I will present two case studies; modelling aftermarket automotive cylinder heads for V8 cars and 3D visualization of extruded aluminum windows and doors. After experimenting with techniques, the cylinder heads were modelled in single part file with multiple solid and surface and bodies. SOLIDWORKS rollback, folders in the feature tree and control of body visibility allowed up to 1500 features, 8 solid bodies and 23 surface bodies in one part file to be manageable and stable. Aluminum extrusion products for window and door systems are designed and drawn in 2D Autocad. I produce 3D models to check junctions, hardware fitments and machining details for manuals. To create 3D models I paste the Autocad drawing as an unconstrained sketch in SOLIDWORKS and a combination of master model (skeleton) and only using reference features to build assemblies is currently working best. Creating rendered corner section views for marketing material (using PhotoView 360) is then easy.
