50 3D Modeling Tips and Best Practices for Mechanical Designs. - Jeremy Fielding 099

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Notes:
First video in the series 18 mechanical design tips and tricks
• 18 (ish) Mechanical De...
Technical corrections
Nothing yet

[@JeremyFieldingSr]

In case it isn't obvious from the video, I love using Solidworks. But, I tried very hard to make this tutorial helpful no matter what CAD package you use. I would love it if everyone would share your favorite shortcuts and modeling tips across all CAD packages! We all know there are other options (some free) out there and for many that gets the job done. I want people to find this helpful no matter what package you are using. The goal is to help everyone improve! Thank you for watching!

[@henningklaveness7082]

Thanks for the video :-) I greatly appreciate your work. I'm afraid you failed at universal appeal, though :-/ I'm a F360 user already comfortable with some of the concepts you introduced, and there are simply too many software specific nuances for the "click here, do this" approach to have much value. Starting out with workspace customization didn't help, either. Being mostly self taught and having learned some of these lessons the hard way (re-designing from scratch), this style of video is actually super useful to me, especially coming from someone of your experience. However, I would have learned far more if you had started out with more general concepts (for example parametric design) and stayed out of the nitty gritty. Anyway, I love your vids, keep up the good work :-) P.S: I typed the above around 11 minutes in, and things did improve a lot from there. This reinforces my notion that leading with the interface related stuff was a bad idea.

[@JeremyFieldingSr]

@@henningklaveness7082 I started this video with changing options because that is literally what controls the behavior of the software you use for everything else. I believe this is a huge part of making your workflow faster and more enjoyable. Starting with a blank page, and setup just made sense. For non-solidworks users it just means you have to look in different places than what I showed on the screen. But not that you shouldn't look. I strongly encourage every CAD user to explore what settings they can change and fix what bugs you. "Fix what bugs you" is easily in my top five list of things that needs to happen to make CAD modeling easier. I hope you were at least motivated to explore what was there, even if what you find is different. That was the goal.

[@Milby20289394bc]

Where does one go to gain knowledge on electro-mechanical engineering? Such as how to make a camera help complete a task like sorting 2 different but similar items? Or a pneumatic actuator or servo to place one item into one bit and another item in another bin?

[@JointerMark]

@@Milby20289394bc Chris, do you mean in order to get a degree or to solve a real world problem? One of the best ways to get knowledge is through experience. So a combination if working with knowledgeable people and tinkering with relevant parts, tools and supplies in conjuction with a willingness to learn will go a long way to gathering the sought knowledge.

[@petermarin]

Awesome!! Do you have some good tutorials for solidworks??

[@RealJohnnyAngel]

As a machinist/fabricator, I can not stress enough how much it means to have you emphasize the importance of using as whole numbers as possible.

[@TommiHonkonen]

Metric is whole numbers all the way.

[@brenelec]

@@TommiHonkonen they are but if your making say a cover over a motor, which is nicer to make, 507mm, 500mm, 510mm, chances are the 500 and 510 will annoy the workshop less than the 507 510 should be closes enough if 500 is too tight.

[@RealJohnnyAngel]

@@TommiHonkonen I would love to work in metric where I can. But all the infrastructure around me favours customary first. But being Canadian I am fluent in both.

[@TommiHonkonen]

@@brenelec Makes no sense to me. Is all mm so its whatever. Do you think the person who designs the parts I make spends his nights sweating over if I am thinking it's nicer this or that way? I see youtube garage impostor machinist or fabricator might spend enormous time sweating over that but not in the real world.

[@Bonamus]

@@TommiHonkonen True. In real world when designing an assembly with external dimension for example 500 mm you will still get some parts with dimensions ending in single digits. It is as easy to measure either 390 or 391 mm. I think it is more important to make the drawing fabrication in mind so that you don't need to calculate some dimensions in head when making the part

[@cheeseisgreat24]

As a programmer, the "Name Your Features" part reminded me of commenting on your code. **SO MANY PEOPLE** leave commenting as an afterthought, but if you do it as you go and be as descriptive as possible, it makes using, revising, and searching your code **soooooo much easier** and I'm sure it's the same here for features

[@JimPowersUSA]

At the 4:30 mark it was nice to see the settings dialog with the two tabs (System Options and Document Properties) is still in SolidWorks. I did the initial design and implementation of that over 20 years ago. Back in the early days of SolidWorks all of the settings were in tabbed dialog with system and document settings mixed together.

