End to End Modeling - Gas Valve

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:01][Music] this is the geometric for SolidWorks training file number 13 an end-to-end mechanical reverse engineering workflow do a new file and import using the plug-in number 13 the end end mechanical and this is a file it's in millimeters so we're going to change our units icon import we hit open we should be able to right click and edit the feature to ensure that we have a bounding box size of about 4 by 3 by 3 inches if you've got something that's different than that your units were set incorrectly so again I definitely recommend getting in the habit of checking your bounding box size before you begin the model this is the single STL file there are not multiple files in it so we don't have to go through the process of doing any scan data editing or any you know scan to scan alignment and since I'm doing that mechanical workflow I don't even need to go fill all these holes I can model around them using the data that I do have if I show my front top right plane in origin I can see that this part has not been oriented to the world yet so we'll start our modeling process off by doing exactly that to make working with the scan date a little bit easier I'm going to region group this part and I'm going to try the default options we'll see what we get [Music] so it looks like for the most part it was okay but I don't see a differentiation between the lower cylinder here the Filat in this top plane so I am going to deselect my preview increase my curvature sensitivity and I'll decrease my connecting region width a little bit so do you want to see some unique regions down at the bottom here hit preview again and it looks like I still need to add some sensitivity so we'll do this one more time with the maximum you can see how as I increase the sensitivity I do get an increased number of regions until the point where it looks kind of like camouflage here but this is okay we'll be able to work with this if I did want to I could delete the seperation between a couple regions to merge them together but that's not necessary so we'll go ahead and start our alignment process by using the reference access tool to extract an axis from some of the cylindrical regions on the interior of our part you we'll do the same thing with the reference plane tool all select a couple regions on the base and hit okay we do have a symmetry plane that we can extract from this part so if I rotate this up to a top view I can use my symmetry plane to manually draw a line close to the axis of symmetry that I want and then hit preview to see the calculated image if we do want to constrain our a section of this plane and our axis we need to build that like we did before with the reference point tool on solid vs. features tab I'll use the intersection method between my plane and my line and now I'm ready to go back to the Geomagic for SolidWorks tab and orient my mesh we're going to use a reference geometry selection to select our origin and fix our point use our z axis and select our base plane here and then select our x-axis and our centerline plane when we hit OK our scan is going to move but those reference geometries are not so I can select just the reference geometries delete them and recognize that I've got my front top and right plane on the correct location we'll start off the modeling process by extracting a cylinder from the main outer regions of our scan here we're going to force this to be parallel to the world so I'll choose my rotation axis and lock it to the normal vector of my front plate I also want to make sure that the cylinder that I build is taller than my model because I'm going to trim away some of this excess later and I do want to make sure in it does connect with this base that I'll design in a later step to remove the top of this cylinder will extract a plane and I should be able to grab a couple of these regions to extract a reference point actually this is a feature plane not a reference plane and I'm going to use the cut result operator and the enlargement slider to insure that the preview plane that I get is larger than my cylinder and that the arrow in the center here points in the direction of the portion of the cylinder that will be removed when I hit OK we build a surface plane and it cuts away the top of my cylinder there will complete that feature by right-clicking one of the edges here and we'll use SolidWorks is fitting tool to add a radius to the outside of this feature this is where we get into kind of an iterative modeling approach where I can use the preview to help guide my radius that I establish and I can say a quarter of an inch looks about right I'll build it and then use my deviation analysis to check if that radius value is appropriate if my colors are red like they are in this image here that indicates that my scan data is lower than my CAD model my CAD model is there's too much material there and I need to remove more of it so I need to increase my fill it radius so I'll exit the analysis tool right click and edit my fill it feature and I'll type in a different value 0.3 this time it looks like it's a bit closer to the scan data so I'll go back to my deviation analysis select the body hit preview and I am in fact a good amount closer I'm still off by about forty thousandths or so at a maximum so I'll add that to my radius you build it and go back into my deviation analysis one last time you and that looks like it's very we'll continue our modeling by building our base area here which is just a square with four Phillips on it I'm going to create a cross section and put that cross section on my front plate I'm going