Alin
As we discussed in the ideas forum, I am catching up on tools available for adding tangent draft to parts. If you have a file to add, please do so here.
Thanks
Dwight
Alin
As we discussed in the ideas forum, I am catching up on tools available for adding tangent draft to parts. If you have a file to add, please do so here.
Thanks
Dwight
For a straddle face situation, at this time you need to use two parting line features. See attached.
And this is what I said about the use of the rule surfaces. For all the trims I used face curves, just because I am nuts about using the underlying fabric of each face.
Let me know if you cannot open 2016 files. I will record a video with more details.
Dwight, I have an even better idea. What about extending the trimmed surfaces from the edges trimmed by the parting line split, using the linear option?
I will try it tomorrow and let you know if it works.
Alin
I am on 2014, so I cannot open your files. I am now downloading eDrawings for 2016, so I should be able to see them at least.
I have attached a part, in which I created tangent draft. My method seems a little round about, so I expect there is a cleaner way to do it.
Dwight
Alin
I can look at the ratchet handle in eDrawings. Could you send an image of your feature tree and an image of the Parting Line features properties? Sorry to be such a pain in the butt, but we are on a corporate license.
Dwight
Will re-create the part in 2014 tonight and post it here.
Take a look at the 2014 file format. The video will be uploaded shortly.
Dwight, please watch this video and provide your comments on this technique.
Oops, forgot to analyze the steep faces. The 4 small ones are steep. Can you live with that?
Alin
Thanks very much for the part and video. That shows the process well.
Once you directed me to the "Parting Line" feature, I was able to apply everything I needed and I did create a part much as you did. I don't see any big improvements that are needed, so I am going to delete my "idea".
That said, there are a few things I would change.
1. Why is the feature named "Parting Line"? The name mislead me, and that was part of the reason why I did not explore the tool harder. I did go in a couple of years ago, but found it didn't make sense for doing even parting lines, and didn't bother going back. I never had trouble finding a parting line for a given geometry so I felt I didn't need the tool. My bad.
2. The colors do not show correctly if "Split Faces" is turned off, which is off by default (another reason I didn't "get" the tool). What good is that, why have that option? It is saying the whole surface is a straddle face, which it is not. I guess they wanted only to show the status of whole faces, but faces can have mixed status. The black lines show the face edges - that should do it.
I would make the colored areas always correct for a given draft direction and a specified draft angle, not change them for how the other options are set. I would also assign different colors for negative straddle and positive straddle.
"Split faces" off:
"Split faces" on: 
3. The colors are flakey when you chose zero degree draft.
4. I don't know what "Entities To Split" means. It wants verticies? How do you split a verticy? I am still at a loss.
5. I don't like being forced to have the core and cavity folders for the surfaces.
6. As you note in the video, the tool complains about non-loop edges. It should stop doing that. The best thing here is being able to deal with the issue an edge at a time if you need to. The tough part of what I was proposing is getting the thing to work all at once, with all the flakey edges and self-intersecting surfaces.
7. I also have minor problems using the "Ruled Edge" feature for doing this operation. As you show in the video, the direction of the edge determines the direction of taper. What's with that? I did not discover this on my own, and it is not in the instructions. I didn't know edges had direction. This is an unusual input for SolidWorks, so it is unexpected. And I still don't know how you control the direction of a single looped edge, as shown below. The taper direction needs a flip switch.
The example below shows the good surface with a ruled edge surface tapered in the wrong direction. There's no way to change the taper direction. Instead, I had to save the straddle surface and make the ruled edge surface with that, in order to have it taper in the right direction.
That's my take. What would you change, Alin?
Alin Vargatu wrote:
Oops, forgot to analyze the steep faces. The 4 small ones are steep. Can you live with that?
They appear to be at 6 degrees. Some tolerance for the tool seems reasonable.
Alin
An alternative to your workflow, which may work better in some cases, is to get the surface you want (offset by zero) and do a straight extrude using the perimeter of your surface. You can then add "parting line" draft to the sides of the extrude.
If the extrude fails, you can first thicken the surface into a solid then extrude to body. It seems to be less likely to fail.
Dwight
PS - We have X, Y, and Z axes in our part and assembly templates. Use them for picking directions. I can't get along without them.
Seems like a lot of extra hassle. Normally, cylindrical surfs are not an issue because of shrinkage. If I really needed it, I would simply (in Pro/E anyways - haven't learned it in SW yet) extrude a section composed of 4 conics, (rho value to give a true arc - approx. .414) with the parting line angle of 6deg. simple. Then you draft everything else.
Frank
I agree that in the case of the ratchet handle, you could easily extrude a shaft that has the draft surfaces included instead of using the workflow shown. In other geometries, such as the blob shape I show 3 posts back, there is nothing to do but what Alin describes.
As to needing the draft, yes, in some geometries with little texture the shrink will do it, and sometimes for more utilitarian pieces you can ignore the scuffing. And in many appearance parts, it is worth the effort to put such details in.
Dwight
Yup, good point. I didn't mention texture because in the ratchet case, it looks to be a forged part (from the 6deg draft and knowing the part), so they'd simply buff and chrome it. I've never worked with forgings, so I'm not sure the draft requirements for the parts, if they really need 6deg, then you couldn't get away with a cylinder.
Interesting blob you have there. For fun or work? The top surface looks interesting.
Frank Schiavone wrote:
Interesting blob you have there. For fun or work? The top surface looks interesting.
I made it just to test how to make tangent draft. A good blob can be hard to make, or so I find.
Hi,Dwight thank you for your question...I mean the same problem with you...
http://www.casesam.co.uk/category-galaxy-s6-case-cover-15.html
http://www.casesam.co.uk/category-galaxy-s6-edge-case-cover-10.html
First off all let's start by voting on this SPR:
Parting line split line will not create at specified angle unless there is a straddle face