CADD SOLUTION

Pro E–Top Down Design With 4 Bar Mechanism

noreply@blogger.com (sak) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:05:00 +0000

Following traditional top-down design technique for assembly with moving components has been difficult in the past. Usually some variability is built in the skeleton to simulate motion. Unfortunately this does not allow the usage of mechanism/dynamics to study the motion of the assembly.

With the introduction of motion skeletons in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 this issue has been resolved. This short example will give you an idea on how to get started with Motion Skeletons.

The goal is to build Figure 1 with full mechanism constraints, based off a skeleton that will define the length of all the links. At any given point the skeleton can be changed to adjust the lengths, but the mechanism needs to be maintained.

Figure 1

The skeleton for something like this would look like Figure 2. Basically it is a simple sketch that defines the lengths of all the links. The angle in this case was needed to properly constrain the sketch. It is meaningless as far as the mechanism is concerned, although it can be used to define the start position of the mechanism.

Figure 2

Let’s begin:

Create a new empty assembly
Create a new component and select the Skeleton Model Type and chooseMotion for Sub-Type (Figure 3)

Figure 3

Choose a standard start assembly to Copy From (Figure 4)

Figure 4

Now we need to create the base skeleton. Activate the motion skeleton as shown in Figure 5 and create a new component. In this case chooseStandard as this will be our reference for the bodies. Choose a standard start part as a template for the new skeleton. (Figure 6)

Figure 5

Figure 6

The model tree will look like Figure 7. Open the just created skeleton as shown.

Figure 7

Create a sketch as shown in Figure 8

Figure 8

Return to the main assembly and Activate the MOTION_SKEL_4BAR skeleton. (Figure 9) Create a new component and select Body as the Sub-type. Name it BODY_GROUND. (Figures 10) This represents the fixed link at the bottom.Figure 8 shows it as the blue link.

Figure 9

Figure 10

This brings up a dialog box. (Figure 11) Select the bottom curve as the Chain reference. This will automatically create a copy of this curve into the BODY_GROUND part. The first component created is always designated as ground. (Figure 12)

Figure 11

Figure 12

The model tree should look like Figure 13 this at this point

Figure 13

With the MOTION_SKEL_4BAR Activated create a new Component>Body. Name it BODY1. Ensure that you use a Start Part selected in the next dialog box. (Figure 14)

Figure 14

Now we reach the point where we define our first moving body. The dialog box shown in Figure 15 asks us to select a chain reference. This will become the skeleton for the first link.

Figure 15

Once the curve is selected click on the Update button. Notice that it automatically recognized a Pin joint between the ends of the two curves. (Figure 16) Sometimes this assumption is not the desired connection type. In this case select the Invoke component placement dialog radio box. This will bring up the standard assembly dialog dashboard and you can choose any type of constraint at that point. (Figure 17)

Figure 16

Figure 17

As before, with the MOTION_SKEL_4BAR Activated create a newComponent>Body for the other two bodies. Name the bodies BODY2 & BODY3 respectively. (Figure 18)

Figure 18

The model tree should look like Figure 19 this at this point. Now we are ready to create the parts.
Activate the top level assemble (tip: Ctrl-A is a quick short cut for this)

Figure 19

Create a new component. (Figure 20) Now we are creating a Solid Part. Notice that there is a new selection at the bottom called Attach Component to Body. Select this option and choose the BODY_GROUND part. (Figure 21)

Figure 20

Figure 21

Open this new part. You will notice that an External merge is added to the model. (Figure 22) This is an automatic copy geometry from theBODY_GROUND.prt. Notice it contains the curve and the two axes that were also automatically created for the pin joints. (Figure 23) This geometry can be used as a reference to create features such Protrusions.

