protrude w/ draft 1

[sparkeng]

Will Wildfire have this functionallity?, Every other high cad system has for quite a while. This would save me alot of time on complex plastic parts. (overlapping geometry!!) Arghhh.

 

[helpmewithintralink]

You may want to check out the wildfire release notes off the PTC website. I heard that this may be an option... kinda fuzzy ( I saw the demo last year ).

 

[davidinindy]

No... Wildfire doesn't have it. You have to extrude, then add draft in seperate steps.
This is an advantage that Solidworks has. You do it in one step, and it is easier to define also. Adding draft seems very cumborsome in Wildfire.

David

 

[RocketRonnie]

Yes... Wildfire does have it. You can do it, but not as the first solid feature - Select a part surface, Edit - Offset - change the pull down from "Standard Offset Feature" to "With Draft Feature".
You can now sketch the extruded shape, and specify the draft angle.

 

[davidinindy]

"You can do it, but not as the first solid feature"
Well, I only have one main solid feature in this particular part. It's a a simple shelled box with multiple holes in it that I've been tryign to add draft to. I've rolled it back to before the fillets and shell, and have not been able to add draft to more than one side at a time. I don't want to creat 4 draft features for this thing.
Any suggestions?

David

 

[Guest0527211403]

Are you trying to add draft to the holes or to the box?

If it is just a box as you describe, select the top surface (so that it highlights in pink), hold down SHIFT and select the edge of the top surface that it shares with one of the surfaces to be drafted. This is how to pick "Loop Surfaces", which are the surfaces that are adjacent to the first surface that you chose, bounded by the selected edge.

You should be able to draft this without a problem.

Where are the holes located on the part? If any holes or pockets are into the side surfaces of the model, then that is a reason why you don't want to add draft to the initial extrusion. Unless you went and created a number of datum planes (from the sounds of it you don't like creating extra features), you would not be able to place these holes or pockets on the side surfaces, since the normal direction of the surfaces is no longer perpendicular to that of the top and bottom surfaces.

A draft feature is a manufacturing detail. You should design the part in its "theoretically perfect" state before adding draft. This will allow you to apply true design intent to your model. You then add draft to facilitate manufacturing.

Solidworks' draft with extrude functionality is also limited. Your neutral plane is the sketching plane. I admit that it saves a few seconds and a feature, but once you know how to use Pro/E's draft tools, there is nothing that you can do with Solidworks that you can't do with Pro/E.

 

[davidinindy]

I gave up and redid my design in Solidworks.
Having been in plastic product and mold design for 12 years, I can say that this is definately a more cumbersome way of doing things. The number of steps it takes is amazing, if Icould even do it.
I created the same part in Solidworks in about 15 minutes. Here is how the history tree looks
I ommmited the sketch portions.
1: Create a drafted extrusion
2: Add fillets
3: Shell it
4: Insert the holes in the direction of P/L pull
5: Insert holes in sides, (which require side-actions.)
This is easily done because extruding holes that aren't perpendicular to the surface is easily done by cutting in the "X,Y or Z" direction. No extra planes.
I don't want to start a "this CAD is better than that CAD" argument, but having been trying to use Wildfire for almost a month now, I can say that I am not impressed.

David

 

[RocketRonnie]

"I gave up and redid my design in Solidworks"
So Wildfire requires 1 extra step:
1a: Create Draft Feature
And because of this you're not impressed.
justkeepgiviner's advice was excellent, but you don't seem willing to listen.

If all you design is simple shelled boxes with holes in it, then you might as well stick with Solidworks; it's about all it's good for.

And you don't want to start a "this CAD is better than that CAD" argument......

 

[Heckler]

I'm not sure it's a my MCAD is better than yours. It comes down the skill level of the user. SWx is easy to learn whereas Pro/e tends to be a little convoluted in its menu structure which leads to a longer learning curve.

As a user of both packages I'm always learning different ways to do things....IMO it's that type of "banging" on the software that increases the learning curve.

I've learned a lot from the people (Hora, Mark, mloew, & 3dlogix) on this forum and continue to learn.

My proposal is stop belly aching and start learning even if you have to work through lunch.



Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 3.1 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea" Bernard-Paul Heroux

 

[RocketRonnie]

Learning Solidworks is like learning to ride a bike.

Learning ProE is like learning to drive a car.

When it comes to designing products, I know which CAD software will get me the furthest.