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ptc-32606501-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 8, 2010
Question

extrude feature normal to surface?

  • June 8, 2010
  • 7 replies
  • 25607 views

This is my first post so it may seem simplistic to many of you. I am using WF 5.0 and I need tov place a dimpled feature of some geometry normal to the entire surface (not just flat). I wanted to do it using an offset and pattern but can't seem to get it to work. Think of the dimples that are on the surface of a golf ball. Basically that is what I am trying to do.

Any help would be great. Thanks

Rusty


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7 replies

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pwyndham1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 8, 2010

Can you post a picture to better illustrate what you are trying to do? Off hand I would think a revolve could make the dimple while going around a curved surface.

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ptc-32606501-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
June 8, 2010

Herre is an image of what I am trying to do. The main differece is I am trying to get the dimples on the entire surface along the round and down the back.

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pwyndham1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 8, 2010

I am at a lose there. With Pro/E's lack of being able to use more then one surface as a single surface you are extremely limited. It doesn't work to add the dimples in an unbent sheetmetal part and then bendback either. I was thinking about using a pattern table but cannot think of how to get the pattern to follow multiple surfaces.

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pwyndham1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 9, 2010

I kind of got it using a curve pattern. I am not sure why the pattern does not hold to the curve. And you would have to start out with a group of features to pattern. Why can't you pattern a pattern?

This picture is with a modified sketch so that it does not follow the surface of the part. As you can tell I did not figure out how to get it to follow exactly.

pattern.jpg

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pwyndham1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 9, 2010

Here is what you get if you have the curve follow the surface exactly

pattern.jpg

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ptc-32606501-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
June 9, 2010

Paul,

Thanks for the info. I am trying using the technique you originally suggested, but I can't offset geometery it is only allowing me to offset curves? am I missing something?

As for the pattern I kind got the same you did using a curve but the same thing happened, it walked away from the surface. I am able to get it to stick to the surfaceusing a point pattern but I am not able pattern more than one instance at a time. Even with that I can't get my points along the curved portion of the geometry to pattern in a single direction.

I've seen this done before but it was in a demo (hmmm??) and can't remember exactly what they did. I may get to the point where I have to pull an AutoCAD and fudge the geometry.

G
GrahameWard1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 9, 2010

Maybe you can pattern some datum points on the surfaces, then reference the first point to make your innie using revolve or some other feature, then try to reference pattern that.

One way would be to project a curve or curves onto the surfaces (you could pattern this as well) and put a point on the curve by "offset - real". Then you can pattern the point along the datum curve. See the image below. The points from PNT0 to PNT12 run along the curve even though it projects onto 2 different surfaces. Of course it looks a bit distorted between PNT11 and PNT 12 because of the changing curvature of the surface. It's measuring the distance along the curve but you could make the datum point as an intersection of the datum curve and an offset datum plane and that would give you a linear distance.

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Kevin1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 10, 2010

This might be possible another way since your using WF5 but one way is to create two curves for the curve direction pattern (see attached paictures for what I mean). Create a datum point on the end of each curve and create a datum axis and datum plane through the point and normal to the axis. Group the point, axis, and plane an create a curve pattern with the desired distance so that you are patterning every other hole. Create the pattern leader holes using the first axis and datum plane on each curve as references. Create a direction pattern for the first hole on each curve then reference pattern the direction patterns.

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ptc-32606501-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
June 10, 2010

This works, but it appears that you aqre doing an extrudewith infinite depth. Even if the hole pulls away from the curve it wouldn't matter because the hole will go through the entire surface. When you extrude a blind depth it pulls away from the curve.

K
Kevin1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 10, 2010

In the cases I have seen it does matter. Although the pattern instances follow the shape of the curve and are normal to it the pattern gets shifted. The holes on the start surface appear correctly but as you go around the curve they are shifted and no longer normal to the surface and are not located where they should be and the holes on the flange get shifted down. This happens if you chose drill up to next surface, drill to intersect with selected surface, or through all. If you chose drill up to selected surface as you go around the curved portion the holes ended up not going all the way through the part but where in the correct locations and normal to the surface. In the cases I've seen the curve should start at the center of the first hole although it doesn't have to go through the center so the pattern doesn't shift. Here are some pics of what I get using these options.

K
Kevin1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 12, 2010

Trying another one a Fill pattern gave some interesting results and may even be what you have seen in the past. The depth of the dimples turned out to be right but the spacing around the curved portion gets bunched since it uses a linear distance. Looks promising if they could figure out how to apply a spacing that would take going around a curve into account. I didn't have to pattern the construction entities just the revolved dimple feature.

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DavidButz1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 24, 2010

Ironically, what makes this a little difficult is that your surface is composed of three rudimentary pieces, two flat and one cylindrical, and it's a little tricky to get the system to recognize them as a unit; if it were a "wavy" boundary blend it could actually be somewhat easier. The other problem is that Pro does not allow you to create Datum Features with all the possible reasonable references you might want to employ. Here is an illustration of an approach you might consider.

Create the Thin protrusion with a 1st curve on DTM3. Offset DTM4 from DTM3, and create a 2nd curve on DTM4 with UseEdge/Chain. A Datum Point is created on the 2nd curve at some distance from one end, then patterned. A Datum Axis is created through the 1st Point and Normal to DTM3, then reference patterned. A Datum Plane is created Through the 1st Axis Normal to the 2nd Curve, then reference patterned. Now sketch on DTM4 using the 1st of the patterned Planes as an orientation reference, and add the 1st Datum Point as a Sketcher Reference. Place a centerline on the reference plane and do a revolved cut using a 180 degree arc with its center located relative to the 1st Datum Point on the centerline. Reference Pattern the cut.

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Kevin1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 25, 2010

To get multiple surfaces to act as a single surface try making a copy of the selected surfaces. In the pattern use the quilt surface in the follow surface selection.

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