{"id":78,"date":"2008-05-24T20:56:38","date_gmt":"2008-05-25T04:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78"},"modified":"2008-09-26T06:36:34","modified_gmt":"2008-09-26T14:36:34","slug":"control-root-size-of-drafted-rib-on-curved-surface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78","title":{"rendered":"Control Root Size of Drafted Rib on Curved Surface"},"content":{"rendered":"
*This article makes some inaccurate statements regarding the capability of SolidWorks.\u00c2\u00a0 Please see the correction article <\/strong><\/a>for details.\u00c2\u00a0 Inaccurate statements have been crossed out.\u00c2\u00a0 The methodology described in this article should be referenced as an example of bad practice that should only be employed if traditional methods fail.\u00c2\u00a0 Edits to this article appear in this color.*<\/font><\/address>\n
<\/address>\n
*Additional comment: this article does demonstration a good method for getting a line along a curved surface into a sketch.\u00c2\u00a0*<\/font><\/address>\n

Good mold design means that one must take care to control the root width of a rib.\u00c2\u00a0 How does one do this if the rib is based on a curved (non-prismatic) surface?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

SolidWorks has many powerful features for making injection molding parts.\u00c2\u00a0 It has both rib and draft features.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, these two features together have one important limitation.\u00c2\u00a0 When applying a draft to a rib based on a curved surface, SolidWorks does not allow the user to hold the root width of that rib.\u00c2\u00a0 SolidWorks requires a prismatic surface to use as a neutral plane from which to start a draft.\u00c2\u00a0 This means in this case, the draft can only be started from the top of the rib, not its root.\u00c2\u00a0 If one wishes to hold the rib root constant along a curved surface, one cannot use the rib or the draft features.<\/strike><\/p>\n

SolidWorks does have an arsenal of other features and tools\u00c2\u00a0to allow one to build\u00c2\u00a0an alternative<\/font>\u00c2\u00a0strategy to\u00c2\u00a0workaround this limitation.<\/strike>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/p>\n

This first figure shows a fairly simply shelled injection molded part with a complex curved surface.\u00c2\u00a0 To make drafted ribs using this method<\/font>, first create an axis that can be used as an directional guide. You can choose to use features on the part itself for this purpose, instead. I prefer to create a special sketch at the location where I plan to add a boss.\u00c2\u00a0 Regardless of the method used, the directional guide should be parallel to the direction planned for the ribs.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\"Setup<\/p>\n

The second step is to start a new sketch above the curved surface.\u00c2\u00a0 In that sketch, draw the outline of the rib.<\/p>\n

\"Sketch<\/p>\n

If there is a series of ribs needed in one direction, try creating a sketch pattern\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0other instances.\u00c2\u00a0 Make sure to turn sketch entities of the other instances into construction lines.<\/p>\n

\"Project<\/p>\n

Use Split Line to project that outline onto the curved surface.\u00c2\u00a0 Split Line will only project one contour per sketch.\u00c2\u00a0 This is why it is important to turn all other instances of the rib into construction lines.\u00c2\u00a0 Having those other instances pre-drawn will save time when making the other ribs (covered in Part 2 of this article)<\/strike>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next, start a 3DSketch.\u00c2\u00a0 Use Convert Entitles to bring the Split Line curves into the sketch.\u00c2\u00a0 Drag the end points of the curves so they are coincident (on the surface) of the outside surface of the outer walls, or some othe appropriate location.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, close the contour by drawing lines to connect the curves at each end.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Convert<\/p>\n

Extrude this sketch.\u00c2\u00a0 Use the previously drawn axis from the first sketch as the direction.\u00c2\u00a0 Use the top surface of the cavity (or whatever is appropriate) as up-to-surface entity.\u00c2\u00a0 Turn on Draft and specify the desired angle.\u00c2\u00a0 Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the funny part.\u00c2\u00a0 Be sure to extrude a small amount (smaller than the wall thickness of the part)\u00c2\u00a0in the other direction without draft.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 If this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done, a zero-point error will pop up preventing the completion of this step.<\/p>\n

\"Use<\/p>\n

The end result will be a drafted rib with a controlled root width.<\/p>\n

\"Final<\/p>\n

Part 2 of this article will detail how to create repeated and crossing ribs using this same technique.<\/strike>\u00c2\u00a0 Again, please note this is not a best practice method.\u00c2\u00a0 See the correction article<\/strong><\/a> for details.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*This article makes some inaccurate statements regarding the capability of SolidWorks.\u00c2\u00a0 Please see the correction article for details.\u00c2\u00a0 Inaccurate statements have been crossed out.\u00c2\u00a0 The methodology described in this article should be referenced as an example of bad practice that should only be employed if traditional methods fail.\u00c2\u00a0 Edits to this article appear in this … Continue reading “Control Root Size of Drafted Rib on Curved Surface”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,18,3],"tags":[192,193,191],"series":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to","category-part","category-tipstricks","tag-draft","tag-feature","tag-rib"],"yoast_head":"\nControl Root Size of Drafted Rib on Curved Surface - SolidWorks Legion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Control Root Size of Drafted Rib on Curved Surface - SolidWorks Legion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*This article makes some inaccurate statements regarding the capability of SolidWorks.\u00c2\u00a0 Please see the correction article for details.\u00c2\u00a0 Inaccurate statements have been crossed out.\u00c2\u00a0 The methodology described in this article should be referenced as an example of bad practice that should only be employed if traditional methods fail.\u00c2\u00a0 Edits to this article appear in this … Continue reading "Control Root Size of Drafted Rib on Curved Surface"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolidWorks Legion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-05-25T04:56:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-09-26T14:36:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/images\/Blog\/Article\/Fig1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"fcsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"fcsuper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"fcsuper\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/#\/schema\/person\/859d9f25668554f7193852892dbad92b\"},\"headline\":\"Control Root Size of Drafted Rib on Curved Surface\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-05-25T04:56:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-09-26T14:36:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78\"},\"wordCount\":627,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/#\/schema\/person\/859d9f25668554f7193852892dbad92b\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/images\/Blog\/Article\/Fig1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"draft\",\"feature\",\"rib\"],\"articleSection\":[\"How-To\",\"Part\",\"Tip\/Trick\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=78\",\"name\":\"Control Root Size of Drafted Rib on Curved Surface - 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