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Blanking Mill Volumes

JimS

New member
I want to assign a mapkey to blank Mill Volumes in Wildfire 2.0.

In 1.0, after you select blank a search tool came up that had

all of the volumes already selected. In 2.0 after you select blank it askes you to select the volumes. Any thoughts. Thanks.



Jim
 
The thing I don't like about blanking in ProMold is that you can't get to the Blank menu when you are in sketcher. Because of this I usually put, say my reference parts and workpiece (which ProE will automatically add to the layer if it is set up right) and then use macros to turn the layers of and on, which can be done at any time.



The same might could be done with Mill Volumes.
 
It looks like they changed the functionality as far as menu picks from 1.0 to 2.0. My mapkeys that worked in 1.0 don't work in 2.0. I am curious, how are you using macros to automate this?
 
My mapkeys that worked in 1.0 don't work in 2.0. I am curious, how are you using macros to automate this?



Sorry, I meant Mapkeys. I just record the mousepicks when I manually go to the desired layers and turn them off. ProE will automatically place certian data types on given layers (like default csys, all csys, datum planes, axes, etc.).



I actually haven't set any up in WF, but when I look at the ones I did in 2001 in WF now, the information appears under the rules tab. I don't see at a glance how to set them up now. It was easy in 2001.



It looks like they changed the functionality as far as menu picks from 1.0 to 2.0.



Arrrgh! Not again! I have almost updated all of mine from 2001 to WF 1. They don't work near as cleanly in WF as they did on 2001, either (have to start in model tree, change back to model tree, include a redraw, etc).
 
That seems like the price we pay for moving to the next version! Is it possible to write custom macros for Pro/E?

I guess I could setup a volume layer and put all of the mill volumes there. How can I get the volumes to automatically be placed on the layer after they have been created?
 
Jim:


I do a lot of "hog outs" for the aerospace industry. Some of them get so complicated, that several mill volumes need to be created. I have had as many as 20 mill volumes in a single manufacturing file. If I were to have all of the volumes on one layer, the screen get "cluttered" if I was to unblank that layer.


I solved this by creating a layer for each type of mill volume, naming them according to tool, function, etc (example: "volume_0500_ball"). Now when I unblank the layer, I only see the volumes I want to see.


I use a mapkey to open the "layer" dialogue, scroll to the layer using the mouse wheel, right-click the layer, and pick unblank. Takes about 5 seconds to do this.


It takes a little more time to create the layers, name them, and put the volumes on the layer, but it will save a lot of time and confusion in the long run.
 

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