UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO

Project 02 Solid Modeling Assignment 02 - MAE 377

Jonathan E. Jones – 3451-8370

9/23/2009

Project 02 was meant to continue the learning of an aspiring Engineering student in the usage of ProEngineering Wildfire 4.0. By completing the five drawings, one two dimensional drawing, and one assembled project, I learned such techniques as spring creation, 2D transposition, and assembly, among others.

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Table of Contents 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 3

2 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................................... 3

3 Results ................................................................................................................................................... 3

3.1 Part A ............................................................................................................................................. 3

3.2 Part B ............................................................................................................................................. 4

3.3 Part C ............................................................................................................................................. 4

3.4 Part E ............................................................................................................................................. 5

3.5 Part F ............................................................................................................................................. 6

4 Discussion .............................................................................................................................................. 7

5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 7

6 References ............................................................................................................................................ 8

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1 Introduction Project 02 has served as a continuation of the CAD skills I learned in Project 01. This project was

designed to teach me the more pertinent tasks in ProEngineering Wildfire 4.0 than those gleaned in

Project 01. I daresay that with the completion of this project I have added a few more handy tools to

my current repertoire of abilities.

2 Problem Statement In order to further my three-dimensional CAD skills, I was tasked with drawing three figures from our

engineering textbook Pro\ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0, along with a major assembly consisting of seven

separate components. Although our textbook again provided step-by-step directions, this time around I

tried to accomplish most tasks by my own validity, only referring back to the text when I was utterly

stumped. This entire process was meant for me to garner the techniques designing of springs using

helical sweeps, assembly of components, and the ability to create 2D engineering drawings from a 3D

model, among other useful tidbits.

3 Results Fortunately for me, I was able to successful recreate the models we were tasked with completing in

Project 02. The following sections will detail how I went about creating each part, describing any pitfalls

I may have run into along the way.

3.1 Part A Part A was not so much as task of complicated mouse clicks and button mashing, so much that it was a

“thinking-man’s” model. The device in Figure 1 was meant to be created using only on extrusion and

one cut, forcing strategy into the forefront of the process. By extruding the front face and cutting the

specified shape into the side face, I was able to beat the system and create this model fairly painlessly.

(a) (b)

Figure 1 (a) The CAD model of the block made in Part A; (b) the same CAD model of Part A at a different view.

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3.2 Part B Part B proved to be a marginally difficult piece to model. Thoroughly looking harmless enough, a

threadless screw became quite difficult in the later stages of the game. An extrusion for the shaft and

head of the screw seemed like child’s play at first, and even revolving an arc cut to create the correct

shape for the head was relatively easy. However, it took upwards of 15 successive tries to get the

+ shaped cut to pattern correctly. Considering the bottom of the + shape is flat and the cuts themselves

curved, ProE was having supreme difficulty patterning into a symmetric shape, instead making more of a

lowercase “t” shape. After fooling around with my initial sketch, and eventually changing the angle of

revolution for the pattern to 270°, I was able to achieve the desired look, as seen in Figure 2.

(a) (b) Figure 2 (a) The CAD model of the screw made in Part B; (b) the same CAD model of Part B at a different view.

3.3 Part C How hard could it be to create a spring? At the beginning of my attempt to create Part C, I would have

promptly retorted that it was a piece of cake, some may say as easy as creating a hole or a chamfer. Boy

was I wrong. Following Professor DiCorso’s “Helical Sweep Tutorial” on UBLearns to an alleged tee, I

created multiple instances of what I thought was sure to be a spring. Not only did I end up with an

asymmetrical inner tube looking drawing, one single ring of spring, but even a a few occurrences of utter

nothingness. After fooling around the pitch and other constraints for a solid half hour, I finally came

upon a set of controls that allowed for a palatable spring looking like model.

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(a) (b) Figure 3 (a) The CAD model of the spring made in Part C; (b) the same CAD model of Part C at a different view.