[@Anenome5]

You're a legend. Can I tell you one of my dreams is to one day have an open source parametric modeler like Solidworks similar in character to Blender for 3D graphics. That would be a massive gift to the world. We need people like you for that.

[@ReiJarrod]

I just wanted to let you know in case you read this, for me I watch the channel for you and your positive personality. I don't know anything about engineering but really like your attitude and ability to teach and explain things. My son and I watch your channel now that he's a little older and I think we might even start our own project. Just letting you know your channel has had a positive impact on my family and I thank you for it.

[@tonyrhodes5541]

Yeah the guy just pulls you into what hes doing and teaching about. Id probably watch him if he was talking about barbie dolls. Im no engineer either but i kinda get the gest of what hes saying but it'll take awhile b4 i can remember all the math formulas like speed x torque = power. I just found his videos today and i cant stop watching and i got stuff my wife says im suppose to be doing. If i can get her to start watching him soon then she'll be hooked too.

[@javierhervas5881]

Just a few more tips: - You can also exit the sketch or any feature pressing the letter D in the keyboard - It is better to name the dimension in the dialogue box where you enter the value, not where Jeremy wrote it. You can show the name of the dimensions in Tools > Options - You can activate de block bar (I don't know if this is the right name in english) to block the features of a finished part, Solidworks won't rebuild this features when you pres Control + Q, this saves a lot of time when you rebuild the assembly. Remember to block the features when the part is completely finished and you know it is not going to change when modifying other parts. - If an assembly/part spends a lot of time rebuilding you can evaluate it using the performance evaluation tool. This way you will know what parts/features are the ones that require more time rebuilding and do something about it. - You can save selection sets (very useful in assemblies). Select different parts/features/reference geometry and Save selection (right click with the mouse). The selection set will appear in the feature/assembly tree. - If you are more advanced and you know the icon of almost all the features you can hide the name of them, the visualization area will be bigger - You can also name mates and save the most important ones as favourites (right click on the mate). This helps a lot when working in a multiuser environment, the main mates will apear in the assembly tree, all of them named. This are just a few, there are tons of them. Reply with your favourites so we will learn from each other! Thanks Jeremy for the content, keep up with the good work! I love your projects

[@benkasper4035]

The english word is to freeze the features i think

[@forge721]

Trying to get into the engineering world with no degree and technical skill. Wouldn’t be able to do it without creators like you, Thanks for taking the time in trying to teach us something

[@yawnastyfpv6942]

I really appreciate the level of thought and elegance goes into your tutorials. You certainly have a gift for “dumbing it down”, but not in a simple minded context. More so, an appropriate way of looking at things that makes sense to a broad group. You are truly an inspiration Jeremy and I’m sure you get this often, but thank you for the re-spark I’ve needed to deep dive into my own internal maker.Please keep pushing yourself and thank you for allowing us to take this journey with you.

[@russellohnemus4957]

Awesome advice! Funny how different we are on gestures I can't stand them but love keyboard shortcuts. One comment on configurations, be careful with how often you use them. Parts will rebuild once for each configuration and can quickly increase time required to update and rebuild. A few small tips I use every day: Alt+tab: Switches between open files. Shift+click: Will select a transparent faces. Ctrl+8: Makes view normal to the selected face or nearest primary plane if nothing is selected. Shift+tab: Will unhide a the part where your mouse is. Use isolate to temporarily show a single (or a few) part alone and then quickly revert back to the old view. Use plain white background for cleaner screenshots.

