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Removing Interfering Material In An Assembly

From my product designer’s perspective, certainly one of the most useful functions in a 3D solid modeler such as SOLIDWORKS is the ability to check for potential interferences in their still-virtual assembly. But, once found, can one remove the offending interfering material from the desired part?

We’re glad you asked!

Fig. 1

Take a look at the example assembly in Figure 1. It’s hard to tell if there is a problem or not, isn’t it? But SOLIDWORKS’ Interference Detection command quickly confirms and reveals the problem (Figure 2).

Fig. 2

Let’s say that the desired solution is to remove the material from Part A. Begin by editing Part A in the context of the assembly. Then start the “Cavity” command (Insert->Features->Cavity) and select Part B as the “Design Component.” (Note: more than one Design Component can be selected.) You can see the resultant part in Figure 3.

Fig. 3

–Sam Hochberg, CSWE, Application Engineer

as posted on gsc-3d.com