Incredible SolidWorks Spline Shortcut!

[@rlockwood2]

Pro tip: When dragging a selection window in SW, if you drag the box from left to right, it will select only segments entirely contained within the box. Right to left will select even partial entities within the box.

[@drzboy101]

Just a tip (I'm not a pro). When you mirror geometry about a center line the two half's are connected move a line on one side and the other side mirrors that change. but if you delete the line you used to mirror the geometry then you lose the parametric features of the mirror tool. instead select the line and click "For Construction" then it wont affect extruding the profile but everything remains connected. If this makes sense.

[@JohnGrimsmo]

Awesome! I didn't know about this, and have also had lots of headaches converting vector files with a billion line segments. Thanks for the tip Greg and John!

[@AdamBrunette]

JohnGrimsmo I watched your video some time ago about cleaning up the crown file for engraving and thought that was a great way to do it. Im sure your kicking yourself now for not knowing about this. :D

[@WadeMade]

NYC CNC Is the customer file a DXF? DXF doesn't support splines and will break them into small straight line segments. If your customer is creating the file in Autocad always ask for a DWG. If it's a art program Older AI files work best for us.

[@gootyam]

Suade907 DXF does support splines, both fit point and control vertices. It's on the CAM side of things that arcs are required and in many cases ruin the nice smooth contour. It's a limitation of the CAM software that makes it so we have to translate splines into arcs in CAD before sending it out to CAM vendors.

[@WadeMade]

gootyam I would beg to differ but to each their own. Maybe some new DXF format now supports them but considering every program tends to use it's own generic dxf format you never know what you are going to be getting. I would argue it's going to be a problem for people that try. I use mastercam everyday and can cut splines all I want. For the last 20 years any dxf I've received that had splines has been converted to polylines that are straight line segments. If there is a new DXF format, I'm not aware and it definitely hasn't changed for my day to day use I still see the same problems. I always request any art in AI format or DWG. I never have issues unless the DWG has text if so then I always request AI format.

[@gootyam]

Suade907 I get what you are saying, that Mastercam can do fine with splines, unfortunately not everyone is using a CAM program that can handle splines so the result is we have to send files to be cut in a converted DXF format like you said you've experienced. The result is less than desired every time. It's an industry problem from my point of view. 15 years ago when I ran a CNC machine it could handle splines no problem, but for some reason the brand new plasma CNC out back has antiquated (yet new) software that converts splines to arcs during import with results that are not perfect. The solution is to convert the splines to arcs before sending the file. Same thing for multiple outside vendors too.

[@romeofoever]

its 2022 and ive spent hours upon hours with a complex imported sketch. You saved me me much frustration! Thank you!

[@EasyFold007]

Brilliant Tip...for me the best part is when all those vector points are consolidated into just a few markers the whole render process on the pc becomes faster. Can't believe such a simple trick can make things so much easier. Sometimes I wonder if being set on our ways of doing things are not hampering progress of learning new things....Thanks for the video and tip Greg.

[@srMorozoff]

Hey John here is a tip from me. You got two icons on the toolbar left top corner one on top another taking too much space. Grab the bottom one by the dots and move to the right. The toolbar should collapse.

[@jongiddingsuk]

A quick tip from me, instead of holding down keys when your selecting things, if you start at the top left and draw your box down to the right, it selects everything wholly inside it. If you start bottom right and select towards top left it selects everything it touches. Just my little time saver I use. Hopefully it's of use to someone.

[@mastiwithpalash9517]

Superb...I had spent hrs and hrs to remove points from converted entity spline...now will remember...select..tools..spline...fix spline....thanks lot sir

[@FredMiller]

Sharing! The power of networking! Love it. Keep it up guys!

[@HopeScreen]

if you have brought the spline tools to the dashboard, u can save some clicks and picks for a large spline operation

[@HopeScreen]

I used this technique to creat a human tibia bone with sections on musltiple heights and used this technique to makes those sections as one spline for a loft command later.

