I am trying to design a cnc nest for a plastic part. The part has features in it that need to be filled in and are on complex curved surfaces. I also need to draft the outer most edges up to the top of the nest block. I really have no idea where to begin. Here is an image of the part and an assembly of the blank block and the part to be nested. If anyone could give me some basic tutoring on this, it would be greatly appreciated.
Well, this is how I'd do it.
Use the Mold Tools (or just do it manually) to create "shutoff surfaces" in the areas with the holes, and copy all the faces from one side of the part (the side that goes down into the fixture). Use Mold Tools again to make a "parting surface" that would be the face of your fixture block. Then extrude a block up to the set of surfaces that you knit together from those 3 sources (part faces, shut offs and parting surface).
Essentially what you are doing is creating 1/2 of a mold, and the SW Mold Tools (starting in 2011) can be pretty helpful with that.