Member postings for lee webster

I found a workround with Solid Edge clipping, so I am going to give it another try. I found this page that helped.

http://www.soliddna.com/SEHelp/ST6/EN/customize_solid_edge/view2d.htm

And this is what I did.

Click on options, view, dynamic clipping and turn it on.

I set mine to LT gray and 100% opacity. Click on OK to accept the settings.

To set a clipping plane go to view on the menu bar, click on set planes, click on the surface to set the plane on, in my case it's a surface hidden from view by an overhang above it. I am a bit baffled by the next bit -offset- I just set it a short distance from the surface and chose which side for the plane and clicked on finish. The part is now clipped ready to sketch on.

Once I had a sketch created I clicked on the green tick which brought back the full menu bar to click on view and turn off set planes so I could work with the full body again before ending the sketch.

I feel that SE has made what should be a simple process, complicated and I had hoped the newer versions had been improved.

I have also used SolidWorks, FreeCAD and DesignSpark Mechanical 5, they all have a much better clipping process, in DSM5s case, it is automatic when you select a surface to sketch on, it is clipped.

Lee

I think Solid Edge isn't the programme for me. I have tried to get used to its way of working, but I'm comfortable with Design Spark 5. If DS5 could mirror a part and had good text capabilities it would be perfect!

I took a break from trying to cast metal and started to design a one tenth scale model of my Austin Seven car in DS5. This is the 1/10th engine 3D printed in resin. I wont be using the engine in the model as I have decided on a closed bonnet model to simplify things. One pound coin for scale. The 3D print is made up of 8 pieces.

The block and head are printed separately and aren't glued on until they are painted.

I really did try with SE, but we don't get on.

Edited By lee webster on 30/12/2022 16:30:17

I must be tired or something. My last post about buying stuff at Trago Mills should have gone in the What have you been up to today, or some such name. Time for bed before I mess up even more.

I went to Trago Mills, a shop in Falmouth, to buy some model makers filler. I also bought a new cutting mat, LED worklight, and 4 fibre optic lamps for a project I am working on. A nice trip out, and 15% off the price because it was sale time. Nice To get in the fresh air.

This image shows a surface in Design Spark 5 that I want to sketch on. The surface is highlighted.

This image shows the surface visible from the top of the cylinder block, no other detail visible.

I start a sketch on the surface and the block is automatically "clipped" so that everything is visible.

I can rotate the part so that I can see the other side of the drawing plane and copy reference points from it.

I have drawn the stud hole and cut it out. The block is the active body, green, and the cylinder liners are inactive, grey.

I do the same in Solid Edge to a simple engine, but can't see the surface to sketch on without hiding other parts. If I had drawn the same block in SE, It would have been very hard to draw the stud hole.

I select a surface to sketch on.

I can't see the surface.

Is there any way of automatically clipping the part at the sketch plane? I know I can add clip views, but that could get very messy.

Lee

I've never explored assemblies. It sounds interesting, but I don't think it will answer the biggest problem I have with SE, being able to draw on a surface that is "hidden". I will get a screen shot of a part in Design Spark 5 to explain better.

I tried ctrl-q with no effect. I have 7 design bodies with one of them active. When I try to draw on a surface of the active body (ordered mode) the body rotates to present the surface face on, and the rest of the bodies cover the surface.

The description for ctrl-q in the customise screen is "hide previous level. I'm not sure what that means.

Thanks Dave, I will try those suggestions and get a few screenshots to post.

Lee

I have Solid Edge community edition 2021 installed on my Windows11 computer with plenty of system ram and a good graphics card also with plenty of ram. I am more used to Design Spark mechanical 5 and FreeCAD 0.19, but I wanted to get into SE because it has a lot more features. Three things bugged me about SE.

1) the feature tree is just one one list of everything you've done. In DS5 and FC, each body has its own list that can be collapsed down to just the title of the body.

2) The colour for active parts and inactive parts seem to be the same. The transparency of inactive parts can be altered, but not the colour, even though in the settings menu different colours for the active/inactive can be set, it has no effect.

3) When I want to draw on a surface that is obscured by other bodies both FC and DS5 will crop or section the body at the drawing plane. I couldn't find a way of getting SE to do this. It makes drawing easier if you can actually see the surface you are drawing on.

Before I download the latest version of SE could anyone tell me if the items above have been resolved? Or is it just me?

I have also used Solid Works student edition which worked like DS5 and FC, so it could just be me!

Lee

Oh no! I've spelt Santa wrong. That means no prezzies for me next year, so no need to be a good boy then?

How many reindeer does Sant have? Two.

Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, who has a very shiney nose. And Olive, the other reindeer.

I went to a local model making group last night which was the last meeting of the year. I spent the evening preparing the support legs for each of the 4 Austin 7 models I am making, 4 to each car. I printed the legs in pla on my Ender3 and I should have printed them solid rather than hollow. They are 4mm dia and quite fragile. So today I drilled a hole in the top of each leg and made sure there wae a clear path through to the bottom of the leg. I cut some 1.5mm steel wire to length and mixed up some JB weld. The JB weld was fed into the small hole with the help of the wire to get the glue as far down the leg as I could, and the wire was then inserted and the hole filled over. 16 legs later I packed in for the night. I used about 40 to 50mm of JB weld, so I am fairly sure it got all the way down.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

Nigel,

If it wasn't for 3D cad, I wouldn't have got anywhere with metal casting, 3D printed patterns, or making my model A7s. If I had tried making any parts from solid material, wood, clay etc. I would have fallen on my face long ago. Without knowing what you have been trying with SE I wonder if you might be better off working on the design of a part you are familiar with instead of trying to follow a tutorial. I admit that the user interface in SE is a bit meandering, but it does seem that all the commands to do things are there, somewhere! I watched a video this morning about wrapping text around a curved surface, in my case that could come in handy.

