Solid model radius not recognized in Annotator

[marcvonams]

I have a sheet metal part with 2 faces at an angle to each other. Connecting these surfaces are fillets, both inside and outside, corresonding to the thickness of the sheet metal. The blend is a constant radius. In OSD I can get a radius off the inside, and likewise in Annotator I can dimension the radius. On the outside radius, I can measure radius, but in Annotator the blend is not recognized, I get a nastygram it is not valid. Any ideas?

[woho]

Try to delete the blends and create
them new in the SheetMetal module.
So you have only to select one edge
and both blends will be created.

[marcvonams]

Thanks for the tip, Woho. Interestlingly, I deleted the inside and outside blends then recreated them, and annotator recognized the outside radius, unlike before. At that point I tried creating a projected reference point in 'tator, but one of my "planar" surfaces may not be planar. The "strait" edge in 'tator isn't recognized. Is there a way to check if a surface is planar? I have measured thickness using point to surface, surface to surface, edge to surface, and they all seem correct.

[woho]

If you try to create blends with the SheetMetal on an edge,
you should get an error (Sheet modify / Create Blend / Edge)
If you want to get an info, if two faces are parallel
you can mesure the angle between the two faces or
look at the direction perpendicular to the two faces.
Regards
WoHo

[fox-myers]

Originally posted by marcvonams
The "strait" edge in 'tator isn't recognized. Is there a way to check if a surface is planar?

In Modeling (i.e. NOT Annotator), left click on the face in question to preselect it. Then right click and select Face Properties. A dialog will pop up that tells you the surface type of the face (e.g. planar, cylindrical, conical, b spline, ...) and the other modifiable settings of the face (i.e. transparency, facet resolution, face color).

Out of curiosity, how have you created your sheet metal part? Did you Machine it, use commands in the Sheets menu or use the Sheet Metal module?

[Mario]

Hi,

can you check whether your initial outer blend was a cylindrical surface.
(same method as Stacy described)
If not, this might have been the problem.

Mario

[marcvonams]

To address the last 2 threads

can you check whether your initial outer blend was a cylindrical surface.?

Initially I have created the model using a 2D profile that had a fillet connecting both inner and outer supposedly straight lines. I changed the model to blends, using create blend. At that time both surfaces radii could be measured. If that's what you mean by cylindrical, then I would say yes it was.


left click on the face in question to preselect it. Then right click and select Face Properties. A dialog will pop up that tells you the surface type of the face (e.g. planar, cylindrical, conical, b spline, ...)

I've customized my right mouse and face properties is no longer on there. Where can I find it in the standard menus? So my follow up question will be, if my surface were, for example, cylindrical, is there any way to convert it to a plane?

[fox-myers]

Originally posted by marcvonams

I've customized my right mouse and face properties is no longer on there. Where can I find it in the standard menus?

With just a quick look around in OSDM, I am not finding a way to get to the Face Properties dialog from a standard menu. So your options are to temporarily reset you preselection pop-up menu for faces or to preselect the face and type in face_prop at the command line. I would recommend that you leave Face Properteries, Part Properties and Edge Properties on the preselection menus. It's quick access to a wealth of information. Some of that info can even be modified from the dialogue box.

Originally posted by marcvonams

So my follow up question will be, if my surface were, for example, cylindrical, is there any way to convert it to a plane?

The only way to do this would be with the align command, which may or may not work due to the part geometry.

HTH!

[marcvonams]

Thanks for the info on face properties, I can already use this info.

[Mario]

marcvonams:
Yes, thats what I meant with cylindrical. If it was not cylindrical it would have been an easy explanation


Referring to face properties:

There is a goody, which adds a new top level menu with various property inquiries (e.g face, edge inquiries).

Just type (load "goodies/prop_menu") on Unix or (load "prop_menu") on NT to
get the new Menu.

For more infos, have a look to the online docu at
<install_dir>/help/Common/documentation/goodies/Readme-0016.html#section-16

Mario

[marcvonams]

Thanks for that tip, Mario. I found face properties in the all commands menu. After adding to my environment, I highlighted my blended face. It was cylindrical. I highlighted my two planar faces and yes, they are planar. I went over to 'tator and one of these faces, seen from the side, will not be recognized! If you can give some advice, I would appreciate it. Next step I will attach a file.

Marc

[marcvonams]

Thanks for the many help suggestions. I fixed the problem in annotator by deleting ALL blends adjacent to the surfaces not projecting the reference point (see attached). Tator wasn;t seeing the planar surfaces becasue it was seeing the edge of the blend! I dimensioned the planar surfaces and the projected point before I created all blends. Once I got the projected reference point, I updated all views. Some dimensions were orphaned but cleaned up easily with change dim vertex. Another victory for the good guys!