3.4 Part E Part E could have been much, much worse. This part of the project taught us how to create a series of

two dimensional drawings from an already constructed three-dimensional model. If we had to

completely draw the entire 2D drawing from scratch, that would have been another whole project in

and of itself. (Fortunately, this was not the case.) Utilizing a pulley that I had already created for use

later in Part F of Project 02, and following the instructions laid out in our textbook, I was able to

transpose the dimensioning and drawings from the 3D to the 2D. This truly is quite the nifty little trick

ProE allows you to get away with. After lending dimensions to the parts of the views that needed them,

I was done with Part E in a matter of minutes. The trickiest part proved to be changing the color scheme

to black on white and increasing the fervor of my hashmarks, things not explicitly spelled out in the text.

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Figure 4: The 2D CAD drawing of a pulley transposed from its 3D counterpart in Part E.

3.5 Part F The final part of Project 02 was actually the most time consuming, challenging, yet ultimately

rewarding part of this project. There are seven distinct pieces in play in Part F, none of them

particularly difficult by themselves, as they range from the simplicity of a washer to the relative

complexity of a pulley wheel. Our textbook went through great pains in detailing exactly how each

and every piece was to be made, and with the exception of a few curiously hidden dimension values,

every virtually went off without a hitch. The sheer number of items to create proved to be the

decisively killer factor. The real fun began when we had to assemble these now 13 parts (the bolts,

washers, bushings, and brackets came in multiples) into one “working” assembly. Again following the

textbook like a wayward sheep in this section, I was able to create a fully assembled pulley system.

With only a few keyboard strokes more, this turned into a fully fledged, very impressive looking

exploded view of the assembly, as seen in Figure 5. This is truly what I planned on creating in 3D CAD,

and I am glad that we have finally learned how to create something so complicated looking without

really killing myself trying.

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(a) (b)

Figure 3 (a) The CAD assembly of the pulley system in Part F, exploded view; (b) the same assembly of Part F in an unexploded view.

4 Discussion The specific problems detailed in Sections 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, and 2.5 regarding the creation of Parts B, C, E,

and F have already been duly noted. Another issue I would like to bring up is the gall of (most likely)

the accountants at PTC, the owners and creators of ProEngineering Wildfire 4.0. The program that is

available to us in the university’s computer labs is the Educational Edition of ProE. By itself, this is not

a problem in the least, as I can find no discernable or worthwhile difference between this edition and

the commercial ones. However, the edition of ProE I run on my laptop is a professional copy (a friend

of my father is a 3D drafter). Using any .prt files I create on my laptop at home in the lab is

completely reliable and goes off without a hitch. However, when I tried to take an unfinished version

of Part F home so that I could spend some fraction of the day out of the artificial light of tenth floor

Furnas, I received error message galore, ultimately not allowing me to open, change, or work on Part

F at all. Thank you PTC for making my life just that much harder, my pale visage truly appreciates the

effort. And to answer your next question: no, I will not buy the educational edition to supplement my

(free) edition of Wildfire I am already running so that I can have a two-way work environment.

Thanks anyways.

5 Conclusion Project 02 did end up being quite the lengthy project, accumulating over 15 hours in total. The

problems mentioned in sections 3.2 through 3.5 really put a hamper on the amount of enjoyment I was

garnering from learning all sorts of new engineering skills. I eventually created all five parts of the

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project up to specification, ultilizing my newly discovered talents of spring creation, assembly, and 2D

drawing. The camaraderie felt between engineering struggling with the same issues and problem solving

like there is no tomorrow is something I’ve come to love and appreciate. Peering through the anguish is

also a discernable growth of knowledge in the world of 3D CAD, something that will surely help me in

the years following college.

6 References

1.) DiCorso, J. (2009). Helical Sweep Spring. [Online]. Available:

https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboa

rd%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_77303_1%26url%3d

2.) Toogood, Roger, Pro\ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0. Edmonton, Alberta: ProCAD Books Ltd, 2006.