Lip and Groove Design Made Easy with SOLIDWORKS

Phillip Keane | Comments | March 31, 2017

Lips and groves are prominent parts of our everyday lives, and they work on a very simple premise. Take
a lunchbox, for example. A lunchbox consists of two parts, the base (where you put your sandwiches) and
the lid. The lip is built into the mating edge of the lid, and the groove is built into the edge of the box’s
base. When you push them together, not only do they help to align the assembly, but they also help to seal
it and keep it closed, stopping your lunch from falling out all over the place.

F
igure 1.A lip, groove and sandwich in a lunch box. (Image courtesy of Global Baby.)

Of course, it’s not just lunch boxes that feature lip and groove mating. Your smartphone likely has one,
too, as does your laptop power supply enclosure. In fact, wherever two plastic shells need to be mated to
create a flush enclosure, there is a good chance that there is a lip and groove aligning and mating the two
components together.
In this tutorial, we are going to take a look at the lip and groove feature in SOLIDWORKS, which
provides an easy method for creating lip and groove parts in your designs. It’s a fairly easy tool to use,
and once you have mastered it, you can greatly reduce the time needed to incorporate these features into
your designs.
Make a Box
Okay, so the first step is to make a box or container of some kind. The box will need to have two
components—a base and a lid. I won’t go into describing how to make a box in this tutorial. Let’s just say
that knowing how to make a model of a hollow container is a prerequisite for using the lip and groove
feature!
The important thing to note is that the lip and groove feature only works in part mode. It will not work in
assembly mode. So, you can either build your box as two separate bodies in part mode, or else you can
build the base first and import the lid as a separate body into the same part document.
In Figure 1, I have opted to design both the lid and base in the same document.
In the figure, you will notice that I have added some internal ribs to the base of the box. This is not an
accident, and you will see why I have done this later.

Fi
gure 2. Generic box and lid with internal ribs.
Now that you have your container model opened in part mode, you will need to access the lip and groove
feature.
The feature can be accessed from the menus at the top of the display:
Insert> Fastening Features> Lip/Groove
This sequence will open the feature selection window up on the left-hand pane.

Fi
gure 3. Accessing the lip and groove feature.
 Figure 4. The Lip/Groove pane.

From here, you will see a number of options. In the first section, you will see two input selection boxes
for Body/Part Selection. This is where you will select which body you want the lip to appear on, and
which body you wish to apply the groove to. I have selected the part named “Base” to apply the groove
to, but your design may differ. The third selection box in this section allows you to select the groove’s cut
direction. Generally speaking, you will want the cut to be in a downward-facing direction, so pick a
downward-facing edge as a reference point. In my example, I have selected one of the longest edges of
the internal ribs. Note that If all the selected faces on which to create the lip and groove are planar and
have the same normal face, the default direction will be normal to the planar faces.
After defining your parts to apply the lip and groove, and after defining the direction, you can scroll down
the Lip/Groove pane to the next section, which is called “Groove Selection.”
The first box allows you to select the faces on which you wish to cut your groove. In my example, I have
selected the topmost face of the base. Beneath that is the box that will allow you to define the inner or
outer edge where you will cut the groove. I have selected the inside edges of the topmost face, which I
defined in the previous box. Below these two boxes,you will see two check boxes.

Figure 6. Examples of jump gaps cleared and jump gaps selected.

One check box is for “Tangent Propagation,” which allows you to extend the groove cut to tangent edges
(I left this unchecked because my edges are planar),while the next check box allows you to “jump gaps.” I
have checked this box. Remember the vertical ribs on the inside of the box? By checking the Jump Gaps
box, SOLIDWORKS will cut a groove behind the ribs and create a receptacle for the lip to slot behind
them.
 Fi
gure 6. Defining the groove.

