Another Pro/E bug: Variable Section Sweep problem.

[CM10]

I have a 6-lobed part I'm trying to create like a helical roots blower set where I have a twist but also the part tapers at say one degree along it's length. The feature fails every time. If I try and simply put circles in all the points where radii would exist, it will regenerate, but as you can see SOME of the resultant tube twist the wrong way!!! Very frustrating. Variable section sweeps are difficult enough without the actual software failing to work correctly. Any thoughts? Thanks.
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[mlocascio]

That is interesting! On your Var Sect Sweep are you using enough control
geometry?



Michael P. Locascio

[CM10]

I tried a swept blend, but as you can only twist 120deg persection that would have r4equired a bunch of sections. Plus, though the geometry didn't fail, it was also wrong and distorted. Very strange.

I was going to use a trajectory for every element I wanted to change, but when I did a test on just 2 of the lobes, even though I constrained the points it STILL wouldn't keep those elements from twisting the wrong way. So, I looked carefully at what was failing, and realized that 2 lobe tips actually worked, so I made 2 1/2 lobeswith the vallew between them and then patterned that, then had to merge everything (at which point I wished I was in WF4 to do it in ONE merge...). So, using the Pro/WORKAROUND MODULE and plenty of the Pro/FANITY module, it works. Now, it would be REALLY nice if it just worked like it is SUPPOSED to, but I digress..... 😉

[mlocascio]

Frank,

It sounds like you took a beating on that one.

Mike L.

[CM10]

Ok, here's something to be very aware of:

The spine trajectory on a VSS produces it's own centerlines. Do NOT attempt to mirror geometry about these centerlines. Create new ones to mirror geometry about. Now, this did not solve my particular problem with the lobes unfortunately (though I will look at it some more), but when I created the section with all circles at the lobe and valley points as a test, they all twisted the correct direction now, so this is definately something of an improvement. I would imagine this problem would exist in sweeps and swept blends as well and could cause failures there too. If you have a problem where these features fail and you can't figure out why because it SHOULD work, this may be the problem. Beware.

Of note, a PTC management employee contacted me for info and I sent him a couple files with a detailed explanation, so hopefully they'll work on fixing this.

[CM10]

Haven't hear back from PTC on the resolution of this yet.