- Coordinate systems have been part
of SolidWorks from the very beginning.
And each part, when you start up, it has a coordinate
or default coordinate system, right at the origin.
So I know if you look over here, here's our origin.
That is where our default coordinate system is.
And if you look at the triad down here
you can see the X goes this way,
the Y goes up, and the Z goes out of the page
and that's what's defining that coordinate system.
Now we can define our own coordinate system if you'd like.
So if you come up here to reference geometry,
click on coordinate system,
and this of course has been at SolidWorks
for a long time as well,
the ability to create your own coordinate system.
But what's new is this little checkbox.
So check this out.
So first off, if I choose something like a point, right,
it's going to automatically create a coordinate system
right there at that point using the default directions.
Okay. Now, if I click on the check box,
I have the ability to actually type in a numeric value here.
So instead of 30 let's type in 40.
It moves my little coordinate system out
and it's not attached anymore to any other geometry.
And because it's not attached to geometry,
it makes your design so much more robust.
Now I also have the ability to change the orientation.
I can spin it around the X and the Y's.
I can add all these other definitive values here
by just typing in rotation values,
if you need those, right.
I'm not going to do that for right now.
But right now let's just click
on the green check box and define that system.
Now once we have that coordinate system,
it's even more powerful.
Now you can use the axis like the Y, the X, or the Z,
or these individual coordinate planes to define and draw on.
So what if you wanted to draw on this face right here?
Let's say like the Y-Z plane click on that one right there,
I can say, "Hey, let's go ahead and start a sketch."
Let's draw a circle.
There it is.
And you can see it's
it's drawing right on that plane, right?
From that coordinate system.
You want to create a feature?
No problem, we can do that.
Click OK, and there's our feature
defined from that coordinate system.
Okay. Now, if you want to use that coordinate system
for something like a pattern,
how about a circular pattern, right?
My direction,
I'm going to rotate around the Y of that new coordinate system.
I'm going to choose a body.
I'm going to choose this one right here
and I can pattern around that coordinate system.
So it's a really quick and easy way
to define these things now.
It's using numeric values.
So you can define a few of these from locations
in your model to define things.
And if you needed to change your model later on
just by moving that coordinate system
all those individual features
which are based upon it will automatically move.
So it's a really powerful
and great new addition to SolidWorks 2022.