Revolved cut inside a container

[BillRullan]

I'm trying to revolve a cut inside a rectangular-shaped container, while keeping the extent of the cut limited to the inner walls of the container so I don't cut into neighboring models. The result will be a cone-shaped piece that I can use to measure the volume of the container at different heights. Imagine the inside walls of a blender, for example.

I've experimented with some of the Advanced features (Wildfire 4.0), but I cannot seem to achieve what I want.

[DavidButz]

Bill,

I've got a rough idea of what you are trying to do, but don't quite understand the details of your problem. Could you give us a little more info, maybe a jpeg picture? About to leave on vacation, so I may not be able to help you, but someone else probably can. I do have one general suggestion. Sometimes these container volume problems are most easily solved by creating an artificial assembly in which a separate "phony" part representing the volume is created using a subtractive intersection technique. Then you ask the system to give you the volume of that part. Its definition can include some variable dimension representing "fill level". That's pretty vague, but food for thought until we understand the details of your model.

David

[BillRullan]

Hi David,

I have attached a Word document with screen-shots showing my problem. You see two hoppers with full volumes in the first view, then a revolved cut for one of the hoppers in view 2 (not a problem because that cut feature came BEFORE the creation of the second hopper). When I revolve a cut for the second hopper, you see the overlap into the first hopper.

I'm trying to figure out a way to show both hoppers with revolved cuts that stay "contained" or "bounded" by their respective walls.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[DavidButz]

Bill,

O.K., not what I imagined at all. First observation is that if the two hoppers were actually two separate parts in an Assembly model, you would have no problem at all. Are both hoppers the same? If you have some reason for creating both within one part--which seems unlikely to me--you could copy all the geometry of the first hopper with a translation to the second location. I think you should probably use an assembly.

Nevertheless, there are ways to do what you are trying to do. As in so many cases, Surface techniques can solve your problem. Create a revolved Surface, NOT a Cut, then trim that surface back to the flat sides of the hopper, then use that trimmed surface to cut away from the hopper using Edit/Solidify.

One of the surest ways to trim back to the flat surfaces is to create a Datum Plane through each surface and then use each of those Planes to trim the revolved surface. Alternatively, you could create Surface copies of the outsides of the hopper and use those surfaces to Merge with or trim the revolved Surface.

David

[DavidButz]

P.S.

If you want these 2 hoppers to be one part, one of the best ways to do that is to make each as a separte part, assemble them to gether, then Merge one into the other.

[BillRullan]

David,

Looks like I'm starting to have some luck with this after 2 hours of frustration. I'll keep at it.

By the way, I inherited this part from another designer a while back so I'm forced to use it as is. It's actually a Pro/E skeleton model used to drive the creation of several sheetmetal parts, and it is just a single part (not an assembly).

I do appreciate your help and I'll contact you again if I have any more problems.

Enjoy your vacation!