basic drag and drop blocks

[geoffwheeler]

I am using a trial of Ironcad and when I drop one block on top of another and need to align faces using the handles and the shift key I cannot get the green face or edge snap to work, it just shows the handles on the basic block instead of the green face or edge, is there a setting or is this a bug, I have looked at several  tutorials and they work ok.

[SHORNBRO]

Hi,

For clarification, is there a specific shape/profile you are trying to build?  Also, if you can, post a quick video of what you are attempting or the scene file (.ics) so we can try to troubleshoot a bit more.

I've attached a quick video that shows me placing a base block, then adding another Intellishape block to that part.  You can drill down (keep Left-Clicking) to cycle through Assembly-->Part-->Intellishape-->Faces-->Assembly-->Part-->etc.  By default, I believe, Assemblies are yellow-outlined; Parts are cyan-outlined; Intellishape "blocks" are pale yellow-highlighted; and Faces/Surfaces are green-highlighted.

Typically if I am building using blocks (most of my work is done with sheetmetal parts), I will place a base block and build off of that by dropping additional Intellishape solid and hole blocks (cube/cylinder/slot/etc.) and then edit their cross-section profiles once I have roughed-out the general feature structure.  At the Intellishape level, I use the Shift key dragging on the handles to line edges up with certain features to edit the Intellishape.  Generally, unless it is a specific case I don't drag the Face (green-highlight) to build Intellishape features.  That being said, you should be able to drag the Face and have it Shift key snap to another Vertex/Edge/Face (see 2nd video clip).  To my knowledge, the Shift key snaps should work by default.

When you say that "it just shows the handles on the basic block instead of the green face or edge," are you actually grabbing the Extrude that is created if you already pulled a Face (green-highlight) in/out?  It should show in your Scene Browser (assembly tree pane) what features make up your part.  If you have only dropped in Intellishape blocks, it will show those.  If you have drilled-down and dragged Faces (green-highlight), then that should have added an Extrude feature into the part tree.  If clicking on the part itself to try to select the Face (to use its handles), then the Extrude (made from the face) might be getting in the way (see 3rd clip).

Hope this helps and doesn't muddy the waters too much.

Best regards,

- Sam

 

Clip 1:

Clip 2:

 

Clip 3:

 

 

[Guest Geoff Wheeler]

Hi Sam, Thanks for reply and I need to look at this in depth as I'm 89 years young and need time for it to sink in, to help can I refer to the academy tutorials and look at the basic drag

and drop number 2 which I have tried to emulate but when I use the shift key to snap the top block face to the side of the btm block face it goes into the intellishape mode instead of highlighting the face green, hope this helps,

kindest regards,

Geoff.

[Guest Geoff Wheeler]

Hi Sam, Further to my last reply, I have managed to solve the problem, its a case of holding down the shift key before you grab the handle on the upper block and then it will snap to the the mating surface which now turns green, this is not at all clear in the tutorial I mentioned,

many thanks for your help and I am sorry I wasted your time,

kind regards Geoff Wheeler

[SHORNBRO]

Hi Geoff,

Not a problem.  Hopefully my previous examples (I went a bit overboard) can help someone else later on.  The IronCAD Academy tutorials are helpful, but sometimes there are little tricks and techniques that may get overlooked.  Much of the time while working on a scene, my fingers just go into auto-pilot and I have to really slow down and consciously be aware of what I am doing in order to teach someone new how I go about making models at work.

Fortunately, everyone is pretty helpful here on the forums and eager to tackle problems big and small.

Best regards,

- Sam