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View Full Version : expanding geometry of a part or assembly


ronp102
09-03-2003, 12:03 PM
Sorry for such a routine question, but I am new to this software and I don't really get to use it very much. I have a real basic question that I can't seem to figure out with the books that I have on it. I needed to increase the overall dimensions of an assembly and it's associated parts. I know that you can use the copy and paste command in the modify 3d menu, but I am not exactly sure how to use it correctly. One of the main problems that I have is expanding the qeometry of the parts and keeping the details of the overall part. (example: I know how to exend the side of a part but the detail on the adjacent side or top is not included). I am just looking for the easiest way to do this. thanks for any help.
Ron

May Kung
09-03-2003, 02:43 PM
By expanding the part, do you mean equally increasing the size of features in all "outwards" from the original? The Offset command would work for this (it's under the Modify 3D menu).

ronp102
09-04-2003, 05:08 AM
May:
Thank you for replying to my question so fast. Let me expand on my problem a little. I want to increase the length of a part and this part has quite a bit of detail on the top profile. if I use the offset command to increase the length, will i not lose the detail of the top profile?

May Kung
09-04-2003, 10:14 AM
In that case, you should be able to select all the faces that make up the top profile you want to preserve, then use the Move 3D command to move them all en masse. This is also under the Modify 3D menu.

Jim McKim
09-04-2003, 01:59 PM
One trick you can use, if you don't want to try selecting all the details on the end face, is to make a copy of the part, move the copy the desired distance, then make a profile tool that can be used to punch away the end of the original part and stamp the end of the copy. Then unite the copy to the original. With the right choice of a profile and 'keep' and 'no_keep' options on the machining commands, this can be done very quickly. It's probably not a good choice if there is a dimensioned drawing linked to the model, as you may lose associativity on many of the dimensions.

Clever use of the 'Select' tool options may make it easy to select all the faces on the end of the part. Then you can use the Move 3D command (not Offset) to move them all by the same vector.