One of the most commonly used features in SOLIDWORKS is to insert fillets, which are rounded edges on a part. There are two main methods to create a fillet in SOLIDWORKS: Sketch Fillet and Fillet Feature.
In this post we will explore the differences and limitations between these two types of fillets.
Sketch Fillets:
The Sketch Fillet tool basically trims away the corner at the intersection of 2 sketch entities to form a tangent arc according to the assigned size. This tool is available for 2D and 3D sketches from the sketch toolbar.
To insert in sketch fillet to your sketch, click on sketch fillet from the toolbar,
Select the vertex of a corner to be insert as a fillet,
Assign the size of the fillet in the Property Manager.
End results as shown below.
One major advantage is that Sketch Fillet allows rounding of corners for more complex shapes, as the fillet shape is defined by the sketch only.
The limitation for this Sketch Fillet is that it is not dynamic, meaning the shape will not automatically update if the underlying geometry of the part changes.
Fillet Feature:
This is created from the Fillet Feature from the “Features” Tab. This method can be applied to a 3D part’s edge directly without the need of to create a sketch. There is 4 types for this Fillet Feature, which are constant size, variable size, face fillet and full round fillet.
Simply just select the edges for the fillet to be applied to and insert the size in the Property Manager.
The advantages for Fillet Features are that they are:
– Easy to create and modify
– Dynamic, which means they will update automatically if any changes where to be made to the underlying geometry of the part changes
Limitation for the Fillet Feature is that when it comes to creating complex shapes, very likely an error will prevent you from inserting the fillet, as the shape of the filler is limited to a constant size or a variable size radius.
In summary, both methods to insert fillets has it’s own advantages and limitations. When deciding on which method to apply,
it is important to consider the complexity of the end result of the fillet.
For simple fillet shapes, it is best to use the Feature Fillet method, which has an easier workflow to make changes in the future.
For higher complexity of the fillet, sketch fillet are often the better choice, but also keep in mind that both methods can be used in conjunction to achieve the desired result.