Rib is a special feature in SolidWorks. It works by filling the open / closed contour with material of specific thickness in the specified direction. To see how a rib works let first draw an L bracket with 50 mm height and 50 mm wide with thickness of 5mm as shown.
First start off by creating the given shape in the front plane. Use the sketch tools line & offset to create the below sketch.
Now extrude the sketch to a depth of 30 mm on both sides using the extrude boss/base tool.
Now in the front plane create a line 30 mm away from the inner corner for the L bracket as shown. The ends of the line must be coincident on the inner surface.
Now click on the Rib tools from the features Pane
Select the recently drawn line to create the rib. Enter 5mm as the rib width and click ok.
You will see the rib created as shown…
You can also user curved lines to create a rib instead of straight line as shown in above example. Curved lines also can be use to create ribs as shown.
