Noob With ProE, Help Needed

[ptc-6075392]

Hey everyone,

I just recently started an engineering internship and this company uses ProE WF4. I don't have any CAD work under my belt except for a semester at Purdue. I am having some troubles and can't seem to find a solution. I've tried looking around the forums with no luck, probably because I don't think it should be that hard to fix.

Anyhow, my troubles are as follows. I created a sheetmetal part then flattened all of it using the unbend function in the right-hand side toolbar. I flattened the entire part to make a sketch on the flat surface in which I was trying to cut away some slots. the slots I was trying to cut away do go through a bend although my part fails to generate when I rebend the part (supress the unbend feature).

Am I going about this the wrong way? I really get caught up with some of the nit-picky things in ProE, the software we used at Purdue sure seemed a lot more straight forward but I'm sure this software has its advantages as I'm aware it's used throughout many companies. I know it's probably a dumb question but I've been stuck for a few hours now. I thought of it like how it would be manufactured in the fact that the slots would be cut away before the part was bent. Does this make sense? I can upload pictures if need be. Appreciate any and all help in advance.

Thanks all!

[dschenken]

You don't supress the unbend; the cuts depend on it. You need to use bend-back.

[ptc-6075392]

I have the Unbend feature as the last thing in my model tree. When I click on the flat surface in which I want to extrude slots the "insert here" on my model tree jumps above the Unbend feature and the part reverts back to it's bent state. How do I get around this? I really wish there were some free online courses to learn this software, please point me in the direction of any ! Thanks

[dschenken · Accepted solution]

You have the wrong name - what you describe is the flat pattern feature. An un-bend asks for a surface to remain stationary and the curved surfaces to unbend. There is a corresponding bend-back feature. Only the flat pattern feature jumps to the end of the model tree and forces new features ahead of it.

A Google search will turn up a number of Proe Sheetmetal videos and there is the PTC university training, some which is free and good. learningexchange.ptc.com

[ptc-6075392]

That's correct thanks for clearing that up! I'm sure I'll be back with more questions here soon but I'll make sure to search around before coming here. appreciate the help

[ptc-6075392]

Ok I've got another basic question that I'm sure has A simple answer yet I can't seem to figure it out.

I want to move a group of entities in sketch mode vertically but not horizontally at all. I've tried using the rotate and scale option with the snap to grid option, but this doesn't allow me to move it the correct length I need to move these lines vertically but does keep it aligned. I've also tried using the offset feature but it doesn't offset in the correct direction (vertically).

Thanks for any help in advance. Sorry for the noob questions, I just can't get the feel for this software coming from IronCAD in school

[dschenken]

Usually I would have a dimension that controls where the entities are and change the dimension that affects the vertical position.

Perhaps a picture?

[ptc-6075392]

This seemed to help and got it all figured out. Now I've come to another random hiccup I can't seem to figure out. I've got a fully closed sketch and for some reason it won't let me extrude it. No error messages or anything come up when I try to extrude it but it doesn't extrude when I hit the green check mark and instead gives me the "Play" or Red X options. Any idea why this is happening ? WHen I hit "play" again after the extrude fails, it shows me a preview of the extrusion but doesn't show me the green check mark anymore. Headache!

This software is pretty darn useless at helping the user find their problems when they arise. The learning curve of this software is flabbergasting. Does anyone have a list of "best practices" while using this software? Thanks for all the help in advance.

[dschenken]

I think what looks like the Play button is 'return to editor.'

If it shows a preview, then it is able to calculate the Sketcher geometry correctly. If it fails to create the solid feature, then it's often an accuracy problem. You may be able to select the option to create a surface from the Sketch to see if that works. If it's a surface, then it doesn't calculate any intersections, trim, or extend any existing surfaces. Try changing the accuracy to a smaller number; or change the accuracy type to Absolute and pick a value that seems about 1/10th the size of the smallest error you'd accept in the real part.