[@mpkleinbreteler]

Can confirm :)

[@OddJobEntertainment]

This was such an eye-opener for so many reasons. When I got my CSWA it was presented as though I now had the skills to do anything I wanted in Solidworks. But, I knew that wasn't the case because I had no idea how to do surface modeling (or any organic shapes really), how to integrate things like motors, tolerances, and the long list goes on (I've learned some of those since then). This video showed me a glimpse of what you can really do when you have a better grasp of the program and I'm excited to get to that level. This video also was a good refresher on a lot of what I did learn in the CSWA course. Finally, as I've been working on my own personal projects (haven't graduated yet) I've learned some things intuitively but didn't really have a solid idea in my mind about why. For example, I've intuitively tried to base most of my sketches on the 3 main planes but didn't really realize why. When you said that you do that because those will never change, suddenly the abstract reasoning behind my actions made sense.

[@ericbelanger6900]

For sure the BEST video on KZbin! Thanks a million friend.👍

[@jjcc8379]

That 3D spacemouse has certainly been used. I've been using one at work for some years now ... and I can vouch for how intuitive and usefull it is. Certainly worth the upgrade to the one with the wrist pad and buttons, as you have.

[@dielaughing73]

I've just ordered the base model. Is the pro version worth the extra? The 'enterprise' version with the screen looked pretty boss too.

[@beaverpondlane]

Dude, this is the best tips/tricks video for SW that I've ever seen. I also use Creo and while everything won't translate, the ideas behind where and how to be more efficient are gold. Thank you!

[@timcollins1122]

Excellent video, Jeremy! I am a career SW user and you echoed many of my own sentiments about best practices. My favorite quote from a CAD instructor is "Design intent is king." My number one way to apply this principle is to model around the origin planes for symmetry and to anchor your model so that the origin represents the most fundamental and important foundation of your design. One clarification that may not be apparent to beginners is regarding the ctrl-drag to "copy" an assembly component. As you know, this creates another instance of the same part, not a new part -- a very important distinction.

[@Simon_Rafferty]

I agree with most of what you've said (I've been using SW since 2006). My main dislike is Configurations. They are incredibly useful - but most of the stability issues in Solidworks stem from the use of configurations! I know a lot of people love them - but the number of times I hear other people at work swearing because SW has crashed (mine almost never crashes) and I know they use configurations - reassures me they are still broken! A work-around is a design table which may use configurations in the background? but seems more stable. Another (my preferred) option is to have a separate layout part which contains one or more sketches for different versions or in different planes. Insert the layout part at the start of generating a new part and it gives you access to all the sketches contained there-in. This gives you all the model driving information in one part. Best bit is, it's completely stable. I wish Dassault would fix Configurations (and a pile of other stuff) but I don't think they will (or can?). Instead, each new version just has a few new features, a load of new bugs and all the old ones!

[@stevenpwilliams]

Completely love your work! The teaching and the building. You've inspired me, and I really appreciate it.

[@britzwickit]

Love you and the Fielding squad! All the best to you guys in the New year.

[@ChronicMechatronic]

This is the kind of quality content less and less people bother to make on youtube 👍👍

[@phenej]

An industry colleague and owner of a small manufacturing business puts his new engineering graduates through first year machinist apprenticeship training to get them to stop specifying excessively strict, and as you point out, expensive, time consuming tolerances in their designs. Great video.

[@wizardofhyd]

Thank you so much for all the tips and tricks Jeremy!

[@BrandonGraham]

My #1 tip is to always watch videos or attend presentations with this format. I do all the time and always learn different/more efficient ways to do things.

[@Simcadepro]

Thank you jeremy, i've been using solid works for years always great to see new content on the works

[@arthurming3216]

OMG man, you are really awesome!!!!!!!!! You're amazing, and deserve to be watched by all of us, congrats and thanks for the incredible content!

[@Kismetix]

Excellent comments on dimensioning to whole numbers, and extruding objects from a main sketch vertice. These are key points.

[@ElecTrackProjects]

Fantastic video! I use Fusion/Inventor more but these concepts helped me a lot! Love to see your designing experience in a visual format!

