sprue.
Use Mirror Entities to create the side
core profile for the other side.
Rename the sketch Side Cores Profile.
320
32 Create the side cores.

Select the Side Cores Profile sketch, then click Core .
Extrude the side cores 10mm in each direction.
33 Add draft to cores.

To make it easier to add draft to the side
cores, we will move the cavity body with
the Move/Copy body command.
Once the draft has been added, we can
delete the Move/Copy feature.
Move the cavity body until it is clear of
the side cores as shown. The exact
distance is not important.
Add 3° of draft to the sides of the side cores and the corresponding
faces of the cavity using the Top Plane as the Neutral Plane.
321
34 Reassemble the part.

Delete the Body-Move/Copy1 feature to return the bodies to their
original positions.
Create a new Plane , parallel to
the Top plane and through the center
of the "L" bracket.
Name this new plane Lifter Sketch
Plane.
36 Create the lifter sketch.

Create a new sketch on the Lifter Sketch
Plane.
Start by using Convert Entities on the two

edges shown.
Complete the sketch as

shown. Note that the 20mm
dimension is not critical. It is
only added to make the sketch
fully defined. The important
point is that the lifter sketch
completely encompasses the
cavity body.
Name this sketch Lifter
Sketch.
322
37 Create the lifter.

Select the Lifter Sketch then click Core .
Extrude the lifter 5mm in each direction.
Note The lifter and side cores need to be connected to the mold base in order
for them to move. We will cover these steps in the next lesson when we
put the core and cavity plates into the mold base.
323
Ejector Pins Next we will create all the holes for the ejector pins. We will create a
single hole for one ejector pin, then a sketch that contains all the
locations where we expect to place ejector pins. Finally, we will create
a sketch driven pattern to create the remaining holes.
The actual ejector pins will be created later in the mold base.
38 Isolate the cavity body.
39 Create the first ejector pin hole.

Create a sketch on the bottom face of the
cavity.
Sketch a 4mm circle, aligned horizontally
with the Origin as shown.
Extrude a cut through all.
Name the feature Ejector Pin Hole.
40 Create pattern sketch.

Create a sketch on the Front plane.
Place sketch points at locations where ejector pins are desired. The
illustration shows 14 points, the exact locations are not important.
Fully define the sketch either with dimensions or Fixed relations.
Name the sketch Ejector Pin Pattern.
324
41 Pattern the ejector pin holes.

Create a sketch driven pattern using the Ejector Pin Hole and the
Ejector Pin Pattern sketch.
42 Exit Isolate.
Core Pins The four holes in the bosses represent

an area of high wear and should have
core pins to allow easy replacement.

Create a new Plane , 30mm from the Front plane.
Name this plane Core Pin Plane.
Front Plane
Core Pin Plane
325
44 Core pin profile.

Isolate the plastic part body of the bezel.
Create a sketch on the Core Pin Plane.
Sketch four circles, Coradial with the
four bosses.
Name the sketch Core Pin Profile.
45 Core pin heels.

Create another sketch on the Core
Pin Plane.
Create the sketch as shown. Each
arc is Concentric to one of
the circles in the
Core Pin Profile sketch.
Name this sketch
Core Pin Heel Profile.
Exit Isolate.
46 Create the core pins.

Select the Core Pin Profile sketch, then
click Core .
Create the core pins from the cavity body
using the Through All end condition in
Direction 1 and Blind, 0.00mm in
Direction 2.
The core pins are shown in dark cyan in the
illustration.
47 Create the core pin heels.
In the same way, use the Core Pin Heel
Profile sketch, create the core pin heads
and cuts into the cavity body.
The depth is 3mm.
The core pin heels are shown in magenta in
the illustration.
326
48 Combine the pins and heels.

