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Is There A Round Feature?

dplachinski
6-Contributor

Is There A Round Feature?

We come across this issue every once in awhile in our Wire EDM Department. The wire needs a straight line radius because the wire should not bend.

Is there a round feature that will give us a point to point constant round between these two primitives.

A cone being intersected by a tapered cube. 

primitives.JPG

When we add a constant round the resulting (long) edges of the round become bent.

radius_iso.JPG

When looking from the top they look like this.

radius_top.JPG

Here I created a boundary blend (yellow edges) between the upper cure and the lower cure (short edges of the round) to shot what result we are looking for. You can clearly see the bend in the long edges.

straight-line_rad.JPG

Is there a round feature that will give me the straight long edges of the round. Or, is this just impossible.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dan


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1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:dplachinski)

What about using a blend (for the whole thing)?

View solution in original post

16 REPLIES 16
dgallup
4-Participant
(To:dplachinski)

Your first picture looks like the intersection between the cone and the tapered square is curved.  If it's curved, the radius will be curved too.

dschenken
21-Topaz I
(To:dgallup)

I agree - the intersection between a cone and a plane that is not through the axis of the cone is a curve.

BHOoi
15-Moonstone
(To:dplachinski)

Is this what you wanted to do?

Capture.JPG@

dplachinski
6-Contributor
(To:BHOoi)

Thanks for the replies. This is how we currently get around the issue, with a boundary blend surface (a lot of features). I was checking with the community to see if maybe there was a new type of round (maybe chordal) that would replicate this behavior.

Thanks again,

Dan

BHOoi
15-Moonstone
(To:dplachinski)

This is another alternative way to model that round...Capture.JPG

David Schenken and David Gallup,

I agree that the main intersection is curved. I was curious if there is new functionality that would create a transition between them that would replicate what is actually produced from the Wire EDM. If you are not familiar with a Wire EDM, there is an upper head and a lower head with a small wire running between them. The upper head is programmed to follow the upper cure of the primitives and the lower head is programmed to follow the lower curve of the primitives. During the EDM process the wire is electrically charged and erodes the metal it comes in contact with. So, you can imagine the wire between the heads does not bend (or shouldn't in theory) and can not produce the curved lines produced by a "round" feature.

The reply from BH001 is the result we would like to have. However, there are many features required to produce this one round.

Thanks for your replies.

Dan

See if you can use the "Thru curve" option for your round:

round_thru_curve_example.png

dplachinski
6-Contributor
(To:psobejko)

Could work. I was looking more for a constant radius, but let me take a look.

Thanks,

Dan

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:dplachinski)

What about using a blend (for the whole thing)?

dplachinski
6-Contributor
(To:TomU)

Tom,

I really like this approach. We may have a winner! The beauty of this approach is that I am able to do a "blend" feature while creating a mold volume in Creo/Mold.

I could offset the first section with a relations over a given distance to create a nominal draft angle.

I will investigate this further.

Thanks,

Dan

Tom,

I really thought we (you) were on to something here. I'm not sure if this is an issue yet, but the resulting surface is not a true cylindrical surface. I'm not sure why, but you are unable to add an axis through the resulting "round". Like I said, I'm not sure it's an issue yet.

Thanks,

Dan

Capture.JPG

As I mentioned, the only straight line on a cone is one that passes through the vertex. And the only cylindrical fillet that can be tangent to a cone has to be tangent along that straight line, so it cannot also be angled to follow tapered blocks.

My guess it that the blend isn't a true cone, which allows what looks like a cylinder, but is an elliptical section normal to the slope.

Fortunately I already know enough about wire edm. What I don't know is why the design is caught between geometry reality and a machining method that can't produce that geometry. One or the other needs to change.

This is what you get when you add draft after the fact.  What most machinist would want generically.

In this case, you are assured constant draft if both features have the same draft.

Surface tangency is maintained (missing element in sweep methods).

         note: transition lines for round-to-cone project to the cone's center. 

    

The EDM probe can take on any shape you want if you are using a plunge EDM.

If you are wire EDM'ng this, then you have to decide on what is moving to get the noted draft.

So there is little limitation but if this draft if for molding, typically you would make the straight part and add draft afterward.

Doing this makes for more uniform drafts which are easier to machine (taper bit, single axis and all that).

In this vein, I find it very hard to match drafts with simple resulting rounds since their taper angle is not controllable in the Round feature dialog.

I think you are looking for a "full round" feature for this.  You would add your 3rd (intermediate/depth) surface in one of many ways.

And don't forget boundary blend...

...and sweep feature in combination of fills and boundary blends merged into a solid.

The challenge with the toolbox we have is to know when the surface is curved from normal.

Features such as Blend and Boundary Blend (top to bottom) is the way the connections are parced.

Even using sweep, you have to be sure to choose constant normal.

Highly configurable

Machinist's nightmare

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