Boundary Blend Interface question (WF3)

Hard to believe that anything in Pro/e was ever that simple. But, it's been a few years since I used 2001 and I didn't use it more than a few months at Caterpillar. Or maybe this was just aspect of the interface that I didn't explore.

Don't think so. You can pick a vertex as part of the boundary definition process. But one of the messages points out that only as the first or last curve. So, when you pick a vertex, then pick a curve, it creates a vertex blend, effectively a tri-patch surface. On the other hand, some of what used to happen before WITHIN an interface (the socalled 'on-the-fly' stuff) got transferred to outside, to the the regular datum feature creation mechanisms. You can interrupt feature creation to create, effectively, a curve on the fly. When it asks you to select a curve, just pick the curve creation tool, pick thru points, pick the two vertices, set tangency, OK/DONE, resume the boundary selection and the new curve is selected. Do the same for the third curve. Not a simple selection of vertices to create a curve, but not exactly having to do it first either. Generally, PTC seems to have given up on maintaining the old on the fly features as something completely internal to the features, at least within Dashboard driven functions (those identified with icons in the menus). So, you'll notice sketches turning up in the model tree, even if they weren't created first (which they can be) but which are still reuseable. In fact, from within the boundary blend feature, you can easily create a series of datum features (point/axis/curve) as the foundation of the boundary blend or as a modifying second direction curve. You could start the boundary blend with no curves in place and ctreate them as you went along. More flexibility seems to be part of the motivation for going in this direction. And I certainly appreciate that I don't have to abandon a feature and start over because I forgot to make it a cut instead of a solid (certainly a user driven change from years ago). Others seem to be GUI driven such as prehighlighting, object/action, select first then start some process, such as ^C/^V, or RMB for some popular options that are generally context sensitive. BTW, along these lines, the selection filter (bottom right) gives context sensitive picks for any functions that are converted to Dashboard. When the curve collector is active in the boundary blend tool, the filter has a unique set of selections, including vertex. Very handy tool, as is the search function, things I use constantly and honestly, whatever they replaced, I don't miss.

David Janes

Ahh, thank you. Mostly I was disappointed with the size of my model tree, as half of it was dedicated to these construction features that all amounted to a simple chamfer transition.

I will explore the selection filter and nest my construction features; that should help significantly.

Dave

This was a common complaint of WF and I think WF2 addressed this with some "embedded" functionality. Now the workflow can be as follows: pick a datum, select the extrude tool, RMB 'Create internal sketch' (shich it isn't exactly 'internal', but it is nested under the feature, i.e., doesn't expand the model tree), one which is still reusable. AFAIK, they are still 'tweaking' this aspect of feature creation and WF3 has come up with something else which won't make everyone happy, which will have adherents and detractors. To my way of thinking, it's just the transition blues, happens every time a new rev comes out and every user gets set back. We had it all set up to work just the way we wanted and kablooey, back to square one. Until we master the new version, we feel as vulnerable as novices, like newbies, serving an apprenticeship.... deja vu, all over AGAIN!!!!!

Seems like this gets done in WF2, at least sketches get automatically nested. Don't know to what you refer regarding "a simple chamfer transition". This is a new one on me. A chamfer's a chamfer (and a transition?). Nor do I have any idea of what this has to do with your boundary blend question. Some leap is required; I'm not making it.

David Janes

I didn't provide any information about it.

I have a pair of overlapping plates and chamfers around the contacting edges that represent the welding in my FEA model. Unfortunately the chamfer feature doesn't transition around the corner because it's not a right angle where the edges cross. So I used a boundary blend to make a smooth transition and then solidify.

Dave

On Dec 13, 7:18 pm, "David Janes" wrote: Don't know to what you refer regarding "a simple chamfer