ZW3D vs Fusion 360 Lesson 13 3D Modeling Techniques Defined Streamlined Sketching/Feature Based Modeling
I am not sure if it is due to these
exercises but I have replaced a few Fusion 360 with ZW3D. Listen to
what one of the fellows said.
"We spoke a year and a
half or so ago about ZW3D. I took the Autodesk Fusion
360 but am becoming increasingly unhappy with it… It’s not very
productive for me, just too slow and cumbersome to get things done
quickly. On on the strength of your recommendations I am ready to
give ZW3D Standard a shot, probably as a rental for the first year.
Bottom line is,
Fusion 360 is “free” but not really free… I am finding that the
slow, clumsy pace of design with it is counterproductive… time is
money."
Thanks much, Brian Again I
follow up my IronCAD lesson with a ZW3D lesson. This is a bit different and quite
simple. ZW3D has Boolean primitive shapes you can use, nothing like IronCAD
but offers an added flexibility.
I saw the
following video challenges on LinkedIn and thought I would give them a
try on IronCAD. I got a great response and decided to do it in ZW3D.
I was very familiar with the parts and did it a bit easier. It shows
more the difference in the level of the 3D CAD experience than the
CAD system itself. You can
Download ZW3D and give it a try.
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 ZW3D support to create one. They are
very good.
The modeling technique is
hugely responsible for the level of productivity. Those of you that
are only trained in the sketch, sketch, constrain, constrain world
are truly limited by not using the freedom of feature based design,
that is available in even the most Pro/e-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?
These have actually turned
these into exercises in
modeling techniques as compared to showing a more productive CAD
systems. Again, I say there are many different ways to model a part.
I see with my exposure to direct edit modelers like CADKEY, I
rarely sketch like you see the Fusion 360 fellow doing. I have always
created my basic sketches by mostly creating offsets and extending
and trimming or. It seems to be much easier. I never put in a fillet that
can be created later. What do you think? Of course, this take a good
understanding of descriptive geometry. We are already in
millimeter so let's get started.
We will insert a primitive
block and size it. Nope, we do not start with a sketch.
We now will create our first reference line that are the basis of
our top cut. Notice we create the line in 3D space not requiring a
sketch. ZW3D has fully functional 3D Sketching. This is one of the
requirements for a hybrid modeling system.
Now for the second
Now we create the plane
with three points.
We just drop a primitive block on the plane, size it and set it to
subtract.
We
select the face for our new sketching plane and to create
our lines.
I have never seen anything detailed quite this way.
Go back
to the video and watch how the Fusion 360 fellow creates these
lines. I wonder if Fusion 360 even has a line offset. He arbitrarily
creates a line and then constrains it parallel then locates it. He
does it 4 separate times!
Now we create our rectangle just
by offsetting lines from existing graphics.
We trim the lines and we are done with the sketch. We now have to create a plane to create the boss. You can see we
locate the plane at the relative corner, doing this eliminates the
need to find the height of the boss.
I could have done this by going to the
sketch and tracing the lines, but I thought I would show you how to
project entities to the current plane. I just select the ISO view
and select the lines. Very easy!
We exit the sketch and create our
extrusion. Arbitrarily setting the bottom and set the top to 15mm.
We are done with the boss.
Now for the cut on the bottom,
we just insert a primitive block on the related face, size it and set it to remove.
Blank the reference planes and lines and
we are done with the part in one tenth the time. But ZW3D is a
much better system by just having the easy to use primitive shapes available
increases productivity 30%. Go ahead download ZW3D, if you are using
a Solidworks Clone it is easy to get up and running.
It is very important that you look into
how you or your engineers are creating the parts. Streamline
Sketching and Feature Based Modeling is easy to learn and implement.
It, alone, will increase productivity 10X. Now, ZW3D with its unique
history and robust direct edit functionality can increase your
productivity another 5X or more with changes! Again, time is money
in engineering.
More on Streamline Sketching and Feature Based Modeling.
To experience this increased level of
productivity, please download ZW3D for a 30 day evaluation. Legacy
data is no problem, ZW3D can read the native files of all of the
popular programs including the PMI data of NX, Solidworks, Catia and
Creo. ZW3D is a great replacement for the subscription only Autodesk
and PTC products.
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 ZW3D. It
truly is the Ultimate CAD/CAM 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
to give me a call if you have any questions or would like an on-line
presentation.