After inputting the definitions for the groove, scroll down a little more on the Lip/Groove pane and you
will seethe “Lip Selection” area. The options here are exactly the same as the groove section because—
wait for it—a lip is basically a geometrically mirrored groove.
When you click the Lip Selection box, the body with the groove will disappear from the main window
and the lid section will become visible. You will repeat the same procedure you used for the body with the
groove except for one difference: if your groove is on the inner edge, then you will need to cut your lip
into the outer edge of this part. And, conversely, if the groove is on the outer edge, then you will need to
apply your lip to the inner edge of this body in order for the full assembly to mate together.
So now your lip and groove geometry is defined, you have specified which edges are to be cut away on
each body, and you are free to move on to the next section.

Figure 7. Lip and groove parameters.

Scroll down to the last section in the left-hand Lip/Groove pane and you will be greeted with a cross-
sectional drawing of a lip and groove, with input boxes pointing to each part of the lip and groove. This is
where you will define the custom dimensions for your lip and groove. Although it should be noted, that as
long as there are no conflicts in your geometry, you should have the default values applied already and
you can actually click on the “Show Preview” check box to see what your design will look like. If you are
happy with the default settings, then you can click the green check mark at the top of the Lip/Groove
pane, and you will see the lip and groove applied to your model in the main window.
If you are not happy with the default settings, then you can change the values in the white boxes
manually. For example, maybe your lip isn’t tall enough. In that instance, you will want to look at the
drawing, locate the input box corresponding to lip height, and change the value. SOLIDWORKS will then
create a deeper cut and create a taller lip. Altering these values will alter the tolerances and hence the fit
of the mate where it comes to manufacture.
Finally, there are three check boxes at the bottom of the pane: Link matched values, Show preview and
Maintain existing wall faces.
The Link matched values option will equate certain parameters to each other, ensuring that when scaled
they remain relative to each other.
Checking the Maintain existing wall faces option will maintain the draft version when possible and
extend the existing wall face to the top of the lip,if you create a lip on a model wall that has a draft
version.
So, there you have it. The lip and groove feature is pretty easy to use and saves a lot of time when you are
designing enclosures. I have used it a few times, and it’s especially good for 3D-printed enclosures. Just
remember to make the thickness of your lip at least three filaments wide for a more sturdy and rigid lip.

Fi
gure 8. Close-up of groove (left) and lip (right).

Motion Studies (and How to Do Them)

Phillip Keane | Comments | December 28, 2016

Since the early days of CAD, engineers have been able to use software to transform their ideas from
sketches and calculations on paper into virtual models to assist with assembly work, as well as for
exporting files for manufacturing in various CNC machines.
But that’s fairly elementary. Even the most basic CAD packages allow for this functionality. It’s all very
useful if you wish to create singular objects such as brackets or plastic molds or items of that nature, but
what if you are building dynamic components that move in relation to each other? What if you want to
build a machine? Can CAD help?
Of course, it can. And that’s where SOLIDWORKS motion studies come into play.
The motion features of the software can assist with a wide range of motion study depending on how
complicated your requirements are, and they can be divided into three categories:
Animation: If you simply wish to create some nice visuals for presentation or marketing without
consideration of mass and gravity effects, then animation is for you.
Basic Motion: For an extra layer of complexity that takes into consideration the effects of mass, springs,
gravity and physical collision detection, then a Basic Motion study is more suited for your requirements.
Motion Analysis: This is the top tier of motion study and takes into account a wider range of physical
interactions such as impact effects, damping, force, momentum, etc.
In this article, we will take a look at the Animation and also the Motion Analysis categories. I will provide
some links to Basic Motion videos at the end of the article.

Getting Started
You can perform the most basic level of animation at a part level. For our purposes here, we are going to
skip that level and go straight on to the assembly mode, because we are interested in seeing how
components visibly interact with each other.
All of the motion studies begin in the same way. You open up an assembly, load up the motion add-in, and
then you can see the Model tab and the Motion Study tab at the bottom of the screen. Click the Motion
Study tab to bring up the Motion Manager timeline view.

The Motion Study tab is highlighted in yellow at the bottom of the image.
This has invoked the motion study manager, and you are now ready to select your type of study, be
it Animation, Basic Motion or Motion Analysis.

