3D Modeling Techniques IRONCAD vs Solidworks
Lesson Fourteen Drag and Drop Design Streamlined Sketching/Feature Based Modeling
Modeling note:
It is funny,
you may not realize how you model because you have many ingrained
processes from the past. I have been doing Boolean (direct edit)
design since the beginning of solid modeling in CAD. In 1998 I was
part of the IronCAD release and was introduced to history based
modeling, but IronCAD has integrated direct edit so I still had that
functionality available. As I have been doing these comparisons I
realized that I design in shapes. I look at the drawing and pick out
the basic shapes of the part. You can see that in this part.
When I introduce IronCAD's very
flexible design paradigm I have a hard time to get the Pro/e clone
users, like Solidworks and other programs, to understand the drag and
drop design paradigm.
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I saw some Fusion 360 exercises online and I decided to compare
IronCAD. It quickly turned into a study in modeling techniques. I have created
many comparisons to Fusion 360, Onshape, Solid Edge, NX, Creo,
Catia and Inventor
lessons to show the difference between
IronCAD and my modeling techniques. I found the presenters working
identically wasting massive amounts of time
with overly complex constrained sketching procedures. I was so unimpressed that
I decided to model the parts or assemblies showing my modeling techniques plus IronCAD's superb design system.
3D Modeling Techniques Defined
Many of these modeling techniques can easily be implemented even
within their existing system. I call it Streamlined Sketching and
Feature Based Modeling. Please review a few of the above IronCAD
comparison lessons, there are some very stark differences.
Please watch
a Solidworks user model this part!
With all the
tedious constrained
sketching for this simple part for the Absolute Beginner, you can imagine a
complex part?
While creating 3D models from drawings is the very best
way to learn 3D CAD and maybe some design techniques it does not
expose the designer to the design flexibility necessary in design. IronCAD is all top down due to the single model environment.
Creating mating parts is a cruise. But modeling is just one aspect of a
well designed productive 3D CAD system.
Solidworks
is a marginal 3D CAD system based on the dated Pro/e history
based modeling system released in 1988. I sold Pro/e years ago
and found it not productive enough
for our engineering department. We use what we sell. That gives us
the experience to effectively support our user base.
I would do a
video, but I really am not good at it. So I will show you step by
step. I will try and get IronCAD support to create one. They are
very good.
As with my Ironcad vs
Fusion 360 and other major CAD systems, I have found the same problems with Solidworks. The modeling
technique is hugely responsible for the level of productivity. Those
of you that are only trained in the constrained sketching world are truly limited by not using the freedom of
Streamlined Sketching and Feature Based Modeling, that is available in even the most Solidworks-ish of CAD systems. If your
designers are designing in these very unproductive and time
consuming processes it might be time to review your standard design
processes. Don't have any do you?
As I watch the Solidworks user sketch this
part, I am amazed at the way he does it. I
just can't understand struggling with all the constrained
dimensioning. This IronCAD exercise took a few minutes and allows
for faster and much easier modification. Again these exercises turned
into a study of modeling techniques even though most of this model
is Feature Based Modeling not available to most of the Solidworks clones.
Here is IronCAD. My default is inches,
so we will set the units to mm. Let's get started.
I put the cursor in the scene and right
click and select show and pick show the size box dimensions it makes
it much easier to work with setting the dimensions. You can save your custom
configurations if you want.
I am
going to drag and drop "Part of a Cylinder" from the catalog into
the scene, locate and size it.
Note: Why does IronCAD
call it a scene instead of a workspace? IronCAD was first released
as a graphic design program called Trispectives. It still has much
of the graphic design functionality. It truly is a wonderful mixture
of professional 3D CAD and graphic design, which puts it in a much
more flexible category as compared to the very mechanical
engineering focused Solidworks clones.
We We now select the face we want to
extrude. Our first click on the face will take us to the part level
which is blue, (if we had an assembly it would show yellow), then to
the feature which is yellow, and finally to the face which is green.
You can see
the small handle. You select that with the right mouse button and
pull it, and a dialog box will come up and you put in the distance you
want to extrude the face.
We set the
extrusion to 15mm and we shell the shape 10mm by selecting the open
faces.
We
drag and drop a cylinder on to the existing shape to make sure it is
another feature of the part, size and locate it. Remember this is a single model
environment and all parts (made of shapes) coexist in the same
scene.
Using the
extrude wizard we create a sketch plane to create the lower base.
Using the Triball we locate it.
We create the only sketch we need. We project the
large cylinder and connect the lines, the command will automatically
recognizes the tangents and we just project the other features and
trim the cylinder. As you can see there are no constraints. This is
what I call StreamLined Sketching.
The
extrusion is created automatically and we size it by just setting
the height.
The rib is a bit tricky. We drag and drop to a
center location on the base. IronCAD
recognizes center, mid-points and corners. We fit the block past the
intersections then locate the edge at the intersections setting up
the next step.
I could just
create a sketch to clean the rib up. But I want to show you how drag
and drop and the Triball work together for another solution. We drag
and drop a hole block on the top face of the rib and locating it on
the intersection of the cylinder and the rib.
Now using the
Triball we move it to the bottom corner of the block and set the
axis and select the inner handle an point to the bottom edge. The
Triball is a very sophisticated feature, part and assembly
manipulator and more.
Note: You move the Triball only, by hitting the space
key and locating it. The space key turns it back on again.
We
pull the block to the bottom edge. Now we drop a block on the center
of the top of the cylinder and size it. Knowing where to drop the
shape is important for ease of sizing them later.
We add the
fillets and then drag and drop the hole cylinders to the center of
the existing cylinders. That is why we create the fillets first.
We drag and drop the last hole block to
the center of the top of the cylinder and size it.
There
you go, a much more productive and fun design process. While the
poor Solidworks presenter struggles with his only option:
Constrained Sketching.
Give me a call if you have any
questions. I can set up a skype or go to meeting to show this part
or answer any of your questions on the operation of IronCAD. It
truly is the very best conceptual 3D CAD system.
If you are interested in adding professional
hybrid modeling capabilities or looking for a new solution to
increase your productivity, take some time to download a fully
functional 30 day evaluation and play with these packages. Feel free
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