cborer

Hi Shaun Great to hear that! I use Rhino for unfolding cones and Loft faces. Which works perfect. Best way to export from IC to Rhino is Step. Rhino has good translators, dxf export, pluggins, analysis, face and line tools. I miss in Rhino the scene browser, Triball, easy of use, the sexy surface, the shaded rendering to work with, anchors and the green help lines in the sketch area. Which is all in IC I use IC 90% and Rhino 10% I am artist an designer. One of my hardest problem with IC is the bad dxf export for 2d laser cut. 3d export for Stereolithography or 3d print works perfect. www.carloborer.ch www.cbindustries.ch

Chris I thought to use simply the blend edges tool: Blended edges would be unfolded while not blended edges would be opened. Maybe it could be bound on a stock of bends. For this way of constructing sheet metal parts most of the tools are in IC yet. ( as you said: “create surface shape” ) There would be the need of a translator to change the blended edges to bends. This way it becomes very easy to make a complex sheet metal part. And maybe it is the way to improve the missing cone and loft tools for sheet metal.

Hi Chris, thank you for asking us: Many interesting ideas! My wishes: Unfolding cones and loft skins ( two floors ). To me it would be enough to have a theoretical unfolder with skin=0. Easier way to cut out things when folded as when unfolded . Construct as well as in unfolded as in folded state. Better import – export of dxf / dwg. When importing .dxf we also need a tool to clean lines! European stocks automatically when I choose meters as default. But in general or philosophically I would suggest the following: The strongest part of IC is the way we can construct in the common IC part. Why not constructing as usual in this part and using the command “ make face “ or new: “ make metal sheet face “ …from part. Before that we would need to make the bends. …. and we would be able to choose “ thicken inside “ or outside or both side of the face and the thickness ( or stock ). As well we would need a the possibility to choose which corners are to open and which ones are connected. Maybe some conflicts should be solved or corrected later in the metal sheet part itself ( overlapping a.s.o.).

Move with the mouse over a view; left click to activate; right click on activated view for popup menu; choose property sheet; change scale and choose other options. You can do this with one or with several views at same time, and move the views later. IC: choose left, options right.

Andrew As I see we all hate Alventive, maybe we should sue them?

Update of kernel & translators & Windows, cleaning bugs, some nice little features. All that is useful and important, so far IC made a good work. What really starts to make me nervous is the fact that there is no real new tool invented in the last 2-3 years! ( 3d line is still to rigid, freeform face is just a joke). There is Teamvault that gives no sense for use to me ( I think it bound IC resources for the last 2-3 years). As I bought Trispectives about 5 years ago they told me that it was made for creative (and it is still pure fun to work with IC!). Then IC made good advance until the Alventive debacle ( = the start of Teamvault, which is more for officers than for creative). Since that time I am missing the big steps! IC please stop working on Teamvault! Please develop the new tools that many of us are waiting so long for. Samples: 3d curve: Loft along 3d curve, 3d curve bound on face, face from two 3d curve, edit absolute length of a 3d curve, Faces: Expand or connect faces with tangential control, face from 3d curve Construction: Theoretical face unfolder for cones and loft shapes (thickness = O), Freeform and deform points or net; Triball: : Advanced options like: Copy with rotation and distance along rotation axis. Copy along 2/3D curve, Copy and scale, Cross section: Clean double lines, Heal lines, make vectors or simplify lines, connect all points, import of .ai (Photoshop) Dxf: much better .dxf ex/ import, better control of .dxf export 3d free viewer Rendering: preview picture, more than one decal to set on a face, tutorials, more photo realistic options. Explorer: preview picture at open file Better measuring on drawings: More points or lines to measure; absolute distances Catalogs: Cut out hole connected with part (for architects) I know: all this must be a lot of work! I still believe IC can be the best, and I still love to work with it, and IC is still the most intuitive CAD. All that is great! But I hope 6.0 will have some real new tools for us. Best regards Carlo

Nice tip! I never looked on it from that point of view! Carlo

I change Kernel when I have problems, this often helps. Carlo

At the end: If you need to export dxf of a very large part (to a Lasershop), IC is not precise enough. Do it with Rhino (from IC with STEP) and go back in the export options of Rhino to Autocad R12 (no Bsplines, just Polylines), choose the tolerance you need. Thats it! Carlo

...and the units Carlo

To show wich options I exported: Carlo

Hi Steve No metric options to choose for a dxf file from Rhino to IC! I do not know why! Both CAD are on mm. Thanks Carlo

Hi Beat, thanks, ...this sounds logical! I tried ...better results. Still wrong scale, still no metrical dialog dialog box, still some strange points. IC cannot clean away points.

So I tried that. It works fine. I wanted to take it back to IC to control it. Result dxf/dwg import in IC: Import on a scetch of a extrude shape; First appears a dialog box in feet ( I choosed for both CAD: mm); no mm to choose in that dialog box!? Import looks like a milkyway galaxy with a shaddow of my part; and wrong scale. I don`t know what to do now.

Wow! That was the help I needed! Thanks a lot. ....I have Rhino for unfolding operations ( IC is still sleeping over that theme ) for the rest I dont know it to much. Maybe I can export an unfolded face directly in dxf?...Ill try! Thanks Carlo

Thanks for your answer I just was speaking to Chris who told me that dxf cannot read the Bsplines of IC and so it makes line segments. The problem with big parts is that we cannot control how many lines it makes.Standart subdivition is to rough. Chris will make a suggestion about that. Carlo

At export with this file format I get lines with points each about 55mm ( the original object is very large about 2000-8000mm) How can I get a better result? Max 10mm or better: curves. Carlo Borer

The following sample shows a case for the use of parasolid: Starting from a face ( H-cone cutting a two section Loft shape) Thicken inside 10mm: Acis needs very long but works. Then offset the small front face (10mm) acis will fail. With parasolid it works perfect. For complicate direct face - modelling I prefer parasolid, in other cases acis may be better. With complicate shapes it becomes very important which Kernel you choose. So this is a good reason to work with the only 2 Kernel CAD. Carlo Borer Picture follows!

To me it most happens when a function is to hard or impossible to calculate or when I get a faillure from IC, the result may be a destroid object -after that Undo is lost. I know that problem since maybe Trispectives.

Sometimes I suddendly loose the Undo functions ( when I really would need them). Am I the only one? I have as default 5 steps.

Nice feature! But it works only with lines and curves but not with Bsplines. Changes on Bsplines seem not to be constrained, not automatic mirrored. IC makes often problems with Bsplines. ( Shell / offset )

Chris IC 5.2 sounds great! Let us know more about it! Whats new? When will we get it? Thanks

I Think IC should be able to solve the licence problems, without the need to have users who know how to program computers. As well as I am a “ just user “ I hate to have these problems! …I need always tech support from my supporter here, who tells me that just IC makes these problems. So I hope I will not loose all the time I win with a good CAD, like IC is, with the problems produced by its licence! So if IC is not able to make it proper they better let it be!

Dear Iron Kevin ( or is it stainlesssteal? ) I know! But mostly the rendering softwear is a plug in ( as above ) and we need additional the CAD that it works with. So any tips for solo working render tools? Web sites?

I was impressed by the power of final render : www.finalrender.com ( a plug in for 3ds max). Is there something around for the use with Iron Cad?