Animation
For each example, I will be using the assembly models found in the software’s tutorials. Each type of
motion study will use a different model, and you can access these models yourself via
Resources>Tutorials.
For the animation in this example, we will use a model of a plunger. I have no idea what it is a plunger of
—or what it is meant to plunge—but you can find the model in the following path:
install_dir\samples\tutorial \motionstudies\animation\plunger.sldasm.
A plunger…for plunging.
The first step is to define the starting point/position.
Go into the MotionManager timeline and move the time indicator to the 0 seconds position. You can align
the camera to your required starting position, too. For this example, I will just select an isometric view.
Next, we have to decide which part we want to animate and for how long we wish the movement to last.
In this example, we want the orange arm to move to a vertical position relative to the horizontal base.
We find the part labeled “arm left” in the list of parts within the MotionManager, and left-click the
selection to highlight it. Then we drag the time bar from 0 seconds over to 5 seconds. This will define
how long we want the movement to last. We then click the “add key” icon (shown with the red arrow in
the image below), which will cause a horizontal bar to appear in the Motion Manager, in the “arm left”
row, running from 0 seconds to 5 seconds. A keypoint (the diamond symbol) will appear at the end of 5
seconds in the “arm left” row. Make note of this little diamond as we will be using it later.

This has defined the part that we wish to move, and for how long we wish to move it.
Next, we will go into the main window and locate the actual part (the orange arm). We will then
physically move it to the required position (upright). Once the final position is determined, we can press
the “calculate” icon above the MotionManager tree (pictured below), and all of the horizontal rows will
fill up with yellow lines, and the part will come to life in the main window.
 I
f we want the component to end in the same place that it started, then we can do this by selecting the little
keypoint diamond at 5 seconds, and pressing CTRL+C. Then, while still holding CTRL key down, we can
drag the keypoint back to 2.5 seconds. We can then release the mouse button/pointer before releasing the
CTRL key. If this step has been completed correctly, you will notice that a gap in the green changebar will
appear between 2.5 seconds and 5 seconds.
Now we need to right-click the keypoint diamond at 0 seconds, and paste that to the 9 seconds point in the
timeline. This will effectively copy and paste the start position later on in the timeline, which will let the
animation know that it should return to its default position at the end of our defined time frame (9
seconds). Pressing the calculate icon again will recalculate the motion and display the animation in the
main window, which will make gaps (representing a pause in the animation) appear for all components in
the 2.5 seconds to 5 seconds region. The green changebar will extend to 9 seconds, indicating the end of
this part of the animation. If this step has been performed correctly, then the plunger arm should move
upward, pause, and then return to the default position.
The animated plunger will look like this:

You can change the position of components and also their appearance within the MotionManager. Simply
drag the time bar to the point where you require the appearance change to take place, and change it there.
For example, you may wish to hide a part, to change the texture, or make it translucent to show
components beneath it. The tutorial will show this process in more depth.
And, of course, if you wish to render your animation for a more realistic appearance, you can do so, and I
have explained how to do this in another tutorial.
There is a nice video at the following link explaining the animation process in more detail:

Basic Motion
Motion Analysis

For this section, we will use a cam and follower system (similar to a valve lifter in a car engine), and we
are going to examine the contact forces between the components as they change over time. We will then
plot the results graphically.
This is the most advanced kind of motion study, and we have moved from the realm of mere animation
into that of simulation.
First, open up the assembly model found in the following
folder: <install_dir>\samples\tutorial\MotionStudies\Valve_Cam.sldasm.
In the MotionManager, click the tab labeled “1200,” then select “Motion Analysis” as the type of study.
Press the “Calculate” icon, which will bring the assembly to life as the motion is calculated.
Next, we will define the contact faces that we wish to analyze. Select Isometric view in the main window,
and then click the “results and plots” icon at the top of the MotionManager. This will open up a new
window labeled “Results Property Manager,” where you will see several drop-down menu boxes.
In the first menu box (category), select “Forces”; in the second menu box (subcategory), select “Contact
Force”; and for the third menu box (result component), select “Magnitude.” You can take a few minutes
to look at these different options after the tutorial. This is where your type of analysis is determined.
Finally, there is a component selection field. Click on that, and then go into the main graphic window and
select the two faces that are in contact and which we will be analyzing. These are the faces of the rocker
and the camshaft (pictured below).
 T
he curved contact faces are highlighted in blue.
For good measure, I have also included a displacement plot that shows the displacement cycle in relation
to the reaction forces.
What we can see from these plots is that the reaction force increases just as the cam begins to raise the
follower. This is to be expected as the spring is starting to undergo compression. There is also a second
greater peak occurring as the rocker passes the cam and begins to lower. This is due to the acceleration
caused by the spring relaxing.

