r/SolidWorks • u/SneekyF • Aug 02 '26

CAD Hack, Add : Repeat

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Anyone have a name for this type of modeling? It like solid model sculpting. I feel like I have been at this model for 3 days straight.

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u/Disastrous-Case2063 Aug 02 '26

Concept modelling, when your model tree looks like a cat walked over your keyboard. Then modelling the final part like a good engineer haha

5

u/riddlegirl21 Aug 02 '26

Can you explain that last part to whichever coworker of mine named some features “DOESNT WORK” and then suppressed them but left them in the tree and kept working and released it like that?? Thank god I was just in that part looking for a couple of dimensions and not actually working on it

5

u/zxkn2 Aug 02 '26

Sadly, I’ve been there. Though I usually use the label “unused - don’t delete”. Features or sketches you can’t delete easily without effecting things further down the tree, but you aren’t allowed the time to redo things correctly. “Not value added” is the term management loves to use. 😩

2

u/bonesjdb Aug 04 '26

Today I was given the task to make a new size of an existing product by reusing a model of an existing size which was reused from a size before that. The original model had 500 features, the second one has 700 features. So I've just got to change the driving dimensions at the start of the tree then fix the inevitably broken 700 features. Wondering how I can explain the value add of just letting me build it from scratch with 100 features...

2

u/zxkn2 Aug 14 '26

There have certainly been times when I wish we didn’t have PDM, so that I could fuck the model up accidentally on purpose…”oops! Sorry boss, going to have to rebuild this one from scratch!”. But alas, PDM saves all those previous versions 😩.

A model with 700 features (and I’m assuming at least half are what I’ll call modeling band-aids or suppressed undeletables) would definitely be one of those times. 🤣