Figure 22

Figure 23

Create the solid link as shown in Figure 24, using the curve and axes as sketching references
Create a new component, as above from Figure 20, for the other links

Figure 24

The resulting assembly should look like Figure 25. Experiment with the motion using the Drag command . (Figure 26)

Figure 25

Figure 26

Now you can experiment by changing the dimensions of the skeleton. Edit the sketch located in the DESIGN_SKEL.prt. Change the 2” dimension to a 6” and regenerate. (Figures 27 & 28)

Figure 27

Figure 28

The assembly regenerates and the mechanism is preserved (Figure 29)

Figure 29

This simple example demonstrates how Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 automates the creation of mechanism connections using motion-skeletons and Top-Down design techniques.

Related Keywords:

Pro E–Top Down Design With 4 Bar Mechanism, Pro E–Top Down Design,4- Bar Mechanism,Pro E Top Down Design Tutorial, Tip For 4 bar Mechanism

Auto Round in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0

noreply@blogger.com (sak) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:47:00 +0000

TIPS: (New Feature) Auto Round in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0

Version: ProE Wildfire4.0

The approach of this new feature is similar to the “allow_round_all” hidden config.pro for ProE 2001, Wildfire, Wildfire2.0 and Wildfire3.0

1. Open a part file which you want to remove all its sharp edge.

2. Activate the Insert > Auto Round command from the top menu.

3. The new auto round dashboard appears.

You can set different radius dimension for the convex round and concave round. The left text field is for convex round and the right for concave.
Convex: curving outward, outside curvature.
Remove material thru the rounds feature in Pro/ENGINEER.
Concave: curving inward, inside curvature.
Add material thru the round feature in Pro/ENGINEER
Other controls in Auto Round Dashboard.

4. When you are done, hit the check icon to proceed. The auto round player appears to indicate the progress of the auto round. Please note that the time needed to apply auto round will depends on the complexity of a part.

The image below shows the part with the completed auto round feature.

** Auto Round is an intelligent feature. Objects with size smaller than the round radius will be skipped in the auto round process. See image below.

Ten Reasons Why you should use CAD rather Than Manual Drafting Read more:

noreply@blogger.com (sak) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:36:00 +0000

The full form of CAD is Computer Aided Design. There are many reasons why CAD is used rather than manual drafting; the ten most important among them are discussed below.

Three Dimensional Modeling: Creating 3D models manually is a very difficult and tiresome job. 3D CAD packages have many more powerful features for creating the 3D models easily.
Easy to Modify: Modifying the CAD geometry is easy; you will always have “copy”, “cut”, “paste”, “delete”, “move” or some similar editing options available with each of the packages.
Easy to Reproduce: Draftsmen used to take days to complete a drawing by manual drafting, and reproducing the drawing meant recreating the drawing from the beginning. But, in case of the CAD, you can reproduce the drawing in no time and make as many copies as you want.
Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM): The 3D CAD geometry is used as input for the CAM packages for generating NC codes. The manual drawings cannot be used for CAM packages.
Computer Aided Engineering (CAE): The 3D CAD geometry is used as input for the CAE packages. The CAE packages can simulate the loading conditions and tell whether the CAD geometry can withstand the real loading or not. The drawings created manually cannot be used for CAE.
Simulation of the Mechanisms: The 3D CAD geometry can be used for simulating the mechanism, thus you can check the functionality of a machine without investing in prototype building. Manual drawings cannot be used for mechanism simulation.
Database Creation: The CAD files can be used to create a PDM/PLM database. Once created, the CAD database can be accessed through a wide area network. The drawings created by manual drafting can only be stored locally.
Logical: CAD models or geometry entities are logically connected, or in other words you cannot create a CAD model which is not possible practically. The drawings created by the manual drafting method do not have such checks, and you can create anything.
Environment Friendly: Manual drawings are necessarily created on paper, but the CAD drawings can be stored and used electronically without using paper.
Access Control: Some of the drawings and design documents are very crucial for a company’s business, and such drawings should not be accessible to all. Providing access controls of such drawings are easy for the CAD drawings, and the access level can be defined for each CAD drawings. Strict access control and maintaining confidentiality is difficult for the manual drawings.

