Increase model size without changing other features?

Hi,

My Solidworks skills are fairly basic and self-taught so was wondering if somebody had a nice solution for my latest problem?

I have a model of a simple case design which has some hole positions and slots. The product which the case is going to house has not increased in size. I'd like to know if there's a simple way to increase the overall length and width of my case (in the X and Y) without increasing the size of the slots and holes (i.e. I do not want to scale everything)?

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Trichards, this is more of a modeling style approach than a single feature that will help you here. This is the beauty of Parametric (parameter based) modeling. When modeling something like a case to house a component you want to be sure the mounting dimensions etc are based off an origin or a single point. Example would be a 4x4 bolt pattern in a 5x5 case. The hole locations(everything centered at the origin) should be (-2,2), (2,2), (2,-2) & (-2,-2) for the x,y coordinates. Its easy for a new users(or someone who hasn't run into this issue before) to dimension the holes based on the case. In that situation the top left hole would be (.5,-.5) from the top left corner of the case. This is where you run into scaling issues.

The good news....you can go back to your sketches and re-associate dimensions. Select the dimension, drag its endpoint to another location. The hole won't move but the dimension will change to re-attach itself to the new reference.

When designing products i typically start with 1 or several basic layout sketches for the size of the case(or in some cases a bounding box) and build from there. If i am starting with a specific part(lets say a PCB) i try to start with that file if its available or if i have to build it. I recently made a 3d printed case(for personal use) for one of my Arduino projects. The UNO board file was available from many places online, but the "shield" i was using, the gps module etc i had to model. So before i ever started on the case i made those parts first.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply. The model I have is inherited from somebody else and I'm sure it is modeled in the way you say. So I'm looking to know the function on solid works where I can increase the over size whilst maintains the hole and slot positions.

It's not that simple unfortunately. There is no function to do this. The scale feature will scale everything.

As far as editing goes it depends on how it was modeles. Can you share it here? The file could have equations, linkes dimensions, design tables, it could be well modeles to accomodate a case size change, it could have under defined sketches that will "blow up" if you change the wring thing. There isn't an answer I can give you without seeing a file unfortunately.

So the options are for you to roll back the feature tree and try to figure out what to change or post it here for someone to see and guide you.

I could e-mail it to yourself if that would be ok?

It's a model which has be drawn by somebody else and I have to make a number of adjustments to it. Most of which I'm fine with, but the re-sizing is causing me problems, and it's the first thing I need to do.

I think I have other ways around it but my way will be very long winded and certainly not conventional!

Send it ti support@solidbox.tv and ill take a look.

Trichards, i got your email and started looking it over. Some dimensions are referenced based on edges, but a lot of them aren't. For instance the bolt hole reliefs in Cut-Extrude11 are meant to extend based the edge of the part but when you update the sketch sizes those features were sketches with arbitrary numbers to make them large enough. Just from stepping through a few features it seems like you will have to step through each sketch and fix it manually.

I went through and fixed the file using a technique of "Configurations". I configured sketch dimensions so they can be different in the Default and the "Update" configuration I made. I didn't have time to make videos on how this all works but take a look at the file i emailed you back.

Also another note, the top/bottom parts that were saved externally were done so using "save bodies" which places a feature in the Tree. This means whatever configurations you are on when you save the file, and open the subsequent part(top or bottom) will be based on that configuration. Just keep that in mind.