Modelling a Drill Bit with a Compound Swept Cut in SOLIDWORKS
Can you model a drill bit? Picturing a drill bit you might be inclined to give a resounding yes, but not so fast! What about those organic compound cuts that neatly taper off, how do you tackle these in the geometric favoring CAD world?
It starts like this: create a solid body to represent your cutting tool and position it at the start of your Compound Curve:
Now for the trickier bit… Think about what a Compound Curve is. It’s a curve which bends in two planer directions at once, whilst this sounds like the plot to a CAD horror movie the SOLIDWORKS Projected Curve actually makes it very easy.
Here’s how: Create your curves on two separate planes, in my example below you can see these as sketch lines. The blue line is my projected curve (found under Features/Curves/Projected Curves). The intention here is to use the resulting projected curve as the path whilst the solid body forms our profile.
Finally, use a Swept Cut to form the cut. A Circular Pattern can also be used in the case of a drill bit to give us the multiples instances usually seen around the head of a drill bit.
And there you have it! The Projected Curve tool is a great utility for lots of applications; it’s not limited to creating Cuts, it can be used for Sweeps and even creating the edges of complex Compound Surfaces. For this reason it stays firmly pinned on my SOLIDWORKS toolbar!
Grant Davidson is a Senior Applications Engineer at TMS CADCentre, a SOLIDWORKS Value Added Reseller in Scotland. You can read more from Grant on the TMS CADCentre blog
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