Disc Coil Spring using Curve from Equation in Pro/ENGINEER

noreply@blogger.com (sak) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 12:37:00 +0000

TUTORIAL: Disc Coil Spring using Curve from Equation in Pro/ENGINEER

Version: Pro/E 2001, Wildfire, Wildfire2.0, Wildfire3.0, wildfire4.0

Datum Curve from Equation tool is to be used when you want to create a disc coil spring / planar spring in Pro/ENGINEER. We are going to create a datum curve from equation as the trajectory and then apply a sweep thru the spiral curve.

1. Create a new Solid Part file. From the tools icon, click the create datum curve icon .

2. In the pops-up menu manager, choose From Equation and Done to proceed.

3. The Curve: From Equation dialog box appears and you are requested to select a coordinate system (CSYS). Select a Csys from the display.

4. You will need to define the Csys Type. For this tutorial, choose Cylindrical in the menu manager and proceed to the next step.

5. Next, a Notepad window appears for you to input the Equation. You can write any mathematical equation to model the desire curve. For a spiral curve sit on a planar, the following equation is being use

R = 50 + t * (120)
Theta = t * 360 * 5
Z = 0

6. You can substitute the values accordingly to design your own disc coil spring. The figure below may help you to understand the equation better.

7. When you are done, click OK on the Curve: From Equation dialog box to confirm. The spiral curve should appear in your display by now.

After all, you can use the sweep feature to complete the disc coil spring.

TIPS: Reduce Pro/ENGINEER File Size by using the compress_output_files config.pro option

noreply@blogger.com (sak) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 12:24:00 +0000

TIPS: Reduce Pro/ENGINEER File Size by using the compress_output_files config.pro option

Version: ProE 2001, Wildfire, Wildfire 2.0, Wildfire 3.0, Wildfire 4.0

compress_output_files config.pro option allows you to compress object files via the save command. ProE object files that supported the compression are ProE Part file (.prt), ProE Assembly file (.asm) and ProE Drawing file (.drw). The extension for the compress object files will remain after compression and it is fully compatible across systems.

compress_output_files
Yes - Saves object files in compressed format.
No - Saves object files in non compressed format.

The default value for compress_output_files is no*. Setting to yes will cause longer saving and opening time. The file size that you can save is up to 50% of the original file size.
I did 2 quick tests on this configuration option and the results are shown below:
A 1938 KB ProE Part file (.prt) is saved and the compressed file size is 1781 KB. (8.1% of compression)
A 114 KB ProE Drawing file (.drw) is saved and the compressed file size is 64 KB. (43.9% of compression)
Saving and opening time for the compressed files are a bit longer compared to non compressed files. However, the delayed time is less than a second in my test.

TIPS: Where are the Files for Intralink Workspace is stored in my Local Disk?

noreply@blogger.com (sak) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 12:02:00 +0000

TIPS: Where are the Files for Intralink Workspace is stored in my Local Disk?

Versions: Pro/INTRALINK 3.2, Pro/INTRALINK 3.3, Pro/INTRALINK 3.4

All the files for Intralink workspace are stored in the .proi folder in your local disk. These including the Pro/E files in Intralink workspace, configuration files, Intralink Frames file, local ddb file etc.
You can set the location of the .proi folder by adding the PDM_LDB_PATH system variable to your workstation.

1. Open the system properties dialog box from Control Panel > System. Go to the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.

2. In the Environment Variables dialog box, click the New button under the system variables category.

3. Next, add the system variable name and its value as shown below.
PDM_LDB_PATH Desire folder

When you are done, hit the Ok button to accept the new setting.