From the Solid Bodies, Core bodies folder,
Isolate all the bodies created from the last 2
core features.
We have eight separate bodies, so we need to
combine each pin with its respective heel as a
single body.
Use Combine to join the appropriate
bodies.
Rename the solid bodies to Core Pin 1 through Core Pin 4.
Exit Isolate.
Rename the other solid bodies to reflect their
function and make them all visible.
327
Creating Individual Up to this point, we have been working in a single multibody part file
Parts to create the pieces of the mold inserts. When the inserts are added to
the mold base, we will need the bodies to be individual components. So
the next step is to save the bodies of the part to new part documents.
50 Save bodies as parts.

Save Bodies.
Click Auto-assign Names.
Because we renamed all the solid bodies, the
auto-assigned names reflect the use of each part.
Clear the check mark for the Door Bezel. We do
not need it in the final mold assembly.
Under Create Assembly, click Browse and
name the assembly Bezel Mold Insert and save
it to the Lesson08\Exercises folder.
Click OK .
Note The Save Bodies command creates new
SOLIDWORKS documents – either a part or an
assembly or both as appropriate. You have the
option of specifying a document template or
allowing the system to use the default template.
This choice is determined by the settings in
Tools, Options, System Options, Default
Templates. To override these settings from
within the Save Bodies command, use the appropriate group box.
51 Results.
The new Bezel Mold
Insert assembly is
opened in a separate
document window.
52 Save and close all
files.
328
Lesson 9

 Add the mold inserts into a mold base.
 Connect side cores and lifters to the mold base.
 Use library features to create runners and gates.
 Import surfaces to cut the ejector pins.
 Visualize the movement of the different sections of the mold.
329
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
Case Study: In this lesson, we will be completing the mold base for the inserts
Mold Base designed in a previous exercise. While all the components of the mold
base could be designed in SOLIDWORKS, these components are
generally purchased.
For our project, the appropriate parts for the mold base have been
downloaded from 3D ContentCentral. Several display states have been
created to make it easier to see different components inside the mold
base. Most components have multiple configurations so that we could
easily change the design of the mold base if needed to fit our inserts.
1 Open the mold base

assembly.
Open Bezel Mold Base from
the Lesson09\Case Study\
Bezel Mold Base folder.
Note Many of the illustrations in this
section are shown in the saved
view orientation named Start.
2 Change the assembly configuration.

There are three configurations: one to show the mold fully closed, one
to show it fully open, and the remaining configuration allows the
different mold elements to move when dragged.
Make the configuration Mold Opening active.
3 Change the display state.
Change the display state to be
Plates Transparent.
We can see that the internal
components are in place and we
can now place the mold inserts.
4 Place the mold insert.

Click Insert Component and select the Mold Insert assembly
from the Lesson09\Case Study folder. Place it at the assembly origin
by clicking the green check .
Note The insert can be located at the assembly origin because the position of
the origin in the original imported part was created in the correct
position to make this work. Otherwise, we would mate the insert using
standard mates.
330
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9

Change to the display state Moving Half Only.
6 Mirror the insert.
Click Mirror Components .
For Components to Mirror, select the Mold
Insert assembly.
For Mirror plane, select the Right Plane of the
Mold Insert assembly.
Note Using the component plane avoids an external
reference to the Bezel Mold Base assembly.
Click Next .
In Step 2: Set Orientation, click Create
opposite hand version and click Next .
331
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
In Step 3: Opposite Hand, select Create new

files and Add Suffix _Mirror.
Click OK .
We now have inserts for both the right and left
handed parts.
Organizing the We inserted the two mold inserts as separate assemblies. However, in
Assembly the completed mold, different parts of the inserts go with different parts
of the mold base. For a truly complete project, we have to add the
physical components to hold the plates in place. For now, we will just
move each component to the appropriate assembly. Because each sub-
assembly will move as a rigid body, all the components of the assembly
will move as if the physical constraints have been added.
Assembly Moving components within the assembly structure can be done
Structure Editing dynamically by dragging in the FeatureManager design tree or by
making use of the Assembly Structure Editing dialog.
Tip Typically, when more than one component from a parent assembly will
be moved, the dialog is the most effective way to reorganize the
components.
Where to Find It  Menu: Tools, Reorganize Components

 FeatureManager: Drag and drop a component from one assembly
into another

To make it easier to see which
components need to be moved, change the
display state to be All Plates Removed.
As we move components of the inserts
into the other assemblies that are hidden, the components we move will
also become hidden.
332
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
8 Dissolve pattern feature.

