SOLIDWORKS – Working with Curves and Splines

Course Introduction
Hi everyone, my name is Shivani Patel, and welcome to my intermediate SOLIDWORKS course on curves and splines. I'm an elite applications engineer with GoEngineer. SOLIDWORKS is a widely used CAD tool, and using splines and curves we can model geometry as common as threads to shapes as three-dimensionally complex as a spaceship. In this course, we'll take a look at everything the curve and spline tools can do. While we're covering curves, we'll see how we can build up different curve segments using various techniques, and then we'll combine those curves together to produce smooth geometry. While we're discussing splines, we'll see an introduction to the tool, building it in two-dimensions, and then we'll push that to how to fully define them and edit them in three-dimensions. We'll cover these topics by building up a CFL light bulb, a NACA airfoil, a corrugated roof panel, and an electric burner. And by the end of the course, you should be able to build using any of the functionality within curves or splines. However, since this is an intermediate course, you should be familiar with sketching, editing, and feature-building, screen manipulation, and have an introductory understanding to 3D sketching.

Modeling a CFL Bulb: Part 1
In our first module, we will design a majority of the glass portion of a CFL bulb. A glass bulb has helical twists, as well as bent regions that are very difficult to model using standard methods. We will take this a step further by creating a new coil shape for our bulb. Let's look at our overview. When creating a new design, we generally begin with a conceptual sketch. We'll import this conceptual design, and then see how to use splines to turn this into physical material. Then, using a combination of curve techniques, we'll build the top half and helical shape of the bulb. We'll finish with a small discussion on curvature continuity. So with that established, let's move on and look at splines, intersection curves, helical curves, and projection curves.

Modeling a CFL Bulb: Part 2
In our second module, we will complete the glass portion of the CFL bulb, and model the base. Let's see the overview. First, we must complete the curve that forms the glass bulb. This will require using splines within a 3D sketch. Modifying those highly editable splines in three dimensions can make mistakes easy, so we look at techniques to stay in control of our sketch. Secondly, we will use our knowledge of curvature continuity to turn our curves into solid glass geometry, and then finally we'll model our CFL bulb base and complete with threads and a decal. So let's get started on fully defining splines, curve combination methods, and conics.

Using Known Geometry
Module three is a quick module where we discover how to take known geometry and bring that exactly into SOLIDWORKS. We will do this by modeling both a NACA airfoil and a corrugated roof panel. Within these, we'll see how to import XYZ data points, as well as form curves based on mathematical functions. So let's get started.

Modeling an Electric Burner
Our final module shows how to build an electric burner. Their spiral shape is largely based on the stove's connection points. Newer users to SOLIDWORKS may guess the burner shape while modeling the part file only to be forced to make edits once building up the assembly. We'll see how to form a spiral using curves, but then how to complete the burner shape by creating and editing a curve at the assembly level. So let's complete our knowledge on curves with the tools spiral and curve through reference geometry.