Creating a New Solid, within a Part

I have worked a lot in One Space Designer. I have SW 2005 and also
had a 1 year lease for OSD ... but that expired and it's a little
pricey to buy the whole version.

There's some features that I miss from OSD, that I think are available
in Solidworks. In OSD, you can be viewing an assembly, and create a
new 3D solid very easily.

in Solidworks 2005 -

Question #1
Let's say I want to create a new part, and I'm in Assembly Viewing
mode. So far all I've been able to do is to create a blank part, call
it a "null part", then insert that into the assembly. Then switch to
"Edit Part" mode, the assembly is still viewable but switches to a
translucent/ghostlike appearance, and I can model away.

Is there any other way to do it ?


Question #2
I'm working in Part Design mode, modelling a part with multiple
bodies. I want to create a new solid/ body that is a separate solid
from the existing bodies. So far, I've moved the bodies so that they
wouldn't overlap, then moved them back. This is kind of "klugey".

Is there any way to keep bodies in a part from automatically unioning,
even if their volumes overlap ?

TIA for any help !

 

re q #2:
You do not need to move you solids out of the way. When you create a
feature that adds material and there already is a solid, there is a
checkbox to choose to merge the solid (unchecked = create new solid).

re #1. What other way are you looking for?

 

instead of inserting a null part and going to work on
modelling that, i would like to be able to create a
new part while looking at the assembly.

that's the way One Space Designer works and
it makes modelling industrial strength (large)
assemblies that much easier.

 

oh, and thanks for answering that one question.

 

yes. it makes rapid sketching in 3D a lot easier. re-arranging
assemblies is
as easy as drag and drop.