In order to rearrange the components from the mirrored inserts, we
must dissolve the pattern feature.
Right-click the MirrorComponent1 feature and click
Dissolve Mirrored Component Feature from the menu.
Click Yes to the message regarding mates.
9 Move Mold Insert components to the
Fixed Half assembly.
Expand the Mold Insert assembly.
Use drag and drop or the Assembly
Structure Editing dialog to move the Core
component to the Bezel Mold Base Fixed
Half assembly.
333
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
10 Move Mold Insert_Mirror components

to the Fixed Half assembly.
Expand the Mold Insert_Mirror assembly.
Structure Editing dialog to move the
Core_Mirror component to the Bezel Mold
Base Fixed Half assembly.
11 Move Mold Insert components to the

Moving Half assembly.
Expand the Mold Insert assembly.
Cavity and Core Pin components to the
Bezel Mold Base Moving Half assembly.
334
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
12 Move Mold Insert_Mirror components

to the Moving Half assembly.
Expand the Mold Insert_Mirror assembly.
Cavity_Mirror and Core Pin#_Mirror
components to the Bezel Mold Base
Moving Half assembly.
13 Move side cores to Side Core Slide A.

Move Side Core 2 and Side Core 2_Mirror to the Bezel Mold
Base Side Core Slide A assembly.
335
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
14 Move side cores to Side Core Slide B.

Move Side Core 1 and Side Core 1_Mirror to the Bezel Mold
Base Side Core Slide B assembly.
15 Move the lifters.

Move the lifters into the Bezel Mold Base Ejector Set assembly.
16 Delete the empty subassemblies.
The Mold Insert and Mold Insert_Mirror are now empty and are no
longer needed. Delete them.
Change to the display state Ejector Set Only.
336
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
Modifying the The lifters will need to be modified to

Lifters connect to the U-Coupling within the
ejector set assembly. Since this is a
moving part within the assembly, we will
want to avoid in-context relations when
designing the required features. In-context
relations would cause the geometry to
change when the assembly is rebuilt in a
new position.
There are a number of ways to create the required features. For this
example, the Move Face command will be used to lengthen the lifter
component, then an Extruded Boss will be added to fit within the
coupling. We will make these edits from within the assembly so the
coupling geometry can be referenced, but will use the option for No
External References to prevent in-context relations.
Note Since Lifter_Mirror is a child of Lifter, changes to Lifter will
propagate to Lifter_Mirror.
18 Edit component.
Select the Lifter and Edit Component .
19 No External References.
Click No External References
on the CommandManager.
20 Move Face.
Click Move Face .
Translate the bottom face.
Delta Z = -115mm
337
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS

Coincident to
Create a Plane parallel to the face Midpoint
indicated and passing through the
midpoint of one of the edges of the Lifter.
Rename this U-Coupling Connector
Parallel to
Plane. Face
22 U-Coupling Connector sketch.

Open a sketch on the U-Coupling Connector
Plane.
23 Sketch a Centerline.
Sketch a centerline from the midpoint of the
bottom edge of the lifter, parallel to the side of the
lifter.
24 Convert Entities.
Select the edge of the U-Coupling as shown and
click Convert Entities .
A message indicates that the relation to this edge
cannot be created due to the No External
References setting. Click OK.
25 Add a fix relation and make construction.
Select the converted arc and add a Fix
relation.
Change the arc to be Construction Geometry .
26 Centerpoint Arc Slot.
Click Centerpoint Arc Slot .
Sketch a slot similar to as shown.
The first point of the arc slot is coincident with the
center of the converted arc.
The 2nd and 3rd points are indicated by the
numbers in the illustration.
338
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
27 Add a relation and dimension.

