Wiley SolidWorks 2009 Bible Part 11 pot

781 Modeling Multi-bodies 26 FIGURE 26.21 Control the visibility of FeatureManager items FIGURE 26.22 Using the Show Feature History option The Insert into New Part feature and the Save Bodies feature seen in this menu are discussed in Chapter 28. You can expand the Display pane in parts, in order to show display information for bodies. In Figure 26.23, the Display pane shows the colors assigned to the solid bodies, as well as the fact that several surface bodies exist but are hidden. 782 Using Advanced Techniques Part VI FIGURE 26.23 The Display pane showing information about solid and surface bodies The folders also make bodies easier to identify, especially when combined with the setting found at Tools ➪ Options ➪ Display/Selection ➪ Dynamic Highlight From Graphics View. This setting quickly turns the body outline red if you move the mouse over the body in the body folder. Hide or show bodies You can hide or show bodies in one of several ways. I have already described the method of using the bodies folders to hide or show all of the bodies at once, but you can also right-click individual bodies in the folders to hide or show from there as well. Remember that with the Context bars, you have the option to use context bars with the right-mouse button menu or not, and also context bars with left click selections. I include all context bar options in the right-mouse button menu generically. if you can see a body in the graphics area, then you can right-click the body and select Hide under the Body heading. This works for both solids and surfaces. The Display Pane, shown to the right of the FeatureManager in Figure 26.23, can also be used to hide or show bodies, change body transparency and appearance, as well as change the display mode of bodies. Display Pane is a handy tool for visualization options. When you are hiding or showing bodies from the FeatureManager, and not using the bodies folders, but rather using the features themselves, things get a little complicated. If you want to hide or show a solid body, then you can use any feature that is a parent of the body to hide or show the body. For example, you can use the Shell feature in the mouse model to hide or show all of the bodies of which it is a parent. Other facts that you need to know about bodies and their hide or show states are that the Hide or Show feature is both configurable and dependent on the rollback state. As a result, if you hide a body, and then roll back, it may appear again, and you will have to hide it. Then, if you roll forward, the state changes again. Also, a body can be hidden in one configuration, and then when you switch configurations, it remains hidden. This makes it rather frustrating to work with bodies. To me, it would be nice if bodies had simple on/off toggles that were neither intelligent nor tricky. 783 Modeling Multi-bodies 26 CAUTION CAUTION Some features exclude bodies if the bodies are hidden when you edit the feature. Be careful of this, and be sure to show all of the bodies that are used in a particular function before you edit it. For example, if a body is hidden, and you create a new extrude that touches the hidden body, then the new body does not merge with the hidden one even if the Merge option is on. If the hidden body is then shown and you edit the second body, then the bodies will merge upon the closing of the second body. Deleting bodies I have already mentioned that you can delete bodies using the Delete Bodies feature, and that this feature sits in the tree at a specific point in the history of the part. Delete Bodies does not affect file size or rebuild speed. In fact, I find it difficult to come up with examples of when you should use it, other than the situation already mentioned with the Rib feature, or if a throwaway body somehow remains in the part. Some people use this feature to clean up the organization of the tree, which could be useful if there are many bodies in the part. Other users insist on keeping the tree free of extraneous bodies, and so they immediately delete bodies that have been used. To me, this technique replaces one kind of clutter with another, and means that tools that should be available to you (solid or surface bodies) are not available unless you reorder the Delete Body feature down the tree and/or roll back. In any case, this is really a matter of personal working style and not of any great importance. Renaming bodies Notice that the bodies that you see in the folders have been named for the last feature that touched a given body. That naming scheme is as good as any, except that it means that the body keeps changing names. If you deliberately rename a body, it will retain the name through future changes. You should follow the same rules of thumb for naming bodies as you do for naming features. Tutorials: Working with Multi-bodies This tutorial contains various short examples of multi-body techniques in order from easy to more difficult. Merging and local operations This tutorial gives you some experience using the Merge Result option and using features on individual bodies to demonstrate the local operations functionality of multi-body modeling. Try these steps: 1. Start a new part, and sketch a rectangle centered on the origin on the Top plane. Size is not important for this exercise. 2. Extrude the rectangle to roughly one-third of its smaller dimension. 3. Open a second sketch on the Top plane. Hide the first solid body by right-clicking it in either the FeatureManager or the graphics window. 784 Using Advanced Techniques Part VI 4. Show the sketch for the first feature, and draw a second rectangle on the far side of the rectangle from the Origin. Make sure that the second rectangle gets two coincident relations to the first sketch, at two corners so that the rectangles are the same width. When the sketch is complete, hide the sketch that was shown. 5. Extrude the second rectangle to about two-thirds of the depth of the first rectangle. NOTE NOTE Notice that the Merge option was not changed from the default setting of On for the second extrude, but because the first extrude was hidden, the second extrude did not merge with it. Be careful of subsequent edits to either of the features if the first body is shown, because this may cause the bodies to merge unexpectedly. In this tutorial, the bodies are later merged intentionally. Ideally, what you should do is deselect the Merge option of the second extrude. 