A few things to keep in mind:

• The easiest way to start an assembly is to open the first part file and use the "Make Assembly from Part" command under the File menu. This will start a new assembly. To accept the default, fixed position for the first part, just click the green check mark at the top of the Insert Component property manager that comes up.
• To add coincident mates between pairs of faces:
• Enter Mate mode with Insert | Mate or the Mate (paperclip) icon on the toolbar
• Make sure that the Mate Selections input area is active (pink), and click on the two faces to be mated
• The model pieces should move together to show the mate. If they're mated the wrong way (the wrong side of one face is touching the other), change the mate alignment using the icons at the bottom of the Standard Mates section of the Mate property manager
• Make sure that each part has enough mates to keep it in place. You shouldn't be able to move the parts with the mouse once they're fully mated.
• Typically you will need three mates per part to keep it in place.
• When you're done, make sure no parts are intersecting one another using the Interference Detection tool:
• Go to Tools | Interference Detection
• Make sure your assembly is selected under Selected Components
• Click the Calculate button
• The Results should indicate No Interferences
• If interferences are detected, check your mates to ensure that parts aren't overlapping

Here are the exercises:

• Modeling exercise 5.1 (eDrawing, PDF)
• Modeling exercise 5.2 (eDrawing, PDF)
  
• Modeling exercise 5.3 (eDrawing, PDF)
  

Note that the PDFs have more than one page each. Also, the eDrawings file for Exercise 5.2 contains an animation that shows how the pieces fit together. To play it, make sure that you're in "Complete" UI mode (View | UI Mode), then click the Animations tab on the left, and click Play in the Animations side panel.

Due: Mar 8

The second part of the Table Set assignment is to combine the table and tabletop item parts that you have already designed into a single SolidWorks assembly. We will go over how to do this in class. In brief:

• Start a new assembly with your table part as the first component. It should be fixed in place relative to the assembly origin.
• Insert each of the three tabletop item parts into the assembly.
• Use a simple Coincident mate to align the bottom of each object with the tabletop surface. Move the objects into position on the table.

Due: Sat, Mar 1

This is a simple exercise that will give you some practice with the fundamentals of rendering in PhotoWorks.

Download and open the provided SolidWorks part file. The file includes one camera and three lights. The lights are all turned off in PhotoWorks by default. Using this part file, you will create a series of renderings as JPG image files. Each rendering should be made using the "Render to File" command at a resolution of 800x600 or higher. I also recommend setting your the Antialiasing quality to High or Very High (PhotoWorks | Options | Document Properties | Anti-aliasing quality).

• From the "Front closeup" camera:
• Do one rendering for each solo light (Key only, Fill only, Rim only)
• Do a rendering with Key and Fill on, and Rim off
• Do a rendering with Key, Fill, and Rim all on
  
• Do at least three additional renderings with all three lights on, but changing the material assignment of the "Body" and "Grip" bodies

Important things to remember:

• You turn lights on and off for PhotoWorks through the RenderManager tab, not the FeatureManager. This will be demonstrated in class--refer to the PhotoWorks help if you forget how.
• You should be in the "Front closeup" camera view (right click the camera in the FeatureManager and select "Camera view", or select "Front closeup" from the small menu at the bottom left of the main view area).
• Use Render to File. Do NOT render to screen and take a screenshot.

For additional practice, you might (optionally) try setting up another camera at an alternate viewpoint, and adjust the lights to support the new camera angle. 

• Rendering practice model (SWx 2007 SLDPRT)

For this assignment you should end up with at least eight JPEG format rendered images.

Due: Sat, Mar 1

For this assignment, you will design and model a writing instrument using the tools you have learned so far, primarily Extrude, Revolve, and Sweep. The first step will be to sketch out a side view of your design in traditional media, scan it in, and import it into SolidWorks as a guide using Sketch Picture. The tutorials may be helpful if you've forgotten how to do this.

Once you've imported your sketch, make sure its scale is realistic and use it as a guide for Revolve features to create the writing instrument's body. You may want to compose the design from multiple independent bodies so that it's easier to assign different materials to each.  Consider adding a removable cap component. A clip or other protrusion might be made using a Sweep.

Eventually, we'll do a rendering of this part in PhotoWorks, but it's not necessary to do that at this point.

Due: Sat, Mar 8