Add a Coincident relation
between the centerpoint of the slot and
the lifter centerline.
Dimension the sketch as shown.
Tip To add the 30° angle dimension select
the 3 arc centerpoints of the slot.
28 Measure then extrude.

The distance between the two highlighted
faces of the U-Coupling is 15mm.
Extrude the sketch.
Use a Mid Plane end condition and a
Depth of 15mm.
29 Save the part.

The Lifter and the Lifter_Mirror components are now complete.
30 Exit Edit Component.
Exit out of Edit Component mode to return to the editing the top level
assembly.
Lifter Motion To produce the dynamic motion of the lifters within the mold base
assembly, some modifications will need to be made. Currently the
lifters are fixed within the ejector set assembly. We will change their
state to be floating and then add mates to control their position and
movement.
After mates are applied, we will specify the ejector set assembly to be
solved as flexible within the Mold Base. This will allow the motion of
the lifters to be visible within the top level assembly.
31 Edit ejector set subassembly.

Right-click the Bezel Mold Base Ejector Set assembly in the
FeatureManager tree and click Edit Assembly .
339
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
32 Float and then mate.

Right-click Lifter, click Float, then
Rebuild .
Add a Concentric mate between
the curved face of the Lifter and the
U-Coupling.
Add a Width mate to center the

Lifter within the U-Coupling.
33 Repeat.
Repeat this procedure to mate the Lifter_Mirror.
34 Suppress a mate.
In the Bezel Mold Base Ejector Set assembly
there is a Coincident mate used to define the U-
Coupling position. We will suppress this mate
to allow the U-Coupling to move.
The mate has been named For Position Only.
Use the FeatureManager design tree Filter field to find the For
Position Only mate.
Suppress the For Position Only mate.

35 Exit Edit Assembly mode.
We are now at the top level of the assembly.
Change to the display state Moving Half + Ejector Set.
37 Solve as flexible.
Select the Bezel Mold Base Ejector Set assembly and click
Component Properties . Set Solve as to Flexible.
Apply this property to All configurations and click OK.
340
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
38 Add mates.
Drag the Lifter to make it easier to see the
highlighted faces.
Add a Coincident mate.
Do the same for Lifter_Mirror.
39 Check the motion.

Verify that the configuration Mold Opening is active.
Change to the display state Fixed Half Hidden Lines Removed.
Drag the moving half of the mold and watch to make sure that the side
cores retract and that the lifters move up and down.
341
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
Ejector Pins When we move the ejector plate, we can see there is currently only one
ejector pin. We need to create the additional pins based on the existing
pin and the pattern of ejector pin holes that exist in the inserts.
There are several things we have to do with the ejector pins.
 The existing pin is different from the others because it has a channel
to route the plastic from the sub-gate to the cavity.
 The remaining pins must be patterned from the first pin, but without
the extra channel.
 All the pins must be cut to the surface of the cavity plate in the
mold insert.
There are several ways to accomplish the above goals. In this case
study, we will create all the ejector pins as a single, multibody part. To
do this, we will begin with part that has two parts inserted, the
purchased ejector pin and the bezel which will be used to cut the pins to
fit.
40 Open the ejector pin.

Open the part Bezel Mold Base
Ejector Pins in its own window.
This pin is in the assembly Bezel
Mold Base Ejector Set, in the
Pins folder.
Consider using the
FeatureManager Filter to find the
part.
342
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
It’s a Weldment? The ejector pin is a purchased part which was

download from 3D ContentCentral. The
downloaded model was then inserted as a part
feature into the current document and cut
features were added to create the flat side of
the head and then channel at the end.
When you look at the FeatureManager design
tree, you will notice there are a couple of
features you might not have expected. One is a
Weldment feature that has been renamed
Ejector Pin Assembly, and the other is a cut
list. As we indicated earlier, we are going to
use a multibody part to simulate an assembly
of the ejector pins. Defining a part as a
Weldment offers some benefits over a
standard multibody part including:
 Use of a Cut list.
This can serve as a Bill of Materials for the multibody part.
 Merge Result is turned off.
The default behavior for new features in a weldment is that they are
created as independent bodies, rather than merging with
surrounding geometry.
See the SOLIDWORKS Weldments course for more information on cut
lists and weldment options.
Adding the Bezel The next step will be to add the Bezel as a part in the current document.
The geometry of the Bezel will be used to trim the ejector pins once the
pattern is complete. The Bezel part also includes the Ejector Pin Pattern
sketch which will be used to pattern the pins. We will add the Bezel
before the channel features, so we can pattern the pin as is was before
the channel was applied.
41 Rollback.
Rollback to right after the Extrude1.
42 Insert part.
Click Insert, Part and locate the
Bezel_Complete part in the Lesson09\
Case Study folder.
343
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
43 Transfer sketches and surfaces.

In the Transfer list, clear Solid bodies.
Select Surface bodies and Unabsorbed
sketches.
Clear Locate part with Move/Copy feature.
We want the surfaces and sketch to align to the
same origin.
Click OK .
44 Results.
We now have both the Ejector Pin Pattern sketch and the surface
bodies needed to pattern the ejector pins and to trim their ends.
45 Pattern the ejector pin.

Use the Ejector Pin Pattern sketch to create a Sketch Driven
Pattern of the pin solid body.
344
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
46 Hide surfaces.
Now that we have all the
ejector pins, they must be
trimmed by the cavity
surface.
Hide the parting
surface and the core
surface.
47 Cut with surface.

Use Cut With Surface to
trim off the tops of the pins.
48 Roll forward.
Roll forward to the bottom of
the feature tree.
49 Mirror the pins.

We need all the same pins on the mirrored side of the mold.
Mirror the bodies over the Right Plane.
Tip You can use the Cut list folder to assist with selecting solid bodies.
50 Hide surface.
Hide all surface bodies.
345
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
51 Save and close the Ejector Pins part.
52 Check motion.
Return to the mold base
assembly.
Move the ejector plate and check
to make sure all pins move with
the plate.
Cooling the With the other elements in place, we can now add cooling to the mold.
Mold The mold base already has waterlines created in the bolster plate. We
now need to extend these into the inserts. To do this we will create an
in-context 3D sketch in the core insert.

Change to the Fixed Half Only display state and rotate the model as
shown.
Original
Mirrored
Water lines
54 Edit component.
Select the original insert (not the mirrored insert) and click
Edit Component .
55 Turn on references.
Toggle off the option for No External References .
346
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
56 Water line sketch.

Create a 3D Sketch .
Change the display to Wireframe .
Start by creating two lines from the centers of the two waterline holes
as shown. Add an Equal relationship between them.
Add a dimension of 15mm to one of them.
57 Split the screen.

It will be easier to see the path of the water lines if we split the screen
and link the views so that we are looking at both the Top and Front
views together.
347
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
Create the lines shown. The line weights have been increased to make
the sketch easier to see against the existing geometry.
58 Add dimensions.
Add the two dimensions as shown.
The lengths of the four lines are undefined. We will fix that in a
following step.
348
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
59 Edit the part.

Exit the 3D sketch.
Return to Edit Assembly mode.
Open the Core insert part in
its own window.
60 Add relationships.
Add an On Plane relationship
between the end point of each line
and the appropriate face of the part.
Exit the 3D sketch.
61 Waterline library feature.

To make it easier to create the waterlines, we will use the Waterline
library feature created in Lesson 8. The Waterline library feature
should be located in the Custom Library, Features, Mold Features
folder.
Note If this is not available, click Add a File Location in the Design
Library to add the L9 Library folder located in the Lesson09\
Case Study directory. The Custom-Waterline file located there can
also be used.
As a review, the 4 configurations of the library part are shown below.
Each configuration requires a sketch point that defines the starting
location and another that specifies the depth of the hole.
Connector
Hole Only
O-Ring
Plug
349
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
62 Add the waterlines.

