mmccall

This is just what I needed.... works alot better than combining shapes.

"Not yet. In the next release of IronCAD, you will have a project 3D Curve to surface/face command. So you can create a 2D Profile, convert it to a 3D Curve, and then project it." Thanks !! I am really looking forward to this one.

You can start with a 2d line with the dimensions you want then convert it to a 3d line. . . . Or using the standard 3d line tools, you would begin drawing your line. Then select the end point of the line ... selelct the triball tool... orient the triball as needed... then move in any direction ... ie. snap the tribal to the starting point and drag in any direction the right click and edit the dimension. Hope this helps. Anybody else have a different method?

In some cases I do a 2d curve then change over to a 3d... but you will loose the fillet control... since it changes it into an arc when you convert... I just keep the 2d and make my changes and convert agin... but obviously this is only if I can do it in 2d... The 3d fillet tool just doesn't seem to be functioning properly.

Is it just me or is it a real pain to put fillets in a 3D curve... For some reason sometimes it works fine... other times you have to rotate all over the place to find out where it will work... Irritating.. Any hints?

I am still running into problems with files that have large assemblies and lots of "section tools" used. Still see those instances where the section doesn't show up.. or your cant add components, or its "too complicated" even on relatively simple sections... That model "inconsistency error" begins showing up every time you save and sometimes it won't save... Once again several of these problems we have all been seeing are cropping up all at once.. These problems started with a new assembly today , not long after I started using the section tool alot.... with precise mode... possibly. I check back at older files where the saving problems, and model inconsistency errors and regen errors began to show... It even has an effect on my configurations.. strange things.... problems I had in the past. They all were files where I used the section tool alot throughout the large assembly. I am beginning to believe that there may be some correlation. Maybe at some point in your spare time, for grins, check through your files and see if you see any common or similar features, or file size or whatever ... when you may think these problems had started...

I created a gun barrel... with the rifle cuts... I will find that file..

Is there a way to draft along a curve? using the curve as the neutral plane? Meaning, alowing the draft plane to be divided along the curve path... like as representing a mold parting line. Pro-E users may recognize this command in the "Draft Options" menu as Neutral Curve... then you sketch the curve, and apply the drafts on either side of the curve, or both sides.. Is the only way to do this in IC is to split the part using the "split" tool then draft each half? For some reason I can't get this stupid jpeg to attach...

I will try to find something also.. I just thought of something....You have the height of the cylinder portion with the helical cuts 3.590-2.028... And you have the note that says it is a 30 deg helix.. I would think that you could use a sweep ( or is it a loft?) with 2 sections... the first section will simply be the profile.. then the second section will be the same profile rotated 30 degs all at the necessary extruded distance... guide curve length... I believe that will get you there... I will be sure to try it today. (uuuhhh the terminology or buttons are slipping on me here.. I am not on my IC system today,, maybe a loft with 2 sections?... well the one that will allow multiple sections)... Hope this helps.

Ok... I was way off!... I see what you mean now... I was thinking of thread features in a hole... I just need to wake up!

To get the helix shape using the Sweep and loft tools, I simply use the helix tool to get the shape I need(typically with a square profile), then select the edge and convert to a 3d curve,... then simply sweep along the 3d curve and subtract the solid.. There is a box you can check to make the helix able to subtract from other solids. I used it some time ago, but not lately... I wonder if you could use the helix tool... then use the "combine shapes" option to reduce it down to a face model... then change its boolean properties to "remove material"... then boolean it to your other solid. Well... I hope this helps.. Dig through this older thread... it may bring some light... http://www.ironcad.com/support/community/index.php?showtopic=827

