When a machine shop receives a drawing from a customer, it is useful to be able to use the geometry in the drawing to create 3-dimensional features that can be machined.
ESPRIT lets you create features on 2-dimensional geometry and add 3-dimensional properties to them.
Create a hole feature On the Smart toolbar, click Features.
Click Holes.
• Click the arrow button next to ‘Max Diameter’ and select an inner circle from one of the drilled holes
• Click OK to create a hole feature that connects all the drilled holes
Edit the hole feature
These holes have a depth of 15 mm and a countersink with a total angle of 90 degrees.
Change the view to ‘Isometric’ so you can see the updates to the feature as you add machining properties.
• In the Project Manager, select the Hole feature
• In the Property Browser, select the value for the ‘Depth’ property
• Enter a value of 15 and press Enter
• Select the value for ‘Chamfer Diameter’
• Click the arrow button next to the value and then select an outer circle from one of the drilled holes
• Change the value for ‘Chamfer Angle’ to 90
Create chain features for the pocket
You will create three features for the pocket: one for the closed boundary of the pocket, one for the rectangular island, and one for the circular island. For features that define a pocket, the cutting side is important because it controls where material is removed (on the inside or outside of the chain). Cutting side is based on the direction of the feature and can be set to Left, Right, or Center.
• Change the view back to ‘Top’
• Hold down the Shift key and select a single element in the pocket profile
• All connected elements are grouped automatically
• Click Auto Chain
• The start point for the chain is created in the middle of the longest segment and has a counter-clockwise direction
• Hold down the Shift key and select a single segment of the rectangular island
• Click Auto Chain
• Select the circle inside the pocket and click Auto Chain
• Select the feature ‘1 Chain’ in the Feature Manager
• In the Property Browser, change ‘Cutting Side’ to ‘Left’
and press Enter
• Notice that ‘Material Removal’ changes to ‘Inside’
• Select the feature ‘2 Chain’ and change the property for
‘Cutting Side’ to ‘Right’ and press Enter
• ‘Material Removal’ for the island feature is ‘Outside’
• Select the feature ‘3 Chain’ and change ‘Cutting Side’ to
‘Right’
Add depth to the chain features
When several elements are selected, only the properties that are common to all the elements can be edited in the Property Browser. Since the features for the pocket all share the same depth, you can update the depth for all three features at one time.
• In the Feature Manager, select the three chain features
• Change the property for ‘Depth’ to 18 and press Enter
Create a chain feature for the open pocket
The area located at the upper right of the part is defined as an ‘open’ pocket because it defines a closed boundary that has some edges along a wall and other edges that are open. You can edit the sub-elements of a feature to define edges as open or closed.
• Hold down the Ctrl key and select the segments and arcs that define the boundary of the open pocket (the CTRL key lets you continue adding elements to a group)
• Click Auto Chain
• Change the cutting side of the feature to Left
• Change the depth of the feature to 24
• On the View menu, click Masks
• Select ‘Geometry’ to hide the display of the geometric elements (do not close the dialog yet)
• In the status area, make sure SUB-ELEMENTS mode is enabled
• In the work area, select an outer edge of the feature
• When the entire chain highlights, press the right mouse button to highlight only the edge of the chain
• Press the left mouse button to accept this choice
• In the Property Browser, change the attribute for ‘Open Edge’ to ‘True’
• In the same way, select the other sub-elements on the outer edge and change the ‘Open Edge’
attribute to ‘True’
• Change the view to ‘Isometric’
• You can see that the open edges are displayed as dashed lines
• In the Masks dialog, select ‘Geometry’ to show the geometric elements and close the dialog
Create a chain feature on the inside edge Features along the edges of a part are useful for
contouring operations. This chain defines an open profile with the start point and the end point in different locations. After you select the end point of the profile, you need to click the Cycle Stop command to let ESPRIT know that you are finished selecting elements for the chain.
• Click Auto Chain
• Select the start point shown
• Select the angled segment to the left of the start point
• Select the end point shown
• On the Edit toolbar, click Cycle Stop to create the feature
• Change the cutting side to Right
• Change the depth to 24
Create a manual chain on the outer boundar y
A chain around the boundary of the part can be used for facing and contouring operations.
• Click Manual Chain
• Use SNAP mode to select the four corners of the part boundary (be sure to select the corners in order)
• Change the cutting side so that material removal is on the outside of the boundary
• Change the depth of the feature to 30
X To see the features more clearly you can mask the geometry.