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Offsetting surfaces below zero radius

SamWorthington
11-Garnet

Offsetting surfaces below zero radius

A problem I have been having with Pro/Engineer for years involves offsetting or thickening surfaces. When the radius of the surface drops below zero the offset fails. Why can’t Pro/E just create a sharp edge at the corner? I can sort out any manufacturing problems later, I just need my model to work.

 

I thought this must be down to some incredibly difficult programming problem, but found Catia just asks if you want to swallow the surfaces, then gets on with it. I’ve now found even Autodesk Inventor just thickens the surface adding a sharp corner.

 

The Automatic Offset option in Pro/E is in reality of little use to me, I just want a sharp corner at the offset. With all its advanced and extremely expensive surfacing capability, what use is a zero-thickness surface when I want to actually make something? Do PTC plan on sorting the shortcoming out? I am seriously considering switching software for this capability alone as the lack of it has wasted me countless hours.

 

Do other people have this problem?

 

Cheers,

 

Sam


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1 REPLY 1

It really is a shame as it affects so many basic viable solutions not least of which is the shell feature. A few simple options would go a long way to making some very basic requirements work reliably.

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