Have you ever created a design that wasn’t exactly easy to package? Sometimes the irregular shapes of our designs make it challenging to determine exactly what container they might fit within. In the past, users might have had to create a plane and sketch out a rectangle that they could then extrude to figure out the minimum packaging size.

SOLIDWORKS 2019 introduces an improved bounding box, that helps automate that process for assemblies and delivers the results we’re looking for even faster.

Under Insert > Reference Geometry, you’ll find a new tool called the bounding box. When you insert the bounding box you’ll have several customization options. You can either create it based on the best fit for the assembly or based off a reference plane that you’ve defined. You can even choose to include hidden or envelope components.

Once the bounding box has been inserted, you should be able to see it within the graphics area. If it’s not, check your options and make sure it’s set to visible.

The bounding box will also appear as an item towards the top of the assembly tree. If you hover over it, additional properties such as the dimensions of the bounding box, its volume and any options that were chosen during the creation of the bounding box, are displayed.

This new tool will allow you to determine the minimum packaging size for your assemblies before you even begin creating your production run. From there, you can determine how thick any padding or protection should be and start to finalize the product packaging.