×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Obrounds - any progress?

Obrounds - any progress?

Obrounds - any progress?

(OP)
I've been reading collected messages here and found quite a few workarounds, but I'm still annoyed that anyone has to do any working around... or maybe I just haven't found the right icon in SW 2009.0.0.

What's annoying me is that it's fairly simple to _model_ an obround of arbitrary size, using the obround generator in the sketcher, but dimensioning it in a drawing is another matter entirely.

SW will put in a center mark, but only if the obround hasn't been distorted (and internally decomposed, I guess) by running partially into a bend in a sheetmetal part.  Okay, you can pick the midpoint of the straight lines and sketch in a center mark... but you shouldn't have to.

Now, how to dimension over the arcs?  Any suggestions for that?

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

"Now, how to dimension over the arcs?  Any suggestions for that?"

Are you dimensioning the flattened or formed state views?

Was the obround placed between unfold and fold features?

Are you using the Insert > Model Items or manual method for dimension placement?

A screenshot would help.

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

(OP)
Dimensioning in formed state.
No unfold/fold used.
I'm dimensioning the drawing.
I had some luck drawing in circles, putting centerlines across their quadrants, then erasing the circles and dimensioning the centerlines.

Luckily, it doesn't have to be a finished drawing.
I'm working from someone else's 2D AutoCAD drawings to generate 3D solid models from which I can export DXF files for the blanks.  I've been generating and dimensioning the drawings as a way to check the model against the DWG files.

Yes, I could import the AutoCAD files and use the 2D to 3D tools to make models, and save some time... except that whoever generated the DWGs put some traps in them.  

{
For one, the objects in the drawings are just inaccurate enough to produce parts that would fail inspection to the drawings.  The errors are too systematic to attribute to sloppy drafting.  Perhaps the drawings were filtered by a script of some kind to discourage exactly what I'm doing.  Clever and sneaky.  I admire stuff like that.
}

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

"I could import the AutoCAD files and use the 2D to 3D tools to make models, and save some time"
I very much doubt that you would save time. I've always found it quicker to redraw in SW ... because of the traps you mention, which seem to nearly always exist in ACAD drawings.

The errors might be caused by the SW importing process, but are often caused by sloppy drawing practices or by ACAD just failing to create correct connections.

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

How are you creating the obround features?

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of these Forums?

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

(OP)
Extruded Cut on the Sheetmetal toobar,
then Centerpoint Straight Slot on sketch toolbar.

I noticed Design Library| features| Sheetmetal, but that doesn't seem to have a simple obround slot in it.  Okay, it might; even the 'large' icons are too damn small.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

Try Design Library > Features > Inch (or Metric) > Slots.

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

(OP)
Tried   Design Library > Features > Inch > Slots.

First impression:  Works okay.

Second impression:  Brain-damaged.

Okay, I didn't notice the push-pin, so I did three separate slots to get an array.  

Tried linear pattern using a design library slot as an exemplar; that didn't work.

Tried entering "11.84+1.84" as the X coordinate of the third slot; the field is truncated, and wouldn't accept the last digit, so the slot location is wrong by .04".  
Okay, it did make one of those aggravating 'clank' noises to warn me.  If I were running with sound off (my company doesn't provide speakers) I wouldn't have noticed.  

Now I have to break out the calculator.
Yes, I can do math in my head; it's wrong just often enough that I avoid it if at all possible.  

Being able to enter an expression instead of number is a nice feature; why is it messed up by field size limiting and truncation in this corner of SW?

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

(OP)
One more set of slots:

I hit the pushpin.
It remembered the slot size, only.
Why did I have to reselect the plane?
Why did I have to reselect both reference edges?
Why did it use default coordinates again, instead of offering the coordinates I had?  




 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

(OP)
The Design Library slot didn't make dimensioning easier, either.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

Can you post the part and drawing (or similar mock-up) to show what you are trying to do? Even a hand drawn sketch would help.

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

Which obrounds are causing you grief?
I don't see any which are 'distorted' by a bend?

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

(OP)
Oops.  Wrong part.  This one has good edge distances.

Sorry.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

(OP)
... The edge distance matter is sort of taken care of, i.e., I've found a workaround that looks halfway decent for obrounds that have been distorted or destroyed.

That leaves my original question/complaint:  Given that SW maintains some internal knowledge that a small collection of lines and arcs _is_ an obround, why can't it give me pick points at the centroid and at the quadrants on the end, so I can dimension it quickly?

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

Hold the Shift key down when picking the obround arc and the dimension will snap to the quadrant points.

RE: Obrounds - any progress?

(OP)
Thanks.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources