DesignSpark Mechanical - Basics - 1. User Interface - Full tutorial Video Lecture | Design Sparks Tutorial: Become Design Master - 3D & Animation

welcome to this video guide for the user
interface for design spark mechanical
the objective of this guide is to
explore the tools and features you can
find in the user interface starting at
the top left corner we find the quick
access toolbar here you will see tools
such as open save undo and redo which
have found in many popular software
packages as well as a drop down menu
allowing you to add further tools to
customize your toolbar
moving down a little to the file menu
clicking on the tab will again give
access to a selection of operations
which are common to many applications
including file new save as and print one
tool especially worth pointing out
within the file menu is design spark
options in here you can configure the
software to your own preferences by
changing settings for features such as
units and navigation changing the
navigation settings can be helpful if
you have previously worked with another
application and you want to replicate
the conventions you're used to in the
Advanced Options area you can reset your
software to default settings if you have
made changes you no longer want
moving across from the file tab to the
design tab will give a view of a ribbon
bar comprising a number of groups of
design tools these range from the
standard clipboard tools to orient tools
to manipulate the design view and onto a
collection of sketch tools for creating
2d features in the Edit section you'll
find the main tools for creating and
manipulating 3d geometry pull a move for
the most often used tools as the name
suggests
Pulis use to extend 3d geometry either
from 2d or by adapting an existing 3d
feature the move tool is used to change
the position of features these are
supported by fill which removes features
and combine which lets you merge solids
or cut one into another with these tools
you can freely build and modify 3d
models in a creative way the insert
section provides tools which make it
easy to add content to your designs in
the form of PCB designs or other files
you have access to all 3d models from
the web the tools further to the right
include measuring and dimensioning and
finally the Bill of Materials options
where you can choose to display the bill
of materials in the design and also use
a web link toward your parts and have
them delivered to you very quickly the
display tab provides access to the
ribbon bar for graphics based tools
including the color of the model opacity
wireframe and so on
moving back across to the left side of
the screen below the ribbon bar we see
the structure tree this tree will list
everything present in the design window
such as solids components and planes in
this example there is one component and
one plane in the design and listed in
the structure tree visualizing the
design through the structure tree helps
to illustrate the main difference
between designs bark mechanical a direct
modeling system and the parametric cad
systems which are in use today direct
modeling is ideal for conceptual design
and innovative modeling because the
model is free of the constraints
inherent in parametric systems any
feature of your design can be amended
and tweaked at any stage just as if you
are working with a ball of clay the
options panel below the structure tree
present selectable options to fine-tune
the operation being carried out for
example in pull mode the options offered
will be different from those in move
mode in a similar way within the design
window are a range of tool guides which
enable a range of operations to aid
developing the design
the panels on the left of the design
window can be dragged and dropped to
other locations around the screen or can
be pinned to the side of the screen to
maximize the design window to restore
panel docking positions to the original
setup go to file
design spark options and in appearance
select reset docking layout at the
bottom of the screen is a horizontal
status bar which will describe the next
action depending on the status of the
work on the screen the same prompt will
appear in the top left of the design
window
returning to the design window let's
look at what happens when we select on a
part of a model depending on the type of
feature selected a mini toolbar will
appear offering easy access to the most
popular options
seen in the options panel this feature
helps avoid sweeping the cursor back and
forth during the creation of the model
within the software there are a number
of ways to get help if you're not sure
about anything firstly you can hover the
cursor over the tool or guide you're
curious about this will bring up a tip
as well as offering access to
context-sensitive help
for example hovering over the spin pan
and zoom tools in the orient group will
show a tip including the shortcut
details for that tool if a tool is
grayed out hovering over it will also
suggest what needs to be done to enable
the tool for general access to the help
menu simply press f1 at any time or
click on the blue question mark in the
top right corner more help options are
available in the help and resources tab
including a quick reference card with a
host of tips for efficient use of the
software
you
you