Create Geometric Contours

Example

The following steps can be applied to any wireframe chains to create a contour entity with a defined direction that can be used for machining features. You can open an existing file or draw any rectangle (as explained in Create a Rectangle) to use with the following steps.

 

  1. In the Other menu, click Contour.
  2. The Contour parameters are displayed in the Data Entry tab.
  3. In the Direction group, select CW to create the contour with clockwise direction, or select CCW to create a contour with a counter-clockwise direction.
  4. Under Chain Beginning, you can select Set Longest as Start. This setting automatically places the start point of the contour on the longest entity of the selected chain.
  5. You can use Selected Start Point/Automatic to set the start point of the contour based on your selection method.
    1. If you window pick the entities (click and drag a window), the software automatically sets the start point of the contour.
    2. If you select each entity one at a time, the start point of the contour is placed on the first selected entity.
    3. If you chain select the entities (press and hold Shift, then click), the closest end point of the entity that you click is set as the end of the chain. (Be aware that the direction affects the start location when using chain selection for closed contours.) When chain-selecting open chains to create a contour, the direction is defined only by your selection. None of the Data Entry parameters apply to open contours when using chain selection.

TIP:   The start of a contour can't be placed in the middle of a single entity. For example, if you have a line (a single entity) and you want the start point to be in the middle of that line, you must first break the line at that point.

  1. Select the entities in the Workspace using one of the methods explained in Step 5.
  2. To confirm the selection, right-click anywhere in the Workspace, and click OKCheckmarkIconWhite.png OK.
  3. The entities are grouped to create the contour, and the direction of the contour is displayed on the entities in the Workspace. The contour can now be selected as a single entity. When you create a machining feature with the contour, the direction of the feature is controlled by the contour direction. (You can also use the Start Point of the feature to control the direction of a feature without the need to create a contour.)

 

contour_exam1.png

 

 

The following image shows two groups of entities that are selected at the same time. The result is two separate contours, one for each chain. This is done using the same steps as explained earlier. Note that when you create more than one contour at a time, the same direction is used for all contours.

 

contour_exam2.png

 

TIP:   To delete a contour, enable selection mode (in the Edit menu, click Select Mode), click to select the contour, and press Delete. The original entities are not affected (the contour is reverted back to the original group of entities). Be aware that if you use Translate to move a contour entity, the original entities do not move with the contour (they remain at their original location).

Related Topics

Contours

The CAD_Tutorials

Setting Chain Start Points for Operations