mmccall

It may help speed things up a little if you take the time to group rounds together... or at least those troublesome complex rounds ....and suppress them until you finish making mods etc... sometimes I find myself putting in rounds too early, when they should be the last thing... I am not talking about the necessary geometry rounds.. I mean the cleanup rounds that go all around the part.. down in the pockets, all the edges, the little chamfered edges... I mean all the cleanup machine features... When ever possible, if a rounded edge can be put into a section, it may be a good idea to put it in the section... that's just one less feature to regenerate... If you are still early in the design, I find that all these blends and chamfers having to update when I make changes to boss sizes or add other geometry can really slow down the regeneration... Be sure to disable the "allow re-ordering" so things don't go crazy when you resume the suppressed rounds... For some powerhouse computers this may never be a problem... but not all of us have the luxury... Hope this helps...

Yes.. I have seen this..several times... it will turn the feature white in the scene browser... supresses it... I have to unsurpress the feature then regen it manually... Usually it only happens to a feature or two... but then starts acting normal again... never thought to re-start IC...

Just a warning.. to double check yourself. I am working on an assembly for a customer..a mechanical jacking system.. Several of the vendor components are in metric units, bearings, track systems etc... while the rest of the assembly, or job shop components are in US system. In IC I have been creating the assembly and its components all in the same scene... building needed components along the way... As needed... I switch units from metric to US and back and forth repeatedly... depending on which component I am working on. After exporting the assembly to Pro... I noticed that some of the Dims were incorrect... Well...the best explanation I could come up with is that each time I switched my working units... the multiplied conversion factor along with my accuracy (set at 4 places) must have compounded in some way... 24mm.. over time degraded to 23.9966mm... This error was made even larger when Pro added its own conversion factor.. in any case.. several things no longer lined up. Customer was a little worried about accepting files from IC... I showed the same error was possible in Pro-Wildfire by modeling several components in an assembly in the same manner.. again.. 24mm.. degraded over time and things didn't line up. I should have been more careful.... Guys and Gals... if you are doing this... be sure to check your models before the export... A few things to minimize the error... 1) check the model 2) lower the place accuracy... check the model dims again... quick check with smart dims... 3) safe thing to do may be to model the components with different units in a separate file... that way there is only the 1 conversion to deal with... meaning when the conversion takes place when the component is assembled into the top assembly scene. 4) check the conversion factor in the receiving program. Hope this helps... a real lesson for me...

Yes.. performed this test many times against Pro-E.. Did a test back when Ironcad was on version 2.0.. and Pro-E 2000... same results... IC wins. Very interested in comparing the variable rounding in IC vs Pro- Wildfire... will have to do this this weekend some time.. Very useful to have both modeling Kernels...

I changed the base cross section of the feature and constrained the inner sketch with dimensions That will lock its length and width to a constant distance from the sides. Notice... only 1 feature is needed Hope this is what you were looking for... let me know. NEW_Sample.ics

Can you attatch the file?

When exporting from Pro out to IC everything works perfectly in most cases in any format. When exporting from IC to Pro.. from my experience Step works best... really slick with assemblies... some cases where Pro makes a surface model for some components (see iges explanation)... Pro still only sees as an import feature... for individual parts almost flawless in recreating the solid. Iges... Pro format works well.. depending on the geometry you may still run into incomplete surfaces and with assemblies...where things come into contact Pro may not know what to do so it puts a surface... in any case you may have a surface model for some components... can also run into same situation depending on geometry complexity for individual parts... Iges... solid and trimmed surfaces option works well... strangely for sending files into Wild Fire.... Pro sees it as an imported feature .g... I have had alot of mixed results across older Pro and Wild Fire platforms... again depending on geometry... the end result is typically a model that is a surface... Pro has trouble zipping gaps... etc... Pro sees as an import feature. .neu... much of the same problems as .g There are just soo many options available... you mainly have to watch where surfaces come into contact and depending on the geometry Pro can have trouble with rounds... In nearly all cases Step is always my first choice.. and has the highest success rate... To my surprise lately on several occasions ... really troublesome , and complex geometry was solved with CATIA export option in IC.. none of the other options worked!... Pro and Wild Fire brought in a massive finned engine head casting design without a hitch!!... amazed!!... haven't tried with an assembly... but this format will move to the top of my list. when exporting to Pro. No matter what format export you use if you have problems, its always easier and faster to fix what seems to be the problem area that Pro is experiencing in IC and simply re-export the file... Yes... changing kernels can really help IC with importing formats!

