David Thomas

is it not on the File menu - Find references.

I created the pattern of holes in 2d, in CAXA, as about 70% were regular, it was just that 30% that spoiled the party. So I imported the dxf back into a sketch, thats when my troubles began. Essentially their seemed to be multiple issues with the sketch. Deleting duplicates worked very well , I like that tool within the sketch toolbar but their still seemed to be erroneous issues with the sketch which should not have caused a problem. So in trying to fix it resulted in multiple regens. Cary - this was using the new pattern feature. in fairness I have tried this number of holes in the past with ProE Wf4 , and it just fell in a heap... thanks

Is the code for the pattern feature multi threaded ? I have a large part with 5000 holes in it and the regeneration speed is killing my productivity. I notice that when I create several new holes in this part, IronCAd goes away and thinks about it for 5 or so minutes using only 25% of the processor, i.e. one core of my i5 chip. but doing a similar operation and using a bilinear feature pattern, I noticed that the cpu utilisation jumped up to 100% for about 10 seconds and then fell back to 50% for the remainder of the processing time. Are their any tips for improving the regen speed of a large part. I've knocked the surface smoothness back to 20, and I'm dumbing down the part at various stages, by exporting and reimporting back in. thanks Nick

No, thats not quite what I'm after, the video shows you adding in another part into the assembly feature scope. Rather than use a hole block as an assembly feature removal tool I want to use a sweep shape hole tool. thanks Nick

How can we create a assembly feature from a sweep shape ? I have had a few goes and I cannot seem to create such an entity. I have tried creating the sweep feature to drag into a new catalogue and then right click and drag out but it does not work. It has lead me on to the fact that I cannot even create a fresh hole block and drag it into the catalogue. I managed to find the "set operation" command hidden away, and set a simple block as a negative , but dragging this into the catalogue it does not behave in the same manner as a hole block, i.e. it does not subtract. Nor when I set the catalogue intellishape to "remove material" from the edit feature options it still adds a new part to the scene. I have also tried adding an assembly feature and then editing the intellshape hole block but you can't do that . So I'm stumped an ideas ? (obvious workaround is to manually apply this sweep subtraction to each part.) thanks Nick

Chuck three blocks in as seperate parts. Boolean them together (union) to form the one part You end up with Part 1, and then under that, there is the intellishape for Part 1 and then part 2 and 3 are "parts" at the intellishape level with their relevant intellishapes under them i.e. an extra level down. If I now right click on the intellishape for part 3 , - edit feature options and set as remove material it dissapears. The "part" icon changes to a red wireframe one, and it becomes unselectable in the scene. Right clicking on this red "part" I don't get the usual menu, all I get is a few view options and the parameter and intellishape properties, i.e. nothing to get it back - the only option is to undo. tested on 2014. So is this a bug a quirk or intended behavoir? thanks Nick

are you working within the same scene with all of this. I find quite often, copy and pasting my top level assembly into a new scene sorts out the gremlins. obviously you loose all your configurations... Nick

hmmm, thats a shame , I find that tool a pain, having to define a 2d section to define the position is fairly cumbersome in comparison to the drag and drop functionality of the Custom hole tool in the catalogue, and then postion with the triball. I think we'll create a catalogue of BSP holes. Thanks

is this still a bug? I have just tried to edit the Customhole.txt file and it does not make any difference. (v2013) We would like to add BSP (Bristish standard Pipe) threads into this functionality.

they seems to be stacking up a bit now, it would be nice to recieve something different, I always like mugs, but they are bit less transportable. At the end of the day I like something useful, our ansys bags are tens years old now and used all the time. I like the image on the mat, but I have never used the calander.

Just got a mail from Mecsoft this morning, they are pushing a free version of their software. http://www.mecsoft-europe.de/freemill.html?&L=1 Nick

we keep them in a dedicated folder on our network and direct CAXA to that path Tools / Options / Path / template path and click add

what do you mean by "digitising tablet"... is that a posh name for a "tablet" If so I'm using the old Wacom Graphire 4 here at work, and its fine and at home I'm using a newer intuios, I forget exactly what model it is. It alls works just fine, to honest I never gave it a thought, I pretty much treated it like a mouse.

Yeah, I'm using the Wacom intious, and CAXA works fine.

can you not export parasolid (keeps colours, assembly and linking info, (loose textures)) and reinport that and create an animation from this dumbed down model. Might be a bit quicker? Nick

Yes , I'm working through the tutorials, and I fairly impressed so far. I think its gets very upset if the IC window is spanned across two monitors, so at first I thought it was buggy but just using it on a laptop and all is well. The nastran model tree has a tendancy to not appear which is very frustrating but the workaround its to either close and reopen the model or diasable and re-enable the add in, as their is no way to switch it on or off as per the scene browser. I emailed Nastran abou the model tree issue and next day a UK reseller was on the phone, was very helpful and reccomended the above. Nick

umm aaah, yes, I suppose you could do it that way..... but but but, I was about to say how do I then move that pattern so that I can make sure that a hole falls in the middle,i.e. half way along the extrusion because you cannot move a pattern feature with the triball. But then I though well if I move the hole to the middle, and then try a bilenear pattern but use the same edge for both directions and make sure they are opposite directions I would get the same result. And tickle me lightly, it works ! to a point. The pattern direction each behave themselves if the "Offsets" are the same but if you change one offset to a different value the pattern goes a bit mad. I think I'm going to go for it and say "thats a bug!" Changing the "count" to be different from one another works fine. Update , see the following example, Update - clicking the pattern seed seems to fix the problem Nick

