Solidworks - Mesh / Isocurve view

Hi all,

I am asking to see if Solidworks has some kind of mesh / isocurve view like that of Rhino (see the gray image below. If you are unfamiliar with Rhino, this is one of the default view settings). I think this kind of view can be easier to judge surfaces with, as opposed to the standard Solidworks shaded view. There is the zebra stripes view option, but that is not something that you would want to constantly have on.

I have done a little searching and not found anything yet – I think part of the trouble is that SW uses the term mesh for a few different things, such as meshes themselves or the mesh previews that you can turn on for things like surface features. I am really looking for the later, but as a permanent view tool vs the former, which I believe is converting SW models to polygons.

Has anyone had any luck in this kind of thing? I tried to sign up for the Solidworks official forum but my browser was doing the spinning wheel for ten minutes. Dangit.

Thanks.

Rhino (on the right)

vs

Solidworks shaded view – which is easier to read?

Two options I can think of for you to try:

1). Turn on tangent edges
Tools>Options>Display/Selection>Part/Assembly Tangent Edge Display

Set tangent edges to Visible or Phantom.

2). Analyze with Face Curves

Tools> Sketch Tool> Face Curves

The downside is that SW will create a 3D for each surface

A third helpful tool is to activate curvature shading. You won’t get any lines but it can be useful to see abrupt changes in curvature.

Thanks Sprockets, I will give these a shot!

Another option would be to convert your surface to Sub-D with the Power Surfacing plugin to display the underlying iso-cuves.

There is always face curves inside Solidworks as well.
http://help.solidworks.com/2012/English/SolidWorks/sldworks/HIDD_DVE_CONVERT_ISO_CURVES.htm?id=1af44d34ac3a4e5c926f944e9be34865