CAD

badass trajpar equations

if you never use pro|e, stop reading lest you get a serious case of CAD envy. If you do use pro|e, yet of never heard of trajpar (short for “trajectory parameter”), it is a parameter that varies from 0 to 1 along the path of a sweep (0 at the start, 1 at the end). [...]

Tagged as: CAD, surfacing, trajpar

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when to use nonlinear finite element analysis

Dig even a little bit into the different fea packages out there and you will notice  a distinction between linear and nonlinear analysis. You might then wonder under what circumstances to use linear analysis and what circumstances to use nonlinear analysis? First off, let me say that mechanically speaking, there is no such thing as [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

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gaussian and mean curvature

So I’ve been doing some fancy surfacing lately and spent a few minutes digging into the math behind the surface tools. The math itself is a little esoteric, but I also came across a really nice, digestible description of gaussian and mean curvature. These are the types of curvature (along with maximum curvature) that CAD packages like [...]

Tagged as: CAD, curvature, Pro Engineer, product design, SolidWorks

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pro|engineer (or creo, or whatever): a few more things

A bit over a year ago I wrote about problems I was having with pro|engineer (now creo) and SolidWorks. It was one of my more popular posts and inspired some passionate responses. (I also copied the image from that post even though I’m primarily going to talk about pro|engineer…lazy) Well I’ve been doing some heavy [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Pro Engineer, SolidWorks

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robust CAD models

I’ve been thinking lately about what makes a robust CAD database. I considered writing down a checklist, but as projects differ I find the checklist to be overkill or incomplete, both of which render it useless. Instead I asked myself: What principles are always true when building a CAD model? Take note of my use [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Pro Engineer, product design, SolidWorks, Unigraphics

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video:curvature continuity between splines in sketcher

This was birthed out of a  conversation that started over at mcadcentral. The inital problem was trying to make two splines curvature continuous to each other (which this video shows how to do in a particular context), but I also end up showing the differences in C0, C1, and C2 continuity.   note: it occurs to [...]

Tagged as: CAD, curavture continuity, Pro Engineer

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injection molding plastic part design guide (GE)

I’ve got a treasure trove of design guides. Even when you are super comfortable with a process (like injection molding) I find it good practice to use them as a low-cost checker. So i figured I would share one of my favorite design guides, the GE Engineering Thermoplastic Design Guide. It’s a concise, 15-page guideline [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Injection Molding, plastics

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video: curvature continuity 101

Courtesy of Adam O’Hern, the CAD Junkie. Be sure to check out the rest of his amazing tutorials here

Tagged as: CAD, curavture continuity, surface modeling, surfacing

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Thumbnail image for Dear SolidWorks and Pro|Engineer:fix these problems

Dear SolidWorks and Pro|Engineer:fix these problems

Everyone has their preferred CAD package, and most look down their nose at all the others. The Solidworks guys rag on the Pro|Engineer guys, a few yucks are had, and you go back to work. But isn’t what we really want for one of these CAD programs to really get their act together?  To decimate [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Pro Engineer, SolidWorks

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Thumbnail image for CAD job trends: or why I pity students that learn Unigraphics

CAD job trends: or why I pity students that learn Unigraphics

There is an interesting thread over at eng-tips regarding current CAD job trends. The content itself isn’t so groundbreaking, but the recommendation of Indeed.com’s Job Trends tool made it worth the read. “Finally!” I thought. “Some objective data to prove that Unigraphics is dying!” I wasn’t disappointed: (note: I think the “inventor” is inflated, as job [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Pro Engineer, SolidWorks, Unigraphics

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