Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001

Intent Manager: Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

Table of Contents:

1) Objective 2) Overview 3) Tutorial 4) Sketcher Cheat Sheet 5) Key Vocabulary 6) Tutorial Evaluation

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Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Objective: At the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:

• List three techniques to effectively control a sketch. • Give two examples of using construction geometry. • Explain three benefits of intent manager to control sketches.

Overview: Every 3D model is comprised of many sketched features so it’s important to have a good understanding of how intent manager can be used most effectively. Instead of simply being an area where 2d lines are drawn out, Intent Manager is a powerful, intelligent, sketching area that fully understands your design intent. In this tutorial, we’re going to take a rather simple example of a tooling ball sitting in a conical mounting block and show how you can take advantage of the intent manager to quickly sketch and control the feature for many different scenarios. Note: Since the selection method of using the “Right Mouse Button” comes up so frequently, it will be referred to simply as RMB from this point on. The same syntax applies for the “Left Mouse Button”, it becomes LMB.

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Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Tutorial: This is one third of a kinematic mount using a tooling ball and a conical cut in a mounting block. The tooling ball is a purchased part and we know the distance that it needs to rest above the floor so now we’re going to use the intent manager to figure out the other dimensions. Step 1: CreaStep 2: Place

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Figure #2 Figu

re #1

te a revolved cut feature and roughly sketch out one half of the cut. a centerline on the vertical reference and that will be our axis of revolution.

Figu

re #3

Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Step 3: Place the tooling ball shape as reference geometry.

a) Sketch a circle on the centerline and drag it out to an approximate size, but don’t let it “snap” to any other geometry yet.

b) Toggle it to be construction geometry: Left click the circle and it will highlight as red, now RMB and select “TOGGLE CONSTRUCTION”.

Figure #4

Any geometry can be switched to construction geometry by RMB and selecting “TOGGLE CONSTURMCTION”

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Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Step 4: Constrain the tooling ball to be tangent to the inside conical surface.

a) Use the constraint icon and select “Tangent”. Then select both the circle and the angled line. You’ll now see a yellow “T” displayed showing that the items are linked. Try moving either around and you’ll see they respect the constraints you’ve applied.

Make the circle and angled line tangent.

Figure #5

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Use the “Constraints” icon to control how thsketch behaves.

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Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Step 5: Begin controlling critical dimensions.

a) Apply the dimensioning scheme shown in Figure #6. b) Now lets ‘LOCK’ the dimensions we need to control (based on purchased part

dimensions or manufacturing requirements). LMB on a dimension and RMB “LOCK”. You can select multiple dimensions at a time by holding the “SHIFT” key while LMB on dimensions.

c) In our example, we’ve locked out our entire sketch so that the angle and the point of contact of the tooling ball are the only variables allowed for dynamic dragging. This allows us to see the effects of different angles on the shape of the cut.

Figure #7

Figure #6

By RMB on a dimension, you can “LOCK” it so that it will not dynamically dragThis gives us control over sketch movement.

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Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Step 6: Apply more exact constraints to the sketch. We want the ball to impact the conical surface at exactly the midpoint. Use additional constraints to control this.

a) Create a centerline by letting it snap to the ‘Midpoint’ of the conical surface. b) Now snap it again to the center of the construction circle (Figure #8). c) Lastly, we need to constrain the centerline so that it’s perpendicular to the surface.

Select the ‘Perpendicular’ constraint and pick both lines. d) Your sketch is now “Over constrained”; you must resolve the sketch (Figure #9).

Process of elimination usually will tell you which dimension or constraint to remove. In our case, we still would like to know the angle dimension, so we’ll simply click “DIM > REF” and create a reference dimension out of it.

Create centerline by ‘snapping’ to the midpoint and to the center of the construction circle. A perpendicular constraint between the two lines will insure the ball impacts at the midpoint.

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Figure #9

Figure #8

In the “Resolve Sketch” window, simply delete a dimension or constraint, or in our case, create a reference dimension.

Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Step 7: Apply more exact constraints to the sketch. We want the ball to impact the conical surface at exactly the midpoint. Use additional constraints to control this.

a) Create a centerline by letting it snap to the ‘Midpoint’ of the conical surface. b) Now snap it again to the center of the construction circle (Figure #8). c) Lastly, we need to constrain the centerline so that it’s perpendicular to the surface.

Select the ‘Perpendicular’ constraint and pick both lines. d) Your sketch is now “Over constrained”; you must resolve the sketch (Figure #9).

Process of elimination usually will tell you which dimension or constraint to remove. In our case, we still would like to know the angle dimension, so we’ll simply click “DIM > REF” and create a reference dimension out of it.

Create centerline by ‘snapping’ to the midpoint and to the center of the construction circle. A perpendicular constraint between the two lines will insure the ball impacts at the midpoint.

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Figure #11

Figure #10

In the “Resolve Sketch” window, simply delete a dimension or constraint, or in our case, create a reference dimension.

Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Step 8: Dimension the ‘included’ angle of the cone instead of one half by using construction geometry.

a) Select the right side conical surface line and then choose the mirror icon. Pick the centerline and it will be mirrored to the other side.

b) Now select the mirrored line and then RMB “TOGGLE CONSTRUCTION”. c) Delete the inner diameter dimension and the reference dimension for the angle.

Create a new dimension between the included angle of the two conical surface lines (this dimension can now be modified).

d) Re-create the inner diameter dimension and when “Resolve Sketch” comes up, just select it to be a ‘Reference’ dimension.

The original line is mirrored to the other side and then is toggled to be construction geometry. We can now include the dimensioning scheme necessary for manufacturing.

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Figure #13

Figure #12

We now have a modifiable dimension for the total included angle and have made our inner diameter a reference value.

Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Optional: You can even move, copy, or scale an existing sketch by locking all of the feature dimensions and only leaving the ‘location’ dimensions to float. Below you’ll see how that’s done.

a) First “LOCK” all of the feature dimensions. b) Now delete any references to existing geometry. c) Leave only one or two ‘location’ dimensions to allow the sketch to float. d) Now you can drag it wherever you need it to go. You could even scale it or rotate

it without any problem. When you’re happy with it’s placement, simply dimension it as needed with the proper references.

Figure #14

Notice that all feature dimensions are locked, there are no references to existing geometry, and there’s only one dimension that is allowed to ‘float’.

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Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001

Sketcher Cheat Sheet:

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Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001

Summary of Best Practices:

Exaggerate the initial sketch! Use the dynamic drag feature to “size” the sketch. Keep sketches simple! “The Rule of 5 Minutes”. References: specify geometry you want to auto snap to. Orientation: orient the sketch so the majority of sketched lines are horizontal and vertical. Use “Lock Scale” to scale an entire section quickly. Make sure your sketch has all yellow dimensions!

• • • • •

• •

Quick Commands:

Mouse Click Action

Right Mouse button Disables the current constraint

Middle button Toggles you back to “Select” mode

SHIFT+ Right Mouse button Locks a constraint

TAB Selects the constraint for disabling or locking

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Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Key Vocabulary for Patterns: Constraint: Geometric properties that can be applied to a sketch so that it will update predictably when changes occur. Examples are: tangency, perpendicular, symmetrical, parallel, collinear, etc. Construction Geometry: Any sketched geometry that Pro/E does not use to create solid geometry. Traditionally this has been represented by a ‘centerline’, but now any sketched entity can be toggled into construction geometry by RMB. Very useful for setting up additional geometric constraints and dimensioning schemes that are not inherent in the solid geometry. Dynamic Drag: A powerful method of testing the constraint scheme of the sketch by picking on an entity and simply dragging your mouse. The sketch (and dimensions) will dynamically update on the screen and allow the user to see how the constraints are behaving and whether a given dimension value is geometrically possible. Locked Dimension: A user can fix the value of a dimension so that it will not change when the sketch is being dynamically dragged. The lock only applies during the current sketch session and goes away when in 3D model mode. A very useful technique for testing the behavior a sketched entities and constraints. Reference Dimension: A dimension that is not used by Pro/E in determining whether a sketch is fully controlled. It is represented by parenthesis ( ) around the value and cannot be modified (but it always displays the accurate value). Snap: Sketcher automatically aligns entities while you sketch. It aligns to geometry already sketched (in cyan) or to sketch references you’ve selected (in orange). Strong Dimensions: Dimensions that are depicted in yellow that have been explicitly created or modified by the user. Best practice is for the user to explicitly define what the dimensioning scheme should be for the feature. Weak Dimensions: Dimensions that are depicted in a light gray color that have not been explicitly created or modified by the user. They’re always created by Pro/E as a ‘best guess’ of your dimensioning scheme. Best practice is to never have weak dimensions in a sketch; the user should always dictate how he wants a feature dimensioned.

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Title: Intent Manager Tips & Techniques Date: 10/22/02 Version: Pro/Engineer 2001 Tutorial Evaluation:

Title: Engineer Designer Draftsmen Mfg. Engr. Tech. Pubs. Analyst

PTC Products Used:

Foundation Advanced Assembly Extension Advanced Surface Extension

Behavioral Modeling Intralink Modelcheck All

Time using Pro/E: 0-6 months 6-12 months 1-2 years 2-5 years 5+ years

1 – Strongly Disagree 3 – Agree 5 – Strongly Agree

1. This tutorial content met my expectations: ………………………… 1 2 3 4 5

2. The exercise was easy to understand: ………………………… 1 2 3 4 5

3. This tutorial will help me on current projects: ………………………… 1 2 3 4 5

4. These techniques make Pro/E a more effective tool: ………………………… 1 2 3 4 5

5. These techniques will increase my speed using Pro/E: ………………………… 1 2 3 4 5

What concepts/techniques learned from this tutorial will you apply on the job?

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What would you like to see as a future tutorial at your company?

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What can be done to improve these tutorials for your company?

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Additional Comments:

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