Drag the library feature onto the faces of the model adding the
configurations indicated at the points shown below.
O-Ring
Plug
Hole Only
63 Result.
Use a Section View to see the results.
350
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
64 Return to the assembly.

We can see that all the waterlines have propagated to the mirrored
insert.
Note The Core and Cavity have been made transparent for illustration
purposes.
351
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
Making the Once the mold is complete, drawings are frequently needed for
Drawing quotations. Creating the drawing does not require any additional
training other than that provided in the prerequisite courses.
For additional information on creating drawings using
SOLIDWORKS, see the SOLIDWORKS Drawings training course.
65 Open a drawing file.

Open Bezel Mold Base.slddrw from the Lesson09\Case Study\
Examine the different views. You should be able to see all the detail of
the lifters, side cores, ejector pins, and waterlines.
352
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
Making It is not uncommon to have a design change after all the mold design
Changes work is done. While this could be traumatic, if you have created the
mold parametrically as we have done in the previous steps,
incorporating changes can be very straight forward.
The key steps are:
 Determine the model changes.
Determining changes visually can be difficult. SOLIDWORKS
Utilities provide a tool to compare the geometry between two different
models. This can give a sense of what has changed and what might
need to be done to the mold.
 Import the new model.
The new model can be imported directly into the existing mold file.
 Repair the model if necessary.
If the file is not a native SOLIDWORKS file, repairs may be needed.
 Fix rebuild errors.
Once the model has been replaced in our mold, SOLIDWORKS will
try to rebuild the mold with the new part geometry. If SOLIDWORKS
cannot repair everything, then manual methods must be used.
67 Open Parasolid files.

Import the Door Handle Bezel and Door Handle Bezel (Rev A)
Parasolid files from the Lesson09\Case Study folder.
Run Import Diagnostics and repair as needed.
Tile the open document windows.
It is difficult to tell from a visual examination what has been modified
in the new version of the part.
Door Handle Bezel Door Handle Bezel Rev A
353
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
68 Compare geometry.
Click Tools, Compare, Geometry .
In the Task Pane, select Door Handle
Bezel for the Reference Document.
Select Door Handle Bezel (Rev A) for
the Modified Document.
69 Compare Geometry options.

At the top of the pane, select Options .
Select the Geometry tab.
Clear the option Perform volume comparison and click OK.
354
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9

Click Run Comparison.
Select Face comparison, then click each view icon in turn to see
the faces that are unchanged, unique, or modified.
We can see that while the parts look similar, the sizes and proportions
of the features are different.
71 Close the parts.

Close the Geometry Comparison utility, then close both parts without
saving.
72 Open the master part.
The mold tooling originated from
the multibody part
Bezel_Complete, so we must
import the changes there.
Open the part
Bezel_Complete.
355
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
73 Import the new geometry.

Right-click the Imported1 feature and click Edit Feature .
We will receive a warning saying:
This feature has a parent/child relationship or is being
referenced. Editing this object may lose the relationship or
cause rebuild errors.
Click OK.
Select the file Door Handle Bezel (Rev A).x_t.
Select Match faces and edges and click Open.
74 Examine the bodies.
The bodies should all rebuild successfully.
75 Open and rebuild the assembly.

Open Bezel Mold Base from the Lesson09\Case Study\
Rebuild the assembly.

This may take some time as the changes to the Bezel propagate to the
components in the assembly.
356
SOLIDWORKS Lesson 9
76 Results.
Change the Display State to Fixed Half Hidden Lines Removed.
All components have updated to include the changes to the master
model.
Completing the The mold is still not complete at this point, but the remaining steps are
Process mechanical in nature and not mold specific, so are not included in this
lesson. However, when creating your own mold design projects there
are still a few steps to consider.
Some things that still need to be done:
 Adding connectors.
The mold inserts need to be bolted into the mold base. The mold base
has bolts to do this, but we have not created the matching holes in the
inserts.
When we added the insert to the mold base, we moved components
such as the side cores and lifters to their appropriate subassemblies. We
attached the lifters to the ejector plate, but we still need to physically
connect the side cores to the side core slides.
 Adding components.
We created the waterlines to use plugs and O-rings. These components
may still need to be added to the assembly.
 Adding features.
The lifters were connected to U-couplings. The U-couplings were just
physically placed on the ejector plate without being properly fastened.
357
Lesson 9 SOLIDWORKS
358
Index
Numerics design library 273, 298 find steep faces 65