Software + Hardware Software Shenanigans Spur Industry Action Code copying, unauthorized use surface. Alibre is the latest victim. Michelle M. Lang Design News December 1, 2003 It's not just teenagers and hackers using software illegally. Adults, including some engineers, are doing it too. Indeed, several CAD companies have been involved recently in legal disputes with each other and with code developers over source-code theft and copyright infringement. The most recent example: Alibre Inc. (www.alibre.com) of Richardson, TX, has charged that one of its former code writers tried to illegally distribute its Alibre Design software through a Russian website under the name of RaceCAD. Alibre learned of the alleged theft from a user who saw a promotion for the software and thought it was a new competitor. When Alibre downloaded the software itself, company officials say, they saw what they believed was an identical program to Alibre DesignTM. "The name was changed internally from Alibre to RaceCAD," says Steve Emmons, Alibre's Chief Technology Officer. "It's clearly just copied." Among identical features, Alibre says, are the use of the ACIS source code licensed from Spatial, as well as the user interface, with pixel-to-pixel match for the icons; the internal organization using Java; the folder structurea consolidation of Alibre Design layers into one; almost all of the 7,153 classes with the same names as those in Alibre Design 6.0; and the peer-to-peer collaboration features in the internal structure. Additionally, Alibre says the developer used STEP tools, DWG drawings, and D-Cubed's constraint manager. Design News was unable to reach RaceCAD for comment. J. Paul Grayson, Alibre CEO, likens the incident to bank theft. "The analogy is like a person who works in a bank and wants to put money in their pocketthey can do it," he says. "What's unusual here is that it's as if he is a bank teller who got on a plane to Russia, and he's already got the money with him." Grayson says one of the difficulties is getting the Russian law enforcement authorities to care about the case. "There is the risk that a year from now another CAD product that isn't so easily proved could be sold somewhere else," he says. Alibre says that the individual had agreed, via email exchange, to take RaceCAD offline so that it can't be downloaded. But, says Grayson, "He will not destroy our source code and promise not to do it again." Alibre now faces the arduous process of actually locating the individual in Russia, and pursuing the case through Russia's legal system. Widespread problem Such charges of unauthorized use of software are not uncommon. In July 2002, SolidWorks (www.solidworks.com) faced a similar situation. The company had contracted Geometric Software Solutions (GSSL) in India to debug SolidWorks 2001 Plus. A GSSL employee at the time who was involved with the debugging resigned from the company after allegedly copying the source code and later, says SolidWorks, began selling it via email to U.S. software companies. U.S. law enforcement authorities subsequently set up an undercover sting and eventually arrested the employee in a hotel in New Delhi. SolidWorks was still waiting for the prosecution at the time of this writing. In yet another case, Autodesk announced in October of this year that it was suing LT-Extender, a German company responsible for offering upgrades to Autodesk's AutoCAD LT® software. Autodesk alleges that LT-Extender violated copyright laws by illegally copying AutoCAD files in order to extend functionality. The lawsuit is currently pending. And, HLB Technologies fought a lengthy court battle with Cadkey over the latter's alleged reverse engineering of HLB software, which reportedly prohibited reverse-engineering in its shrink wrap license. In June 2003, the courts ruled in favor of HLB Technologies, forcing Cadkey's owners to sell the company to International Microcomputer Software, Inc. (IMS) to get the funds to pay the fine. Cadkey will continue to develop product

I use the same steps you use... Still having to deal with file problems on occasion...which quickly prompted me to use different dash numbers every so often to reduce the collateral damage when a file become un-useable.... less than 250 links... more like 80 to 100 or so.. You mentioned that it seems as if IC simply gives up. I'm not a computer wiz, but I wonder with all the buzz on large assembly management capability in CAD programs, if that has anything to do with it?.. that is , does IC simply need more work done on how it handles large files?... maybe to keep it from running out of steam? Well.. that's my useless input.

If you drop a sheetmetal piece on a solid part, then at some point change the anchor location... IC will flip the sheetmetal part around so that the anchor point is always touching the surface you dropped it on.... Well this isn't the case for a solid dropped onto another solid... you can move anchors all you want... it doesn't flip the part... Why is it that when I "move anchor" on a sheetmetal piece after dropping on a solid part, IC totaly flips the sheetmetal around?.. Was this the intended action?

Send resume to .. oops... ok I see your email

Comforting for the IronCAD community... As things change, we all work to become the next leaders.. My bet?... Ironcad...

