deform examples

We were molding a long, thin part with a U shpaed cross section - imagine a part that's 24" long, 1" wide, and maybe 5/8" deep (that is the direction of the open side of the 'U').

The part was attached to a panel only on the ends - there was no economical way to add a fastener to hold it down in the middle. No big deal if it warped concave (relative to the mating panel) when molded - the middle of the part would be in contact with the panel and the screws on the ends would suck the ends down and the part would lay flat. However, mold-flow analysis showed that the part would warp convex when molded no matter what we did with the gating and cooling. Uh-oh.

It is our policy that we design parts and it is up to the molder to give us those parts to match our prints. But when talking to the mold-maker he was going to cut the file right from out data and we knew that wouldn't work. So we violated our policy a bit and provided him a pre-bent part (using deform) that would then warp back to the part that we wanted in the first place.

Prediactably, the job got killed before we could see how it worked for real. However, mold-flow showed that the bent parts would warp back to flat, and (more useful) cast prototypes from an RTV tool of the bent parts warped back to flat just like we expected.

That was a few years ago. I have not had an occasion to use it since. Ed

BTW, I think Parel had an online tutorial which used deform or flex to change a sculpted handle. Though I do not personally agree with that (I figure model the part you want in the first place) I can't fault anyone for it if it works for them. Ed

matt wrote in news:qvRng.5269$Wh.4189@trnddc04:

We use it to bend/warp/wrap our logo on some items. The feature is very slow to rebuild, so it's always at the end of the tree, and/or left supressed most of the time. For the parts, the tooling in built with a CNC mill, so the logo geometry has to match the surface the way we want the final part to look.

MHill

I've modeled anti-warp into parts, and it's not fun. Sometimes the process is the lead man on the design team.

I don't need to show modeling best practice, I just need to show it working, and I'd rather not do something completely abstract on a block.

Thanks,

Matt

Hmm. Interesting. What type of Deform do you use? I'm most in need of a decent surface push which will shell.

I have used the surface push method on a molded part-very much as Ed described. In this case, the mold got built with the long flat part made `wrong' so it would come out `right'.

It worked.

jk

Thomas Parel's stuff was harder to find than it should have been, thanks for the lead. I agree, I probably wouldn't choose to do things that way either, but it is interesting to see. For other folk's reference, he has a mouse surfacing tutorial from an ID perspective at:

I wonder if he has his own site where he could accumulate things of this sort?

Thomas Parel, are you listening?

Matt

Did you find the drill-handle one he did? That's the one I remember using deform - to add a bend to the handle.

-Ed

No, although I saw the jigsaw cowl handle in the Help file. I only saw the mouse with the deform used on the side ribs. Where is his drill handle?

Matt

Sorry for the late reply. Yeah I have used the deform to massage certain areas of a handle that are made up of multiple surfaces. Ed is right about design intent though. There is no real record in the sketches and dimensions about your construction method. But it can be a quick fix to pump to SLAs or CNC. I dont think I posted a tut anywhere though. It was a quick example that I will try and scrounge up. You can also use it for general proportion changes to a model.

However if you want to see a lot of good ideas on how to use Deform go to

javascript:PopUp('../multimedia/playmovie.asp?m=ring_demo_1_full&t=Design%20Changes:%20Parametric%20Changes%20and%20Zone%20Modeling','600','800','no','yes','no','no','no','no')

Deform is not part of my everyday repertoire. It is iffy and not entirely predictable. The surfaces sometimes wrinkle up depending on how Solidworks calculates the deform or the severity of the curve change. But from time to time it comes in handy.

Parel,

Thanks for the response. I agree about the "iffiness" factor. I just don't get involved in the kind of modeling where the gsm bit makes much sense, but I had to have an example that wasn't just tugging on a block. I think I have something useful now (as an example).

Do you have your own website, or do you just post to those forums?

matt

parel wrote:

javascript:PopUp('../multimedia/playmovie.asp?m=ring_demo_1_full&t=Design%20Changes:%20Parametric%20Changes%20and%20Zone%20Modeling','600','800','no','yes','no','no','no','no')

Here is a quick example. I usually go through curve to curve deformation. It is relatively predictable.

Here is a quick example. I usually go through curve to curve deformation. It is relatively predictable.

matt wrote in news:BxSng.4712$il.745@trnddc03:

We use curve to curve. The logo is normally flat and we wanted to wrap it onto a curved air intake piece.

(small picture)

The part is roto-molded, and the tool is straight from our files. It's not really necessary for the part to shell for manufacturing (they only need the outside surfaces), but in this case, it does.

The deform was not used to shape the tube, that was done with a loft. The deform allowed the logo to wrap to the part as you see in the picture.

MHill

Thats a great use of the deform tool Mhill. You can use original Art and wrap it around the geometry. Neat.