Cavities and the Cavity PropertyManager

You can create simple molds using the Cavity tool.

Creating a mold using the Cavity tool requires the following items:

Design parts

The parts that you want to mold.

A mold base

The part that holds the cavity feature of the design part.

An interim assembly

The assembly in which the cavity is created.

Derived component parts

The parts that become the halves of the mold after you cut them.
You combine the design parts and mold base in the interim assembly. Then, you create a cavity feature in the context of the interim assembly. This relates the mold base to the design part in case the design part changes shape.
To create more complex molds, use the tools and techniques described elsewhere in this chapter.

Cavity PropertyManager

To create a cavity in the mold base:

  1. Optional: Insert the design parts and the mold base into an interim assembly.
  2. In the assembly window, select the mold base, and click Edit Component on the Assembly toolbar.
    You are editing the part, not the assembly. The changes you make are reflected in the original part file of the mold base. If you do not want to affect the original mold base, use Save As in the mold base part document. Save the part with a different name for use in each new mold assembly. Otherwise, the original mold base includes the cavity you are about to insert.
  3. Click Cavity on the Mold Tools toolbar, or click Insert > Mold > Cavity.
  4. In the PropertyManager, under Design Components, select the design parts from the FeatureManager design tree.
    If you used a multibody part as an input to create cavity features in SOLIDWORKS 2021 or earlier, downstream features might fail. To resolve failed features, recreate them by replacing the missing references. The issue is corrected in SOLIDWORKS 2022 or later where the face IDs are generated consistently.
  5. Under Scale Parameters:
    1. Select the point about which scaling occurs for Scale about.
      Component Centroids Scales the cavity for each part about its own centroid.
      Component Origins Scales the cavity for each part about its own origin.
      Mold Base Origin Scales the cavity for each part about the origin of the mold base part.
      Coordinate System Scales the cavity for each part about the selected coordinate system.
    2. Enter the scaling factor in Scaling %. A positive value expands the cavity, a negative value shrinks the cavity.
      • Uniform scaling. Select Uniform scaling, and enter a value to scale in all directions.
      • Non-uniform scaling. Clear Uniform scaling, and enter a scaling value for the X, Y, and Z directions.
  6. Click .
    A cavity in the shape of the design part is created in the mold base part. The cavity size reflects the scaling factor you specified.

    Any changes you make to the design part automatically update the cavity in the mold base, as long as the update path is available. See also External References.

    Use Split to separate the mold base part into two pieces.

    You cannot edit mold features within an assembly.