Making a Feature Follow a Drafted Surface

Make the tabs longer. Start them at the inside edge so when they extrude down, they stay in the material.

Am I misunderstanding? If you want the tabs to be co-planar with or parallel to the drafted sides why are you extruding from a plane that is not perpendicular to the drafted sides?

The problem is, one would think, quite simple. Communicating it or the solution verbally may be more difficult. You might try posting the model to mcadcentral.com (scads of fellow newbies) and asking someone to explain or show you how to go about it if above doesn't solve the riddle.

(Just for the record; is 'new to pro/e' an understatement? If you are 'new to solid modeling' say so and help those that would offer assistance put things in perspective.)

I might have shared your problem, Jeff. By the time I'd read the question through 3 times, I had about 6 different pictures of the model and modelling problem. ( I'm still in favor of comp.cad.pro-e as a binary NG ~ absolutely incredible that we vainly try to communicate [mostly quite lamely] visual problems with words while we have no poets, no wordsmisths who could do a more credible job. Guys., we've tackled a singularity: the verbally impossible picture; the visually impossible words ~ what would you prefer to judge/evaluate/troubleshoot by? words or pictures with a little verbal enhancement? presently we have words alone, seems lame for 3D visual model advocates [worthathousand.com]).

Mainly I envisioned this as a sheet metal part. 'Tabs' to me indicated flanges off the sides, parallel with a top/bottom surface. I mean, that is what a shelled box sounds like. And drafted sides? No biggy for sheet metal. Also, many tricky features in Pro/e benefit from surfacing. That difficult drafted, ribbed, flanged box turns to nothing with surfaces which will simply 'thicken', effortlessly. Haven't seen the design so can't say authoritatively, but I run into people all the time making impossible solid parts that should have been done, so much more simply, with surfacing.

David Janes

David Janes wrote:>

What he describes makes sense to me, and I wish I had such problems ;-)

You want your features in the following order: 1. Box. 2 draft 3. Shell

1. tabs. Use the inside edge of your box as the 4th side of your tab. As someone else said, it will disappear inside the solid.