Pl
ot 1 is the reaction force plot and Plot 2 is displacement.
Because a picture is worth a thousand words and a video (with plots) is worth about ten thousand, I have
recorded the motion and the plots in a video below, so you can see exactly how the force and
displacement relates to the physical movement of the model.

Comparing Studies
OK, so that’s all very nice. We have some plots, but what if we wish to change the parameters of the
components and see the effects of those changes?
First, go to the “1200” tab at the bottom of MotionManager and right-click it, then press Duplicate.
Rename the new duplicated tab as “2000” because we are going to step up the speed of the motor to 2000
RPM and see what happens.
Now drag the time bar back to the 0 seconds point, then go into the component tree in MotionManager
and find the RotaryMotor2 component. Right-click it, and select Edit Feature. Now change the motion
from 1200 RPM to 2000 PRM, and press the green tick icon to close that window. Press Calculate to
recalculate with the new parameters.

Now you can see in the animation that as the cam passes, lifting the rocker, the rocker bounces back onto
the cam. (A video of the bouncing effect can be seen here: https://youtu.be/2jVQVtZ9HGg.) The spring is
actually losing contact with the cam, and as it bounces the spring is compressed again, and it releases that
energy back into the rocker, causing the rocker to bounce. The bounce is visible in the displacement plot
as a second peak each cycle.

Use the Force

This is caused by the faster rotation. The contact force is actually at zero when the rocker leaves the cam,
so we need to ensure that the cam does not lose contact with the rocker. We can do this by altering the
spring constant. Increasing the spring constant should allow us to maintain the motion.
To do this, go into the component tree in the MotionManager, right-click “LinearSpring2” and press Edit
Feature.
Here the spring properties are visible. Currently, the value for k (spring constant) is set at 0.1 N/mm. We
will increase this value 100fold to 10.00 N/mm. Now click the green tick to close the window and
press Calculate again.

Now you can see in the

new plots that the bounce has been eliminated in the displacement plot and that there is also an increased
force from the spring that ensures that the rocker remains in contact with the cam, regardless of the new
speed.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it. You are well on your way to creating pretty animations and also complex motion
studies.
We have deliberately skipped over the Basic Motion section—purely because the skills required for Basic
Motion lay somewhere in between Animation and Motion Analysis. If you can do both Animation and a
full analysis, then doing the Basic Motion study should be very easy for you. And besides, where is the
fun in being shown everything! One of the reasons I love doing these articles is because it forces me to sit
there and relearn features that I may have not used for a while. It blows the cobwebs away.
There are lots of cool videos on YouTube showing the Basic Motion in more detail if you wish to look for
yourself.
Here is one of my favorite videos involving a Geneva Wheel mechanism. Part One shows the creation of
the wheel from scratch, whereas Part Two (linked below) shows how to perform the Basic Motion study
on the mechanism.
Of course, the examples in this article can be found in the SOLIDWORKS tutorial section of the
software. They provide a good foundation of the skills needed for motion simulation and animation.
I definitely recommend searching on YouTube for other videos on this subject, and trying to replicate the
video examples for yourself. YouTube is a great (free) resource for this type of thing, and every video will
add to your growing skill set as an engineer.