Are there any good techniques for Surface Triming/Knitting?

[AshVP]

Hey all

Last week I was the one who had the corrupt part thread, well since my company has been slow to obtain SW04, I bit the bullet and just remodeled the damn thing....in 2003.

Anyways, I am primarily a Joe/ENGINEER guy, and am used to their surface merging and trimming methods.

In solidworts, I am triming and knitting a bunch of surfaces to eventually make a cut feature. The problem is that I have a hard time figuring out what surfaces are knitted to each other, and what surfaces aren't.
Especially if I mirror a surface. I check of the "knitted" box, but Im not sure that they are really knitted.

In Pro/E, it is very easy to tell what surfaces are knitted ("merged" in proe lingo) because Pro does an excellent job in outlining the surface edges in colors. If a surface's edge is Yellow, that means nothing is knitted to it (free edge). If the surfaces all have Pink edges, that means they are knitted.

Is there a way to turn on the surface edges' colors' in SW? And if there is a way, do the colors change from knitted edges to free edges?

I have had luck in the past checking off the Mutual Trim box, but sometimes SW doesnt let me trim the surfaces the way I wan't it too.

I hope all of this makes sense.

Im am a pretty decent pro/e user, and Im just trying to apply the same modeling techniques in SW. It has been frustrating at times. Sometimes it seems like I need to cheat the software to get what i need done.

Ohwell.

All help and comments are welcome here!

Thanks

-Ash

 

[Theophilus]

Those are some good ideas. I've had some confusion in display clarity in the surfaces I work with in the past and simply rename certain surfaces to be my "working" surfaces as opposed to the "construction" surfaces that get me to that point.

SW also allows you to stuff some of this construction geometry into feature folders to de-clutter your tree from what I understand (I haven't yet done this since this feature became available). So you might be able to separate the construction clutter from your working features. Relevant naming of your surfaces (and other features) in a complex part (like feature lists 8x as high as your monitor) is essential unless you like playing memory games with yourself--very bad when you need to go back two months later to update the model.

Since the parametrics will lie in your construction geometry, it's a good idea to relable that as well to make things easier.

Using these methods will help, but indicative surface edge displays is a great idea that would help even more.




Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[AshVP]

Oh, so thats what that 'Add to New Folder' thing does when you right click a feature in the model tree. I never cared to try that, but I think thats a good way to clean up a model tree.

I admit that I am lazy when it comes to naming features, actually I am doing it more than I used to.

What do you mean by this sentence? Im very curious:
"Since the parametrics will lie in your construction geometry, it's a good idea to relable that as well to make things easier."

THanks!
-Ash

 

[Theophilus]

Right. I meant that when/if you need to edit something in your working surfaces, you will need to go back to your construction surface geometry to do so. For instance, suppose I extrude several intersecting surfaces, trim them, knit them, and then offset them to create a single stopping surface for a special cut that I need.

The extrusions, trimmings, and knit will be construction geometry cluttering my tree. I'll put them in the folder out of the way. However, if I need to make a change to the offset surface, I'll need to access these construction features to make it happen (unless I employ a hack--poor modeling practice that I don't recommend).

Therefore, naming such construction geometry so you can find it later will be wise in a complicated part. Or you can simply name your folder and the construction geometry inside will be relatively self-explanatory--but that will necessitate a folder for each set of construction geometry--maybe a good idea.




Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[AshVP]

Ohhhhhh, LOL, I see, yeah I fully undstood you from the begining.

What I misunderstood was the meaing of the word "lie" in the sentence of yours that I questioned..

"Since the parametrics will lie in your construction geometry, it's a good idea to relable that as well to make things easier."

You meant' "lie" as in the parametrics (features) are containd in your model geometry

I thought you meant "lie" as in the parametrics (features) won't tell you the truth or tell you what is really happening , my fault.

Yeah, I am attacking this cut feature that I am trying to make a different way now. I try to use "Mutual Trim" as much as possible since it KNITS the surfaces for you on-the-fly.

Thanks

-Ash

 

[TheTick]

If you view your surfaces in wireframe, free edges should be in a color different from the rest of the solid (usually blue).

Check your options under "Tools --> Options --> System Options --> Colors --> Surfaces, Open Edges"

Due to illness, the part of The Tick will be played by... The Tick.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

 

[Theophilus]

GROOOOOOVY!




Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[AshVP]

thanks Tick! I will definetly look into that. That may be the solution I was looking for!

-Ash