[@whitneydesignlabs8738]

Awesome, Jeremy. Super helpful tips to motivate me to the next level of learning. Thank you!

[@galacticscalepenguins6092]

I am disappointed that my University didn't teach us some of these things. I just wrapped up my capstone project for which the Final CAD had over 600 parts and was made by all 4 members and compiling everything and making sure to not break stuff when slightly altering small aspects of the project would have been much easier if we had known about some of these features.

[@philipburtt8504]

This is a fantastic video! Can't thank you enough!

[@aidanhanlon6290]

This is amazing, thanks for putting the time into making this video!

[@jeffmoore3360]

few tips for machine design & Solidworks -When i am designing machines, i keep in mind for fabrication the guys will most likely be using a tape measure to layout and cut material - In Solidworks, learn where your menus are & the command manager before customizing. I have had multiple students over the years jump in and start customizing, then Solidworks crashes and those changes are lost, then they are lost. - In Solidworks, don't trust your hotkeys from from one user to another. I have been using the software since 2004 & the "S" key you mentioned was the sketch function until Solidworks changed it to the shortcut bar. But i absolutely LOVE the shortcut bar. - Keep your models simple, think about the next guy that might have to monkey with your model a few years down the line - think about design intent when modeling

[@vintyprod]

12:04 this is the single most important message of this entire video. i had to learn this the hard way.

[@DanielRut]

This is the most useful SolidWorks video I've ever watched! Thank you!

[@bovax6259]

Jesus that was a lot of info. I geeked out a little on it remembering my SolidWorks class and oh damn has the program evolved since 2012. TY Jeremy

[@aSrRx96]

duuuuuuude the previous selection feature is heaven sent, thank you so much!

[@tenmiltenmil1770]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge ! Have a great New Year in 2022 and may you and your loved ones live long healthy happy prosperous lives ! Always look forward to watching your videos ! ❤️❤️❤️👍👍👍♥️♥️♥️🤗🤗🤗

[@nickskarupa8419]

As someone that used SolidWorks a lot (even got certified) but learned it on the fly during a Co-Op this is an awesome video. There are so many features and quirks I had no idea existed. I definitely agree with customizing and using mouse gestures extensively, they save me so much time. Great video, thanks for the tips!

[@khalidalzadjali777]

I've used Solidworks, Creo parametric and Catia a few years ago in college. But now I use fusion 360 because it's affordable. Although, my favorite CAD software is still Solidworks. Wish I could use it again but it's expensive and not accessible for non-industrial design.

[@francesca.pellegrino]

Yes! I use AutoCAD in my work, but creating a template for my most common type of design has saved me SO many hours! At this point, it's probably saved me almost 6 months worth of time in just clicking, let alone searching and copying from other references. This template has all the layers that I typically need, all standardized in their respective colors, and one layer has all of my most commonly used features like boltholes, metal sizes, countersinks and counterbores.

[@0ADVISOR0]

Mr. Fielding, you are the bomb. Love your Videos! Kepp on rocking.

[@snower13]

I knew maybe 75% of these. Definitely don’t use them as much as I should. The 25% remaining are gold. Thanks!

[@ShaneGardec]

A small remark from someone working in a production environment: naming your parts that way INSIDE the model works great for modelling smaller projects, however if your concept needs to be put into production, make sure to name the bodies in your cutlist or bill of material using a strategic sequence of numbers and subdivisons with the same logic especially for plating and frame members. Otherwise they would make 20 "brackets" and no reference to where it exactly belongs when isolated (for example when you extract DXF files), if isolated with a numerical sequence, it can be traced down to where it comes from more specifically.

[@Anenome5]

Brilliant. One might even prefer to use a Hungarian notation scheme to number them so.

