Common Support Calls in January '12
Technical Manager, Ed Hawkins shares answers to five of this month's most common support calls...
- Why do curved edges sometimes incorrectly appear as straightened edges within a sheet metal flat pattern?
- Weldment properties in derived parts.
- Default setting of centre dimensions.
- Part name appears red in PDMWorks check-in window.
- How do you add a symmetric relation in sketches?
Within the flat pattern feature there are several additional options available: Right click on the flat pattern feature>edit feature
One of these is “simplify bends” which is on by default. When this option is selected, complex curves in the flat pattern will be replaced by straight lines, sometimes resulting in the oversimplification of the flat pattern. Un-checking this option may resolve this issue.
2. Weldment properties in derived parts.
A lot of people use mirrored parts, and there are a couple of ways to create these. If you are one of the people who use insert>mirror part, you will find that properties from weldment components will not come through. An easy solution to sort this, is to apply a weldment feature to (just click weldment on the weldment toolbar) then your update your cut list. You will find that length and profile information will now come across to the derived part.
3. Default setting of centre dimensions.
In drawings, the default setting under most dimension standards is to maintain a centre alignment for dimension text. This is fine for vertical and horizontal dimensions, but can cause a problem for radii. Specifically when using a foreshortened radius – it does not allow much manipulation of the placement of the text. If you right click on the dimension that is causing the problem and select “display options” you can toggle off centre dimension. This should allow easier placement.
4. Part name appears red in PDMWorks check-in window
A reference listed with red text in the Check In dialog indicates that a duplicate document name of an entirely different document exists in the vault. PDMWorks detects when the document being checked in could be a different document altogether. To avoid potentially overwriting the duplicate document, rename the reference you are about to check in.
5. How do you add a symmetric relation in sketches?
Sometimes you may want to make certain sketch entities symmetrically. To make the symmetric relation appear you need to select the two entities you want symmetrical first, and then select a centreline. You will find that the symmetric relation appears. This is shown in our customer day tips and tricks in the sketching portion here.