Surface Profile

[ptc-3081454]

All, This could possibly be a rather easy Pro/E question. I am relatively new to working with Pro/E. Steps: 1) Import IGES Curve 2) Extrude curve 3) Thicken curve to provide a surface 4) Create datum points over the IGES curve I would then like to modify the surface in an effort to change the "slope" in given locations. Ideally, I would like to select from the datum points available and make a "slope" change between the points. Is this possible? What is the best approach for doing this? Up to this point I have been trying to create datum planes that are tangent to the locations of the selection of points then making modifications with that area...there has to be a better/easier way. Any help would be appreciated. Please see the attached image.
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[MikeKelly]

Hello Chris, It looks like a fairground ride! I would delete step 4 and go back to step 2. This first surface should pass through the curve in both directions i.e. above and below. Now draw another curve perpendicular to this, that represents the changes in the slope. (call this curve ' contour' ) Extrude this new contour curve, as a surace, through the first surface. Then merge the 2 surfaces keeping the part of interest to you. Then resume step 3. You may require further work near the top of the ride to get this right, but this technique will get you there. Hope this helps, Good luck, Mike

[DavidButz]

Chris, Not sure of what you are doing exactly, but you may want to explore a Variable Section Sweep using a Graph Feature where you could control height and slope directly and the so-called trajpar parameter. If they are what you need and you are not familiar with their use, we could give you more detail. David

[ptc-3081454]

Mike, Well...sorta... Do you have a simple example explaining what you mean? How would I go about placing the second curve? David, If you could also pass along an example I would appreciate it. Variable Section Sweep/Graph Feature/Trajpar are all new to me. Thanks for the help.

[DavidButz]

Chris, VSS/Graph Feature/trajpar is rather too large a topic to easily summarize on this Forum. (You need to do some reading and, preferably, take a training course that covers the topic.) However, if what you want to do is control the height and slope of your "roller coaster ride" based on how far you have traveled along and above the "s-curve" at the base as a proportion of the full length of travel, a Graph Feature could be just what you want. Is that what you are trying to do? If so, I could give you a little more of an idea of how to proceed with a Graph Feature. David

[DavidButz]

Chris, Looking at your illustration again, I don't think I'm understanding what you are doing. Is the IGES curve you import the one we see with all the points on it, or is it a "flat" curve at the base of your model? David

[ptc-3081454]

Yes, the IGES curve is not flat. It is in 3D Space (datum points highlight that). Here is my current process: 1) Import IGES curve 2) Create patterned points along IGES curve (Datum Points) 3) Create surface utilizing Surface, Trim, Thicken 4) Export datum point locations 5) Use excel to manipulate points (X,Y = constant, Z is modified in order to change "slope") 6) Start process over again, this time using the new set of datum points to create a new model (w/ updated slope) With regards to prior post, the slope is not constant. It changes locally and is unique to a given profile. This procedure works, but it is a bit cumbersome. Being new to Pro/E I figured there would be a way to specify a feature such as "slope" within the Pro/E environment (similar to other modeling features).

[DavidButz]

Chris, I'm still a little confused by what you mean by step #3. Do you mean that you Sketch on the flat base plane, copying the imported Curve, then Extrude it up beyond the Curve, then Trim it using the Curve, then Thicken? Looks that way to me. My main reaction to your screen shot is: WAY too many points! Do you really need that many? Generally, you get much smoother spline surfaces by minimizing the number of inflection points. David

[DELETEME]

"David Butz" wrote:

Chris, Not sure of what you are doing exactly, but you may want to explore a Variable Section Sweep using a Graph Feature where you could control height and slope directly and the so-called trajpar parameter. If they are what you need and you are not familiar with their use, we could give you more detail. David

[RickGiguere]

Chris On the top tool bar under analyisis => geometry => slope. There is a slope feature, I never used it, but it might work, if you can figure out how it works. You can create a feature called slope in the model tree and then create a UDF to measure where you want. Pretty complicated but it might work if you can figure it out. In order to create the UDF, you need to group the slope feature with datm planes ect. u A UDF should be able to calculate the slope at specific locations on the surface. good luck, I'm pretty sure slope could be defined with a field point and a UDF.