[@Bennett5363]

Do you or anyone reading this have any examples or best practices of part naming systems they would like to share. I work in the structural steel industry and a common naming system there would be like this. So piece/parts would be broken down into two main categories, main drawings and parts. Main drawings are the main pieces that the ironworker would be looking to offloading from the truck at the job site and the parts would be the small pieces that would get welding or bolted to a main drawing and loaded on a truck to go to the job site. So Main drawings would start with a capital (all capital letter parts need to make it on the truck), example B#### for Beams (horizontal members), C for Columns (Vertical Members), D for Braces, FR for Frames (RTU's Roof Top Units, Overhead Doors etc), ST for Stringers (Stairs), HR for Handrail, G for Girts to name the majority. The Main drawing number really is to name the parts function in the building where as the parts are to refer to the shape of material is expected to come out of. So for parts they are small letter names such as a#### for angle pieces, p for plate, fb for flat bar, m for HSS, channel or pipe material, bp for baseplates. There's a few more but that's the basics. Then the number after the letter typically would be like 1000 series numbers for division 1 and 2000 for Div 2 etc. I remember seeing a video a few years back from the Marble Machine channel. It was at the beginning of the new marble machine and they were creating a part name structure for it that I thought was interesting.

[@ShaneGardec]

@@Bennett5363 The way we do it is by numbering parts and subassemblies allready in the cutlist or BOM, so there only needs to be made a drawing number containing the project reference and the subassembly number. All the other data can be found in the weldment cutlist or BOM added to the drawing. (with balloon indicators and what not) I must note we work on a medium to large scale and methods in this develop per type of company and purpose!

[@johncarey9149]

Thank you so much Jeremy, you've provided quite a few light bulb moments in one short video, so I'll definitely watch this again ... and again. As a beginner Fusion user, but a long time AutoCAD user there are some Fusion features that drive me nuts, from the "useability" perspective, but watching this video has given me a useful insight as to why these features as they are. It doesn't ease my frustration, but it does help me to understand how the features have evolved. The other thing that I specially liked in this video was your description of referencing features back to the fundamental X, Y, Z planes. That approach seems to be common to Solidworks and Fusion/Inventor, and so I really do wish that someone had explained that to me a long, long time ago ... 🙂 Obviously there are a few roll eyes moments, like you professing your love for mouse gesture menus over keyboard shortcuts. In my case, as a contractor, I don't always have the user rights to edit the menu layout, but the keys are always in the same place on the keyboard ... :-D Finally, how on earth did you allow your spacemouse to look like it had been dragged out of a toxic waste land-fill. I couldn't work without my spacemouse, and my left hand rests on the spacemouse for 75% of the time, and it's obviously used, but yours ... really? Seriously, thanks again ... 🙂

[@MartyBucholz]

@22:18 As a solidworks instructor this right here is the best advice in the whole video your datums and origin are the best place to build from

[@mdouglaswray]

OUTSTANDING video! Thank you SO much.

[@khelek100]

Great video Jeremy. I always enjoy watching your videos then you go and add SW to one. I'm a career SW user and it's great to find more little tricks that another user is using that you never know about. A few I use a lot that you might find useful. The "d" key will bring the green checkmark to your mouse for all the tool sets, so no need to go finding it, press "d" and it will come to you. "Tab" is a great way to quickly hide solid bodies and "shift+tab" will bring back the body as well as "ctrl+shfit+tab" shows all hidden bodies and you can just click the ones you want to bring back. You can also add sub folders to the design tree and the mates list, which I use for sectioning off critical reference mates that separate flexible configurations from static ones. Lastly there are three versions for people to learn with. The student, Vets and Makers. None are "free" but it brings the cost down significantly

[@bleonciofs]

I'm a fabricator and I wish we worked in the same company. The engineers in my workplace really need to watch some of your videos.

[@orangepants5749]

How is this guy has less than 1 mil subscribers? The content and delivery is great

[@Auday365]

Well done , really useful tips and tools, thanks for sharing.

[@rgaud8]

Restoring previous selections is honestly kind of a mindblower for me. Don’t know how I never noticed that before.

[@richard-sim]

099?! Can't wait for 100! Great video, and I love the density! Perfect for a Monday morning over coffee. ;) Despite having a SolidWorks license through work, I've barely touched it and mainly stick to Fusion 360 out of personal preference due to SolidWork's somewhat abusive reseller/licensing system - so this is actually the first time I've seen a lot of these workflow tips from the SW side of the fence. I must say, SW does have the essentials much more polished than F360! I'm not at all surprised (maybe a little disappointed in F360 really), and given that F360 hasn't changed much of that in a long time I don't think we'll be seeing improvements anytime soon as it's unfortunately not their priority for some reason.

