Top Down Design

The top down design approach uses a 'layout sketch' at the top of the design tree in the assembly to drive other components in the design.

With a Top-Down Assembly you can design one component at a time based the layout sketch, or based on inferences to other geometry within the workspace. It is useful when you require a high level of associativity between components, or to an assembly-level sketch. Bottom up techniques can of course be used in combination with this, such as where the components are not driven by the constraints of the assembly, hardware items or standard parts for example.

In this lesson we will see how in SOLIDWORKS Mechanical Conceptual the top-down assembly design method can all be done within a single workspace and design tree due to its Single Modeling Environment. 

Benefits Summary

• The Single Modelling Environment enables you to quickly create conceptual sketches that become components within a single workspace.
• Each component has  a tight relationship between sketches, features, and other components, ensuring design intent is respected
• Understanding assembly behavior is accelerated as sketch motion is automatically transferred into component motion