Solidworks 2018 Tab And Slot Assembly
The main purpose of the new Tab and Slot feature is to make it easier to weld parts together and also to simplify the process of building complicated fixtures in SOLIDWORKS 2018 because you can now easily interlock several sheet metal parts. Even if you do not use sheet metal in SOLIDWORKS, the Tab and Slot feature is available in all parts. Tab-and-slot feature between tube & sheet metal has to be added by the engineers/draftsmen. 2018 makes that easy enough (the tube-slot feature works flawlessly between tube and plate). You can generate a.STEP file of your weld assembly, or even your top-level assembly, and filter out the tubes you want to generate a program for. Fortunately, SOLIDWORKS 2018 provides users with new functionality that will make this process easier than ever. Read why the Tabs and Slot feature is among our favorites in the recent SOLIDWORKS upgrade. But first, watch the Tab and Slot Feature section from our SOLIDWORKS 2018 Launch Video. SOLIDWORKS 2018 Tab and Slot feature can be used for this purpose. Tabs and slots can be added to adjoining components to form an interlock between them. Tabs and slots can be created on parts in an assembly, a single part or a multi-body part. The edges and faces must be planar or cylindrical, but they do not have to touch.
A costly part of the manufacturing process is creating fixtures, so many designers are now turning to self-fixturing, design techniques to reduce assembly and set-up costs in the manufacturing process. SOLIDWORKS 2018 introduces a powerful Tab and slot tool to automate this design step.
Tab and slot can be created on parts in an assembly, a single part, or a multibody part. You start by choosing an edge to define the tab, and a face to define where the slot where will terminate. Offsets can be applied to control the tab distance from the ends. Spacing can be defined equally among a given number of instances or by a defined length. The length of each tab can easily be specified, and the height can be a blind value, or up-to or offset-from the selected surface.
Corner treatments, such as fillets and chamfers can be applied to the tabs and their size can be specified. The clearance between the slot and tab can be defined as well and SOLIDWORKS creates features in both components to meet these specifications.
Solidworks 2018 Tab And Slot Assembly Machine
These tab and slot features are fully editable, for instance, an additional tab and slot can be added on the side by adding a new group to the definition.
The new tab and slot feature not only reduces design time by automating the creation of these features but reduces manufacturing costs by minimizing the need to build expensive fixtures that can delay manufacturing.