Surfacing Course : Q & A ?

[[-Skint-]]

The G0, G1 & G2 debate is certainly on my list. This is far from my reach at the moment obviously, but I intend to learn as much as possible before going to the course so I can walk in "fully loaded"

I am contemplating printing off your entire "confused" thread to take with me haha, there is a lot of valuable info within those pages from various users.


Just out of curiosity . . . . anyone wonder where CP has dissapeared to these days

?

 

[design-engine]

My talk at the PTC user conference will shed the light on G0, G1, G2, and approaching G3 discussions. It is only one hour but I am practiced and will talk very fast.

I will make my presentation with respect to the Automobile industry and A-Class Surfacing compared to Alias Studio - the industry standard.

I would make a strong assumption that your Pro/E surfacing instructor will not be up to speed with continuity issues. My suggestion would be to send the VAR an email exclaiming that continuity issues such as A-Class surfacing will be in your topic list so the instructor could prepare as much as possible for your questions.


Edited by: design-engine

 

[[-Skint-]]

Hey Bart, I know your a proe-pro, but im sure even you have questions right ? If so, dont be afriad to let me get hold of them and scare the living day-lights out of the instructor

I have spoken with this guy many times actually, and he seems very skilled in all aspects of modelling, however becasue of my lack of knowledge and ability to push the software I am yet to see what he really is capable of, hence my goal to learn surfacing over the next few weeks to surprise him haha.


One day I may be able to pop over to the US so I can take your classes and buy you a beer !

 

[design-engine]

how in Pro/E can users do direct modeling like in Alias?


Most of my questions would be for software developers and aid them in alternate modeling technique to push the Pro/ENGINEER development.

I would be a better person also to list out bugs and work around-s.

Thats why I am so good at solidworks. Because I am so darn good at work a rounds from Pro/E of yester-year. (I had to work that in there)


Edited by: design-engine

 

[[-Skint-]]

Maybe i`ll start with that question Bart and see how they take it

.


I must try and get chance this weekend to go through your you-tube videos. Just had a quick chuckle at the swept blend / vss vid where you spelt your password wrong haha. Looks like you have put some good work into those videos

.

 

[design-engine]

thats how I learn how to spell... utilize a word often to practice. Make it a password. That way I type it 10 times per day.

http://youtube.com/user/designengineeducatio < this is another place on youtube where I publish videos. There are some funny ones where our maya instructor shreds up the design engine playhouse half pipe.


Edited by: design-engine

 

[[-Skint-]]

Pretty cool having your very own skateboard half pipe Bart

. I must have a word with my Managing Director to get our offices kitted out !!

 

[design-engine]

uplaoding a few new videos to the same place. Basic ACCO Swingline stapler. This one is a basic surfacing tutorial.

 

[jeff4136]

Skint,


> attending a 3 day Surfacing Course


Super deal. Hope you find it informative.
Ask 'em for a lot of freebie lecture notes and such you can post. ;^)
_ _ _ _


> Why is it that the Trim commands are unable to be hidden ?


Sometimes they don't need to be hidden. Sometimes they do.
Depends on whether or not the Trim Feature "owns" geometry, as
with a 'split' trim. See also ...
[url]http://www.mcadcentral.com/proe/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=36 012[/url]
...(the bug, or not, no longer exists but may help shed some
light on the machinations involved).


Going a wee bit off topic
(but this is stuff the 'surface modeler' wants to know):
Anything and Everything in a model can be Hidden; e.g. put on layer
.black_hole* (a.k.a. "Hidden Items"). The trick is to collect everything
on layers and use the Layer tree Copy Item, Paste Item functions instead
of the normal object selection and View -> Hide functions. It is a very
cool extension to the basic Hide / Unhide functionality. If you have a
layer that collects all features you can, for instance, select a range
of features in the model tree (you probably can't RMB->Hide, for various
reasons**), switch to the Layer tree, expand the Feature layer where the
features will be highlighted, RMB, Copy Item, select layer Hidden Items,
Paste Item.


Working with surface features and quilts it's often to your advantage
to create a layer that collects Quilt objects (vs. surface feats), too.


Identifying quilt 'head' or 'lead' features can help as well.


* That's the name; with the dot. You can also type that name in Search
criteria to specify objects on the Hidden Items layer.


** Something I'd very much like to see changed. Hide AND Unhide should
Always be on the shortcut menu and Always be valid.
Edited by: jeff4136

 

[design-engine]

those why questions are best geared towards the software developers. The best i can do is compare software tools. Not ask why my tool does or does not work like I hope.