to need to offset that slightly into the part so I'll add a small value and flip the direction of offset so I can see good clean black lines intersecting my scan data in this case I'm going to build that just as a polyline and then I let the software build that cross section and I can hide my mesh hide my solid body and enter that sketch to edit it in the orient normal to plane and I'm going to trace the required geometries with normal SolidWorks sketch entities so I'll build a rectangle and then I can dragged the arms of that rectangle or the sides of it to match the cross-section polyline beneath if I want to I can create relationships to the polyline as well this will result in better accuracy I can also dimension in this step now I want to constrain the dimensions here maybe instead of 3.26 I'll make it three and a quarter you and this adds design intent back into the model you now I can take that sketch and use the solid extruded boss/base to extrude it up best unfortunately I can't show my scan data while I'm in this tool so I need to cancel out so I can see what of where my scan data exists and I'm going to show my existing solid body as well so that I can merge this new body with my existing one so use the extrude tool select our sketch and I need to recognize that because I offset my cross-section I do need to offset back down to my original plane so I'll actually use the up to surface option and select my front plane to cap my extrusion in one direction and go the opposite direction to the point where I extrude up to at surface I'll merge this with my cylinder hit okay and if I hide my scan data I can see the base has been added now I do need to fill out those four corners so like before I'll right-click one of those edges select the fill tool and I can select the other three edges in turn so that I add the same radius to all four you I'll use the scan data to help me guess the radius here not quite a half looks like a 3/4 radius sits that data very well now I hit OK to add those Phillips you we'll add the side bosses next and we'll do this with a extrusion wizard actually I go back to my G magic for solvers tab and I view this object from the side we're going to work on this feature here I'm going to turn off my region colors and use the extract extrusion tool to extract the extrusion from this feature I'm going to do that by making a general selection and using my rectangle selection tool to select a sliver of data inside of this zone I need to make sure that I have my select through on because I don't in this case so if I turn on select through box select through my area I notice that I'm making a nice clean selection through that feature and I'm going to extend it up to this surface and I need to move this back until it extends through the other now I do need to constrain my sketch plane the normal vector to something that's parallel to it so my top plane my system plane here will work well and now I can say extend out to that surface and back out to that surface in this case there is a internal geometry here that's being selected I'm going to go ahead and keep that for right now you so it looks like we accidentally did a cut and not a extrude so I'll just simply delete the extrusion feature and go back to my features tab here use the extruded boss/base to extrude just the feature that I want you if I edit that extrude I can ensure that the value matches what I need on this side use my extract extrusion tool align my view you and in this case if I wanted to ignore that central cylinder all I have to do is use the control key and make a new selection to cut out the interior geometry so the extract extrusion tool only builds solids from the outer portion here so I'll make sure that this body extends all the way into the solid and I'm going to change my result to join this time which is the mistake that we made last time use the normal again from the top plane to constrain the direction of my feature and hit OK you these tools will help us create the geometries that we need in this area I'll extract one cylinder using my regions to help and this is the cylinder that I can constrain to my top plane I want to make sure that this passes and merges all the way into my existing bodies you and to create this top feature I'm going to build a reference plane on the top of this cylinder using this reference plane I can a section you and when I add this cross-section I can see that I've got much more data in here than I actually need but the feature that I'm trying to build is this slot feature and SolidWorks has a slot tool where I can build a vertical slot centered around the origin you if I show my mesh we can use our features extrude to extrude that into a new body you like before we can use the extract cylinder tool to build a cylinder here you will constrain that to the front plane you do the same thing here you and build a final cylinder using this region and that one making sure that it extends all the way into the part you so here's where we are at this current point most of the geometries are created at least on the external portion if I show my scan data I can see that there is a Chad face in here that needs to be chamfered so we'll hide our scan data' right-click that edge and use our chamfer tool to add a 45 degree chamfer and actually 45° looks a little too steep so we'll edit this now with our scan date is shown you until we get the preview to look correct we'll take a look at our deviation analysis select our body you you and with the exception of some small phillips and these pads were doing quite well the rest of the part can be modeled with the same tools so we'll end the lesson here [Music]