3D ContentCentral 272–282 annotations folder 275 flash 151
3D Interconnect 27–28 directory structure 275 folders 78
3D model types 9 folder graphics 274 annotations 275
forming tools 276 design library 275
A library features 275, 283 design library graphics 274
ACIS 23, 25 parts 276 mold 212
algebraic surfaces 22 developable surfaces 22 organize surfaces 181, 189
algorithmic surfaces 23 diagnostics, import 29 formats
analysis 61 direction of pull 62 file types 24
check entities 36 discharge gap 148 recommendations 25
draft 61 draft 66–67 forming tools 276
GPU-based processing 61 DraftXpert 66–68
thickness 108 neutral plane 66 G
undercut 110 parting line 67 gaps
analytical surfaces 23 step draft 67 control 18
annotations, design library 275 draft analysis 61 geometry 10
appearances 81 direction of pull 62 GPU-based processing 61
face classification 65 gradual transition 64
B find steep faces 65
bodies gradual transition 64 H
combine 244 straddle faces 65 hide/show bodies 80
hide/show 80 DraftXpert 66–68 holes, delete 49
move/copy 81, 246
split 247, 255 E I
ejector pins 141, 342 IGES 25
C electrode design 146–152 import
cavity 248 discharge gap 148 diagnostics 29
check entities 36 orbiting 148 failure 26
colors 5, 81 entities surfaces 54
combine bodies 244 check 36 import data 9
CommandManager entities to split 156 insert
mold tools 8, 60 Euler’s formula 12 mold folders 212
copy surface 43, 189 extend surfaces 45 insert mold folders 212
core and cavity extrude surfaces 13 interlock surface 81
tooling split 79 interlock surfaces 174
core pins 118, 325 F
cores 112, 224, 319 face classification 65 K
create assembly 83 faces knit surfaces 18
delete 21, 149
D move 149 L
degenerate surfaces 17 replace 54 library features 272, 283–298
delete feature freeze 113 create 284, 298
faces 21 file explorer 277 design library 275
holes 49 files link to library part 283
delete face 21, 149 formats 24 modeling strategies 283
translation 26 sort dimensions 291
fill surfaces 39 lifters 116
359
Index SOLIDWORKS
M S T
manual mode 186 save bodies 83 task pane 272
manual selection techniques 119 scale 68–69 thicken surfaces 19
modeling centroid 68 thickness analysis 108
kernels 23 coordinate system 68 tooling
mold origin 68 cavity 248
analysis tools 61 uniform scaling 68 core pins 118, 325
base 330 selection interlock surfaces 174
folders 78, 181, 189, 212 manual selection 119 lifters 116
lifters 116 tools 119 shut-off surfaces 123–125
surfaces 78 selection tools 119 side cores 112
tools 8, 60 sew surface, See knit surface trapped areas 112
mold design process 58–60, 86 shut-off surfaces 71–72, 123–125 tooling split 79
mold folders 78, 181, 189, 212 patch types 71–72 interlock surface 81
insert 212 side cores 112, 224, 319 topology 10
mold tools 8, 60 singularity 17 training files 3
core 112 Smart Components 298–305 translate files 26
parting lines 69 defining assembly 298 trapped areas 112
parting surfaces 73 insert 302 trim surfaces 15
shut-off surfaces 71 make 302
tooling split 79 smart components 272 U
move face 149 solid models 9 undercut analysis 110
move/copy bodies 81, 246 SOLIDWORKS resources 273 untrim surfaces 16
split bodies 247, 255 up to surface 254
N split faces 155
neutral plane 66 split line 167 W-Z
NURBS 23 splitting a part 159–163 wireframe models 9
steep faces 65
O STEP 25
offset surface 43, 189 step draft 67
orbiting 148 straddle faces 65
organize surface models 9
surfaces 181, 189 surfaces
algebraic 22
P algorithmic 23
Parasolid 23–24 analytical 23
parting lines 69 copy 43, 189
draft type 67 degenerate 17
entities to split 156, 165 delete faces 21
options 69 developable 22
split faces 155, 166 extend 45
splitting a part 159–163 extrude 13
parting surfaces 73–77 fill 39
manual mode 186 import 54
smoothing 76–77, 97 interlock 81, 174
parts, library 276 knit 18
pins offset 43, 189
core 118, 325 organize 181, 189
ejector 141, 342 parting 73
planar surfaces 14 planar 14
pull direction 62 replace faces 54
ruled 22, 161–162
R shut-off 71, 123–125
repair thicken 19
imported geometry 29 trim 15
replace faces 54 untrim 16
resources up to surface 254
SOLIDWORKS 273
ruled surfaces 22, 161–162
360

