Making a fixture

[Mickyd1]

Hello eveveryone

im trying to make a fixture to clamp a component to. I have a part model of the component and want to nestle this in to a billet. Is there a way I can put the model into the billet then remove the part leaving me a cavity of the part so I can machine the billet.

THanks for help ickhelp ick

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[TomD.inPDX]

That is what mold tools do (optional extension I believe). In general, they copy surfaces and manipulate them to create a mating die. You could use a similar technique by offsetting the solid faces by zero. Then building surfaces to enclose the surface model of the part. Once enclosed, you should be able to solidify the mold.

There are many techniques by which you can create the negative. One of which is to export the part as maybe IGES and importing it. Go through the feature's data doctor session and see if you can make it a surface model if it converts it to solid.

Of course, it all depends on how complex the master is. You could assembly the master and the raw fixture into an assembly and use the features of the master to create the tool thereby building relations in the assembly from the master to the fixture. This is probably the most common and straight forward solution. Just be aware that you are building dependencies between the three models.

That's the beauty of Creo. There are many ways to do things. When your business needs to do them efficiently, you can buy the extension that does this for you. If you have access to knowledgebase or PTC university, you can review some of the videos on how you can accomplish this.

[TomD.inPDX]

I did just find a quick surfacing tool for imported models... if export and import your "master" and edit the definition of the imported feature, you get the data doctor. There you can change a solid feature to a surface feature with one click of the mouse.

[SteveLucas · Accepted solution]

Michael,

You don't need the mold tools to do a fixture. What you do is make a block to represent your fixture. Then assemble the fixture block with the part you want to fixture inside of the fixture block. then go to component operations and cut out. select the fixture block you want to cut then the cutting block which will be your part.

This is my assembly.

This is my fixture after the cut out operation. It is an exact match of the part that did the cutting.

Now you can assemble this fixture block in your manufacturing file. and use it to fixture your parts.

Steve

[TomD.inPDX]

Love this forum! Great tip, Steve!

[Mickyd1]

Thanks guys,

you are all very helpfully , thanks Steve it worked a treat will save me a lot of time.