mmccall

When a part is sectioned ( that is , when the section feature is currently on) Ironcad won't allow you to apply chamfers or rounds to the edges. The real question here is ... Why ?... It would be useful to be able to apply any edge feature you need regardless of whether or not its sectioned. It would seem useful to be able to go in and add edge features as needed since the section allows you to see deep into assemblies.. that way you don't have to worry about suppressing alot of stuff.

I have an assembly with a section. When you want to add or remove different parts you can go into the scene browser , right click on the section feature and select the "add/remove parts"... go select the parts you want and it works just fine. Well if you select the section in the scene, and right click the same option "add/remove parts" shows up ... you can go through selecting things and apply the command, but it doesn't work for some reason. Anybody else having this problem?

I have been searching for a while now, but all I can find are sites that require you to pay for a membership to download cad data... but then again there is no way to tell if its exactly what you want, but they are valves. I simply did a search for "valves + hydraulic + piping systems + 3d cad" and similar variations of these words... lots of companies came up. Hope this helps.

I'm sure this use to work in the past, but for some reason I am unable to change a series of letters to solid. I can only "convert to solid" one letter at a time. Something strange is happening.

For some reason right after I create a 3d text and put all the edge treatments on it, (flats, or rounds from the text wizzard) all the edge treatments go away as soon as I select the text to "convert to solid". Anybody else having this problem? Maybe I will just have to "convert to solid" first then manually apply the edge treatments I want.

For some reason, whenever I "fit scene" for an assembly I am working on, the camera view is 2000 inches away ( everything shrinks really small). Strange thing about it is that earlier today, it was working just fine. What could have changed in the settings? Each time I change the camera settings, they just go back to the 2000 value. Any ideas?

I am working on a laptop, OK on speed, with a large file. I have several imported Pro-E parts and assemblies that have different sections ("section tool"). I noticed that when the "section tool" options are set to "precise mode" my rotation speed is faster !.. rendering is faster !... even with "draw part edges" option on ! How or why is this possible? Temporary utopia? (just until my computer explodes !)

Yes.. I noticed... You would have to put alot more sections or like you said, do alot of adjusting.

Here's the file I did... One side has the current variable option... the other uses the loft. Hope it works for you. variable blend.ics variable blend.ics

I had a really good result just now using the "loft tool" and "remove material". I selected the raw edge using the " project 3d geometry" tool. (It won't let you do a right click to associate the loft to the edge... like the examples we talked about in the past see http://www.ironcad.com/support/community/index.php?showtopic=576) Then you simply sketch each section.

Thanks... that works.

Try this. 1) Drop a cylinder into a blank scene 2) use the "section part/assembly" tool to divide the cylinder in half 3) now pick the "look at" surface tool to look into the "half cylinder" ( by picking in that cut surface) If you select on the cylinder, the "look at" tool puts the view at some random position. ( when you select into the cut surface) If you select on the plane left by the "section part/assembly" tool, it will give you the correct orientation. This is OK I guess, but if you right click on the plane left by the "section part/assembly" tool and hide the plane, you have no way to look into the side of the cylinder without the add-on standard view tools, or turning the plane back on. Any ideas? Is this the way it should work?

One possible work around in the future, but it will take alot of work would be to 1) In Pro-E , select all the surfaces and do a surface copy 2) move all these surfaces and merge them together .. that will give you an thin surface shell of the shape 3) then go to Create protrusion and use quilt... this will give you a solid block without all the surfaces used to create the pro-e part 4) Now pull up the pro-e part into IronCad... I bet this would probably work.. I'll give it a try. An even shorter method, that is if the modeled surfaces aren't critical to the geometry needed in Ironcad or if you can keep the Pro-e file from failing, would be to supress the surface features and possibly re-create them in Ironcad. I'll try this one also... but hopefully Ironcad can fix it so it can be a straight forward "Open Part File". From my experience, Pro-E is soo weak in rounds that when ever you need a smooth edge across multiple faces or shapes, you will often resort to filing in the areas with surface features, etc. so they can enclose or make the geometry so the rounds will work. Well ladies and gents... here is where the true power of multiple Kernels comes in ! Go Ironcad !

Yes I have the Pro E translators. I will send the original Pro-E file and my file to the Ironcad support. Just for the record, after selecting through EVERY possible import configuration in Ironcad and EVERY export configuration in Pro-E, the only working file was an IGES. Still not good since the file now has 1606 surfaces ! If you copy the part and re-paste it... the 1606 surfaces become 1606 parts !! There is NO way to combine the shapes, convert to solid or anything... nothing works. I have 3 parts like this one that I need in the same file... My computer will probably burst into flames !

