All your help required!

[bennie]

Hi there everyone

I've recently been givin the task of modelling up an old university project of mine in pro/E as a method of showing my development with the application.

I have however been having great difficulty as the product is quite complex in terms of it's shape and because I am new to Pro/E I am unsure on the best way of building it.

Here is an image of the product and where I have managed to get to modeling it.


GLUEY is a glue gun for children


My attempts at modeling GLUEY have got me this far

So far this is what I've done in achieving the result above:

1. Imported the linework as a DXF
2. Retraced linework it in Sketcher
3. Extruded linework to achieve solid

Thats only as far as I can get though as the linework is very complicated and I can't bevel the edges as they are to complex.

This is where I ask you PRO/E community"How should I go about modeling GLUEY?"

Any suggestions or hints would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Ben

 

[Jacoolo]

it seems it is good approach so far. So more detailed investigation side view is front, top and for sure isometric view would be fine thing to have.

Anyway, I noticed this model have unique both halves so my appraoch would be as listed below.

*focus only on one half of the pistol

*if You are new to Pro/E focus on solids. The should be enough to acomplish this task

*make main geometry with all rounds(as You have done so far)

*make a shell from this geometry

*in the ebd add neccesary ribs and drafts

 

[Jacoolo]

it seems it is good approach so far. So more detailed investigation

it should be - for more detailed investigation front and isometric view of this pistol would have been nice thing to have

cheers

 

[tobbo]

Nice model!!

The first thing that i see is is that you have made only ONE extrude... I would defenatly divide it to atleast 2 seperate sketches/extrudes, just so you dont have to worry about unwanted constrains in the sketcher... Its much easier to modify it if you dont do everything in one sketch/extrude. (atleast one for the outer geometry, and one for the "hole in the middle")


Second, about the approach. Modell it whit solids as Jacek says, dont try to do surfaces unless you havent done it before (maybe in another cad system?) And YES focus on one half of the gun. You might want to focus on separate detalis too?? Maybe build an assembly of the gun ?? "the greenpart" is one detail, and the "trigger" is one ...and so on?? If your going to go and manufacture this in the end, then its a good thing to consider thatnow

good luck, and please upload som pics on how you work is proceeding!!

 

[[-Skint-]]

Hey Bennie, yes from your extrusion so far it looks as though you have sketched around your imported dxf as one whole feature ( the green and yellow parts combined ). Re-edit ( Edit Definition ) your initial sketch and use the edges of the green part only.


The yellow eye details should be fairly straight forward afterwards. From the looks of it, Gluey

may have an insert section where the trigger goes, you could just cut this out and an extrude afterwards.


Keep it quite simple, looks like a decent start though. What experience do you have of pro-e ?

 

[bennie]

Hi Skint

Only been using Pro/E for a couple days. I've started again with the model and It's working much better. I'll post up again shortly with some images

 

[[-Skint-]]

Cool mate, if you get stuck with anything this forum is usually a great resource, use the search function and you should be able to find everything you need. If you get stuck ask away.


I am currently in the process of learning surfaces and have decided to model a snowboard binding ( see my post Surface Course Q & A ). Its a very complicated piece, more curves than pamela anderson

.


I have realised throughout my learning curve however, no-matter which part im working on.. the most important thing is a good start! I am picking up each piece of the binding and asking myself " What is the most practical way to start modelling this? ". The thought process can and does last quite sometime before I decide on my method. I change my mind when I get stuck, every time haha !


Get yourself a good start, have a think before you just jump into your model. Think about which bit you should be doing first and which bits can be added last. As you are just using solids for this part, think of it in either of two ways. 1.) Your sculpting it out of a solid chunk of clay and can add / remove bits at any time. 2.) You are using lego chunks and building it out of nothing, adding as you go along

Sorry if that sounds a little long winded, I just " went off " on a trail of thoughts as I was looking at my next part lol.


Most important thing to remember is... Have Fun ! Pro-e can be frustrating sometimes, but when you have a nice little project like Gluey to work with, it can be quite enjoyable when you are pleased with your final result.


Good luck mate !

 

[jbuckl]

hi bennie, upload some of the basic data (dxf/internals) and get us to have a go, then you can compare other peoples ideas for your glue gun model.


Jbuckl

 

[bennie]

Hey guys
Thanks heaps for all the great input. After your suggestions Skint (and Jonsey) I started over and worked out a logical method of building the model. Here's where I'm at:



I've got one another question:

You'll notice that the radius on the outer edge of the main body is quite small. I'm not able to get it any larger than a radius of '1' I think this is because of the detailed curver around the mouth. I am just wondering if there is a way to break the curve around the mouth so that the majority of the curve can be a '5' with just the detailed region being a '1'.

Also I can't mirror the part when I include the text. The error message says that the text is intersecting. Do i just need to seperate the letters more? I'll have to give it a try tomorrow.

Thanks again guys

Ben

 

[krow72]

Bennie - It looks great. You can have a variable radius. When you are making the original radius (or redefining the current radius) you can left click on the small white dot and pick "add radius". This allows you to make the radius vary. You will have to drag the new radius to the desired location. You will need to add at least 2 if not 4 areas. The start and end of the mouth area and maybe some spots just behind them so the radius is not that drastic of a change.


You should take the text off the model before you mirror. If you leave it on the text will be wrong on the mirrored part. You can then add the text to the two different models to have it read properly.


Hope this helps you out.


Krow72

 

[[-Skint-]]

Great stuff bennie, much better .. nice one ! Yeah follow Krow`s comments above regards the radii. When you select "add radius" it tends to put a small control point at the two ends of the section its on, you can then adjust them to diff sizes.


Good work mate !

 

[bennie]

Hey krow72 thanks heaps for the tip. That is exactly what I wanted to know. Here's where it's at now. Another question. I now want to shell the body. Do I need to merge all of the parts together to do this? I got an error message when I tried it before. Thanks again.

 

[bennie]

Hi guys

I've been trying to shell the half of the model for a while now and
can't figure it out. In other threads people have suggested 'merging'
surfaces and 'solidifying' the model but I can't seem to get either of
them to work. Does anyone have any tips. Heres a link to the file if anyone want to try: www.zshare.net/download/128687580cc155fd/

Thanks

Ben

Edited by: bennie

 

[[-Skint-]]

Bennie, merging surfaces and solidifying the model is only an option when you have used surfaces to model your part. In your case, the part is made from extrusions and is already solid.


The shell command is a tricky one when you have lots of different levels & shapesin the model. The shell can only have one thickness assigned to it, so if the walls of the shell overlap or interfere with each other then it wont allow you to do it.


An easier option for you maybe to extrude cut instead, to your desired thickness. This is done using the standard Extrude command, when on the dashboard you will see a "remove material" icon.

 

[bennie]

Oh cool, good, simple idea. I'll try it.

 

[design-engine]

looks like the throw away suture or some kind of handle for a medical device.