[@JeremyFieldingSr]

This is really the struggle with offering free versions of software. It's hard to support it and especially improve it when you don't charge for it. Solidworks adds a ridiculous number of new features and shortcuts every year. And of course the commercial version is not cheap. There is a good business strategy behind offering Fusion for free. People usually don't change CAD packages the same way they don't frequently change banks unless highly motivated to try something else. Your files and everything have to change formats. In my personal experience, Solidworks is the most power regarding mechanical and structural designs of all the major options. Some of the others shine in areas that are less important to me, so this package is the best FOR ME. If you prefer direct modeling or working with STL files you might try something else. Although solidworks has also been adding more functionality for that in the last two versions probably because of 3d printing. Again just my opinion not considering cost... Purely functionality. Some people simple need a free solution and there is nothing wrong with that.

[@emanggitulah4319]

Fusion added a loooot of new function in a rolling release manner. From adding sheet metal design to generative design and so on. They also listen to their users. In some regards its still lagging some features. For me it's still the best bang for the buck

[@robbiejames1540]

@@emanggitulah4319 Yeah, I particularly noticed the "in process stock" addition to the CAM workspace. Now, one look tells you if the machine will do roughly the right thing. If only they would do some work on the CNC turning...

[@jimdauguste6869]

Jeremy thank you! Your videos are great.

[@_VeljkoMiletic_]

Thank you, Jeremy! Very helpful video

[@tomthumb3085]

Merry Christmas to you and your children Jeremy.

[@Juniordc21]

Thank you Jeremy I’ve always loved engineering but I thought it was too late in life to learn at 29 but now I’ve taken up courses and bought some engineering books, inspired by your channel

[@joshbrucksch]

Great tips, thanks for making this video!

[@lifeisagift.cherisheverymoment]

Great video, really enjoy your attention to detail in your narration. Thank you.

[@jasonwatts4912]

Man Jeremy you are super awesome at teaching the way you explain things I get and I'm not college graduates more in field custom home remodeling contractor came across your videos on KZbin awesome my friend after watching your videos I'm learning motors and now looking into cad design your awesome keep up what you do your super gifted thank you bless you and family again thank you for what you do

[@spehropefhany]

What a great video! Thanks!

[@kageotaku]

Just shared this with my engineering department. I learned a ton and hope the rest of my team does, too!

[@gideonamanimarress7441]

Happy New Year 2022 to you man!.. You've inspired me to focus on Learning SolidWorks in this year '22 and hopefully get my CSWA. THANK YOU!!!! Keep up the good work, your content is dynamite.

[@skd5897]

REALLY USE FULL VIDEO I LOVE YOU WAY OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM

[@DustanWebb]

Such a great informative and helpful video. Thanks

[@Backyardinstallers]

KZbin seem to have forgotten you in my favorite KZbinrs. I am glad to find you again... Please keep making great content and hope all is great for you and your family in 22...

[@domasgrigaliunas7936]

God dang I love this man and his videos :)

[@nemo227]

Happy New Year, Jerry.

[@richs5422]

Outstanding, thank you!

[@TheCapable]

The biad tool blew my brains out. Thank you for taking the time to make this video, I know there are tons of tutorial videos out there, but it would be hard if I didn't know what I was looking for or might like knowing the shortcuts to. These videos have been helpful and humbling. Wished I had you as my professor back when I was studying Mech eng in College. 😅

[@KofiAsare0]

Great video! As a user of both Fusion 360(my go to) and Solidworks I find these tips very applicable to both!

[@danielconrad7421]

Awesome Video! Thanks!

[@mikecurtis2585]

Lots of great information. Thanks 😊 🙏

[@karlrobinpoder942]

hey, just wanted to say that you and your family are awesome!!!

