change an arc to a circle

[vincecatlin]

I have a part with an truncated circle (with a flat ) for the base protrusion. I want to change this to a complete circle without having to redefine ALL THE FEATURES that refer to the "base protrusion."

This would be changing an arc to a circle. A problem as old as time.

I think it might be a good time to see if anyone has a solution.

We are using Creo 10.0.7.0

[tbraxton]

To maintain your references initially you can try this approach which should in theory work. 

Edit the sketch for the base protrusion.

1) Change the flat line to construction geometry

2) Add a circle concentric with the existing arc as solid

3) Change the arc to construction geometry

Regenerate the model. You can then re-route references if you want to alter the design intent to not reference the construction entities in the base feature sketch.

[barryschaeffer1 · Accepted solution]

In the sketch of the existing trimmed circle, draw a new circle concentric to it using Circle > Concentric. 

Then choose Operations > Replace.  Select the old trimmed circle, then the newly sketched circle.  You will be prompted "Cannot replace aligned or dimensioned entity.  Delete dimensions?"  Choose Yes.

[vincecatlin]

Thanks, I saw that on line and didn't understand the "replace" function.

This does work quite well.

[tbraxton]

A follow up on why sketch->replace may not be the "best" approach initially. It is robust, and I would use it in a model if I understood the design intent would not cause failures, but many times the dependencies are unknown and potentially convoluted.

The sketch replace will not always work for downstream dependent features as they will not regenerate due to loss of references. This is why I suggested to leave the original references in the sketch which should preserve the references for downstream use and debugging. This is based on having to fix many models that I did not initially create and become quite tedious to debug when deleting references that cause features to fail.

In your case the model fully regenerated but it is often not the case and re-routing failed features is easier if the references are still available in the sketch.

[vincecatlin]

I'm often reminded how feature creep is the enemy of design intent.