API: How have you handled Feature direction

I don't get it. How does SW decide which way to extrude, revolve, cut, etc. How do you inteligently decide when to flip the direction while automating. I have tried to use the sketches z coordinates for a positive direction but it only works 60%. Is there a way to KNOW. Has anyone out there successfully handled this. Thanks in advance.

Corey Scheich

Reply to
Corey Scheich
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Corey, have you checked if the direction correlates to the sketch construction face or plane normal?

Best Regards,

Reply to
Robert Hanson

Robert is correct : the feature is created according to the sketch face or refplane normal... For some strange reasons, some sketches are "flipped" with respect to their support. However, it may be quicker to create a feature, then check if it is ok, otherwise try again in the flipped direction...

Reply to
Philippe Guglielmetti

does an extrude go normal. and cut would go reverse normal. this is how i would see it working.

Reply to
Sean Phillips

I guess I was assof-u-n-ming that the PlaneNormal would be the same as the sketch on that plane.

I'll check into that over the weekend.

What about a cut. Say you sketch a single line strait through a part and add a cut feature how does it decide which side of the line to keep.

Reply to
Corey Scheich

I was assuming the same, and had bad experiences with derived sketches, which tend to "flip" more or less randomly...

Reply to
Philippe Guglielmetti

I ended up staying away from this, but only because I use configurations. If you change the direction in one config, the others will follow :/

Reply to
rocheey

Ok over the weekend I noticed that in a revolve the direction is dependant on the positive direction of the line you are using to revolve, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with sketch or plane normals. I am going to come up with something to help decide which way a sketch is going to revolve I will post it when I am finished.

Corey Scheich

Reply to
Corey Scheich

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