Member postings for Lionel Pullum

Thanks Jason that will certainly speed things up, although most parts are then also rotated or lofted, but it will definately speed things up.

Thanks David. I guess I'll have to stop being so lazy, and recreate the parts mounted on a plate- I'm creating a mould plate for a flexible mould, and was hoping to recycle the parts

Joining parts. Is there a way to join to previously defined parts together in AA3D? I want to fuse some parts so that I can then shell the resulting solid. I tried assembling the parts together and then saving as a step file, hoping that might work, but it still opens in the assembly workspace with seperate parts. I see in the full blown package there is a Boolean assembly tool, I dont think that this is available in AA3D. Any ideas

Thanks Jason

Thats obviously a mu ch better workaround for the ellipse issue

Hi guys

I think I have found a possible bug in AA3D. I'm trying to fillet a cutout made from lines and ellipse segments, but I cannot select the elipse segment, see the attached figure. Fortunately the workaround is fairly simple, just create a circle the same radius as your filet, constrain it to be tangent to the required lines and trim, as shown. However if this is a bug can it be put on the bug list and addressed

BTW David, thanks for the info about spline input, I was in the middle of nowhere (Australia is large) and could not access the web

Hi Guys

Is there a way in AA3D to create a user function, like cos(x), so that you can draw a line defined by this user function? I cannot see how to do this with the equation editor as that only appears to create a single value. Or is there a way of importing a set of coordinates, from Excel say, for use with the spline function in the 2D modelling mode, rather than entering a load of points and then having to seperately dimension each point? Or is there another way that I'm completely missing?

Thanks

Lionel

Ha David, you beat me to it, and how did you add that graphic?

This is not an option in Atom3d. The System Options under All workspaces are General, Sketching and Mouse Interaction only, whereas under Keyboard shortcuts in the on-line help is is pictured as General, Sketching, Keyboard Shortcuts and Mouse Interaction. Pressing the Home key on my PC does nothing either.

BTW does anybody know how to include screen dumps or images from the clipbqoard, I can only see how to add a file or from a URL, which sure makes describing a graphics package cumbersom

Just a tip or two on creating custom templates for drawing sheets etc. To create a custom template follow the help file entry "Changing custom templates" to create your version. You are then free to modify this to include what you do and don't need. But the method to create fields in the description block on your drawing as described in the on-line, is not supported in AA3D. Do not despair, you can get around this with a simple copy and paste. Copy and paste a field title, placing it where you want and double clicking on it to edit it to what you want it to say. Then copy and paste one of the predefined fields, e.g. "Sheet scale" to where you want that. Double clicking on this will open the field editing dialog. At the top of this dialog are two radio buttons, "User input" and "Property value", the latter being selected. If you keep it as this you can select what Property value will be automatically writen into the field from the drop down list. If you select "User Input" two fields, the Name of the property you want to add and a suitable input text string. I strongly recommend using Alibre's format of keeping user defined fields in upper case, it helps when you come to fill in the fields, when creating a drawing, to see which fields need your input. And there you are. Save your drawing template, and when you select in when creating a drawing, you will see all of the fields that are contained in your drawing.

Now comes the hard part - discipline. When you create a model fill in the Properties dialogs, accessible from the jewel icon, with the info thats important to you, e.g. the material. Then when it comes to creating a drawing of the model most of the fields will be automatically filled for you by magic.

Hmm havent worked out how to attach a file or screen dump to this, but when I can I will happily post a simple example

Thanks guys for the super fast response. Thats what I had imagined would be the case, and I will use the Note feature

Hmm new to this package, but I note that you can "turn on" hole call outs in the 2D drawing module (either through the system prefs or clicking on a view and selecting Manage View), but having done that I have no idea how to use it, or whether it is implemented. Reading the help file it says that you must first create a threaded hole with the Hole tool in the thread group which is not an option in AA3D, but that you can manually create a call out by right clicking a hole in the 2D drawing and chosing Insert Hole Callout - this option is not offered either with or without the sketch mode activated. So my questions are (i) am I just being an idiot, (ii) is this feature implemented in AA3D and if not why does is appear in the GUI?