mmccall

I speak from experience just like many others in the IronCad community. I have had a significant number of hours... work hours designing real products... years of experience.... on nearly EVERY cad system out there today (except for the few new systems only a few months old, but not for long), and Ironcad IS the best that I have come across... I deal with new programs all the time... there are so many customers out there with other programs, I just simply have no choice. In alot of ways, especially in how tough the program is, it reminds me of my Unigraphics days on the unix boxes begining with version 9... long before the Solid Edge look of today.... I remember all of these programs in their infant stages... I grew up with them... watching.. Ironcad gives you so much freedom... sit and go. In fact thats the way UG was for many years... no constraints... make a block, carve it up or go full parametrics ... rounds that never fail.... Hopefully without offending anyone, Ironcad is what UG should have become !! I personally ran round and shelling feature tests of Ironcad 2.0 vs Pro-E v19 !!!... Ironcad smoked it on their second release!!!... Pro-E has been around for years. I have worked on everything and once warmed up I can run with the big dogs on any system... there are alot of people out there that can do this also... The real question is, do they like it ??.. Do they like working on a cad program that is so restrictive and difficult? Despite anyones expertise in a program, they generally have enough humanity left in them to say "... this program takes years to master...", or " this program can be difficult"... I NEVER feel that way with Ironcad. Ironcad truly makes modeling fun and fast... For my company... Ironcad is the program I prefer to use!!

It looks like all the animation editing I cons flash when the pointer passes over them... re-booting didn't help...

And when I finally do get to the animation editing level, the zoom function on sicks !!

Usually when I set up an animation, for example a height spin on a wheel... I usually go to the "next path" icon if I need to add another path or edit the direction of the spin etc.... I noticed that after my animation path is set up, my "next path" icon is enabled but when I put the mouse pointer over it it grays out?..... on ocassion it even flashes!!! It iironcad won't let me select the tool it until I have the view rotated to some arbitrary location???

Mobility Radeon 7500

That was the wrong file... let me try again.. cornerform.ics

I have been trying to find a method of creating a form or bead across a corner for some time now... It finally came to me. I have to mention a few of the flaws. 1) The features used to create the corner bead are not truly part of the base sheetmetal part because of how they are created, nor will the bead follow the resulting edge when flattened, but when you think about it ... how can it! 2) When unfolding the part, you are left with a hole in the sheetmetal part across the bend. This is not a problem since for the 2d drawing you can simply create a configuration showing the flat pattern void of all the unecessary features 3) I haven't found a way to make the inner edges nice and rounded. 4) The features are created across 2 separate pieces... therefore they cant be merged or assembled into one grouped feature so... you have to move them both Despite the flaws, I choose to use a true sheetmetal part for a few good reasons. Surely it would have taken half the time to make a block with all the necessary features and begin carving and shelling away, but that wouldn't have given me the same freedom in the end. By using a sheetmetal feature from the start, I still have access to all the neat tools in the sheetmetal menue and most importantly , I can check the flat pattern !! Now ... to the process 1) First you will have your sheetmetal corner 2) use a hole from the solids menu to cut across the corner ( any degree you wish) 3) place a cylinder in the same location as the angled hole ... half of a cylinder... ust the tribal to locate everything .... the angled hole has a location point at the sharp apexes. 4) cut a hole through the half cylinder feature.... make its size smaller by whatever sheetmetal thickness you chose. 5) cut away all the leftover material ... I used a hollow block and simply changed its profile by using the edge of the sheetmetal part as my guide shape... ie use edges of the sheetmetal part. 6) Now we come to the reason for using features from the shapes menu... you would find it quite difficult to use the blend edges command on a sheet metal part ! using this method we need to blend the edges so everything will smooth out. Of course this would not have been a problem if I choose to make it out of a solid block and then carve away as needed But I already explained my reasons The end result... color coordinate as needed.... modify it any way you like. Let me know if there is a problem downloading the file... Conclusion: If anyone has a better method please share it. I need help from Ironcad !!! SURELY SOMEBODY OUT THERE KNOWS HOW TO MAKE THIS A TOOL IN THE SHEETMETAL MENU! cornerform.tif cornerform.ics

It would probably be a programming nightmare, but it would be nice if you could rotate the model using the mouse (or spaceball) while it is animating. If 6.0 currently does this, please tell me how to set this up.

I just got a rendering error. I selected an assembly I had created.. and rightclick and go throught the smartpaint wizzard options and the error message poped up. The message tells me that the error is located in xyz file folder. I tried to get to the folder to publish the error report but I cant seem to find it. Windows explorer cant find the location when I type in the address given by the error message. Then it gives the normal "Contact Ironcad for technical assistance"...

Possibly... I use the tool almost every time I use IC. I use it to get the the view I want, then I turn it off.. Seems like in each case the tool was turned off before the error occurs, but thats hard to verify. I will need to test it a few times. Surely it will happen again!

The error I am getting is a visual basic compile error. This is the report. Private Sub page_OnMButtonDblClick() ' Handle the event raised when the middle button is double clicked. StandardViewsTool End Sub Seems to happen when I pan or rotate. Maybe something to do with my mouse button settings, but I dont know how to interpret the error report. I didn't have the standard view tool activated!! I am using an IBM mouse. Still not sure where the problem is. Is it the program?... Windows XP?... The mouse drivers?... Some re-occuring fluke with mouse button click combinations?...Standard view tool?