"Linking the TriBall pattern has some issues and it was blocked. We should revisit it to see if anything else can be done." Do you mean linking the triball pattern at part level ? On the subject of the linking the triball at feature level, I have just sparked up Inovate v8 and made a linked hole with a linked pattern on a piece of angle (file attached). I have opened it in 2012 and it opens fine and the links work fine. So to clarify, both intellishapes are linked across the pattern, and both patterns are linked. When you change the spacing or the number then the other changes. Interestingly when I performed the pattern link, I did not rotate the pattern onto the other facet of the angle, i just rotated the hole, and then dragged the hole into empty linked pattern. I.e. the triball pattern link has no connectivity regarding the orientation of the hole within the pattern. But now you can see the issues of creating a pattern of a pattern onto the other facet of the angle section, i.e. the pattern (of the pattern) need to translate and rotate as well You say the triball link at part level was blocked? Well I performed the same procedure as above but at the part level,i.e. create a part pattern and then right click and link to point, and the linked patterns open fine in 2012. So yes I cannot create them in 2012 but I can open older files..... Could this cause issues with older files being opened that have this functionality ? Phew, I'm glad I not involved in software development..... Nick AnglePatternLink_v2012.ics Part_Triball_Link_v2012.ics

well with linked intellishape holes and linked patterns, both of those goals can be achieved together. Another use I have at the moment is two rows of holes in a piece of angle section. With everything linked it all nicely updates, one less thing to worry about when your madly worrying about a million other design issues! Could I do a pattern of a pattern in this instance? One row/pattern of holes is not only translated from the other it is also rotated by 90° , (i.e. its on the other flat of the angle). Can the pattern feature do this?, I.e. it deals with linear translation, OR a circular pattern which I sure I could do 1 instance with an angle of 90° ??? (I have to hold my hands up and say I have not investigated all possibilities with the pattern feature command.) Nick

I can't quite get the results I'm looking for with the Pattern feature. See the image, I.e. I have two linked holes near the middle of the bar, 10mm apart and then two patterns outwards in opposite directions (26mm spacing). With the triball pattern I can quickly achieve this and having the pattern linked would provide maximum parametric-ness (!) Using the pattern feature, I suppose I could recreate this with a sketch pattern I suspect, but using the triball is much easier. I suppose I could set up patterns for the nodes using 2d sketch patterns, but they are a one shot wonder. The catalogue pattern, like you say, creates linked parts, handy nonetheless, although you can pattern an intellishape it does not allow for editing of the shape afterwards, but I'm sure you know this ! Please can I create linked triball patterns again ! , 2012 obviously still supports this, is it just a menu issue ? Everyone together now - Triball - Right Click - Link Here, Triball - Right Click - Link Here,Triball - Right Click - Link Here,Triball - Right Click - Link Here Nick

Why can't we create linked patterns anymore? In many a version ago I was able to use the tribal on an intellishape to create a pattern and then right click the tribal for the pattern - to point- and then link here. I could then make sure my master intellishape was linked across both patterns and bobs your uncle, linked pattern with linked intellishapes. Interestingly opening old models with linked patterns opens fine in 2012 even with a little link icon for the pattern in the tree, see image below. Incidentally I just used the pattern feature in the tools catalogue, and blow me down with a feather, we have a completely different tool for creating patterns, but it does not allow for much editing of the intellishape afterwards.... But what it does have is a preview button ! and a little diagram showing you the offsets etc and stagger, if only that could be integrated into the triball pattern tool, I would be a happy cadder. Nick

In rhino the zoom speed slows down as you get closer into a part. This would be ideal for IC with a 3d mouse. The only problem with rhino is you sometimes cannot zoom in enough, the workaround is to fit the scene to the part your interested in. My issue with the 3d mouse is the rotation centre, it always seems not to be where i want it, I have slaved one of the buttons on the mouse to target the camera, but its not as nice as using the "2d" mouse and your pick point is the rotation centre. It does make me wonder why the rotation centre of a model is anywhere but the centre of the screen....

we've been using plate n sheet for many years. Plate'n'Sheet

having spent the last two years designing a rig, and completed the build , the customer viewed it as though it was the first time they had seen the design, and we all agreed it was quite different from looking at 3d cad models. What was the difference we thought? well I would assume the steriscopic display forms a major part of it. I can't imagine wanting to use this feature all day long, but certainly for presentations and detailed design reviews with the customer it could well be very useful.

Tom, I have reported a bug when using the alpha mask, see the unanswered post in the bug section ! http://www.ironcad.com/support/community/i...?showtopic=8212