Delete a feature without deleting its children

[BluTurtle]

While deleting a feature I know that I can uncheck the box to and have SWx NOT delete the children features.

Sometimes, I dont get any dialog to check/uncheck. It just deletes several child features even if i didnt intent to.

In this case, How to delete just that one feature?

Thx
BT

 

[ctopher]

Fix the children features that are related to it so they are not related.

Chris
SolidWorks 09, CATIA V5
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[BluTurtle]

I didnt understand the fix.

Let me make it a bit more clear. I have a part with few features.

Extrude 1 (large plate)
on the large plate, I have Extrude 2 (Small pad)
Have 2 holes on either sides of the pad (Holes tied to pad)

pad & the holes are patterened.

Pattern is again patterned.

I need to delete the Extrude 2 (pad) without deleteing the patterns...

Thx
BT

 

[SteveMartin]

I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish, I'm guessing the above description is a simplified example?

If I create a plate/pad/holes as indicated and delete the pad, then the holes get an error because they cannot find their relation(s) to the pad, but the patterns continue to work, as long as none of the definition of said pattern includes elements of the original pad. I end up with underdefined holes patterned with equivalent spacing to the original pattern of pad+holes.

To clean up the model I'd have to go back and redefine the holes without reference to the (deleted) pad. It's better to do this before deleting the pad, because it's less likely to surprise you with odd attempts to resolve the error caused by deleting referenced features.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

So you want to delete the pads, but keep the holes?

Click on the sketch used to create the hole and use the Edit Sketch Plane tool to move the sketch to the main surface. You should then be able to delete the pad feature.

 

[TheTick]

Edit the holes so that they do not reference the pad. Edit the pattern to remove the pad. Then delete the pad.

 

[NomLaser]

either change the sketch plane or just remove the pad and recreate the holes. It shouldn't be hard to recreate something that you already have and can measure.

 

[BluTurtle]

I agree. Recreating it is simple solution, but it could be time consuming. I am trying to accomplish a better approach from community's best practice.

I am pasting my situation again...
Extrude 1 (large plate)on the large plate,
I have Extrude 2 (Small pad)
Have 2 holes on either sides of the pad (Holes tied to pad)pad & the holes are patterened.
Pattern is again patterned.
I need to delete the Extrude 2 (pad) without deleteing the patterns...

The reason I am deleting Extrude 2 (Small pad) is to replace it with another Pad (Copied from another part).These pads have several sketching entities (time consuming)

This would save my time for the complex skecting, constraining, etc.

Thx
BT

 

[TheTick]

The true test of a CAD jock isn't what he can make, but what he can change.

 

[dgowans]

BluTurtle,

You mentioned best practices, so here goes:

If the intent of the design is to have the locations of the holes related to the pad, deleting the pad and saving the holes in order to save time now seems like a penny-wise, pound-foolish decision. Pity the poor slob who has to pick this design up later and modify it...

If it were me (and I know it's not), I would modify the pad to whatever it's supposed to be and maintain the relationship between the pad and the holes. Incidentally, you can copy the sketch of the other pad and paste it into the sketch of the current pad. Reconstrain everything to get the proper relationships set up and you shouldn't have much in the way of rebuild hassles.

 

[BluTurtle]

When it come comes to assemblies, we know we can use replace part/component and later fix the mates. I was trying to see if we could in any way replace one feature with another..

I dint want to mislead your suggestions. Thats the reason I didnt ask it this way.

 

[mjcole]

BluTurtle,

The child features you are prompted for are usually those that had been absorbed when features were created.

Depending on whether or not you were using the top of pad/boss 2 as your sketch plane/face you could simplify the replacement of the child features by using a created plane as your sketch plane for the cut as well as the depth reference for pad 2.

Another thing you can do is right click or select the feature sketches and select Edit Sketch Plane. Then pick in the selection box and hit delete and hit OK icon.

If your cut sketch was referencing the previous pad for sketch plane and you delete the reference with edit sketch plane and do the same to reattach to new pad. When you do this the sketch remains in its original position and can still be built and easily fixed. If the sketch is looking for Face 5 and its not in the model the feature gets deleted.

This will do the job for preventing auto delete of feature when sketch face is deleted. However if you used a reference plane default or created off the pad 2 you could edit definition to make it reference pad 1 and use it as both a depth reference and sketch plane for one or more features.

One Final piece to add is for your pattern feature you should reference the edges of the main pad or dimensions of the feature sketch. another thing that may help is dimensioning to points/converted entities in sketch. 2009 is a lot better about showing the old references in red when a feature fillet or sketch reference is missing.

Michael

 

[mappel]

I recommend that you design it right the first time but if time is important a fast fix would be to uncheck "Merge result" in the Extrude 2 feature, this would make the small pads seperate solid bodies from the main extrusion. Then after the holes in the feature tree use the "Delete Body" to remove the small pads.

 

[BluTurtle]

Thanks for so many suggestions. This gave me a better understand of parent child relations. Let me ask you guys, if there is a way to lock a feature or a sketch. If it this existed, we could protect the desired features easily.

However, thanks for your input.

Thx
BT