[@user-kw7yz3im9q]

Thank you a lot! Great tips!

[@ChiragIP]

I've been using solidworks for quite a while, still surprised to see so many more features the software has to offer. Thank you for this video.

[@GhastlyPuppy]

been using Solidworks for 2 years for 3d printing and I never know most of the tips discussed. super usefull love your channel sir.

[@pahusaybataan3806]

waw thanks for this. there are still things to learn

[@dawsn3]

omg the previous selection.... THANK YOU

[@xeroinfinity]

i totally agree with familiarizing yourself with the program(s). It'll make thing much easier in the long run! I remember when i went to get my mechanical engineering degree at Purdue in 1986(graduated high school 2 yrs early) i thought it would be a breeze. Nope! I had to take several other classes like Autodesk/AutoCAD and mechanical(by hand) drafting and some math stuff to take engineering. It didnt take me long to figure that learning all the features in the programs was going to make things a LOT easier! I got my BS in 2 yrs , then in 1989 I decided to switch my major to automotive engineering. This also required more programs like AutoCAD to run CNC machines, and more maths. Lol I was lucky to get my masters 2 yrs early, by 1994, and by this time i had already been running my own auto/machine shop for 5-6 yrs. And every time i got a new program the first thing i did was learn the menu's, learn the features, and customize them, like auto save, to make my work flow better and faster. It really does pay off, like hard work. Thanks for sharing your insight! Im sure its going to help other wanting to learn.

[@DoctorAdvicesTruth]

very helpful , thanks a lot

[@benkasper4035]

As a self proclaimed solidworks guru, that was pretty dang good! Still learned a lot!

[@JR-rk5dr]

gonna watch this in 2 times watch the first part and learned a lot of good staff even tho been using soldiworks for 4 years now

[@schanerdesigns]

I've been using Solidworks for years, but I learned a lot of new tricks from this video. I'll be using the shortcut to the search bar and the Previous Selection commands all the time now! Thanks for sharing your expertise with another great video, Jeremy! One tip to add, if you have programmable buttons on your mouse, Esc, Enter, Ctrl and Shift are worth dedicating a button to, IMHO.

[@rickramos899]

Thanks great advice

[@mechee1747]

I've used Solidworks for school, work, and personal projects so I already knew ~85% of the stuff you showed but that other 15% makes it worth watching the whole thing! One other tip I noticed that wasn't mentioned is hitting the 'd' key while in a sketch or feature creation. That'll bring the done or cancel button right next to your mouse cursor! Thus making the time to click even shorter!

[@timstevens3361]

I am a cnc mill machinist in canada. That is actually correct about asking a machinist how to make something.

[@jjcc8379]

Learnt SW at college, dabbled into Catia for a month ... and now i'm working with Autodesk Inventor . But most concepts apply the same. Organizing files accordingly, naming conventions, parametric designing, order of operations, ...

[@josephhardin5726]

This was an awesome video. Glad to see someone else loves mouse gestures.

[@michaeldumessa]

Dude I like your videos!

[@pablodelboca3957]

Grate video!!

[@travisjohnston1923]

I am totally putting alot of this to work. Right now I'm paused at the "Cleaning up your desk" part, and you said something about a shortcut menu you can get by pushing "S". I use FreeCAD and am learning Blender, I havent been to Blender yet to look around, but in FreeCAD, I already had it up and it has a feature to create custom toolbars you can set to appear in the appropriate workbench. and you can float them anywhere in your screen you like so you could effectively create your own shortcut menus, and you aren't limited to 9 faces. I haven't figured out if you can create dropdowns yet, but if I can I will! Hail Brokkr!

[@Javierm0n0]

I use Blender for all my my designs and models and this info is still useful for folx like me. The thought process and focus on simplifying your workflow is 100% always helpful. Great vid.

[@Javierm0n0]

@anothaview in an even broader context it's a generally useful suggestion for use in unreal engine and i'd guess others as well. But unreal offers a different kind of utility with regards to product development.

