SolidWorks Cube

The idea of this is to create a perfect cube in a 3D design program called SolidWorks. Learning how to do something as simple as a cube will open up a wild variety of things you can create, as many things one needs to know about this program can be learned when making an object as simple as this.

The only things needed to create this are a computer and the program SolidWorks.

When you open SolidWorks for the first time, it will give you the prompt shown. If you can't see it, go to the top left of the screen and hit File, then New, and then select Part. This will open a new project where nearly all program features are accessible.

On the left, you will see a menu that is called the Feature Manager. Since a sketch has not been started, the only important things here are the different planes you can begin from. Because this part is a cube, it really doesn't matter which plane will be used. For the sake of clarity, we will use the Top Plane. Right click on Top Plane so that it is highlighted, and click on Sketch. This will begin the sketch for the cube.

Up in the top left, next to Smart Dimension, click the little box that is the Line tool. When the tool is activated, click anywhere in the open graphics space, creating a rectangle with two vertical and two horizontal lines. Don't worry about creating a perfect square right now, we will take care of that shortly.

You may have noticed that if you hover your cursor over one of the lines, a yellow dot will appear in the middle. This is called the midpoint, and is a very useful feature. Hover your cursor over the top line and select the midpoint with the left mouse button. Then, hold down the CTRL key, and left click on the red origin while holding the key down. This will result in both the midpoint and origin being selected simultaneously. Once they are selected, look over to the left and click on the box that says Vertical. This will result in the line being vertically centered on the origin. Repeat this step for one of the side lines to fully center the rectangle.

This step is very simple. Utilizing the CTRL + left click from the last step, select one vertical and one horizontal line together. Then, look at the menu on the left and select Equal. This will make all the lines of the rectangle have an equal length, thus resulting in a perfect square that is centered around the origin.

This part is also fairly simple. Up in the top left, there is a big tool called Smart Dimension, which will add things like length and height to a sketch. Click on this, and then click on any of the lines. Because the lines are all equal in length, you will only need to dimension one of them. The size of this particular cube is arbitrary, so let's just go with one inch to make it easy. When you click on the line and get the chance to change its length, simply type "1.0" and click the green check box. You will notice all the lines have now turned grey, and this is because your sketch is Fully Defined. Once done, click Exit Sketch.

Now we make the square into a cube. When you're out of the sketch, click on Sketch 1 in the menu to the left, then under the Features tab, select Extruded Boss/Base. This will allow you to make your sketch 3D, or to extrude it. Because it's a cube, all sides are equal in length. As such, when it gives you the option for extrusion depth, type "1.0" again and hit the green check mark.

That's it! With all steps followed, you should have a perfect, 3-dimensional cube. With some of the tips and knowledge presented here, I challenge you to make some other shapes or wacky objects. There really is no limit to the capabilities of SolidWorks, so go crazy!