[RickGiguere]

UDF is a typo, should be UDA in the analisis tool bar (User Defined Analysis) don't want to confuse you. Maybe the slope anayisis feature will give you what you are looking for, without creating a UDA. I never used it an know little about it. Rick

[ptc-3081454]

David, Yes that is correct. Extrude up from a base plane, then trim with the IGES curve, keeping the bottom portion. And yes, I do need those datum points (actually want more). The local deviation in the curve is important to what I am doing (I aplogize for being so vague, but I really can not go into details about what that "squiggly" part represents). Richard, I will need to dig into the User Defined Analysis. I have tried looking into the Slope analysis feature, but as you have pointed out, it can be difficult to figure out how to get it to work. Thanks for the help so far everyone...

[RickGiguere]

Chris When creating a UDA, a field point on the required surface needs to be selected and placed first, then a slope analysis feature placed on the surface. Group these two features together in the model tree and see if the UDA in the analysis tool bar becomes active. If it doesn't you need more refs. Once the UDA becomes active you should be able to tweak it to measure the slope between datum points, and change it. You can tweak with different dimensions and make the part automatically up date. pretty cool, your project sounds complicated.

[RickGiguere]

Chris A UDA may not be needed, try using an optimization study with just a slope feature in the model tree. You will need the dimensions between the datum points defined in the model tree to pick them. If you mess with an optimization study you'll you may get the data you're looking for. Rick

[DavidButz]

Chris, Wow: you want even MORE points?! It does sound complicated, and makes me wonder how much cascading interdependency you have. In othe words, if you tweak the slope in one location, doesn't that potentially affect many other locations as well? Anyway, for what it's worth, it might be possible to manipulate values using Relations. Say you want PNT23 (x23,y23,z23 = d45,d46,d47) to be fixed and PNT24 (x24,y24,z24 = d48,d49,d50) to change its z-value based on a specified slope M. Then set up this relation: d50=(M*(SQRT((ABS(D48-D45))^2+(ABS(D49-D46))^2))+D47. Watch out for the sign of the value. Don't know if this will help or just add to the complexity of what you are trying to do. If it works, you just change the values of the various M-parameters to drive the model. David

[DELETEME]

Sort of off-topic, but it looks like a water park ride to me. Looks a little too short to be a regular ride.

[RickGiguere]

Putting a slope analysis feature in the model tree would be helpful, it displays a color graph and tells what the slope is at different places along the curve. from your drawing If your cordsys is placed where z pointing toward the screen, x pointing to the right and Y up. The slope will only vary along the y axis. When picking a ref for the slope surface, pick the bottom plane that you extruded from which is perpendicular to the y axis. If your datum points are placed "sketched" they will have x, y dimensions. You could change the y dimensions of the points you want, and then 'edit definition' the slope analysis feature to see how much the slope changed. Put the slope analysis feature last in the model tree, so it will update when you make changes. that's my .02 cents have fun...looks interesting.

[RickGiguere]

actually my method is full of holes sketched datum points along a curve will not move it if you very there x or y dim. The point will move up and down off the curve, won't affect the slope at all oh well.......back to the drawing board.

[ptc-1418735]

I've attached my interpretation of what you are attempting to accomplish. Style Features let you manipulate geometry in a manner that you describe -in real-time!

[DELETEME]

"Mark Kelley" wrote:

I've attached my interpretation of what you are attempting to accomplish. Style Features let you manipulate geometry in a manner that you describe -in real-time!

[DELETEME]

"Richard Giguere" wrote:

actually my method is full of holes sketched datum points along a curve will not move it if you very there x or y dim. The point will move up and down off the curve, won't affect the slope at all oh well.......back to the drawing board.

[RickGiguere]

"C M" wrote:

Did you try using a graph to modify a VSS?

[RickGiguere]

"C M" wrote:

Did you try using a graph to modify a VSS?

[RickGiguere]

Another thing I found out about splines created in sketcher. After you create it, you can right click it while in sketcher and modify. In modify, it allows you to add points without altering it's shape. Then you can come back and add dimensions to these points, and changing these dimensions will move the spline. Kind of what I was trying to do with my first method of adding sketched datum points. Anyway, very interesting.