Skip to main content
C
ChristianSmith1-Visitor
1-Visitor
August 25, 2010
Solved

How to control offset lines

  • August 25, 2010
  • 2 replies
  • 12287 views

There must be a logical explanation to offset lines. I'm working in an assembly right now and want to show how different components fit together using an exploded view and offset lines. However, when I try to create an offset line many times they do everything but what I want them to do. Is there a trick to this?

I'm using wildfire 5.0 by the way.


This thread is inactive and closed by the PTC Community Management Team. If you would like to provide a reply and re-open this thread, please notify the moderator and reference the thread. You may also use "Start a topic" button to ask a new question. Please be sure to include what version of the PTC product you are using so another community member knowledgeable about your version may be able to assist.
Best answer by ptc-2980652

I create a lot of assembly illustration type drawings and use offset line quite a bit.

in general they work pretty well, just select the outside surface of a screw and the inside surface of the hole.

Sometimes the result is not what you want "the offset line takes an ilogical path to the hole".

just delete these offset lines, and recreate them but this time turn on your axis, and select the axis close to the end of the screw and close to the end of the hole. This ussually gives the result you want.

Good luck.

Dave

2 replies

J
JayShah1-Visitor
1-Visitor
August 26, 2010

Hi Chrisitan,

I can undestand your concern. I had the same first impact when I was using offset lines for first time. I was not able to find any permenant solution regarding that but it worked fine for me when I Edit the position of my component by using "Copy Pos" feature. (View Manager > Explode tab > Edit position > Copy Pos).

Thanks,

Jay

C
ChristianSmith1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
August 26, 2010

I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean. I understand view manager, copy position thing, but how exactly do you use that to get correct offset lines?

P
ptc-29806521-VisitorAnswer
1-Visitor
August 26, 2010

I create a lot of assembly illustration type drawings and use offset line quite a bit.

in general they work pretty well, just select the outside surface of a screw and the inside surface of the hole.

Sometimes the result is not what you want "the offset line takes an ilogical path to the hole".

just delete these offset lines, and recreate them but this time turn on your axis, and select the axis close to the end of the screw and close to the end of the hole. This ussually gives the result you want.

Good luck.

Dave

C
ChristianSmith1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
August 26, 2010

Works like a charm, I knew it had to be something easy like that I just couldn't seem to figure it out.

I
Ivan_10-Marble
10-Marble
September 16, 2011

For years I have tried to use the offset line for exploded views, and I can't wrap my head around how brutal it is.

Why can't I edit the references after, or at least pick the direction I want the line to go.

This is a very poorly implemented feature and something that PTC should at least slightly improve, otherwise whatever productivity we gain from enhancements get's eaten up at this stage trying to guess what references to choose to get the line to possibly go the route we want it to.

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement