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Working with Hole Wizard in 2012: In SolidWorks 2012, there is a small but welcomed change to the Hole Wizard tool. Previously, after defining the parameters of the hole, you would select the position tab and click on a point to drop a hole into your model. The issue with the previous Wizard was the inability to "wake up" existing points or other geometry for use as a reference for placing the first hole. After placing the first hole on your part, you were forced to deselect the point tool from the toolbar and then move the center point of your hole to the desired location on your part. This was, in many cases, tedious and unnecessary. In SolidWorks 2012, this process has become much easier. After selecting the parameters of the hole to be created and clicking on the position tab, you will first select the face upon which you would like to make a hole. Making this selection simply defines the plane on which your hole will be placed, as opposed to generating the hole. Now that your face has been defined, you can proceed to waking up points or referencing existing model geometry to place your hole in the desired location; right from the start. No more going back a forth, repositioning holes in your parts.
Properly saving an STL file: Most file types do not have options associated with the quality of the file when you save it. This is not the case with .stl files. In SolidWorks, when you select the .stl file extension in the save as type drop down menu, an options tab becomes available. Within this tab you can change the Deviation tolerance and Angle tolerance of the file you are going to save. If you want to see how these two variables affect the part, you can preview it by selecting the preview box in the export options window. You want to ensure that your tolerance is not set too low or you will have faceting and related issues if the file is ever exported to a 3D printer. Extra Tip: Prior to saving your .stl, pan your part off to the side of the screen, and make sure the save as dialog box is not covering the part prior to going into the options tab. This will allow you to see changes made to the part in real time, allowing you to see facets as they are being modified.
Using the sketch mirror tool in SolidWorks: Many users are already familiar with the way to use the mirror sketch tool to mirror item from one side of a line to another. Typically, the user will select the mirror sketch tool first and then in the first field in the sketch property manager select the items he/she wants to mirror, then the user needs to select the second field in the sketch mirror property manager to select the item he/she wants to mirror across. This is easy enough, but a quick shortcut is to preselect the sketch entities including the centerline you wish to mirror across (use CTRL-select or window-select) and then hit the mirror sketch tool after making the selections. The user will notice the mirror sketch property manager will not appear. Instead, the items you selected will instantly mirror across the centerline you selected. This technique will only work if a single centerline is selected. If more than a single centerline or no centerline is selected the mirror sketch dialog will appear with the selected items in the first field of the mirror sketch dialog box and the user will then need to manually input the entity to mirror across.
Understanding the sketch convert entities tool in 2012: When converting entities in 2012, users will notice it behaves slightly differently than in the past. It actually works very similarly to the way the mirror sketch tool behaves as described above. If the user preselects the items before hitting the convert entities command, the convert entities dialog box will NOT appear. Instead, the items that were preselected will automatically be converted! This is actually how the classic convert entities tool used to work. If the user selects the convert entities command before making his/her selections, the convert entities dialog box will appear. The user will then need to select the items to convert. The items will convert to sketch entities after the user hits the green checkbox(enter key).
