Solidify

[DonSenchuk]

I'm working on a part we got from a vendor. It came to us as an iges file and there were a few areas that were missing a surface. I've created several patches via boudary blends and everything looks good upon looking it over. However, solidify remains grayed out when I get to that step. I can't remember the command -- if one exists -- that shows me what is causing the solidify command to fail.

Thanks.

(WF4.0)

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[jbennett]

You might be able to find what you are looking for in the data doctor set in WF4. Right click on the import feature and edit definition and it should start the data doctor tab/options.

[cid:image001.png@01CD95AF.6AF048C0][cid:image002.png@01CD95AF.6AF048C0]

John Bennett
Cad Business Administrator
(801)513-9001

[Lifetime_Logo_BlkWhite_Sans_email sig]

[james_westerfie]

If possible, you may ask for STEP files. It has been my experience, that
STEP files come in cleaner than IGES.



Also, if you show edges, you can see green lines on
corners/intersections. The green lines are open surfaces which will show
you areas that need to be cleaned up.

[anagnost]

did you merge all the surfaces/patches to a single quilt? This is
necessary to use the solidify command.

hth

Vassilis Anagnostopoulos

SPIDER SA
Industrial Area - Rodotopi
45500 - Ioannina
Greece

[DonSenchuk]

Replying to suggestions I received…

1)      The brute force method -- where a dividing surface is created and one side is merged to the existing copy -- is the best so far. Then the dividing surface is moved until the solidify fails, pinpointing exactly where the problem area lies.

2)      Use the import data doctor. This did nothing to help, which is my experience with IDD all too often.

3)      Make sure it’s all one quilt. While I was already at this stage, I didn’t mention it in my original post and it’s good to put out there for anyone reading the responses.

4)      Use a STEP file instead. Good idea, and would have been my final resort if I didn’t get it working. I’m usually reluctant to replace an existing import with a new one on a released file. The users may have referenced the iges surfaces on some assembly and I want to avoid constraint failures if possible.

5)      Look for GeomChecks. I do have some GeomChecks (bad Don!), but they’re all the “tiny edge” variant so I felt confident that wasn’t the problem. Turns out it wasn’t a problem to have these.

6)      The legacy mapkey provided by Terry Partridge worked beautifully. I had already solved the problem, but I opened an old iteration and upon testing it showed me the gaps in the quilt. This is a great resource.

Thanks for all the replies. They’re greatly appreciated.

[DonSenchuk]

Patrick Asselman pointed out that Terry's mapkey wasn't posted. Here is his reply in its entirety.

Here's an old dog trick using a legacy command to identify single-sided edges, which is captured in the mapkey below.





Terry Partridge

!===========================================================================================
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProCmdDatumCurve` ;#FROM BNDRY;#DONE;#BNDRY CHAIN;\
mapkey(continued) box\n2. select a quilt with suspected gaps\n3. use Next to toggle edge;

[TerryJohnson]

I know I'm late getting in on this, Great Summary by the way...
I wish EVERYBODY would do a summary.

You can also try importing it again but don't just OPEN it in pro. Import
it into a start part
and adjust the accuracy of the empty start part,
before you bring your iges file in (insert, shared data, from file).
Often changing the accuracy to .0010 from .0012 is enough,
but I've had to go as small as it will let me to get a solid.
If that fails then I deal with trying to heal it.
& if I can't get it, and it's just an OTS vendor part, I know
a few WIZARDS out here who can usually help.







                                                      
                                                      
                                                      

[jeffsampson]

- Jeff

---

From: Don Senchuk
Subject: RE: Solidify

Replying to suggestions I received…

1) The brute force method -- where a dividing surface is created and one side is merged to the existing copy -- is the best so far. Then the dividing surface is moved until the solidify fails, pinpointing exactly where the problem area lies.

2) Use the import data doctor. This did nothing to help, which is my experience with IDD all too often.

3) Make sure it's all one quilt. While I was already at this stage, I didn't mention it in my original post and it's good to put out there for anyone reading the responses.

4) Use a STEP file instead. Good idea, and would have been my final resort if I didn't get it working. I'm usually reluctant to replace an existing import with a new one on a released file. The users may have referenced the iges surfaces on some assembly and I want to avoid constraint failures if possible.

5) Look for GeomChecks. I do have some GeomChecks (bad Don!), but they're all the "tiny edge" variant so I felt confident that wasn't the problem. Turns out it wasn't a problem to have these.

6) The legacy mapkey provided by Terry Partridge worked beautifully. I had already solved the problem, but I opened an old iteration and upon testing it showed me the gaps in the quilt. This is a great resource.

Thanks for all the replies. They're greatly appreciated.

[DonSenchuk]

I guess this would be Summary Part 3.

Ron Thellen added this (image attached):