How to use Solid Edge For Basic

Drafting

Written by Joshua Pruden

This booklet will walk you through how to make 3 different projections of the same shape of a simple shape shown below. The smaller block is 20mm x 20 mm and the larger block is 40 mm x 40 mm. This walkthrough will also show you how to make you title block, some basic tool functions, and a few hints to help you along the way.

Index

1) Getting started (Pages 1, 2, 3)

2) Tools Explained (Pages 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

3) Helpful Hints (Pages 10)

4) Making your title block (Pages 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)

5) Making an Orthographic Projection (Pages 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)

6) Making an Oblique Projection (Pages 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)

7) Making an Isometric Projection (Pages 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)

Getting Started

To get started were going to open up Solid Edge and we want to choose the Tradition ANSI Metric. Use this option if your drawing to be created is in metric measurements. However if there is no option for that we need to follow these steps.

A) First thing Click on Edit Create Options

B) Next youll notice a pop up window, from here click the browse button

C) Now we want to click on the More Tab and then choose the Ansi mm Draft.dft then click ok

D) Now we need to type in a Display name, so now lets type Traditional ANSI Draft Metric and now Click Add, from here you will notice that you created a new line below with your title appearing. Once you see this lets click ok.

E) Now you notice the new option below. This is where were going to be working in for the rest of the time.

Making an Orthographic Projection

A) To start off it is easier to make a reference line so help make sure your image doesnt run into the title in the lower right hand of the page.

B) At this point you see I went from the title area and made a reference line just so you can see the work area. From here use the line tool and start with your straight lines and use the length tool to help make all your lines accurate

C) Making the top line of the square you can do a little trick to make the line square by dragging the line down to the bottom corner as shown.

D) Once you drag the end of the line to the bottom corner youll notice a reference line is created to make the shape of the box as shown below. This way you save time from entering in the length for every line if your making a square or a rectangle.

E) Now from the bottom left corner drag your line to the top edge and finish the square

F) Notice the three highlighted areas, to make the second box at the right measurements make a line thats 10mm from the lower left corner going along the line towards the right. This will now be your reference point to make your inner square 20mm high and across.

G) From here continue to finish the square by making the last line connecting down towards the bottom of the square, youll notice the lower line goes red once the intersecting line is parallel.

H) Now you have your front view created you can start with the right side view. Now we need to make a hidden reference line as a guide for equal distance between the front, right and top views. Once that is created draw a normal line from the reference line and bring up until you notice the reference line.

I) Next complete the outside of the right side bring your cursor from the top of the little square and drag it to the right side of the right view and youll notice behind the cursor the reference line, this will allow you to draw the top of the little square.

J) Once you have your reference line you can finish the 20mm square. Now you can make a hidden line from the upper right corner of the front view make a 45 degree line and make it long enough so you get a reference line that connects to the lower right side of the right view.

K) Once your hidden reference line is created make another hidden line that goes from the top of the 45 degree angle line all the way across to the left, youll notice when your far enough because youll find another reference line as highlighted below

L) Continue to make hidden reference lines as you would normally for any hand drafting projection.

M) Now use a normal line to draw over top the hidden reference line and just start making the shape, youll notice the interesting lines will be highlighted red to make drawing accurately easier

N) Now your finished projection should look similar to this.

Making an Oblique Projection

A) First start off by making the front of the object by making a square 20mm x 20mm and then from the lower right hand corner draw a 20mm line at a 45 degree angle

B) Continue to make 2 more lines from each corner at a 45 degree angle.

C) Once you finish all the 3 angled lines, connect them all together to get the desired shape of the smaller square.

D) To make visualization easier, start off with a hidden line from the lower left hand corner at a 45 degree angle at 20mm. then connect that hidden line with another to the rear left top corner of the square, and another line from the rear right lower corner to the middle, Now you have a 3D image of the square you can make your 10mm hidden line coming from the rear lower right corner.

E) Now make the front view of the larger square using hidden lines to make sure its the right shape and all you lines are connecting where they need to be.

F) You can now start filling in the hidden lines with normal lines so that the normal lines connect exactly where they need to.

G) Now that we have the front face drawn in with normal lines we can start to complete the square just as we did with the smaller one and draw three lines from each corner out at a 45 degree angle.

H) Once you have your three lines at a 45 degree angle drawn you can complete the shape just as we did with the smaller one.

I) Now we can use the select tool and where ever we drew a hidden line select them and start to delete them.

J) Finished Projection

Making an Isometric Projection

A) First thing we need to do is create the first line at 30 degrees.

B) Now finish the front face by making the two vertical lines at 20mm and 90 degrees and then join the two sides with the top horizontal line.

C) Once the front face is complete, where ever there is a corner draw the three lines at 150 degrees. Then connect all the lines together to get the front block.

D) Once the shape is created draw a line from the lower right front face and draw it at a 150 degree angle back and then connect that line with the two other corners. Once that is made you can draw the 10mm line out from the rear left corner.

Tools Explained

A) How to make a straight line First off select the line tool as highlighted below. Start by clicking at your start point then on the left side of the screen you will notice two areas where you can fill out, length and angle, this is where you can make exact lengths and angles.

B) Same as before just you notice the angle isnt at 90 but at 8.78 degrees which gives you an angled line.

C) Making Hidden Lines in the drop down menu where it says normal there are many options, normally for basic drafting you will use normal or hidden lines. To make a hidden line simply choose the line tool and then choose hidden in the drop down menu

D) Making Lines Parallel First start off with a line, then select the line tool and without clicking move your cursor over either of the edge of the line, and then drag the cursor up, once you have the selected distance you can click and drag the cursor to the other edge,

E) You will notice once you bring the line to the other edge that another reference line appears, this means the two edges line up perfectly, you can now click the cursor again and now you have two parallel lines.

F) Connecting Lines If we have two parallel lines, we simply select the line tool, click the mouse at one edge of line, then drag the line to the other line you with to connect with, you will notice these lines will turn red as seen below. Once this I seen click the cursor again

G) Smart Dimension Tool This tool allows you to dimension a line from edge to edge very easily. Simply select the smart dimension tool and then click on the line you with to dimension, then drag where you wish the dimension to appear and then let go of the cursor and its finished.

H) Corner Angle To get the angle dimension select the angle dimension tool highlighted below next to the smart dimension, then where shown below click where you wish to dimension from.

I) Point to Point Dimension Tool If you wish to dimension only a certain area that isnt a full line, select the point to point dimensioning tool highlighted below and then take your cursor and select where you wish to start your dimension, then click where you wish to finish and this will bring the dimension drop down, simply click to finish.

J) Different Widths of lines To make the normal or hidden line thinner or thicker choose the line width button on the left and it will bring a drop down menu where you can type your desired width as highlighted below.

K) Notice the different widths below

Making your Title Block

A) After opening the Traditional ANSI block click on the view tab at the top of the page.

B) In the view tab click on the background selection.

C) Then at the bottom of the page you will notice different tabs, choose the A-Sheet

D) To make the page fit the screen click on the fit screen button highlighted at the bottom of the screen.

E) Now choose the select tool and delete the entire top right hand area. Click on the line or text you wish to delete and press delete on the keyboard.

F) Lines and text you click on highlight in pink as shown below.

G) After deleting all the other lines, your left with two long lines, and as we want to keep the solid edge title area we need to re-size the long times.

H) Simply Click on one edge of the long line and bring it back to the corner. Once you get close you can click the zoom button highlighted below for a more accurate corner.

I) Once we Finish with the Title Block save this as it will be used for every future projection.