My videos have sound problems.

 

[[-Skint-]]

Bart, you are at the conferece in Long Beach this week ? Any ideas as to wether your hour or so can be recorded so you can upload for us all to see ?

 

[design-engine]

I did not bring a video camera.... however I can upload a dissected version of my talk.

2200 people at this conference. I hear it is the largest ever.


Edited by: design-engine

 

[dgs]

Yep, that's what they said at the opening, biggest ever. Pretty good, learning some new stuff. I've managed to miss you, Bart, so far, but I'll catch up with you at your session.

 

[[-Skint-]]

2200 people

, wow wish I could join you... thats one good party !


Yeah id be interested to hear all or part of your talk. Let me know when you manage to get it online.

 

[[-Skint-]]

Delving a little deeper into surfaces today. The copy - paste function really comes in handy with surfaces eh.


I had a hard time with some of the model I was building but persisted and got "somewhere" in the end lol. I will post pics tomorrow when im back in the office.


Ive already started to realise that where/when/how you manage your trim & merge commands is very important

 

[[-Skint-]]

Lovely Knockers !


Ok, as suggested in last post, here are a few images of the Door Knocker that I have used as a learning curve model for suracing. As you can see, its not perfect, butI had apretty damn good go at it !! Many compounding surfaces included within this little fella.


I struggled getting the tangency between the split line area down the centre as you can see. I may have to tweak parts of it a little before I can send for production. Some of the tangency im not worried about for production ( Powder Coating hides a multitude of sins

)


I would love to upload the part so you can take a look and give constructive critisism, however the file upload never seems to work for me on this site

I had fun learning from this anyway, I think I am teaching myself enough to get a good head start when I go for this course in July.

 

[[-Skint-]]

Just incase your interested

Added the fixing bracket and the Lever also done in surfaces only. Added a larger image below of the complete faces showing the poorer areas of tangency

Edited by: [-Skint-]

 

[design-engine]

Hey Doug, Was great to meet you at the PTCUSER conference.... I met a few folks from this forum in Long beach.

Skint: my first comment is your background looks like solidworks. Yuck.

Real comments,

1. your mirror plane. your boundary surface that butts up to the mirror plane is not forced normal. We call that implied tangent because the implication is the surface will be tangent to itself as it is mirrored. Maybe in the case of the bottom image, you want the pointy tip to be sharp... but the next surface up probably should be forced normal to the mirror plane.

2. To the untrained eye one might not notice however it is clear to me you used thicken. Never use thicken to solidify you surface geometry (other than to test your merges) Instead use a fill surface to section off the geometry and close (hold water as we like to say) off the geometry with merges.




Edited by: design-engine

 

[[-Skint-]]

Hey Doug, Was great to meet you at the PTCUSER conference.... I met a few folks from this forum in Long beach.

Skint: my first comment is your background looks like solidworks. Yuck.

Real comments,

1. your mirror plane. your boundary surface that butts up to the mirror plane is not forced normal. We call that implied tangent because the implication is the surface will be tangent to itself as it is mirrored. Maybe in the case of the bottom image, you want the pointy tip to be sharp... but the next surface up probably should be forced normal to the mirror plane.

2. To the untrained eye one might not notice however it is clear to me you used thicken. Never use thicken to solidify you surface geometry (other than to test your merges) Instead use a fill surface to section off the geometry and close (hold water as we like to say) off the geometry with merges.

Hey Bart, thanks for the comments, I will try and correct the "forcing normal", I know I have done so many other things afterwards that are bound to fail if I correct one of the original surfaces haha.


I would like to say YES you are correct... but your not lol. I originally tried to use thicken, but because of complexities in the shape it would only allow a thickness of 0.6mm, whereas I wanted 2.0mm, this is a die-casting. To get the required thickness I used the surface copy / paste-move option, then trimmed accordingly. It seemed to give the result I wanted.


Im not really a fan of the thicken command, and the shell command come to think of it, when the surfaces are quite tricky. It always seems to bomb out on me.


EDIT : Oi!! Leave my background alone you

, Im always messing with my background colours to be honest, I am colourblind and I am trying to find a combination that suits me best

I enjoyed this little surfacing test though. I learn a bit.
Edited by: [-Skint-]

 

[design-engine]

are you in your class yet? when is that? I am sitting in the LAX airport and a girl just walked by with a tattoo covering her face. I guess thats cool with the real girls in LA. thats bad ass. Thought I would share my experiance with you on the other side of the pond.