- The next stop on our journey to learning SolidWorks
is the revolve feature.
Now the revolve feature is similar to an extrude
or an extruded cut in that it needs a sketch,
but this time instead of just extruding it straight out,
we're going to take that and revolve it around an axis.
So, we need to put in an axis.
So to get started, let's go ahead
and start here with a sketch
and let's choose the front plane.
And like I told you, we need to have an axis,
so let's go ahead and create one right over here.
Under line, we have one called center line
and I'm going to draw a few center lines
right here on the screen.
And then one right over here.
And generally you only need one center line
but I'm going to draw a few here
so we can see what will change
as I define and draw this shape.
Now I'm going to go over here and grab a circle,
draw out a circle and where it is, doesn't really matter.
Then I'm also going to draw a rectangle,
so here is a rectangle right above it.
Alright, now this circle,
if you don't want something to actually be used
in the feature, you can change it from a regular geometry
to construction geometry.
So in this case here,
I've got a circle but I'm not using it
and I just have a rectangle.
So let's go ahead and rotate around.
Revolve that feature.
So go over here to features.
I come over here to revolved base or boss click there.
And the first question is the access of rotation.
So anything that's going to be revolve
has to revolve around in axis.
And in this case, I'm going to choose this one right here.
And because I only have that one rectangle
it takes that and revolves it around that axis.
And now we have basically what looks like a washer.
We have a couple options here.
We can choose, if I want to go blind.
If I want to up to vertex up to surface offset from surface
or midplane because we don't have any other geometry
in this part, like a vertex or a surface
we can't use those yet, but I can use mid-plane.
And instead of 360, I can type in a value,
maybe like 30 degrees.
So notice it's going from the shape I drew.
15 degrees in both directions.
If you want to switch that back over here to blind
it's going 30 degrees in only one direction
and he can switch the way it goes just
by clicking on this little button here.
In fact, we can also go to direction two.
So if we don't want it to be symmetrical, we can say
I want to go maybe 60 degrees, one direction.
I want to go 30 degrees the other one.
We can do that as well.
We can also define a thin feature.
So if we want to make this more like a tube
we have that material going on the outside
of the shape we drew or on the inside
by clicking on this little flip, reverse direction button.
So now that's going to be bringing that material.
So it's on the inside of our shape.
And then we can define how thick it's going to be.
So a couple different options there on creating a shape.
I'm going to go ahead and turn that
thin feature off for right now though.
And let's just go ahead and create that one shape.
Click on, okay, or the green check mark.
And there's our very first revolve.
Now let's go back and modify this feature.
So if you look at the dropdown arrow here
or this little twirl down
you can see the sketch
and inside of that sketch is the feature.
So if we want to define how far we're rotating around
that's where you'd come in to and edit the feature itself.
And in this case, I'm going to go just in one direction
and I want to make sure that we're going 180.
So I'm going to go back and modify that.
So we've got this going halfway around
and then let's go back and edit that sketch.
So I'm going to come here and click on edit sketch.
Now let's do something new.
Let's go ahead and take this circle here
and switch it back from construction geometry
to regular geometry, then exit out and take a look.
Now you can see that I've created two revolve shapes
all with that one command.
So any shape you have in that sketch
will be revolved around.
Now, let's go back one more time.
This time let's switch
which ax axis we're rotating around, right?
So instead of rotating around this axis here
let's switch to a different a axis.
In fact, let's make it even cooler.
Let's go ahead and make this a tube.
And then let's add in another circle here to this part here.
And there it is okay, now exit out and you can see
that it automatically adds those hollow shapes there.
And then if I go back over here to the feature itself,
instead of the axis I was using
let's go ahead and delete that out
and then choose a different surface
or sorry, a different axis.
And there you go.
So I'll just, by quickly changing
from one axis to the next, the part completely changes.
Now I've got more like a conic shape down here
and you see got a circular shape here
so you can switch axis very easily
and you can use individual edges from your part.
If you had like an edge like this one here
we can go back and use that if we wanted to.
So let's try that out.
So go over here to the feature itself,
click on edit feature and my axis
is going to be this edge.
Click okay.
And there you have it.
So a bunch of different ways you can use different axis
and take individual shapes
whether they're nested or not and rotate them around.
And again, the revolve is one
of the key features inside a SolidWorks.
It's probably not as common
as the regular extruder or extrude cut
but it's definitely one of the most popular features
inside of SolidWorks.