Parametric woes continue as its rivals race ahead By Scott Kirsner, 11/17/2003 My favorite CEO quote of the year comes from the chief executive of EchoStar Communications. After EchoStar missed a goal for attracting more subscribers to its Dish Network satellite TV service, Charlie Ergen said, "The CEO needs to do a better job, and the CEO didn't do a very good job this quarter." And EchoStar was a company that had just closed a profitable three months. Compare that to Dick Harrison, chief executive of Parametric Technology Corp., in Needham. In October, after Harrison's company, Massachusetts' biggest stand-alone software firm, wrapped up its worst year ever, losing almost $100 million, Harrison's quote in the press release began, "We were pleased with our execution this quarter, as we met our revenue targets while implementing an aggressive cost reduction program." Quarterly losses were $38 million. One has to wonder about Harrison's emotional state should the company lose twice as much this quarter. Thrilled? Stoked? Ecstatic? I don't have enough space to run through the entire litany of bad news facing PTC. Nearly delisted from Nasdaq for filing an annual report late? Check. Sued by shareholders? Mm-hmm. Sued for $100 million by the biggest distributor of the company's software? Yes. Named to the Calpers list of companies with serious corporate governance issues? You bet. Revenue restatement going back to 1999? Sure. The company also laid off 310 employees in its last fiscal year, with more to come. "We will be at somewhere around 3,000 employees at the end of this fiscal year," says Neil Moses, the company's newly appointed chief financial officer. "Today, we're at about 3,280." PTC is on the verge of being one of those companies, like Wang, CMGI, and Digital Equipment, with more alumni than current employees. They exist more in the past tense than the present. PTC helped establish the market for computer-aided design software, used by engineers to create digital models for products ranging from fighter planes to lacrosse sticks. But after PTC helped get engineers designing with computers instead of blueprints, other competitors seized on the same opportunity. Now, PTC is flanked by some competitors who sell more sophisticated, higher-priced modeling software, and others, like Concord-based SolidWorks, selling more basic software for less. PTC also had a reputation for arrogance and poor customer service, which it has been working to change. "You can improve that reputation," says L. Stephen Wolfe, the publisher of an industry newsletter called CAD/CAM News. "But you have to wait for your old customers to retire or die before they forget about how you've treated them." PTC made a smart move in the late 1990s by beginning to expand beyond a single-product strategy, introducing software called Windchill, which helps everyone who has a role in developing a product work more closely with the engineers. Windchill sells for less than PTC's flagship design software, called Pro/Engineer, but the company believes Windchill can be sold to many more employees within a company. But while Moses describes Windchill as "the growth engine for our business," it was introduced at a time that companies were cutting back on their spending on new software. And PTC isn't alone in trying to foster more collaboration among all of the people who work on new products. Competitors like Dassault Systemes, IBM, and EDS sell software that competes with Windchill. Moses says the company expects to return to profitability next year. "It is time for us to deliver from a results perspective," he says. PTC's latest product release, an upgrade to Pro/Engineer, has been getting positive reviews. But PTC today is a company that's elbowing for market share from the middle of a pretty feisty pack of competitors. Some of them, like SolidWorks, have been growing as PTC has been shrinking. Even famed Harvard Business School strategy guru Michael Porter, who serves on PTC's board of directors, hasn't been able to help. Wolfe, the publis

From my experience, flipping inside out always seems to happen when using the spaceball... zooming in real close then the flipping happens and you are suddenly moving away from the part. Never happens to me when using the key commands for zooming etc. 4000flx spaceball 7500 radeon

Well... I just borrowed a spaceball from a friend... so far I like it... got to get use to it. It is the 4000FLX. I noticed during the download that there are older types listed, and by the setup it looks like you can check the IC 6.0 drivers for them. Has anyone used the older 3003 or 2002 spaceball for IC?

This has happened to me just now tlehnhaeuser... George is getting upset !!! Then to add insult... that "IC for some reason is not saving" condition has just arrived again. Can you say "250 gig USB harddrive?"... Maybe my new standard procedure will be to always save a file under a different name -1, -2, -3... etc. everytime I save a file... Maybe I need to find that autosave function in windows and start using it? Any suggestions? OK ... mabe a 500 gig harddrive !... can I borrow some money?

When doing a swept variable section surface... ie.. swept surface through a guide curve with 2 different sections.. you may from time to time run into an error. "This operation has failed. A corrupt face identifier has been detected." The only way I have found to fix this is 1) double click the surface and select one of the sections to modify 2) right click and select "Switch matching point" That's right !!... even though your matching points line up you may be missing the small detail of the arrow directions... apparently this matters.... a world of difference.. I have no idea how many times I have re-created a swept surface.. wondering what the problem was. I hope this is some valuable info for someone.

