Computersight -

This is the first article of my Solidworks tutorial. By this article, I aim to teach how to draw some simple geometries by Solidworks. This work is for students, engineers and engineering candidates. After reading this article, one can draw lines, rectangles in Solidworks. I present step by step procedures in these simple drawing.

Above all, we will use sketch command to define a planes. Simply pressing sketch button in Solidwork menu, you can define a plane on which you want to start drawing. Basically, one has three alternatives, front, top, and right respectively. For 2D drawings, one can select any of them. In our tutorial set, I will select top plane as a reference plane. This means, I’ll draw on the top surface of imaginary rectangular prism. Think like this for simplicity.

How to draw a line

To draw line, simply click the line figure on the toolbar. Solidworks will present you four alternatives to draw line. They are “as sketched”, “horizontal”, “vertical” and “angle”. Lets we draw a vertical line with a height of 60. Click the “vertical” radio button and  and somewhere on the screen and drag the tip of cursor vertically. This will draw a vertical line. To dimension it, click “smart dimension” button and starting point of line. Then drag the tip of cursor to the end point of vertical line. Solidworks will ask you the numerical length of the line. Write 60 into the space. Now, you have a vertical line with a length of 60 mm.

How to draw a rectangle

To draw rectangle, click the rectangle figure on the toolbar. Then draw a rectangle with any lengths. Then dimension it by using “smart dimension” button. Dimension each side of rectangle. Let’s draw a rectangle with a side length of 120 mm and a height of 80 mm.