Protrusion from Sketch - not working properly

[ryandias]

I am trying to model a Printed Circuit Board.

It is quite a complicated circuit board, and has 200+ components mounted to it.

I AM ONLY MODELING THE PCB - not talking about the assembly.

I imported a sketch from the pcb design software, and began extruding pads along the surface of the pcb. This works fine at first. I use Protrusion > from sketch > selecting SINGLE entities with a fence.

As the board got to about 80% of the top surface. The selection/protrusion began just ignoring my selections and not working. Some times it goes straight back to the "selection" menu rather then the extrusion extent menu.

Attached is a picture link. The white portions are where the protrusions worked. (30 steps - would not work as just one step??) The blue outlines that are still green toward the center on top are the ones that fail to work.

Unfortunately the file is 18Mb and Probably isn't easy to share. PS I had 1 Gb memory when i tried on friday, now i had 3Gb. Still no go~!?

 

[swertel]

WOW! That seems like a lot of effort. What the end result benefit?

If I'm seeing the picture clearly, there are only about 3 areas of rectangular pads that haven't been extruded. It seems like simple enough geometry that you should be able to select those entities, so I'm guessing that there is a slight error in the translation from the PCB design software.

Rather than "select from sketch" for your extrusions, try creating a new sketch on the parts surface and then use the "INCLUDE" command to select that geometry. When you include it, you will get all the implied constraints with the geometry and should be able to determine if
1) all the endpoints are connected creating a closed profile
2) you won't have any overlapping sketch elements
3) you can include only the lines that you want to make sure it works, then edit the extrusion to include more lines within one feature if you want. This will help you troubleshoot the specific area that may be failing.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[ryandias]

been exploring the sketch (base geometry) and it seems this region have two sets of lines. Is there any easy way to fence select and delete only one set?

 

[EricatNordic]

Change from single to chain and see if it picks all the way around the pads profile, it may not be completely connected for some reason. Otherwise display the constraints in the sketch and make sure they are all touching at the ends.