* Before you add this system variable to your system, please check in all the objects in the Intralink workspace and backup the relevant files from your

AutoCAD Keyboard ShortCut Key’s

noreply@blogger.com (sak) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 05:10:00 +0000

Here is a list of the shortcuts that can be used in AutoCAD (or ACA)…

List of using Alt Key’s Shorcuts

ALT+F8 VBA Run
ALT+F11 VBA Editor

List of using Function Key’s Shorcuts

F1    Displays Help
F2    Toggles text window on/off
F3    Toggles OSNAP
F4    Toggles TABMODE
F5    Toggles ISOPLANE
F6    Toggles COORDS
F7    Toggles GRIDMODE
F8    Toggles ORTHO MODE
F9    Toggles SNAP MODE
F10    Toggles POLAR
F11    Toggles OTRACK

List of using CTRL Key’s

CTRL+1        Properties Palette
CTRL+2        DesignCenter Palette
CTRL+3        Tool Palette
CTRL+4        Sheet Set Manager Palette
CTRL+5        Info Palette
CTRL+6        DBConnect Manager
CTRL+7        Markup Set Manager Palette
CTRL+A        Selects objects in drawing
CTRL+B        Toggles Snap
CTRL+C        Copies objects to Clipboard
CTRL+SHFT+C    Copies objects to Clipboard with Base Point
CTRL+D        Toggles coordinate display
CTRL+E        Cycles through isometric planes
CTRL+F        Toggles running object snaps
CTRL+G        Toggles Grid
CTRL+H        Toggles PICKSTYLE on/off
CTRL+J        Executes last command
CTRL+K        Hyperlink
CTRL+L        Toggles Ortho mode
CTRL+M        (No action)
CTRL+N        Creates a new drawing
CTRL+O        Opens existing drawing
CTRL+P        Prints current drawing
CTRL+Q        Exit
CTRL+R        Cycles layout viewports
CTRL+S        Saves current drawing
CTRL+SHFT+S    Saveas
CTRL+T        Toggles Tablet mode
CTRL+V        Pastes data from Clipboard
CTRL+SHFT+V    Pastes data from Clipboard as Block
CTRL+X        Cuts objects to Clipboard
CTRL+Y        Repeats last action
CTRL+Z        Reverses last action
CTRL+[        Cancels current command
CTRL+\        Cancels current command

List of using Command Key Shorcuts

3A      3DARRAY
3DO   3DORBIT
3DW   3DWALK
3F       3DFACE
3M      3DMOVE
3P       3DPOLY
3R       3DROTATE
A         ARC
AC      BACTION
ADC    ADCENTER
AA      AREA
AL      ALIGN
3AL    3DALIGN
AP      APPLOAD
AR      ARRAY
-AR    -ARRAY
ATI     ATTIPEDIT
ATT    ATTDEF
-ATT -ATTDEF
ATE     ATTEDIT
-ATE   -ATTEDIT
ATTE   -ATTEDIT
B          BLOCK
-B       -BLOCK
BC       BCLOSE
BE       BEDIT
BH      HATCH
BO      BOUNDARY
-BO    -BOUNDARY
BR       BREAK
BS        BSAVE
BVS      BVSTATE
C          CIRCLE
CAM    CAMERA
CH       PROPERTIES
-CH     CHANGE
CHA    CHAMFER
CHK     CHECKSTANDARDS
CLI       COMMANDLINE
COL     COLOR
CO       COPY
CP        COPY
CT        CTABLESTYLE
CYL      CYLINDER
D          DIMSTYLE
DAL      DIMALIGNED
DAN      DIMANGULAR
DAR      DIMARC
JOG       DIMJOGGED
DBA      DIMBASELINE
DBC      DBCONNECT
DC        ADCENTER
DCE      DIMCENTER
DCO     DIMCONTINUE
DDA      DIMDISASSOCIATE
DDI        DIMDIAMETER
DED       DIMEDIT
DI           DIST
DIV         DIVIDE