I bought the flower pots I used from B&Q, I didn't cut the top off though. Any heat generated by the light will escape through the pot's drain hole. I also bought a size big enough not to need extra matrial removed for the lugs on the lights, just the cable.

Lee

Graham,

When a friend had their loft insulated the installers suggested he protect his downlights with clay flower pots. I did the work for him and they work a treat. I used a small grinder to cut a piece out of the lip to sit over the supply cable.

I have recently re-installed Solid Edge to see if I could get used to it. It's better than I thought. I have been so used to DesignSpark Mechanical I was finding it very hard work with SE. I still use DS for most of my designs as it is so easy to use, but I will persevere with SE. Not synchronus mode though, ordered only.

I am building 4, 1/10th scale models of my 1930 Austin Seven car. One for me and one for each of my sisters. I did most of the design work with DS and 3d printed the parts with my Ender3 fdm and Anycubic resin printers. The detail the resin printer produces is amazing. I am also designing the same parts in SE to see how I get on. I used SE to design and produce the STL for 3d printing the hand operated klaxon for the car.

I ordered 4 bottles of 3D printer resin and two 1kg rolls of fillament from Technology outlet based in Gwent yesterday. It was delivered by DPD at 7.40 this evening in Illogan Cornwall. DPD have not always been this good, it does depend on the driver I think.

I decided that instead of reprinting my conrod pattern I would repair the pattern and print something else. That something else is the flywheel for the engine I am working on, it has two. I sliced the STL file in Cura5 for the Ender3, duplicated the pattern half to give me the two sides, and set it printing. Estimated time for the print was six hours-ish at 0.2 layer height. I also loaded the STL into Prusa slicer, just one half, and hollowed it out and added drain holes and supports. This file was then saved as a new STL and loaded into Photon workshop. Prusa slicer can't produce a sliced file for the Anycubic resin printers as yet. In Photon workshop I duplicated the STL file and sliced it for the resin printer. I then set the resin printer going. Estimated print time was six hours. I checked on the progress of both printers now and then. The Ender3 was not having a good time, I think the bed might be warping. I didn't worry too much about that as I am used to repairing the bottom of my prints where bed problems have caused partial failure. The resin printer was happily chugging away, but I couldn't see anything until the parts cleared the resin tray some time after starting. The flywheel halves were looking very good. When the resin print had finished I could then see that the print was not good at all. The halves had printed, but there was a fair bit of distortion in both of them. I put the printer build plate including flywheels into a large container of water in the wash and cure machine and set the wash process for ten minutes. I the removed the water vat and set the cure time for two minutes for both sides. The Ender3 had also finished by now and the prints were a lot better than I had thought they would be. I am including three photo's of the flywheels showing the distortion on the resin flywheel which occured in two places, and the almost perfect PLA flywheels. I have taped the two halves together for sanding and filling. I wll cast one flywheel from each of the prints to compare them.

Could you draw the tooth as a separate body, shape it so that it has the correct angles and then make a mirror copy in the correct axis moved the correct distance from the first tooth and cut both of the teeth bodies from the cylinder body then replicate the cut around the cylinder central axis. I think I made it sound more complicated than it is.

As for the cutter in the first photo, I have never seen a hole saw like that.

I had my Ender3 and Anycubic mono printing today. The Ender3 had a slight hiccup, but managed to produce two prints with one needing some filler. The Anycubic resin printer didn't fare well, but it could be my fault. The first resin print failed with the parts being badly distorted. The second print was even worse, I had adjusted some settings and shouldn't have done. This picture shows four conrod prints. From right to left.

Ender3 print, solid, fairly good. I can use this print for casting.

Resin print from a day ago, hollow with 1mm thick walls, fairly good. I can use this print for casting but if I decide to try greensand then I will have to fill the hollow body with something like epoxy putty. The resin shell would be too weak for ramming.

First resin print from today, solid, failed. The print is scrap.

Second resin print from today, solid, failed. This print is also scrap.

The supports, which partly came loose during printing are at the bottom of the picture. The conrod big ends are shown. They seemed to have the most distortion on the resin printer.

I am using a water washable resin, perhaps an ordinary resin would be better?

Dave, If your nephew is game for a laugh try this on him. I did it to a friend many years ago and he fell for it.

Phone your nephew and tell him you are writing out a new contacts directory and could he give you his number, you can't find it. It might work, but be ready for a great deal of swearing!

I separated the conrod and base plate and cleaned them up. I glued the conrod back on the plate and filled any gaps. That was over a day ago and the conrod hasn't distorted. I didn't paint it this time. I have 3d printed two sprues and two blanking buttons on the Ender3. The buttons will cover the 6mm holes when I fill the first half of the pattern with sand. When that half is set I will remove it from the pattern and replace the buttons with the sprues. When I get the sand to the top of the flask I can then scrape out a pouring basin in the sand around the sprue located in the big end of the conrod. When that half is set I can remove the sprues and strike the mould. I should then have two halves of a mould in set sand that can be bonded together, I think. When the mould has sat for a while I can then melt some aluminium and pour.

First thing to do is to make a flask, just one half, and get the flask and conrod in the correct position on a board properly located with pins. If this method works, or rather, if I can do it properly so it works for me, it will make casting certain parts much easier.