[@MartyBucholz]

One of my fav shortcuts is the D key will bring the confirmation corner right to your mouse cursor

[@aviator267]

The best tip you gave is that you can always watch the video again 🤣 such an invaluable video. Thanks 🙏

[@ratherrelatablemantisshrim2409]

very helpful thx!

[@Blizzard56k]

Jeremy, I’ve been using SolidWorks everyday for the past three years as a mechanical engineer. I typically work with sheet metal but I still learned a few things from this video. I appreciate the content, Thank you sir! For selecting a midpoint on a sketch line, I’ve found it can be frustrating in certain situations when it will grab more than the “yellow dot” on a line. I found using the right-click “select midpoint” seems to be faster for me. You mentioned having your re-build shortcut mapped to your 3D mouse. I do this as well, but you didn’t mention that you can use that to quickly exit a sketch as well. I can’t wait to use the options search feature, haha. How did I not know about this?

[@rayp.454]

Jeremy, shortcut for selection filter is F5. Thanks for the helpful video.

[@ArmorClad125]

I cannot begin to tell you how many times that selection filter would trip me up. I had switched from Solidworks to F360 for a while and then jumped back. "X" in F360 converts to construction geometry, but in SW it activates the selection filter, took me forever to figure out what the heck I was doing and why I couldn't select things. These are awesome tips, especially the concept of skeleton sketches, this is an incredibly powerful tool that very few beginners are even aware is an option. Thanks for spreading this great info!

[@victorbarrios5162]

I literally threw my arms in the air hearing about the "previous selection" feature.... why is this not mentioned in the first lesson, first chapter at our school?? :D

[@freecadfundamentals292]

Thanks for this Jeremy. I and my colleagues (hobby level designers in our 70s) don't have the means to acquire and use SolidWorks (even the new hobby level version). What it has shown me is why trying to teach someone with SolidWorks experience to use FreeCAD is such an uphill battle for us both. Clearly FreeCAD will never have the sophistication of SolidWorks as it has too few development resources but it moves along getting better, just very slowly.

[@jimsvideos7201]

One quality of life item is to calibrate your display system for colour and brightness. Most default to being too bright and too blue (to be catchy in a brightly lit store) but that can be addressed.

[@kaleoscreations8069]

I started learning fusion 360 a couple months ago, but this video is making me want to switch to Solidworks!

[@howardbaxter2514]

I wish I was taught half of this stuff in my CAD class.

[@mprobison]

Jeremy, I'm super glad you have ds/sdx as a sponsor. Wonderful agent to have in your orbit. Though, I would like to point out for anyone transitioning from student/hobbyist to professional... your student license or "other" license pings home whenever it is used. If you ever - I do mean ever - use a business license while on VPN or another arrangement with your company when working remotely and both the business and student license share the same external IP. You will be flagged for inquiry and a possible cease and desist sent to your work. It's a very embarrassing circumstance to put in. Especially when you have to explain that you're a self-taught solidworks user. This is becoming a commonality in the world given remote work sphere. Personally, I find it remarkably frustrating because without that license to teach yourself how to model... you likely would never be in the position to have access to a business license. I'm told sdx is now offering a maker's version or something of the sort for a rather steep monthly fee and undesirable end of subscription consequences; but I strongly feel sdx should re-address how it handles the non-professional community.

[@MisterMakerNL]

There are so many stories about how they do this. I even have some of my own. Opens your eyes about these CAD companies and how they keep there prices so damn high.

[@Brandon-rc9vp]

Totally agree, if you have access to a sponsored version of SW, that's great - but for a hobbyist or maker it really is one of the worst choices in terms of cost and invasiveness.

[@mprobison]

High price drives the need for invasive software. Funny how that works... Seems to be two faces to the company. They're extremely good friends to people on the inside, but if you want to get in the door. It's a hostile space. Harkens back to the class gatekeeping by engineers of old.

[@scottcassidy8471]

I learned by taking remote-taught community college classes. They'll come with a license that lasts a year and is free. Learning Solidworks has been a complete game-changer in my business. However, I do agree with you, I wish they weren't so guarded.