6. Shell out the second extrusion by removing two adjacent sides, as shown in Figure 26.24. One of the sides is the top and the other is the shared side with the hidden body. The body that should be hidden at this point is shown as transparent in the image for reference only. The body was made transparent to make it easier to select the face of the second body. FIGURE 26.24 Shelling two sides of a block 7. Show the first body either from the Solid Bodies folder at the top of the tree or from the right-mouse button menu of the first solid feature in the tree. 8. Shell the bottom side of the first body, so that the cavities in the two bodies are on opposite sides. 9. Combine the two bodies using the Combine tool found at Insert ➪ Features ➪ Combine. This feature is also available via right-mouse button in the solid body folder. Select the Add option and select the two bodies. Click OK to finish the feature. Figure 26.25 shows the finished part. 785 Modeling Multi-bodies 26 FIGURE 26.25 The finished part Splitting and patterning bodies This tutorial guides you through the steps to delete a pattern of features from an imported body, separate one of the features, and then pattern it with a different number of features. This intro- duces some simple surface functions, in preparation for Chapter 27. Follow these steps: 1. Open the Parasolid file from the CD-ROM called Chapter 26 – Bonita Tutorial.x_t. 2. Using the Selection Filter set to filter Face selection (the default hotkey for this is X), select all of the faces of the leg. You can use window selection techniques to avoid clicking each face. 3. Click the Delete Face button on the Surfaces toolbar, or access the command through the menus at Insert ➪ Face ➪ Delete. Make sure that the Delete and Patch option is selected. The selected faces and the Delete Face PropertyManager should look like Figure 26.26. Click OK to accept the feature. 4. Repeat the process for a second leg, leaving the third leg to be separated from the rest of the part and patterned. 5. After the two legs have been removed, click the outer main spherical surface, and then from the menus, select Insert ➪ Surface ➪ Offset. Set the offset distance to zero. Notice that a Surface Bodies folder is now added to the tree, near the top. TIP TIP A zero distance offset surface is frequently used to copy faces. 6. Hide the solid body. You can do this from the Solid Bodies folder, from the FeatureManager, or from the graphics window. 786 Using Advanced Techniques Part VI FIGURE 26.26 The Delete Face PropertyManager 7. Hiding the solid leaves the offset surface, and there should be three holes in it. Select one of the edges of the hole indicated in Figure 26.27 and press the Delete key. The Choose Option dialog box appears. Select the Delete Hole option rather than the Delete Feature option. The Delete Hole operation becomes a history-based feature in the model tree. Before moving on to the next step, remember that you may need to turn off the Selection Filter for faces. FIGURE 26.27 Using the Delete Hole option NOTE NOTE Delete Hole is really a surface feature called Untrim. Untrim is discussed more in Chapter 27, but you can use it to restore original boundaries to a surface. 8. Once you delete the hole from the surface body, change the color of the surface body the same way you changed the colors of parts, faces, and features. 787 Modeling Multi-bodies 26 9. Click the surface body in the Surface Bodies folder and either press the Delete key, or select Delete Body from the right-mouse button menu. Then click OK to accept the feature. This places a Delete Body feature in the tree. It keeps the body from getting in the way when it is not needed. This is not a necessary step, but many people choose to use it. TIP TIP If you delete a body in this way and then need it later down the tree, you can delete, suppress, or reorder the Delete Body feature later in the tree. 10. Now show the solid body. You will notice the color of the surface conflicting with the color of the solid. This mottled appearance is due to the small approximations made by the rendering and display algorithms. 11. Initiate the Split feature through the menus at Insert ➪ Features ➪ Split, or on the Features toolbar. Use the surface body to split the solid body. Click the Cut Part button, and select the check boxes in front of both bodies in the list. Click OK to accept the feature. Notice now that the Solid Bodies folder indicates that there are two solid bodies. 12. From the View menu, turn on the display of Temporary Axes. Initiate a Circular Pattern feature, selecting the temporary axis as the axis, and the split-off leg in the Bodies to Pattern selection box. Set it to four instances, as shown in Figure 26.28. FIGURE 26.28 Patterning a body 13. Use the Combine feature to add together all five bodies. You can access this feature through the menus at Insert ➪ Features ➪ Combine. 788 Using Advanced Techniques Part VI Summary Beginning to understand how to work with multiple bodies in SolidWorks opens a gateway to a new world of design possibilities. However, like anything else, not everything is perfect. Like in-context design, multi-body modeling is definitely something that you have to go into with your eyes open. You will experience difficulties when using this technique, but you will also find new possibilities that were not available with other techniques. The key to success with multi-bodies techniques is discipline and circumspection. When using a model with the multi-body approach, make sure that you can identify a reason for doing it this way rather than using a more conventional approach. Also keep in mind the list of applications or uses for multi-body modeling mentioned in this chapter. 