DJL          DIMJOGLINE
DJO         DIMJOGGED
DL           DATALINK
DLI          DIMLINEAR
DLU        DATALINKUPDATE
DO          DONUT
DOR        DIMORDINATE
DOV        DIMOVERRIDE
DR           DRAWORDER
DRA        DIMRADIUS
DRE        DIMREASSOCIATE
EL             ELLIPSE
ER             EXTERNALREFERENCES
EX             EXTEND
EXIT          QUIT
EXP           EXPORT
EXT           EXTRUDE
F                FILLET
FI               FILTER
G              GROUP
-G            -GROUP
GD             GRADIENT
GR             DDGRIPS
H               HATCH
-H             -HATCH
HE             HATCHEDIT
HI              HIDE
I                 INSERT
-I                -INSERT
IAD            IMAGEADJUST
IAT             IMAGEATTACH
ICL             IMAGECLIP
IM               IMAGE
-IM             -IMAGE
IMP             IMPORT
IN               INTERSECT
INF             INTERFERE
IO               INSERTOBJ
J                  JOIN
L                LINE
LA             LAYER
-LA           -LAYER
LAS           LAYERSTATE
LE             QLEADER
LEN           LENGTHEN
LI               LIST
LO             -LAYOUT
LS              LIST
LT              LINETYPE
-LT           -LINETYPE
LTS            LTSCALE
LW             LWEIGHT
M               MOVE
MA            MATCHPROP
MAT          MATERIALS
ME             MEASURE
MI              MIRROR
ML             MLINE
MLA          MLEADERALIGN

MLC          MLEADERCOLLECT
MLD          MLEADER
MLE           MLEADEREDIT
MLS           MLEADERSTYLE
MO            PROPERTIES
MS             MSPACE
MSM          MARKUP
MT             MTEXT
MV             MVIEW
O               OFFSET
OP             OPTIONS
ORBIT        3DORBIT
OS              OSNAP
-OS            -OSNAP
P                 PAN
-P               -PAN
PA               PASTESPEC
PE                PEDIT
PL                PLINE
PO               POINT
POL             POLYGON
PR                PROPERTIES
PROPS         PROPERTIES
PRE              PREVIEW
PRINT          PLOT
PS                 PSPACE
PSOLID        POLYSOLID
PTW             PUBLISHTOWEB
PU                PURGE
-PU              -PURGE
PYR              PYRAMID
QC               QUICKCALC
QCUI            QUICKCUI
R                   REDRAW
RA                REDRAWALL
RC                RENDERCROP
RE                 REGEN
REA              REGENALL
REC              RECTANG
REG              REGION
REN              RENAME
-REN            -RENAME
REV               REVOLVE
RO                ROTATE
RP                 RENDERPRESETS
RPR               RPREF
RR                 RENDER
RW                RENDERWIN
S                    STRETCH
SC                 SCALE
SCR               SCRIPT
SE                  DSETTINGS
SEC                SECTION
SET                SETVAR
SHA               SHADEMODE
SL                  SLICE
SN                 SNAP
SO                 SOLID

SP                  SPELL
SPL                SPLINE
SPLANE        SECTIONPLANE
SPE                SPLINEDIT
SSM               SHEETSET
ST                  STYLE
STA               STANDARDS
SU                 SUBTRACT
T                   MTEXT
-T                -MTEXT
TA               TABLET
TB                TABLE
TH               THICKNESS
TI                 TILEMODE
TO               TOOLBAR
TOL             TOLERANCE
TOR            TORUS
TP               TOOLPALETTES
TR               TRIM
TS               TABLESTYLE
UC              UCSMAN
UN              UNITS
-UN            -UNITS
UNI             UNION
V                 VIEW
-V               -VIEW
VP                DDVPOINT
-VP              VPOINT
VS                VSCURRENT
VSM             VISUALSTYLES
-VSM           -VISUALSTYLES
W                  WBLOCK
-W                -WBLOCK
WE                WEDGE
X                   EXPLODE
XA                XATTACH
XB                 XBIND
-XB               -XBIND
XC                XCLIP
XL                XLINE
XR                XREF
-XR            -XREF
Z                  ZOOM