Designing part of CAD software is one part of engineering and manufacturing the part is second. There are various processes and Techniques involved in manufacturing. Traditional manufacturing processes are Machining, Joining, Forming, and casting. Out of these processes in which mold designing is essential is casting. Also, there are various molding processes are there.

Types of Molding Processes are

• Casting
• Injection Molding
• Blow Molding
• Compression Molding
• Rotational Molding

In molding processes, the parts are designed using a mold. Their molds need to be very accurate. Just like designing a part, designing molds is also a task that Design Engineer does. Various considerations are been taken before designing the molds for the part which is going for the manufacturing.

In SolidWorks, you will find a specific toolbox for mold designing. The toolbox is Mold Tools. Designing mold using this feature is fairly simple and easy. Creating core and cavity according to the requirement is easier.

Creating Mold in Solidworks

First, open the model for which we have designed the molds. After opening the part select the Mold tool from the toolbox. If you didn’t find the Mold tool option then Right click in the command manager area > Tabs > Mold Tool.

Firstly, we have to check whether the part is fit for mold making process or not. To check that click on the Draft analysis. Draft analysis checks the draft angle in the part so that the mold will remove from the part easily. Red color means negative draft green means positive draft and yellow means Requires draft. Also, check the direction of the mold. It’s the direction in which the core mold will move.

The second step is to select the parting line. Select the edge or surface from which you want to divide the core and cavity. Then click on Draft analysis, after verifying whether the parting lines are correct click on OK. You will see one sketch is been created.

The third step is to create the Parting surfaces. Select the parting surface option from the command manager. Then select the line which is highlining. Enter the value of the surface. Generally, keep the value larger than the mold size.

After that Right click on the surface recently created and select a sketch. Draw the shape of the mold you want and exit the sketch.

Fourthly, Select the Tooling Split option from the command manager. Now Select the last sketch drawn on the parting surface. In the design tree/ property manager select the vertical length of the core and cavity from the parting line. The length should be sufficient enough that it is more than the part size on that axis.

Right-click on the parting surface and select the hide option.

lastly, we have to save the core, cavity, and part in separate files. In property manager right click on the Save bodies option. Auto assigns the name and clicks on OK. Give the names and save them to your working folder.

Saving Mold parts

You can make changes in any step by going to the design tree. However, make sure that the changes are made before saving the bodies. After saving bodies the parts are available in the design. You can enable this deleting after the saving feature. In the saving bodies property manager you will see the “Consume cut bodies” just uncheck the option.