News and Tutorials

Learn how to control the flow of isoparms in SOLIDWORKS to create smooth surfaces, with tips and example files from DiMonte Group’s product design studio.
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Learn advanced SOLIDWORKS surfacing techniques from DiMonte Group’s industrial design consulting team, with a free presentation and example files.
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Learn injection molded plastic part design in SOLIDWORKS from a product design engineering firm, covering draft, bosses, ribs, and master model workflows.
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You have 3D scan data. Now what? This session first explores the workflows and decisions required to effectively reference a 3D scan in SOLIDWORKS. Then the second part uses the “Tucker Torpedo” case study to explore the root principles and best tools for modeling using the scan as your guide. This session is for anyone […]
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We’ve owned Fusion 360 software for a year. Projects that come into our company are commercial gigs, so we haven’t been able to justify the learning time involved with using software new to us against a real-world design job’s timeline. So, we just kept plugging along in SOLIDWORKS software. But it kept nagging at us […]
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This is not a session on how not to make mistakes. Mistakes happen. Not catching mistakes is what is wrong, and not catching and correcting them in a timely fashion can start costing money, or worse, cost people their jobs. SWW2016_HowNotToBeWrong.zip (26MB) Contents: Powerpoint presentation and working SolidWorks files
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In 1999, TIME magazine hailed the Eames LCW Chair the greatest design of 20th Century. Using this chair and others, I’ll explain SOLIDWORKS modeling techniques that can be used to recreate the most iconic Mid Century Modern furniture designs AND be applied to your everyday design challenges. This presentation covers techniques for how to create […]
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Learn SOLIDWORKS spline and surfacing techniques our product design consultancy uses to model challenging consumer product shapes, with free example files.
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Have you ever applied a fillet at .23” instead of the required 0.25” just to have it complete? Wondered about the different types of fillets and all their options? Needed to smoothly blend multiple fillets into each other? After this Filleting Master Class, you’ll be a filleting wizard. This presentation discusses the fillet tool and […]
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When the Shell command works, it is amazing. And when it doesn’t work, that is when you need this session! We will cover why shells fail, how to diagnose the source of the problem, and some simple (and sometimes devious) tricks to always make your part shell. Make-it-Shell_02-17-2014.zip (30MB) Contents: Powerpoint Presentation and working SolidWorks files
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Ever applied a fillet at .23″ instead of the required .25″ just to have it complete? Had wonky fillets across the parting line? Wondered how to blend complex shapes into each other? This presentation will discuss techniques that will allow you to smooth pretty much anything in SolidWorks. There is a newer version of the […]
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This year’s presentation is an exploration of unexpected and devious tricks for editing SolidWorks models, reorganizing history, and reverse Engineering from scans/imported models. Attendees will leave with some really useful techniques employing things like deliberately sabotaging features and creating place-holding geometry as work-arounds for vexing every-day problems. There is also a bunch of stuff about […]
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3D scanning technology has become a popular tool throughout many industries for use in quality control and reverse engineering projects. The geometry of a scanned part, known as a ” point cloud ” can be surfaced, smoothed, and input into a CAD program such as SolidWorks for the purpose of comparing parts to specification or […]
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Shell, Draft, and Fillet are entirely reliant on the faces of the model they are applied to. This presentation discusses how those features think and why they sometimes deliver surprising results (or no results at all). It discusses how models can be re-structured to better accommodate these applied features. And when that is not possible, it […]
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Issues were submitted by users. Phil Sluder and Ed Eaton teamed up to provide answers, often from different perspectives. Topics covered: Modeling techniques to drastically improve performance on parts with large patterns, complex geoemtries, and long feature trees Alternate techniques for Animating springs Suggestions for representing springs in SolidWorks during the design process *I know […]
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Every year I try to discuss issues that came up in my design work the previous year that are not covered by any other available materials (either mine or from others). The main issues I ran into this year with customers and coworkers influenced me to break from the previous flow of the ‘Curvy Stuff’ […]
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Inspiration: The majority of any audience at SolidWorks World are Engineers. Over and over again, Engineers would approach me (an Industrial Designer) and share stories of their frustration with working with Industrial Designers. I, frankly, had similar experiences in the reverse working with Engineers. Working at the DiMonte Group, where Engineers and Industrial Designers work […]
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Inspiration: The majority of any audience at SolidWorks World are Engineers. Over and over again, Engineers would approach me (an Industrial Designer) and share stories of their frustration with working with Industrial Designers. I, frankly, had similar experiences in the reverse working with Engineers. Working at the DiMonte Group, where Engineers and Industrial Designers work […]
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Inspiration: Each year’s ‘Curvy Stuff’ presentations are inspired by the biggest issue I ran into with SolidWorks the previous year as the DiMonte Group worked with our clients to achieve their design goal. One thing that disturbed me was seeing products that were designed to be convenient for representation in SolidWorks features. This is only […]
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Inspiration: After giving a ‘Curvy Stuff’ presentation, Engineers would approach me and say “great presentation, though I will never use any of it because all I design is ‘blocky” parts'”. The majority of any audience at SolidWorks World are Engineers, and I clearly wasn’t making the connection I was hoping for – that the route […]
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“Out of date” Alert: There is no discussion in this presentation about working through rebuild errors (or possibly introducing design-intent issues) via any of the ‘Xpert’ functions introduced in SolidWorks 2007. Also, some of the glitches explored in the presentation are version specific – that is why it is so important to test everything in […]
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Inspiration: Each year’s ‘Curvy Stuff’ presentations are inspired by the biggest issue I ran into with SolidWorks the previous year as the DiMonte Group worked with our clients to achieve their design goal. I kept seeing clients and coworkers stymied by the problem of converting the design in their head (or in the case of […]
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“Out of date” alert: Though I tested everything thoroughly at the time this was authored, please note that many items in this presentation have been made out of date by subsequent improvements in SWx (notably ‘modeling overmolds’, which is a LOT easier after the introduction of multi-bodies in SWx 2003. See: Curvy Stuff V – […]
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“Out of date” alert: Though I tested everything thoroughly at the time this was authored, please note that many items in this presentation have been made out of date by subsequent improvements in SWx (notably the guide curve stuff and most of the stuff on ‘dome’, though there are others). As with any presentation you […]
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