[@samuelcorbett243]

You mention holding 'select' to make your selection only select what is fully inside the boundary, but did you know that the selection is green when you click and drag to the left and blue when dragged to the right? The green selection selects everything, while the blue is only that which is inside the selection boundary completely. Unfortunately this only is true in sketch's but is handy nonetheless. Also when doing fillets, chamfers etc, you can select one edge then just hover into the tool tip and it should have multiple options for auto selection (on solid works 2014/15). Otherwise before selecting the edges you want, right click and use the 'select tangent' or 'select loop' as required.

[@earlydesign4401]

Thank you so much. I have racking my brain trying to figure out how to do this. I knew there was a way but just couldn't get it to work.

[@abdulsalamyousif179]

you saved me hours of work thanks a lot

[@marcerasmus3745]

wow...this tip just saved me TONS of time...thanks so much for sharing...really worthwhile :)

[@GeofDumas]

That's pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing! (And thanks to Greg for the tip!)

[@Squat5000]

Great tip! Im sure hoping it works in Inventor... Trying now. Again, HAACK function making me... Hack up my keyboard... :-D Almost wrapped up that contour for you to try on the lathe... Just finished 100 rounds of fluid dynamic simulation to optimize the profile... I think the BC will be quite high, so far, estimated at about .825. For those who are familiar, I bet you know what project I'm hinting at! :-D haha. Last thing is to determine the brass alloy I want to use. How does C360 sound to you? Its free machining, and plenty hard and tough for my use. +1 Greg! And thank you for the video. I love that you share even the small things.

[@mulberryworkshop]

Hohohoho Tkanks! and about the selection, if you click from right to left you get green selection (doesn't matter if you just pick part of a line it will take full of it) left to right, blue selection, it will just pick the line which are completely inside of the blue square.

[@KJDMtt]

Another tip: If you're doing a command several times like that, you can right click and go to recent commands instead of going through all the menus.

[@dreadedartist]

thanks for posting this. This was a big issue for me

[@stevieklaer9347]

Exactly what I was looking for!

[@russtuff]

Awesome! How have I never seen this?!?!

[@donutlord1655]

When doing splines, I try to keep it to a maximum of 3 points, but usually settle for two per curve, depending on the control I need. I feel like the biggest two curves could have been done with two points (touching each corner), then just adjusting the arrows that result from each point to get what you need.

[@GregsGarage]

Thanks for sharing the tip!

[@Baryl83]

You do not need to navigate for Fit Spline command every time. Simply hit Enter to repeat last command used.

[@VHSler]

Awesome !!! Thanks for the share. This will help me a lot !!!

[@Fliperakis13]

Very useful and good to know... I hate splines when it comes to editing. Thank you very much!

[@Molas0]

well done mpagasako!

[@ZrKappa]

Thank you!

[@tokuster]

Thanks bro. Awesome job.

[@BovoM8]

fixed a broken spline i had where i couldnt identify the break. cheers

[@_FixingBroken_]

Thank you very much bro.. This is I wanted to know.

[@peteraziz5521]

Amazing! 😮

[@mdqamardilrez2238]

LOTS OF THANKS...

[@gabrielarios8069]

De verdad que sirve! Muchisisisisisisimas gracias. Recomendado al 1000000!!!

[@Raggmuff]

Its still showing the lines as Spline? Just smoother?

[@yeskaaustral4456]

Make my day!

[@atcaleb]

Jez you guys are really smart. It humbles me.

[@Kawaiiization]

One more tip: Press "S" on keyboard.. Then you're in command mode. Just type fit spline and look at the top right side of the screen..

[@OriginalAtomicSheep]

Thank YOU!!!

[@jaysolanki8366]

I'm not able to activate the spline handle Can someone plz help

[@MTN_008]

Thanks!!

[@colinworobetz6662]

Holy crap! The VF0 with ~40kB of memory will benefit from this haha!

[@colinworobetz6662]

NYC CNC Yeah... at least I can drip feed.

[@nigabroke7062]

I love you