Here is an example concerning how to widen the bottom base sheetmetal. I have 4 sheetmetal parts to demonstrate each step (.... I don't have that fancy movie maker some people are using... by the way, what is that program that lets you make movies of your screen movements?) 1) you have your base sheetmetal with flanges on both sides 2) shorten the base sheetmetal, ie. double click until yellow and drag handles to some arbitrary distance ( you only do this to make it easier to select the reference edge, otherwise ironcad thinks you are selecting the same edge and you will most likely get an error) 3) double click the now shortened base sheetmetal until yellow and edit cross section... 4) select the "project 3d edges" tool and right click on the bend edges ( where the base metal will attach), you will know you did it correctly when you see a little red arrow... this means that the edges is now linked. 5) slect the "extend curve" tool to finish enclosing the sheetmetal Now to change or widen the sheetmetal part 6) select either bend radius and its vertical portion (bend and wall will be yellow) 7) turn on the tribal tool and drag or move the wall and the base sheetmetal will follow the bend edge its "attached" to.. (of course you can position the triball where you need and snap to points and all that stuff.) sheetmeta wider example.ics

Version 2001 and i^2

Yeah... the only thing close is to select the option "none" for head types. Selecting "none" would make it like a set screw... then I suppose you could delete the recess feature... Like mwalls said, you could then make it your own catalog item. Hope this helps.

Yes... I see now about dropping a fillet... Looks like I am in the habbit of modifying or associating the sides of the fillet to the base sheetmetal... like I described in my previous response.... By associating it to the edge ( project 3D geometry button and right clicking the edges), it will always follow the sides no matter what the angle... Your right, it won't simply drop in. The way I make things work requires a little more setup, but it works pretty good until there is a fix.. hopefully one is coming soon.

I have done quite a bit with the sheetmetal functions. check my input on a previous topic originated by Chris Lohman concerning a book shelf tutorial "Bookshelf Tutorial with intelligent shelves" I used his concepts and applied them to sheetmetal parts... This should assist with the issue of widening the part... Its all a matter of how you link or reference the edges. (I can give more explanation if you need.. 731 421 6518) It works really well... and I also give a few files and some things to watch for. http://www.ironcad.com/support/community/index.php?showtopic=1285 As for dragging the contoured edge.. if you draw the contured edge with the vertex, curves or any other features by editing the wall (select until yellow, hit edit and sketch the profile) , you can lock the position or endpoints of the curves. That should allow you to drag the wall and keep the shape together, otherwise the horizontal straight edge will continue to get shorter and shorter as you drag the handle upward. The Vertex fillets should have worked on any corner !! I'm sure I have dragged them to some other angle before... Did something change in 6.0?... Are you working on 6.0 or 5.2?

You can always modify the features that create the screw... double click to the yellow highlight and edit. Hope this helps.

Ironcad can import most Pro-E parts but if any of the files were created using surfaces or contain surface features... forget it ! Anything with a Pro-E surface gets reduced to a very simple geometry.. maybe only 10% of what was originally there. Assemblies, or atleast small assemblies will import but again, if any of the parts have a Pro-E surface, it won't work. Better export files with surfaces as neutral files, step files iges or .g !

Ironcad can import most Pro-E parts but if any of the files were created using surfaces or contain surface features... forget it ! Anything with a Pro-E surface gets reduced to a very simple geometry.. maybe only 10% of what was originally there. Assemblies, or atleast small assemblies will import but again, if any of the parts have a Pro-E surface, it won't work. Better export files with surfaces as neutral files, step files iges or .g !

From my experience, Step file formats work really well... Iges works good also. With either of thes formats you should still be able to continue modeling or changing whatever you need.. face modeling works really well with the step format... In some cases depending on if the iges file was created from an assembly, rather than each part, the small surfaces generated from contacting faces can create problems when trying to convert to a solid... It even creates problems when you try to subtract it from a large block ( in an attempt to make a solid mold.. then subtract again to make a solid of the part... see previous discussions). See if they can export in a step file format.

If you need to get the area of a face, Select the face of the part until you are at the face mode (green outline) Right click and select the "create surface shape" Then run the "tools - analysis" to to get the surface area.

Is this it? I am having a hard time uploading the file... maybe the file is too large. end result.ics