A toolbox is an option available in Solidworks to insert the fasteners, gears, bearing, etc. in the design. There are more than 2000 components available in the toolbox. These components are of standard sizes. The standard sizes are according to the country’s standards.
You just have to drag the component for the toolbox assembly. The parts will snap onto the assembly part. toolbox needs to be added in the Solidworks and this toolbox is used for adding fasteners. There is one option available in the SolidWorks assembly which is Smart Fasteners. This option uses the toolbox to automatically add fasteners to the holes. The fasteners can be any type of bolts, nuts, screws, and washers.
This way we can add the required tools in a faster way and if need any specific type or standard of the component we can explore the tool tree and folders.
Toolbox
Contents
Adding toolbox in Solidworks.
There are two ways by which you can add the toolbox to the Solidworks assembly. For that in some cases, you have open the parts or sub-assembly so that the options will be enabled.
Click on the setting and from the drop-down select add-ins. Make sure to check the box of SolidWorks Toolbox Library. This way also you can add the toolbox.
Click on the Design Library for the Task Pane. Under the design library, you will see the Toolbox option. At the bottom, you will see “Add in now” click on it and the toolbox will be added.
Selecting the tools
When you add the toolbox you will see various folders showing the country flag and the standards. Open the folder of the standard which you want to use and select the type of component we want.
Using toolbox
To apply the tool we have to just simply drag the part to the assembly where it’s going to fit.
The part will automatically align itself and the dimensions will be derived according to the diameter of the hole in case we are adding a bolt.
In the same way, you can add nuts and washers. But in this method, you have to select the component once and drag it to the hole once. Selecting the property of the component one only but you have to click individual holes where you want to apply the component.
Using toolbox with Smart Fasteners option.
This feature helps to automatically add the fasteners to the holes of equal diameters.
Click on the Smart Fasteners from the Assembly tab. Ignore the pop-up warning and click OK.
Select the hole to which we want to add a fastener and click on OK. You will see all the holes of the same diameter will automatically add to the fasteners. You can edit the fastener type in this at any stage. There is one drawback of this feature also you can not apply this to a large assembly was the number of holes is very large or else it adds fasteners to the hole where it is not required.
