Need some help with Solidworks please

[drtysteve384]

I am new to solidworks, switching over from inventor..., and i accidentaly created a table i am making upside down, due to the fact i used the worng plane. Therefore my Top view is actually my bottom and vice versa. How would i fix this problem and other view orientation problems related to it?

[adengler]

I'm still learning SW myself, but I'll offer a suggestion since I have encountered similar problems in the past.

Since the orientation of the first component in an assembly is always fixed by default, changing the orientation of that component will cause the entire assembly to change orientation. Here's how to do that...

In the Feature Manager (left side of screen by default), right-click the first component in your assembly. From the drop down menu, select FLOAT. This allows you to move or rotate the component freely. In your case, click the top face of the component and create a mate to the top axis. When the mate is complete, right-click the component again in the Feature Manager, and select FIX from the drop down menu. This will lock the component (and, thus the entire assembly) in the new orientation.

Test the new orientation by viewing in Isometric or Trimetric. Your table should now appear upright.

[TroyCDH]

SKETCH PLANE--If you want to change your sketch plane you can edit that too. If the tree on the left find the feature you want to edit. Click the "plus symbol" so you can see the word "sketch" below the feature. It will have some number too. Example "sketch3". Right mouse click to edit the sketch and you will see some icons. One is a hand (edit) holding a datum plane. That is what will change your sketch plane so you can now pick the correct one (top in your case). Fair warning that many of the following features may now turn red and have failures because the prior (parent feature) has now changed. You would need to continue on with editing planes and features.

Good time to learn that in Solidworks "Ctrl Q" will rebuild the entire model and look for errors. The red/green stop light rebuilds changes but not ALL features and sketches.

Troy

[TroyCDH]

Reading your post again, if top is bottom. You must have picked the correct plane but extruded in the wrong direction. Or put the legs on it the wrong direction.

Extrudes and cuts can be created in either direction everytime (or even both directions).

In part mode, simply right click on feature in the left feature tree and pick to edit feature. You will will see an icon with an arrow up and one arrow down. Click that to flip direction of the extrusions. Get your legs on the correct side and direction, then "top" view should be good.

Troy

[mplanchard]

Check out SolidWorks Quick Tips on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL66C7FD2F9E28A28B

You want Tip 4, Reorient a Component and Tip 5 Reference Geometry in an assembly.

Marie