Running before I can walk - STYLE TOOL ?

[FabnFix]

Hi all,

As some of you may know, I am very new to pro-e and most of the features scare the hell out of me. It seems that when I used autocad, complex shapes were easy for me to achieve because I had to draw each view, then I would have a model maker do a wooden model using my drawings so I could get a good idea if I am on the right track. It was the mechanical parts, moving parts that caused more trouble.

Now I am using pro-e it seems the roles have reversed. Mechanical parts are fairly easy to model as they do not contain too complex shapes. It is the complex shapes, designs that are now the hardest to achieve.

I design hardware for the window and door industry aswell as the kitchen industry and occasional special jobs, as you can imagine there are many complex shapes such as door handles, window handles, kitchen taps etc etc that I am finding incredibly difficult to model as a new user to Wildfire 2.0. I am learning but creating these shapes using solid parts or surfaces etc is quite difficult,(i may be better in 5 years !) I experience many error during one development, mainly when interfeering or compounding surfaces, radii meet etc etc I get the dreaded 2001 menus appear...then im stumped.

So now you know my problem, I was wondering if anybody could shed any light on the STYLE TOOL which is on wildfire 2.0. I believe this would be an excellent tool for creating these shapes, I know that dimensioning etc will be limited, but for the initial designs this sounds like it could be the way to go ? Has anybody got any decent tutorials for the STYLE TOOL as I have no idea where to start!! It seems there is limited material online for this part of Wildfire ?

Help anybody ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[foxbr]

We use style for very complex surfacing. Typically we use the standard surfacing package (90%). Which there is plenty of info on.

Most typical standard surfacing is create your curve structure and use boundaries to attach to the curves.

Merge the surfaces

Thicken or solidify to make a solid.

Of course there are many other surfacing techniques.

 

[dgallup]

There are some good tutorials here although not much on surfacing:

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/~entdgc/WildfireDocs/tutorials.htm

http://www.frotime.com/

has lots of surfacing tutorials but you will have to pay for the more advanced ones.

 

[FabnFix]

foxbr, dgallup

Thanks both for your help. I think that my real problem is inexperience, because even "Most typical standard surfacing is create your curve structure and use boundaries to attach to the curves" sounds impossible to me :O). I have only been using pro-e for a few months, even the basics are foreign to me. I will keep working at it. Practice makes perfect I guess.


Thankyou both again

 

[Guest0527211403]

FabnFix

If you follow the first link that dgallup provided, towards the bottom is a link to a book, Pro/Engineer Wildfire for Designers. There is a sample chapter available on Surface Modeling. I just scanned through it and I'm impressed by what I've seen so far.

Good Luck

 

[HDS]

The training in ISDX from PTC and thier partners is very good and worth the time.

 

[FabnFix]

Justy,

Thanks, Ive found it and will have a looksy today.

fabnfix