Hi,
I'm a relative newcomer to Pro/E though I have taken the introductory course and have gotten fairly good with all the basic functionality. I'm presently needing to figure out if some operations I need to do are possible in Pro/E and how to do them in the most effective manner. I need to do the following to an existing Pro/E assembly to prepare it for ANSYS simulation (magnetic simulation):
(1) Partition surfaces so I can define mesh constraints when importing into ANSYS. From searching around, I haven't found any intelligible way to do this.
(2) Split parts into multiple parts, for example using a datum plane as a cutting plane. The obvious way to do accomplish the endgoal is to make multiple copies of my part and do different extrude cuts on each one...but is there a better/more automated way?
(3) Subtract parts from a volume (so I can create meshable air gaps), i.e. a boolean operation. Supposedly this can be done at the assembly level via Edit > Component Operations > Cutout, but I can't get it to work; at step 2, "Select reference parts for CUT OUT process," I always get "The selected entity is external. It cannot be backed up" and cannot figure out why. The parts are fully constrained in the assembly (not "packaged"). I've attached my simple test model in which I can't get the operation to work.
Any level of detail on these topics would be extremely helpful, whether it just be someone pointing me to the appropriate sections in the Pro/E help or providing the key steps together with the keywords I'll need to find more information. Thanks very much for your time.
-Matt