I have a few questions regarding pro/e. I’m a new user of pre/e, but an experianced user of solidworks.
I’m a little perplexed by the tree structure in pro/e. It seems that when I do a sketch and say extrude it, the original sketch is in the tree, the extude is now in the tree liked with other sketch which is the same as the original.
It seems that when I update one sketch it updates the other and vise-vera.
Why does it make a copy and what is the importance of this? Which one is ‘good common practice’ to use to update?
A similar thing happens when i say use the mirror feature. The features I used for the mirror stay in the tree and it creates the new mirrored features under the ‘mirror’ feature in the tree. However, editing the original feature used in the mirror doesn’t regenerate the mirror feature. Alternatively, updating the same feature under the mirror feature just updates the mirror feature and not the original.
How can I update the feature used for the mirror to update the whole mirror feature?
Does this inconsistency in interface just seem silly to me?
oh, an one other question, when I’m save a file, then save again at a later stage, why does it not overwrite the original save. To my surprze after a part I have like 10 copies saved as the same name in different stages of the part? Whats the point of this? Isn’t that what the feaature tree is for?
You do not need to or are you required to use a sketch tool to create a feature. Your link is there because you are using the sketch tool like you would in solid works. If you unhide the link however you can dynamically modify the sketch and that is a start to prove form.
On the other hand if you choose to just grab the extrude function the software will also take you to a sketch. This way there is no link.
I can’t understand how you would create a feature without a sketch first. Something as simple as a cylinder requires a sketch or a circle then an extrude of that circle. Then I’m left with sketch1 in the tree and aslo extrude>sketch1
Is there another way I should be approaching this?
Alternatively, starting the extude first then pausing the feature, then sketching the profile the playing the feature again leaves me with the same result except that its in a group now.
There doesn’t seem to be a real point in a group anyway beside making the tree look a little neater when the group is collapsed. Also there doesn’t seem to be a reason the “pause” the function anyways as I notice that a group can be added later on after the function.
As for the mirror function, I tried grouping the original feature and the mirrored feature to see if editing the original would regenerate the mirror but again the feature act independantly.
There has to be a way edit the original feature of the mirror which edits the other side
start new extrusion, click placement (bottom left corner) it will then ask you to define placement ie planes used etc, once thisis done the sketcher for that extrusion will open, sketch your circle, click the tick on the right hand tool bar, select ok, define length of extrusion, green tick at the bottom of the screen and done.
the sketch is part of the feature. doing this way you would end up with extrude1 and no sketch, to edit right click the feature and edit definition.
The only time I pause a feature is if i need to set up dtm planes or something similar, but once the feature is completed i ungroup it, yes it does look neater on the tree as a group but its a pain if something fails during regenration or when selecting a feature from the model.
I wouldn’t group then mirror, depending on what your doing either select the feature to mirror or create a copy and mirror that.
Its kind of funny you can approach this from many angles that have no real difference but preferance. I kind of like the idea of starting the feature first then defining its profile so the sketch remain with the feature.
I dont like the idea of 2 sketches driving the feature when you sketch first then apply the feature.
Does anyone know how to add features to a mirror one a mirror has been done. I can seem to edit the mirror plane but not the feature in it.
Also does anyone have any clue why a simple save option doesn’t overwrite the original file and makes a copy with the same file name?
Are you mirroring a group? or a group of features individually?
[quote]Also does anyone have any clue why a simple save option doesn’t overwrite the original file and makes a copy with the same file name?
[/quote]
I’m assuming your not using intralink for your file management. So what would be happening is when you save, pro e will save to the working directory.
If your filename is solid.prt then after you save you will have solid.prt and solid.prt.1 (or something similar) This is for a backup and can be useful in complex parts. If you go to Window menu/ Open System window it should come up with your working directory (C:\working> ) type, PURGE (upper or lowercase, doesn’t matter) this will clean out your directory and leave the latest files. Useful when saving assemblies.
well I ctrl selected the individual features the mirrored then with a defult plane.
what im left with in the tree is the features used for the mirror then a mirror feature with a somewhat copy of the features under the mirror. for example if i mirror the feature extrude1 and fillet 1 , these features remain in the tree while a mirror feature is created and under it extrude1(2) and fillet1(2) are created.
any edit to extrude1 or extrude1(2) will regenerate independantly. I was expecting that and edit of extrude1 whould automatically edit extrude1(2) in the mirror the same. but it doesn’t
also i cant seem to work out if I wanted to ADD lets say another previous feature like an ‘extrude cut’ to the mirror how to do that
I usually copy surfaces and mirror those, that way if I change the geometry it will up date. Or if possible leave the mirror to the end
try this though, drag the INSERT HERE arrow from the bottom of your tree to just above the mirror feature (thus suppressing the mirror feature and everything below it) make the mods to the features you want and then resume the mirror, there is a chance it will fail, if so delete it and redo it (keeping in mind if you have referenced it in other features below it they will fail and need to have there references updated)
Thanks for your help chappo81, I think I’m managed to get the hang of how this software opperates.
Its very similar to solidworks although trying to be objective and remembering starting to learn solidworks for the first time, pro/e is really lagging behaing in terms of its user interface.