Block of material from solid or surface.

[Albion]

Is there a way in Unigraphics to take a single 3D solid or surface model and determine what the minimum size block of material (steel, aluminum, etc...) would be needed to machine that part?

Thanks.

-al

 

[cowski]

I was looking for the same thing a few months back, the only way I found to do it was with the grip command SOLBOX (if you find another way please let me know). Here is a short grip program that I wrote to determine these dimensions, you can use it as a base and customize it to your needs (my program labels the dimensions in the modeling app so we can do a screen dump but you may want to report these dimensions some other way). You will have to compile it to a .grx then you will be able to use it in Unigraphics.


$$ PROGRAM TO LABEL OVERALL PART DIMENSIONS
$$ BASED ON GRIP COMMAND 'SOLBOX'
$$ THIS COMMAND RETURNS THE DIAGONAL CORNERS OF A BOX
$$ CONTAINING THE SPECIFIED BODY, FACE, OR EDGE
$$ AS THE DOCUMENTATION SAYS:
$$ "The box is usually close to the minimum
$$ possible size, but this is not guaranteed."

$$ DECLARATIONS
ENTITY/SOLID1,PT(5),XDIM,YDIM,ZDIM,CSYS1,OLDCSYS
NUMBER/RESP,VAL(6),COLOR,OFFSET,OLDCSIZE,OLDLYR,OLDARW
STRING/WVW(10)

COLOR=&ENTCLR $$ SAVE CURRENT COLOR TO RESET IT LATER
OLDLYR=&WLAYER $$ SAVE CURRENT WORK LAYER
OLDCSYS=&WCS $$ SAVE CURRENT CSYS
OLDCSIZE=&CSIZE $$ SAVE CURRENT CHARACTER SIZE
WVW=&WORKVW $$ SAVE CURRENT WORK VIEW
OLDARW=&ASIZE $$ SAVE ARROW SIZE

$$ MASK SELECTION FOR SOLIDS ONLY
MASK/70

$$ PROMPT FOR USER SELECTION OF SOLID
IDENT/'SELECT A SOLID FOR BOUNDING BOX ANALYSIS',SOLID1,RESP
IF/RESP<=2,JUMP/ENDPROG:

$$ PERFORM ANALYSIS
MESSG/TEMP,'CALCULATING BOUNDING BOX'
&WCS=&ABS $$ SET CSYS TO ABSOLUTE
VAL=SOLBOX/SOLID1

$$VAL(1)=MIN X
$$VAL(2)=MIN Y
$$VAL(3)=MIN Z
$$VAL(4)=MAX X
$$VAL(5)=MAX Y
$$VAL(6)=MAX Z
$$ COORDINATES ARE RETURNED IN ABSOLUTE CSYS

$$ DRAW POINTS (COLOR = YELLOW, LAYER = 99, MAKE 'SLA_DIM' LAYER CATEGORY)
&ENTCLR=&YELLOW
CAT/'SLA_DIM',99
LAYER/WORK,99
PT(1)=POINT/VAL(1),VAL(2),VAL(3)
PT(2)=POINT/VAL(4),VAL(2),VAL(3)
PT(3)=POINT/VAL(4),VAL(5),VAL(3)
PT(4)=POINT/VAL(4),VAL(5),VAL(6)
PT(5)=POINT/VAL(1),VAL(5),VAL(3)

$$ CALCULATE DIMENSION LINE OFFSET AS 20% OF MAX DIMENSION
OFFSET=0.2*MAXF((VAL(4)-VAL(1)),(VAL(5)-VAL(2)),(VAL(6)-VAL(3)))

$$ SCALE DIMENSION CHARACTER SIZE TO OFFSET VALUE
$$ SO WE HOPEFULLY GET READABLE DIMENSIONS
$$ WHEN WE PRINT TO 8-1/2&quot; x 11&quot; SHEET
&CSIZE=OFFSET/8
&ASIZE=&CSIZE

$$ CHANGE CSYS TO DRAW X DIMENSION
CSYS1=CSYS/PT(1),PT(2),PT(3)
&WCS=CSYS1
XDIM=LDIM/HORIZ,0.5*(VAL(4)-VAL(1)),-OFFSET,PT(1),PT(2)

$$ CHANGE CSYS TO DRAW Y DIMENSION
CSYS1=CSYS/PT(2),PT(3),PT(1)
&WCS=CSYS1
YDIM=LDIM/HORIZ,0.5*(VAL(5)-VAL(2)),-OFFSET,PT(2),PT(3)

$$ CHANGE CSYS TO DRAW Z DIMENSION
CSYS1=CSYS/PT(3),PT(4),PT(5)
&WCS=CSYS1
ZDIM=LDIM/HORIZ,0.5*(VAL(6)-VAL(3)),-OFFSET,PT(3),PT(4)

$$ DELETE UNNEEDED WORK POINT
DELETE/PT(5)

ENDPROG: $$ JUMP TO HERE IF USER CANCELS PROGRAM

$$ RESET SYSTEM VALUES
&ENTCLR=COLOR
&WCS=OLDCSYS
&CSIZE=OLDCSIZE
&WLAYER=OLDLYR
&ASIZE=OLDARW

HALT

 

[Berserk]

Hello Cowski,

Would you be able to send me your grip program
compiled for winnt? I don't have a compiler license.
Just grip execute.
I too need to get block size for plastics part
for quoting purposes.

TNX
rcanlas@lakesideplastics.com