Why can’t I input my draft angle

[handsomehank]

I am new to solid modeling in Pro-E and am having trouble with the draft tool. I have a D shaped long solid half cylinder and am trying to add a draft of 2 degrees down its length. I have tried doing multiple surfaces and singular surfaces but after I have chosen the surface, hinge and direction, the agle input window is grayed and will not allow an input. What am I doing wrong?

 

[handsomehank]

I figured it out after several attempts. Sorry to bother!

Thank You,


Lloyd H. Brower

 

[handsomehank]

Well, I had the draft made but thought I could do the solid better another way. Ooops! I now can't repeat the process. HELP! I just am not understanding the Pro-E Help instructions.

 

[Jacoolo]

first - upload a picture

second - my try, no problems.

View attachment 5755

 

[dgs]

I find that many users don't understand what the draft
direction plane does. It defines where zero draft is,
zero draft will make the draft surfaces perpendicular to
the drift direction plane. So, the draft angle has
nothing to do with the displacement of the drafted
surface, it's relative to the draft direction plane.

In other words, it's entirely possible to enter zero
draft and move the surfaces 15 or 20 degrees.

My point being, did you select a draft direction plane
that makes your draft invalid? In muadib3d's image
above, for example, if he had selected the left side of
the D as his draft direction, the draft feature would be
impossible.

 

[handsomehank]

The HELP instructions say to choose hinge curves not a surface face. That is what confused me. I think Pro-E's HELP's were written by a NON-tech writer in Outer Mongolia and then transcribed into English! I was trying to choose edges not the surface. Now I understand.

 

[handsomehank]

Oh and by the way muadib3d, did you know your name is a word of power?

 

[dgs]

The HELP instructions say to
choose hinge curves not a surface face.

Surfaces are always more robust than edges, if a surface
will do that job, pick it.

The draft hinge is the place where the drafted surfaces
will 'pivot'. If a surface is chosen (has to be planar),
the surfaces will pivot about the place here the pivot
plane intersects them. In muadib3d's example, choosing
that top surface produces the same result as the top half
round edge would.

Once you understand the functions of the pivot and the
direction, the draft feature becomes a very flexible and
powerful tool.

 

[Jacoolo]

Oh and by the way muadib3d, did you know your name is a word of power?

maybe - it all comes from Dune, I was fascinated about it, so at the end it turned out I picked up such username

 

[michaelpaul]

The HELP instructions say to choose hinge curves not a surface face. That is what confused me. I think Pro-E's HELP's were written by a NON-tech writer in Outer Mongolia and then transcribed into English! I was trying to choose edges not the surface. Now I understand.

That's why the general term for the "help" in my office is Pro-E "No-Help"

 

[dgs]

Yeah, I've found that the help does little more than tell
you where the buttons are. It rarely tells you why you
would pick one option over another and it frequently
suggests poor technique like selecting edges instead of
surfaces. I've pointed this out to PTC and the response is
that they aren't teaching technique, they are teaching how
to use the tool.

Baloney, I say, when the help says use an edge, the user is
going assume that's the best way to do it. They are
teaching technique, they just don't realize it.

 

[dr_gallup]

They frequently don't even teach how to use the tool. The number of examples is ridiculously small.