YEAH BABY !!!

I have run into this before... that's what stopped me from doing a save as when IC tells me to do so... When prompted... I will open another IC session and copy and paste everything from the corrupt scene... This works just fine...keeps you from loosing your work.. except if you have animations or special constrains set up.. they will all be blown away.

Is there a way to "Edit all Smart Dims" in an entire scene? Rather than simply for the one shape or assembly selected? I need to go through and edit several dims .. I would like to do it all at once... It would be nice if we could search or have some way to list all angular dims separate from others... say for instance.. all I want to see are the angular dims in the scene.. Also .. is there a way to drive smart dims with a formula that references another smart dim?.. meaning... say I have a part that needs to stay .5 the distance of another dimension.. Can these issues be taken care of with expressions?.. I really need to get into expressions..

I wonder if they simply lost association to the IC executable... or... maybe it's a virus !!!

Is this enclosure responsible for holding up to the torque produced by the motor?.. loading?.. shock loading?... Or are you just looking for some way to enclose it form the environment ... Just wondering about any of the other parameters.. or if this is truly an enclosure only and not a enclosure/motor mount..

Found some of it.. by somebody.. Joe Greco.. . Article was out of Desktop Engineering.. kind of fuzzy in my mind.. read through it and see what you think.. chamfering http://www.deskeng.com/articles/00/May/chamfer/ blending http://www.deskeng.com/articles/00/Mar/grecoblend/

AAAHHHH yes.. I have run into this before.. I will try to find a document I had.. think it was for CADence some time back.. From what the article explained.. it has something to do with order... and the modeling kernel you may be using... Same thing will often happen with chamfering edges.. the order in which you pick can really make some screwy results.. In some cases I simply change the kernel I am using.. and see how the features are interpreted.. .again.. another advantage of being able to choose different kernels.. I will try to find that article again... would be very useful to post in the IC forum... Maybe someone out there remembers... The article was a nother CAD comparison... but what was interesting .. they cave a series of "tests" that you could perform with your cad system.. they showed pictures of how different modeling kernels interpreted features and had a big discussion on feature order... mainly with chamfers and blends.. etc.. Anyway... I will start digging for it.. By the way.. IC achieved a perfect score based on their tests..

Yeah.. Pro-E has that function.. can even use it to check gaps... set ranges etc.. does come in handy... IC needs a tool like that..

Scene_Sheet_Metal2.ics Well.. this is what I came up with.. just something quick.. But like I said.. if you want this thing to hold water.. then you have to weld up the corners.. and the bend relief gaps.. etc... all just depends on what you want to do ... I just laid the sheet metal around the outside... like you started.. (you can move all those walls in if you want.. I just went forward with what you had)... added some logical relief.. .050.. just depends on what you stamper can do... there are surely other ways of doing this.. you could move the gap to the sides.. and make the walls wrap around... if the bootm corners could be squared, well thats totally easy... To me.. if you want that exact shape.. then you are looking at a formed part.. in which case... only a real stamping guy would know the shape and size of the blank... In some cases,..they start with a large sheet and mark a grid on it.. then they start forming.. as the grid bends they can see where the metal is being "drawn" in to make the part.. then they add material in those areas if they come up short in the die.. then of course they may have a trimming operation.. depending on how accurate you need the upper walls.. Hope this helps...let me know if this works for you and if you need help changing some things... believe me.. you will get the hang of the sheetmetal .. it is really easy...

