What is the ’trace curve’ button do?

[Uni Phil]

Can someone tell me what the 'trace curve' option does in the mechanism menu of the mechanism part of Pro/E WF 2.0.


I'm intrigued as to what results it can harbour so maybe I can utalise this option in the future

 

[puppet]

well it traces a point or vertex and gives u a curve.


ie
say u have a box. 1x1x1.
u have a axis in the middle of it.
set up the box so it rotates on that axis

---
use trace sketch and select on the of the corner vertex..
the resulting curve would be a circle.

u can do really cool 3d looking stuff.


in the files section there is part of a escivator which uses it. d/l it and have a play with it.

 

[Moroso]

Trace curve is the coolest function I've seen in a while.


I had to design a new deep sump oil pan for a small block Chevy, after I modeled the entire engine I used Mechanism Design to cycle the engine.


I put a point on the very most outer intersection between the rod cap and the oil pan, thenI would run a trace curve on every cylinder giving me a perfect elliptical path to show me where to put the stroker notches.


If you get a change to use it you'll like it

 

[jrobi]

well ek- I wondered- i figured it was to do some kinda transfer of a curve to 2D media (a drawing sheet)- this sounds like its worthy of some additional exploration.

 

[Moroso]

jrobi,


There was an example in my workbook that showed a crane going thru a motion of picking up dirt, lifting vertically, swinging to the right, then dumping the dirt, and they did a 3-d trace curve of that motion with the fixed point ontop of the bucket.

 

[Uni Phil]

I used it last night for the first time and it's pretty damn cool in a geeky pro/e way.


I was looking for a way to trace a curve a couple of weeks ago, but now it looks like i have it now.


Cheers guys