Sean Dalton

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Solid Edge Part Modelling

• Sean Dalton
• www.itsligo.ie/staff/sdalton

2
Features Toolbar

• Select tool
• Sketch tool
• Material Addition
• Material Removal
• Other modelling tools

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Material Addition

• Protrusion
• Revolved Protrusion
• Swept Protrusion
• Lofted Protrusion
• Helical Protrusion
• Rib/Web

4
Material Removal

• Cutout
• Revolved Cutout
• Swept Cutout
• Lofted Cutout
• Helical Cutout
• Hole

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Other Modelling Tools

• Draft (or Taper)
• Thin wall
• Fillet / Chamfer
• Pattern
• Mirror Feature

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Feature Examples
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Sketch Tool

• Select
• Axis of Rev.
• Line
• Arc
• Circle
• Rectangle
• Pattern
• Fillet
• Trim

• Offset
• Include
• Construction
• Mirror
• Smart dimension
• Dimension between
• Connect
• Horizontal/Vertical
• Tangent
• Equal

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Sketch Sub Menus
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Sketch Relationships

• Solid Edge sketches can maintain geometric
  relationships. Geometric relations are
  established
• By automatic detection using intellisketch
  feature.
• By applying geometric relationships to an already
  existing sketch

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Relationship Handles

• Special symbols called handles are used to
  indicate the types of relationships that have
  been applied to sketches. The geometric
  relationship handles are shown below

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Relationship Handles
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Creating Features from sketches
Most features are created using sketches as their
basis There are two basic methods

• Draw sketch I.e to produce the sketch at the time
  of creating the feature or
• NB Sketch will be lost if feature fails
• Select from sketch I.e. select an existing sketch
  created earlier using the sketch tool
• NB The advantage of drawing a sketch in advance
  is that it will not be lost if the feature fails.

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Creating Features from sketches

• To create features
• Sketches may be created at the time of creating
  the feature (2) or
• Prepared in advance using the sketching tool (1)
  then using select from sketch (3)

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Feature creation sequence

• The steps for creating a Base feature and adding
  or removing material with profile/sketch based
  features are listed below.
• Plane Step
• Profile Step
• Side Step
• Extent Step
• Finish Step
• Note Before the Finish button is clicked, any
  step can be edited by clicking the appropriate
  button on the SmartStep ribbon bar. After the
  Finish button is clicked, any step can be edited
  by selecting the feature, clicking the Edit
  button on the ribbon bar

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Plane Step

• Defines a plane that is used to draw the profile
  on. An existing plane can be selected or a new
  one created. Plane creation and selection
  controls are added to the SmartStep ribbon bar
  when the Plane step is active.

• Coincident plane (workplane or face)
• Parallel plane
• Angled plane
• Perpendicular plane
• Plane normal to curve

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Profile Step

• Allows the drawing of a profile or the selection
  of a profile from a sketch. A profile is a
  collection of 2-D lines, arcs and curves that
  defines the shape and location of the feature. To
  create a base feature, the profile must be
  closed.

• Draw sketch
• Select from sketch

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Side Step

• Defines the side of the profile to add material
  to or remove material from. The side step is not
  needed for protrusions where the profile is
  closed or when constructing the base feature.

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Extent Step

• Defines the depth of the feature or the distance
  to extend the profile to construct the feature.
  The extent options are

• Through All,
• Through Next,
• From/To, and
• Finite distance.

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Finish Step

• Hides the profile and completes construction of
  the feature based on the input provided in the
  previous steps.
• Note Before the Finish button is clicked, any
  step can be edited by clicking the appropriate
  button on the SmartStep ribbon bar.
• After the Finish button is clicked, any step can
  be edited by selecting the feature, clicking the
  Edit button on the ribbon bar

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Feature Path Finder

• Feature PathFinder helps you, select and work
  with the features that make up Solid Edge parts.
  Modes include

• Select. To allow renaming or modification of
  features
• Reorder. To allow the sequence of operations to
  be rearranged
• Play back. To view an animation of the
  construction process.
• Go to. To enable to user to go to an earlier
  stage in the construction process.

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Reorder mode

• Reorder mode allows a feature to be moved to a
  different position in the construction process.
• E.g Shelling before or after adding a hole.

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Effect of reorder on Piston Design

• Thin walling followed by hole creation
• Hole creation followed by thin walling

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Playback mode

• Playback, displays controls for playing back the
  feature construction process either in single
  step of continuous mode.

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Goto mode

• If you select a feature in goto mode,
  PathFinder returns the part to the its state at
  the the time the feature was created.
• You can then insert a new feature as if it had
  been constructed at that point in the part
  modeling process.

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Legend

• Suppressed feature
• Feature that is past the current "go to"
  location, and therefore not displayed in the part
  windows
• Failed feature (see the To Do list for details)
• Feature with a profile problem (select the
  feature in Feature PathFinder and see the status
  bar for details)
• Feature linked to another document