"operation failed due to geometric condition"

[MesaTactical]

Now that I am using SolidWorks 2007, I see they have managed to come up with even more nebulous and mystifying error messages than ever before. This is certainly an accomplishment of sorts, as the software was already in my personal top five of most baffling error messages of all time.

So now I am trying to add a very simple extrusion to a body where two curved extrusions intersect. No big deal until the latest release, when attempting this invariably produces a build error with the helpful message, "Operation failed due to geometric condition." Oh dear, the geometric condition is not appropriate!

I have tried every combination of getting these features together in the same solid body, with no joy. Or rather, a little joy. I was able to design several clumsy workarounds which proved it's not a matter of a zero thickness error (one of the surfaces is tangent to another, but I get the problem even when I eliminate the tangent). But the workarounds result in a crappy part.

I doubt there are any workarounds I haven't tried, but is this "operation failed due to geometric condition" probably something that might have been fixed in recent bug fix releases? Anyone seen it before? Today is a first for me.

 

[MesaTactical]

Thanks, Tick.

Nope, nothing like that either. There was one feature, a revolved boss, that was mirrored on one side, but oddly enough the problem occurred on the side of the original revolved base, not its mirror.

Your suggestion gave me an idea, however, so after adding the extrusion on the side that worked I simply sliced the entire part down the front plane, then mirrored the body across the front plane. Everything came out fine.

It's a horrible kludge, but at this point I suspect I'm going to have to live with it. No one will know about it except me, I suppose.