New in SolidWorks 2014: Slots in spades

A big leap forward for the Hole Wizard in SolidWorks 2014 is the support of slots as features!  I’ll say this another way.  You can now create slots with Hole Wizard!

When SolidWorks first announced that there was going to be support for slots many years ago, I was a tad bit disappointed when I found out how.  Slots were only available as sketch elements.  Although I did find this useful and it did streamline my workflows, I found it to be a step short.  I was still having to make slots as separate extrude-cut features.  Converting holes to slots and slots to holes still needed a rather lengthy workaround.

SolidWorks 2014 addresses this, and how!  Slots are now supported by the Hole Wizard in spades.

Slots slots slot

Slots with counterbores, slots with countersinks and slots with..umm, well, straight slots with no counter-anything.

Not just that, you can quickly switch between slots and holes, based on design needs for your particular phase of development.

Pre-slotPost slot

Holes become slots with a quick edit (and then back again, if you wish)

 

Also in New in SOLIDWORKS 2014

  1. What’s New in SolidWorks 2014: Ballooning
  2. New stuff in SolidWorks 2014 (not mentioned in “What’s New”): Symbols
  3. What’s New in SolidWorks 2014: On-The-Fly Virtual Sharps While Dimensioning
  4. Rob Jost gives details of the new Style Spline tool in SolidWorks 2014
  5. New in SolidWorks 2014: Angular Running Dimensions
  6. What’s new in SolidWorks 2014: BOM saved sorting
  7. New in SolidWorks 2014: Quick review of Angular Running Dimensions
  8. New in SolidWorks 2014: Dimension display controls
  9. New in SolidWorks 2014: View label overhaul (Part 1)
  10. New in SolidWorks 2014: Slots in spades
  11. New in SolidWorks 2014: Brief overview of Replace Model tool for Drawing Views
  12. New in SolidWorks 2014: View labels and Auxiliary Views (Part 2)
  13. New in SolidWorks 2014 (not mentioned in the What’s New): View rotation angles everywhere (Part 3)

View the entire series

Author: fcsuper

As a drafter, mechanical designer and CAD engineer, I've been in the mechanical design field since 1991. For the first 8 years of my career, I was an AutoCAD professional. I utilized AutoLISP and many other AutoCAD customization features to streamline drafting activities for 6+ drafters and designers. I authored several custom functions, one of which was published in the March 1997 issue of Cadalyst Magazine. Since 1998, I've been used SolidWorks non-stop. I've worked to utilize the SolidWorks' user environment to simplify drafting and design activities for 20+ engineers. I've created this website to provide current information about SolidWorks from a variety of contributors. More recently, I am now employed by Dassault Systemes as SOLIDWORKS Sr. Product Definition Manager to improve drawing, annotation and MBD related areas.

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