CAD Forum

What's the smallest size that Solidworks can deal with ?

I think it used to be 0.001 mm back in the day but just tried moving some bodies in SW 2016 and it accepts moves down to 0.0001, beyond that it seems to round to 0.0001 mm, i.e move 0.00009 mm and it moves 0.0001 mm

In SDRC I-Deas we knew this as modelfile tolerance. The default was 0.01 mm but could be set much finer if required when modelling very small parts.

Does Solidworks have a similar modelfile tolerance concept ? If so what's the default and can it be changed ?

Got interested in this as trying to deal with some IGES files created in OmniCAD that are coming in full of gaps, think it's due to an incompatible modelling tolerance between the 2 systems. Also tried STEP files and they are surprisingly worst.

Hello rothers,
Your conclusions on the small size value sound correct for parasolid, 0.00001mm. Unfortunately SWx does not give the user control unless maybe through the api, parasolid gaps?
NX is probably the more likely access to tweeking.
BTW, may I suggest my stupid rinse-wash-repeat workaround for stitching gaps,... import the IGES and export it as IGES, import again (repeat if needed).

Read this interesting post by a Oneshape employee ? https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/13 ... size-limit

Looks like the Parasolid kernel is unitless and has limits of 1e-8 to 1e3

CAD Vendors decide what their base unit will be. So for meters that would equate to 1e-5 mm to 1e3 m which seems to equate with Solidworks, certainly for the upper limit.

I know there is a maximum. Don't remember what it is, but I often get a notice when importing models that were designed in millimeters and imported as inches.