Obtain an Outline of a Part (overlay) 3

[mjbrow]

I'm looking for a way to obtain an outline of a part for an overlay. A section won't work, because the geometry that is being sectioned off makes up a portion of the outline. For explanation purposes, imagine a shaft with external threads. The swept thread makes up part of the outline, so trying to convert the sketch lines forces you to select the complete helix. I also tried to hide tangent edges, which helps, but still shows lines through the middle of the body.

It would be nice to be able to extrude a body through a block (tried, too complex for solidworks). Or display outline option in the drawing.

Is there something else I should be trying?

 

[rbpmc]

" I also tried to hide tangent edges, which helps, but still shows lines through the middle of the body. "

In the drawing if you right click each of the thread lines you can hide them ( little vertical line icon with a black and grey line ) it might be tedious depending on the number of threads.

Also maybe you can create a surface to intersect through the section you need and then insert a combine feature ( common ) and save it off to a new part. hmmm I don't think I've ever tried to combine a solid feature and a surface before - no clue if it would even let you do that.

Or a thin feature cut and do an opposite side cut.

 

[CADFlyer]

"It would be nice to be able to extrude a body through a block (tried, too complex for solidworks)"
Try using the Cavity Feature. Easy to embed a solid body into a block, which then can be cut to show the desired shape.

If you use a Section view, try turning on 'Display only cut faces' in the Property Manager

 

[mjbrow]

"Try using the Cavity Feature. Easy to embed a solid body into a block, which then can be cut to show the desired shape.

If you use a Section view, try turning on 'Display only cut faces' in the Property Manager"

This does the same thing as if I just sectioned the part. Some of the "shadow" of the part is created by geometry of the thread that you would be removing by creating the section.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Have you tried using the part as an Indent tool?

 

[mjbrow]

"Have you tried using the part as an Indent tool?"

I haven't but its definitely worth a try. I'll let you know my results later today.

 

[Gupta65]

in SW2013, you can convert a drawing view to sketch entities or a block of sketch entities using the Convert View to Sketch Property Manager. To do this, right-click a drawing view and click Convert View to Sketch. And then edit that as required, removing the extra unwanted line.

You can also do a cut extrude, then simply sketch on the face and use convert entities to get the outline.

Deepak Gupta
CSWE, CSWP, CSDA
SW 2012 SP5.0 & 2013 SP 1.0
Boxer's SolidWorks™ Blog
SolidWorks™ Rendering Contest

 

[mjbrow]

"in SW2013, you can convert a drawing view to sketch entities or a block of sketch entities using the Convert View to Sketch Property Manager. To do this, right-click a drawing view and click Convert View to Sketch. And then edit that as required, removing the extra unwanted line."

Thanks for this. I'll have to get my company to upgrade, so I can give it a try. Looks promising.