copying surfaces from solids

[2ms1]

I am trying to create a battery cover and cutout kind of thing from a part that is a solid. I have been looking at this nice youtube video on how to achieve this: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrRGJ9-fKfU&list=UU-i8jwW Bjjpul1jLYdZtCjw&index=17&feature=plcp [/url]


However, in the video, the part the guy is cutting out from is a surface, so he just copies the quilt and uses the copy as the reference for his "battery cover".


But my main part is a complex solid that it would be difficult to replicate by creating a bunch of new surface features.


Can anyone tell me how to achieve what this guy is doing in the video using a part that is a solid rather than a part that is a surface?

 

[s_pme20]

While you are working on cover part by activating it,
just select required SURFACES from your solid model then copy and paste it (ctrl+C & ctrl+V)

 

[kenppy]

I do this quite a lot and have found that a good way to do it is to go back to where the surface is still uncomplicated by bosses etc and copy the surface in the donor part and put in on a named layer. Then in the assembly activate the other part and copy off this surface. Now any change that you make to first part will flow through to the second and long as the assembly remains.

Rather than perform this action in the general assembly where there may be many other parts getting in the way I create a dedicated assmbly with, in this case, just the two parts and name it such that it doesn't get deleted.

I do this because it is easy to loose the reference in an assembly that you might rebuild, I've found that if you remove the original donor in the assembly and replace it with exactly the same part the references get confused.

 

[2ms1]

s_pme20, doesn't just referenceing the surfaces of the "mother" part like this result in the exact same problem illustrated in the video (ie loss of references upon regen)? I'm not clear on what is different about what you are suggesting vs what the guy does as demonstration of error in the video.


kenppy, I think what you are suggesting is basically what I am trying to do (and that the guy in video does). I never got the hang of layers and so have never used them, but unless I'm wrong everything else is the same, except that my "mother" part is a big solid with lots of intricacies that make it impractical for me to create new surface features to reproduce it. But I don't know how to copy the geometry/surfaces from the mother part (due to its being a solid instead of quilt). I know how to copy and paste quilts, but not how to get surfaces off of a solid. It is driving me crazy!


Or maybe I am misunderstanding the both of you?

 

[kenppy]

This is just one way to do it.

In the solid mother part set your filter to geometry pick the start surface edit/copy, edit paste. You now have a new feature called surface. Pick this feature, edit definition and holding the ctrl pick all the other surfaces that you want to have in this group. This is the feature you will copy to your next part when it is activated in assembly.

I only suggested that you put this on another surface because you won't want it to be visible in the part.

If your part is complicated then copying will be tedious, you might want to use the seed method, I can't advise unless I see your part, perhaps you could post a discrete pic.

 

[kenppy]

To pick a larger surface area pick the fisrt surface as above and then hold the shift key and pick the surfaces that form the outside of the boundary that you don't want.
With this method you have to watch that there are no through features that will seed the inside surface. That's why I suggested that you go to a point in the model tree that is simpler but still has the intent surfaces.

 

[s_pme20]

Ok..let me explain in detail procedure:
suppose you have two part: 1. whole.prt 2. cover.prt
You want to make cover.prt using surfaces from whole.prt
1> In whole.prt- select required surfaces from solid model & copy-paste (It will create copies surfaces)
2> Create assembly and assemble that whole.prt
3>create new part in asm with name cover.prt
4> activate cover.prt in asm
5> select copied surfaces created in step-1 from whole.prt..copy & paste
6> make cut and thicken surfaces
7> cut cover.prt from whole.prt

There is another way to make associative surface copy so that if you change parent part child (cover) will update automatically).For that:
1> In parent part.Insert>shared data>publish geometry>select surfaces you want to use>ok
2> In cover part.Insert>shared data>copy geometry>open parent part>In publish geom selection, select surfaces published in step-1 from parent part>ok

For copying surface from solid in method-1:
do as shown in image.select required surfaced & hit copy-paste,
View attachment 5638
Edited by: s_pme20

 

[krow72]

If you are saying that you have 2 solids, assemble them to where they are overlapping. In assembly there is a command called cutout (edit>component operations>cut out [WF4]). This will always regenerate your cover when you regenerate your assembly. If I am mistaken and you do not have a solid for the cover, then Kenppy has the right process.