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Mold Design Using SOLIDWORKS

SYSPRICE - REVENDA SOLIDWORKS

Mold Design Using SOLIDWORKS

Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation

Procedure for Rebuilding Fillets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Case Study: Router Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

File Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Course Length The recommended minimum length of this course is 2 days.

Conventions Used This manual uses the following typographic conventions:

Training A set of training templates are used throughout the course to

Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

 The inside versus the outside of a solid.

Or, consider the two solids pictured below:

Both are composed of 6 faces, 12 edges, and 8 vertices. Topologically,

This rule is also why you cannot

Euler’s Formula Euler’s formula V – E + F = 2 defines the relationship of a solid

1 Extrude a solid cylinder.

Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Extruded Surface

Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Planar Surface

4 Create a planar surface.

Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Trim Surface

5 Trim the surfaces.

6 Second planar surface.

Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Untrim Surface

8 Apply Face Curves.

Where to Find It  CommandManager: Mold Tools > Knit Surface

Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Thicken

Where to Find It  Trim Surface PropertyManager: Create solid

Summary In summary, creating a solid feature is an automated way of surface

Where to Find It  CommandManager: Surfaces > Delete Face

13 Activate the part named Solid.

15 Examine the results.

 Developable surfaces are a

applied in shipbuilding (for easily formed flat plates or sheets of

Contents of a CAD To help understand what is actually transferred between programs it

 STEP (*.step, *.stp)

CAD Application File Formats Versions

CATIA® V5 *.CATPart, *.CATProduct V5R8 - 5-6R2016

Autodesk® V6 - V2017 (for *.ipt)

PTC® *.prt, *.prt*, *asm, *.asm* Pro/ENGINEER® 16 -

Solid Edge® *.par, *.asm, *.psm V18 - ST8

NX™ software *.prt UG 11 - NX 11

1 Open a STEP file.

Once the STEP file is opened in SOLIDWORKS, a feature in the

Import SOLIDWORKS provides several tools to assist with diagnosing and

Where to Find It  CommandManager: Evaluate > Import Diagnostics

5 Dissolve the link.

7 Run Import Diagnostics.

8 Attempt to Heal All.

Let’s try another importing option and compare the results.

11 Modify Import Options.

12 Open the STEP file.

13 Run Import Diagnostics.

18 Save the file.

Comparing To decide which baseframe model to move forward with, we will

Where to Find It  CommandManager: Evaluate > Compare Documents ,

19 Compare the models.

20 Examine the results.

In this case, we’ve determined the baseframe model includes higher

 STEP (.step, .stp)

CATIA® V5 .CATPart, .CATProduct V5R8 - 5-6R2016

PTC® .prt, .prt, asm, .asm Pro/ENGINEER® 16 -

Solid Edge® .par, .asm, *.psm V18 - ST8