789 W ith Surface modeling you build a shape face by face. Faces made by surface features can be knit together to enclose a volume, which can become a solid. With solid modeling, you build all the faces to make the volume at the same time. In fact, solid modeling is really just highly automated surface modeling. Obviously there is more detail to it than that, but that definition will get you started. You can drive a car without knowing how the engine works, but you cannot get the most power possible out of the car by only pressing harder on the gas pedal; you have to get under the hood and make adjustments. In a way, that is what working with surfaces is really all about – getting under the hood and tinkering with the underlying functionality. The goal of most surface modeling is to finish with a solid. Some surface fea- tures make faces that will become faces of the solid, and some surface fea- tures only act as reference geometry. Surface modeling is inherently multi-body modeling, because most surface features do not merge bodies automatically. Why Do You Need Surfaces? In the end, you may never really need surfaces. It is possible to perform workarounds using solids to do most of the things that most users need to do. However, many of these workarounds are inefficient, cumbersome, and raise as many difficulties as they solve. Although you may not view some of the typical things you now do as inefficient and cumbersome, once you see the alternatives, you may change your mind. The goal for this chapter is to introduce surfacing functions to people who do not typically use surfaces, IN THIS CHAPTER Why do you need surfaces? Understanding surfacing terminology What surface tools are available? Using surfacing techniques Tutorial: Working with surfaces Working with Surfaces [...]... Surfaces FIGURE 27.12 Using Replace Face Parting Surface The Parting Surface is part of the SolidWorks Mold Tools The Mold Tools are beyond the scope of this book 805 27 Part VI Using Advanced Techniques Ruled Surface Ruled surfaces are discussed in general in the section on terminology Here I discuss the topic in more detail, and specifically with regard to the SolidWorks interface for creating Ruled... want to replace a part of a face, then you can use a Split line to scribe the face, and then replace the part you want 809 27 Part VI Using Advanced Techniques Figure 27.17 shows that the multiple faces of the letter U on this part have been replaced with a surface from an inserted part Replace Face is a fantastic tool that you can use in a number of situations, although it is a little particular sometimes... in far greater detail You may want to use the SolidWorks Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible (Wiley, 2008) to continue your SolidWorks education in far greater detail and depth Up to Surface/Up to Body Some situations seem to require elaborate workarounds until you think of doing them with a combination of solid and surface features, such as the part shown in Figure 27.14 This geometry could... best applied 795 27 Part VI Using Advanced Techniques FIGURE 27.4 The Boundary Surface PropertyManager For a more detailed look at the primary shape creation tools (sweep, loft, boundary, and fill) and surface modeling in general, please refer to the SolidWorks Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible (Wiley, 2008) Offset Surface The Offset Surface has no solid feature counterpart, but it does in... bottom of cylindrical bosses on a plastic part, using a planar circular edge A good example of this is the bike frame part in the material for Chapter 27 on the CD-ROM, named Chapter 27 – bike frame.SLDPRT 799 27 Part VI Using Advanced Techniques Remember that a planar surface was used in Chapter 26 with the Split feature to split the leg off of an imported part This was more effective than a sketch... PropertyManager for the Mid-surface is shown in Figure 27 .11 Similar to the Planar Surface, you can also use the Mid-surface to create a surface that can be used like a plane No plane type can create a symmetrical plane, but using a Mid-Surface, you can create a symmetrical planar surface between parallel walls 803 27 Part VI Using Advanced Techniques FIGURE 27 .11 The Mid-surface PropertyManager Replace Face... Fill Surface The Fill Surface is one of my favorite tools in SolidWorks I often refer to it as the “magic wand” because it is sometimes amazing what it can do It is alternately referred to by the SolidWorks interface and documentation as either Fill or Filled, depending on where the reference is made You will find it listed as both in the SolidWorks interface The Fill Surface is intended to fill in... one point in the feature tree when a particular face is whole, and reused later when the face has been broken up, but you still need to reference the entire original face An example of this technique is shown in Figure 27.20 In this case, extra material is created around the opening, and a surface that was created in a Rollback state is used to remove it 811 27 Part VI Using Advanced Techniques FIGURE... steps to gain some experience with the Offset Surface: 1 Open the part from the CD-ROM called Chapter 27 – Offset Tutorial.SLDPRT 2 Right-click a curved face of the part and click Select Tangency in the menu 3 With the faces still selected, from the Surfaces toolbar, click Offset Surface, and set the surface to offset to the outside of the part by 060 inches You can tell when the surface is offsetting... is farthest to the right, as shown in Figure 27.22 This is done so that you can see the part underneath the surface, without mistaking the surface for the actual part FIGURE 27.22 Using the Display Pane to change transparency It is a common practice to change surface colors to something that contrasts with the part color I usually use a color like yellow, which suggests temporary status or construction . general, please refer to the SolidWorks Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible (Wiley, 2008). Offset Surface The Offset Surface has no solid feature counterpart, but it does in 3D what. throwaway body somehow remains in the part. Some people use this feature to clean up the organization of the tree, which could be useful if there are many bodies in the part. Other users insist on keeping. Click OK to finish the feature. Figure 26.25 shows the finished part. 785 Modeling Multi-bodies 26 FIGURE 26.25 The finished part Splitting and patterning bodies This tutorial guides you through