No way I know of to convert a 3D to a sheetmetal... You could just go ahead and lay sheetmetal over the geometry and place in the bends etc... I will take a look at it.... AAAHHH... ok.. If I am understanding what I am seeing.. What you started was correct.. now that I see it... the original part would actually be considered a "deep drawn" part.. Formed parts like this ... you typically don't unfold... you just give the finish dimensions and the tooling guy goes from there.. you specify material.. all that stuff.. What you can do is continue like you were.. placing walls along the existing locations... and connecting the bottom together so that it is all 1 piece of metal that can be unfolded and get an approx size... but at any rate you probably would be off.. by quite a bit.. To do forming and deep drawing.. the material is stretched... and the true blank size depending on the operations (multi staged hits etc...) can have more material along the sides to make up for the stretch.. meaning the material can't stretch for ever.. so they add material in locations so there is material available to fill the die... Now.. if you want a true sheetmetal part to mimic this as close as possible... you can bent a set of tabs around the corners.. but as far as having the closed bottom corners, not possible for a bent part.. again what you have is a formed part... I will send a sample of the corner corrections in a few.. Hey... anybody else out there with some ideas?.. or input?

HHMMMM I have run the I-beams... C-channels.. etc and actually checked dimensions with the machine handbook... I haven't run across any errors that I can remember atleast... Just did a design using the I-beam and picked out a motorized crane and all... everything works perfectly... When in doubt.. I always do a quick check of the models against the values in the Machinery's Handbook. I remember some time back int he past some people found some errors with the screw catalog.. and thats been corrected... Are you questioning the dimensional accuracy of the current IC models in the catalogs? What do you mean by the "correct spec"? Here is a quick reference source... http://www.advantagemetals.com/charts/channelmain.htm They have several links to different geometries and sizes of steel beams.

Stated something like this some time back ... just thought I would re-cap since I ran into this problem again.. When importing an Iges file.. in some instances you may find that you are having trouble with the triball or geometry snapping to the center of arcs and circles.. You may want to try exporting the Iges from IC to a Step format and re-importing the step format... then IC will be able to find all of the circles / holes and arc centers..

I know this is in other places.. just needed to get this tip under a heading I could find... 1. select the dimension tool 2. hold the shift key and select the circle 3. while still holding the shift key ... select the second object or center line.. or whatever... 4. you will briefly see the dim still attached to the center of the circle, but as you pull the mouse parallel with the second object (drag mouse downward or sideways parallel to the object... just move the mouse you will understand.. ) the dim will snap to the tangent... One alternative...if you want to go from the center of one circle to the tangent of another... 1. select the dimension tool 2. select the circle 3. hold the shift key and select the next circle. In short... to get to the tangent of a circle.. hold the shift key prior to selecting the circle... Hope someone benefits from this... Shaun Murphy points out snap points on a circle very well... see post #7 on the following link http://www.ironcad.com/support/community/i...36&hl=dimension

When you are sketching a cross section... you can select a line you have drawn.. pick a dimension and drag it to a new reference.. example .. with angle dimensions.. I use this sometimes when I run into a "over-defined" or "over-constrained" popup message...

Here is the latest update on changing configuration settings... or rather not being able to.. http://www.ironcad.com/support/community/i...?showtopic=2248

Yes... if I understand you correctly... click the shape.. sweep or loft twice.. till you see the sections.. right click and select the "intelleshape properties"... then go to the "loft" tab.. There you can specify... perp to locatior curve or perp to first cross section...

This wasn't obvious to me until fighting in Wild Fire with trying to re-order sub assemblies... Those of you that have worked with Pro-E know the pains of redefining references... repeat regions... etc... all to get the bubble count correct. In IC... if you see that a bubble numbering scheme isn't working the way you want to... simply go to the Scene browser and drag around sub assemblies etc (to whatever makes since of course!) until your bubble numbering is ordered the way you want. EX... I had a screw and plate assembly in the wrong order. I didn't notice this until doing the drawing and saw the numbering in the bubbles.. just went to the browser and dragged it ahead of another sub assembly... DONE !!!

We don't have anything on the lines of 40,000 parts.... but I use configurations as much as possible on large assemblies to help with computer speed... I think it works very well.. wether linked .. unlinked.. whatever.. it works well..