I've had failures trying to remove very shallow amounts of material that were corrected by starting the sketch offset from the target surface by a large amount. For example, trying to remove a .001 deep area failed, but starting from a plane 1.000 from the surface and extruding 1.001 worked.

[ptc-6075392]

Thanks for your help. I've tried changing my accuracy as low as possible as well as trying absolute and haven't had luck with either of them. I'm simply trying to extrude a triangle onto the outer edge surface of the part shown below, and now the preview is all messed up. I've attached the extrude preview. Any Idea why this is happening/how I can avoid it in the future? Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks everyone

[IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/znsvtl.png[/IMG]

[dschenken]

It looks like you are going to add another barb hook to the tab.

The preview looks like the resulting surface entities cross each other, which won't develop a solid item.

Are you giving it a depth? It may work better to select the Up-to surface rather than Blind as there could be a tiny round-off error between the thickness you think you have and the thickness the geometry actually has. Alternatively, for debugging give it a depth twice the tab thickness. I say this as it appears there is a slight angle to the tab, so room for that error to occur.

[ptc-6075392]

David, appreciate the quick help. Unfortunately none of the recommended ways worked but I did get it to make it work by adding a flat wall with 0 degree bend angle and modifying its shape. i then added rounds to match the upper barb hook. I greatly appreciate you taking time out of your day to help me find a solution. I'm sure i'll be back soon if i get stuck again! Thanks again

[dschenken]

Glad it worked. I wish I'd noticed the part was sheet metal.

Until you mentioned it I didn't realize you were working to add a solid protrusion to a sheet metal model. It should work, but usually it's more reliable to use sheet metal features on sheet metal models. Making openings will still require solid protrusions.

I've had decent results from modeling parts with solid features and using a sheet metal conversion feature at the end for flat pattern purposes. If material thickness is uniform, especially to be watched - inside radii and outside radii being concentric, it works just fine.

You may wish to add new questions in the Creo area. This is the WIndchill area, not that it hurt anything.

[ptc-6075392]

EDIT: Found answer ignore post

[ptc-6075392]

Hey everyone I'm back again!

I've been having troubles finding any good tutorials about the basics of PTC WIndchill PDMLink. Could someone link some for me? I'm interested in the basic processes I'll need as an engineer such as editing existing parts and properly saving them back into the datatbase. Could someone also explain the difference between "Upload" and "Check In" functions?

The problem I'm running into is as follows. I've edited a component that used in an assembly and uploaded it's changes to Windchill via the "Upload" and "Check Out" functions. Whenever I open the assembly the component is part of, it's not the updated component. When I click on the component and update it, it asks me if I want to replace this component with the one on the server. I choose yes and it's the correct updated component. Why doesn't it automatically load the updated component? I have a feeling I may be doing something wrong when modifying the component and getting it back onto Windchill (out of my "workspace"). I appreciate any help in advance. Thanks.

Austin

[dschenken]

It might be better to create a new thread for this question.

[ptc-6075392]

Hey everyone,

I'm creating a drawing and was wondering how to go about creating a drawing view that's normal to a surface. I've messed around with it for about an hour and can't seem to figure it out. Once again, Pro/E seems to hide something I think should be a click or two away. Can't swait to finish this internship so I don't have to deal with Pro/e and all it's convoluted ways. Please let me know what's the best way to go about doing this. Thanks in advance.

[TomU]

Assuming the surface is planar, you pick the surface and then pick a reference normal to it. The process is exactly the same as creating new views in the model. You will want to add the model to the drawing using default orientation (or something else) so you can see it, then change the view orientation by using "Geometry References"

[ptc-6075392]

Thanks for the help. your advice helped as well as the youtube video linked below I just stumbled upon. Appreciate the help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa8JZShWn9U

[ptc-6075392]

is there an easy way to calculate the TOTAL surface area of a sheetmetal part? I have to find the surface area of a sheetmetal bracket as I need to get it painted. Thanks for any help in advance.

Austin