Pro/E Versus SolidWorks excerpted from October 28, 2003 Mark Biasotti, IDEOs top mechanical CAD expert, is one of the rare individuals who works extensively with both Pro/Engineer and SolidWorks. IDEO, a subsidiary of Steelcase Inc., is one of the top U.S. industrial design firms. So when Biasotti talks about differences between CAD systems, we listen. He provided much of the observations and analysis for this article. Stylish consumer products are characterized by smoothly flowing lines accented by distinctive features. Such shapes typically are not created solely from analytical surfaces, such as planes and cylinders, which characterize machine elements. Instead they are crafted using b-spline curves and surfaces that give designers the freedom to create virtually any form. The free-form surfaces are combined to make a closed body, which is then converted to a solid model. Most products are cast via injection molding (or in the case of large parts, rotational molding). To produce these parts, solid models are hollowed to make a thin shell. Then theyre split into two halves so that internal components can be installed. At this point, internal details such as mounting lands or bosses are usually added to the inside surfaces of the shell, along with ribs that provide stiffness and allow thermoplastic to flow evenly into the mold. Of course not all consumer products conform to this model. Major appliances and many computers are still made from flat sheets of metal, and internal components, such as pumps, valves, and switches are designed to accomplish a function at low cost rather than for appearance. Yet, increasingly, consumers are demanding products that look cool, so even large appliances may have free-form handles and interior moldings. A CAD tool for consumer products needs to meet the demanding requirements of industrial designers. Curvature continuity To appreciate what enables CAD software to produce graceful flowing curves, its important to understand some concepts of continuous curvature. The curvature of a curve or surface is the inverse of the radius of the curve at each point along its length. An arc, circle, or cylinder has a constant curvature as does a straight line or plane whose curvature is zero. When a circular fillet is tangent to a straight-line segment, the curvature falls abruptly from a constant value to zero. The human eye can perceive abrupt changes in the curvature of surfaces. A round fillet meeting a plane surface appears to have a ridge at its edge, even though none physically exists. Artfully designed products thus avoid discontinuities in the derivative (rate of change) of the curvature of curves and surfaces except where ridges and sharp edges are used for accent. Entities whose curvature derivative is continuous are said to be C2 (or sometimes G2) continuous. Curves and surfaces that are tangent are said to be C1 (or G1) continuous, while continuous curves or surfaces with sharp edges are said to be C0 (or G0) continuous. Most CAD systems can produce curves and surfaces that are continuous (C0) or tangent (C1). However, only the best systems can produce surfaces that can be joined with C2 continuity under a wide range of conditions. Pro/Engineer Wildfire maintains C2 continuity between adjacent surfaces under more conditions than SolidWorks 2004. Curves Curves are the basis of all free-form surfaces. A CAD system with inferior tools for creating curves will invariably produce poor-looking surfaces. So before comparing the surface-building capabilities of Pro/Engineer and SolidWorks, its worth looking at their ability to generate curves in three-D space. Both Pro/E and SolidWorks can construct 2D sketch profiles using splines and analytic geometry such as lines, arcs, and conic sections. Both also can construct curves through three-dimensional reference points that are either fixed in space or attached to existing part edges or vertices. Where the two programs differ is that Pro/E Wildfire has the ability to adjust curves with sliders an untitled.bmp

I was trying a few things with the "helix" tool... well you know, typical experimentation.... or probing.. or looking for weaknesses.... I was working with different ways of making a flat spiral ( from a previous "enhancement request"), but in this case I decided to put 0 in for the height and pitch of the spring... Some strange run time error came up... I could no longer use the "helix" tool in that IC session... I had to come out of the program totaly. After going back in, I noticed a new icon on my desktop. "Scrap"... the icon looks like a piece of paper torn in half ... you know... When I double clicked that icon, it opened the previous session of IC before the failure in the helix command. Is this something in IC? Is this something in Windows XP? Never happened to me before... just in this one case... I am afraid to do it again!

"An internal application error has occured. It is recommended that you save your work to a temporary location and restart the application." This is fine with me... but if IC is locked on its last operation, how can I save my work?.. ESC. key doesn't work!.. Any way out in these situations?