Loop Selection

 

Fillets and chamfers are usually the last set of features that I add to my models. Traditionally, I simply select an edge and let the fillet tool propagate around my feature.

But then there are those times when the modeling is not complete.  Here I have added an additional cut feature.

With the addition of the new feature, I’m left with a couple of options. I can add another fillet, or I can drag the cut feature above my fillet (I can do this because I don’t like to make references to applied features), but then I have to edit the fillet feature and add the new edge. The Edge selection is a terminating feature, meaning you get what you get and nothing more.

My third option would be to change how I selected my edges for the fillet to be applied. In this instance, Loop selection would have been a better option from the beginning.  We can easily find this option by first Right Clicking an edge and choosing Select Loop.

Select Tangency would seem like another viable option, but it would actually grab, in this example, six individual edges. By using Select Loop, SOLIDWORKS will work to select whatever edges that are needed to create the loop, regardless of the number of edges. Notice how the Items To Fillet now reads Loop instead of Edges.

Now when I drag my Additional Cut above the Fillet feature…

The fillet now continues around the internal feature, non-stop and error free!

The Loop Selection is an excellent, robust choice for non-tangent edges as well.

Now when I add an additional Cut feature, I can restructure the tree…

And the fillet continues around the external loop, regardless of how many new edges appear!

Follow this link HERE for more information on various selection methods including Select Loop!

- See more at: http://blogs.solidworks.com/tech/2014/04/loop-selection.html#sthash.hh1yxaJh.dpuf