One thing I noticed is when I open a folder that contains the file I am working on, the computer frezes for a moment to load the preview of the part. From what I can tell, i have 2 preview screens. One on the side bar of the windows explorer screen and the other in the Ironcad file open screen.... (windows XP) After selecting the file, an error message comes up saying the file cant be found, but it opens the file anyway?!? Not sure if thats just my computer or if its related to 6.0. The files seem to work fine anyway, or until something else goofs up.

here's the file... again... flanges.ics

Forgot to attach the file:)

Here is the file. I have rescently opened it in version 6, so I hope that doesn't affect or prevent 5.2 from opening the file. It still seems to be acting up using 6.0... Maybe its just a bad model? Well in any case I was trying to expand on the concepts used in this tutorial. Read my previous posting. Drag your pointer over the rear wall lower flage and drag the handle. The upper flange was created and constrained to the shape of the lower flange in an attempt to lock the geometry together.... so as one flange is updated, the other would follow... but they dont... the upper flange is doing something entirely different. The method used to create this relationship is described in the tutorial. I have not run into any other issues using this method for parts or normal solid geometry. From what I can tell, problem only seems to be in sheetmetal. But to reitirate (spelling?) my statement... "It looks like I may have either gone too far with this concept, or found a logical design limit to its use." Thanks to Chris Lohman for the tutorial... it is very useful !

I am running windows XP, 1gig ram, 2.6 ghz, pentium 4 , radeon7500 ... lately I heard that my graphics card wasn't a very good one,, but in any case I don't know much about computers. With versions 5.2 or 6.0 I seem to have about the same number of occurences where the visual basic screen pops up with some debugging error report... but I just simply ignore it and keep working ( maybe thats part of my problem!) I can't remember the details, but on occasion with 5.2 if I am working creating features or whatever and Ironcad does shut down, I perform the same sequence of steps again and I have been able to make it shut down again!... Then I proceed making the part in a different order. Not sure if my computer is the problem or what. I have not had any total shut downs on 6.0 as of yet. I will make a better effort from now on to report problems.

My results were the same except my "undo" command still works. I varied my selection point so that it would offset the 3 holes creating a stagger. Just like in Ludin's case, it dropped holes into other holes. Instead of having a stagered pattern of 2 rows and 3 holes, Ironcad made 2rows ,1 hole in each row.... or a 2 hole stagger. Interesting...

I have had several situations just like this one. Pro-e in every case I encountered couldn't read the Neutral file. Granite formats have been more succesful but only by a very small margin and just as you stated only one of the 3 step file actually worked. In the end we went back to iges files. Not much help, but if nothing else it confirms what you are experiencing.

It looks like I may have either gone too far with this concept, or found a logical design limit to its use. I began playing with this tip and I actually created a sheetmetal wall with all the bends I needed and I was able to drive the shape and size in every direction and it would update perfectly... then I noticed that some of my "driven" flange edges were actually moving out of perspective of the other flanges! Things started snapping to the wrong points and bang! The whole model started going south. I was actually able to move a "driven" edge! ( you can tell by the "no smoking" circle and slash symbol that appears over the pull handle of a driven edge when you try to modify it) The funny thing about it is that the sysmbol would dissapear and only allow me to move the edge back to the proper location (aligned with the driving edge) in increments of .001 until it would stop!... Some edges were .050 out of alignment! I will try to send a file attachment of this issue later. I am working on Pro Time Consumer bka Pro inEfficient right now.

This site has a link to an additional catalog of fastener parts. http://www.iccentral.com/ Go through these menu steps Models> Manufacturing> 80/20, Inc. That will get you to the following categories Extrusions 15 Series Joining Plates Fasteners Or follow these steps to get to a catalog of socket cap screws Models> Manufacturing> General Manufacturing SHCS Catalog of socket head cap screws The question still remains, are the models correct?... I beleive these catalogs were created by companies that supply or use these parts.

MOBILITY RADEON 7500 Think that's the problem? Doesn't seem to happen with any other parts... just a part against a sheetmetal part.

One jpeg shows a simle "C" bent part with lower flanges. the lower flanges have 45 deg edge chamfers I created the part, I made one half of the "L" then mirrored the sheetmetal parts. When I tried to unfold the part, I noticed that the end sections flattened properly but the center lower flange separated from the rest and remained in its bent position? To create the sheetmetal part, I used the "bend/w stock" option so I could modify the cross section of the flanges to include the 45deg cuts. The radius portion of the bend actually flattened also, but just the "added stock" portion remained in the 90 deg positon. (see unfolded jpeg) What would cause this to happen? Shouldn't it follow the rest of the material? (it does in every other case I have encountered) This seems to work on the ends just fine... something is trashing the center section. Any ideas?

I noticed that when I have a sheetmetal part, and lay an angle (drag from the catalog) against it, I can still see the edge of the angle trhough the sheet metal part even when all edges are turned off ! (hidden, part edges... everything is off!) Could I have a corrupt file? I just tried it in another file and it did the same thing. Something in my graphics card maybe? I even tried offsetting the surface of the angle .020 from the surface of the sheetmetal part and I was still able to see it! Anybody else having this problem?

mwalls.... That's exactly my problem...even when the anchor is turned yellow, using the triball function to move the anchor isn't working the way it does with a non-sheetmetal part.

When working with a sheetmetal part I needed to move the anchor to the center of a hinge I created.... I noticed that I was unable to use the Tri-ball to locate the anchor..... I was able to place the anchor on edges, and a couple of other snap-points without the tri-ball... Shouldn't I be able to use the tri-ball to place the anchor on sheetmetal parts the same way I would use it for other shapes?... What's different about sheetmetal parts? Maybe its something in my setup?