Need to Blend a Lot of Edges

[Cargeke]

Hello all,

I'm designing blowmolded packaging trays with many cavities (40-70) in NX4 and I need to blend all the edges on all the cavities. I tried selecting "Body Edges", then subtracting the edges I didn't want blended, but that didn't work. I finally resorted to selecting "Face Edges", but it's very tedious. Is there a quick way to pick the edges to select all the edges? A draggable selection box or something like that would make my life a lot easier.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[cowski]

Are the cavities identical? Could you model 1 the way you like it then array it?

 

[Cargeke]

I think I figured it out. I have to array it first, then edge blend with "Blend All Instances" selected. Wow, I actually learned something from the UG Help files.

 

[Xwheelguy]

You'd be surprised how helpful they can be in some cases.....then again, certain topics still have the same context from years ago.

Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.

http://www.enkei.com

Some people are like slinkies....they don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.

 

[Cargeke]

For me, most of the time the help files are more frustrating than helpful. Maybe it's my search style, but I usually get a generic explanation of what a command does, but no suggestions of how or where to find the button or menu to use a certain function.

 

[JohnRBaker]

If you're running NX 5 or NX 6, try using the 'Command Finder' function (Help -> Command Finder...). It will show you where the item can be found in the dialog scheme, provides a one paragraph description of the function and if you need more, a link to the help page, if one exists. You can also execute the function from there even if it does not currently have an active icon on any of the tool-bars.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Xwheelguy]

Cargeke,

I don't think NX4 had the Command Finder in it.

Maybe you should look into CAST (self paced training) or classroom environment training for NX to get a grasp of the basics?

Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.

http://www.enkei.com

Some people are like slinkies....they don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.

 

[hudson888]

Apart from all the discussion about the help functions there is another oft discussed issue with arrayed geometry that I think we could mention. If it is a really regular pattern and there are a GREAT number of instances you may find that the solution you have found really slows the system down a lot.

For users of NX-5 and above one way out can be to create a subset of the pattern and use instance geometry to further array it.

Technique and modelling strategy are not contained in any help files of any system you just have to learn this stuff.

Best regards

Hudson