CAD – Target Enigma

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Haven’t tried the vertical wrap you’ve used but the extrude seems to work OK on this. did you ‘chain’ the ‘cut’ extrude?

IanT

 

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Dave – it may be as simple as just moving your plane with the text on just a little bit further out than tangent to the wheel surface.

I’ve no direct experience with SE, but I’ve seen similar oddities for corner case situations in Alibre.

[IanT]

On IanT Said:

Haven’t tried the vertical wrap you’ve used but the extrude seems to work OK on this. did you ‘chain’ the ‘cut’ extrude?

IanT

 

I did chain the cut Ian.  In the past I’ve successfully projected horizontal text, so maybe my problem is due to the letters being vertical.   I shall try horizontal to see if it breaks too.  If it does, probably means I’m doing summat wrong.   Ditto if you can get vertical text working.

Ta

 

Dave

 

[David Jupp]

On David Jupp Said:

Dave – it may be as simple as just moving your plane with the text on just a little bit further out that tangent to the wheel surface.

…

Excellent idea – I’ll try it!

Cheers.

Dave

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

As the letters problem isn’t a showstopper, I’ve moved the model forward somewhat.   In a real Enigma the operator had to change the rotor order, and had six to ten to choose from as per the daily key settings.

Therefore I changed the frame to allow the reflector and 3 rotors to be lifted out and dropped back in.   Almost sure to be too simple: German engineering will have had a nice release catch and maybe bearings too.  The rightmost rotor has to connect to a feeder box, and how that was arranged isn’t obvious.

Added two pawls to engage with the ratchets, and the axle needed to support them. The levers and frame are drilled to take coil springs, which I thought SE community edition provided in a library. Nope, I shall have to model them!

Back to the letter problem next, many thanks for the suggestions – much appreciated.

Dave

 

[IanTParticipant @iant]

I moved the coincident (reference) plane out to the cylinders ‘edge’ Dave – by setting the plane’s offset to equal the cylinders radius and then projected the text profile back from there, so there shouldn’t be any malalignment.  If I get time later tonight, I’ll try a vertical wrap using the same method.

Regards,

 

IanT

[IanT]

On IanT Said:

I moved the coincident (reference) plane out to the cylinders ‘edge’ Dave – by setting the plane’s offset to equal the cylinders radius and then projected the text profile back from there, so there shouldn’t be any malalignment.  If I get time later tonight, I’ll try a vertical wrap using the same method.

Regards,

 

IanT

I’ll give it a try next, fingers crossed.  I created an actual tangent plane, didn’t work, nor did David’s edge case suggestion.

Couldn’t replicate your horizontal wrap to work either: must be doing something wrong.   Watched a few tutorials and read the Solid Edge advice, and I think I’m following instructions.   One of the youtube tutorials makes it look easy, but no commentary and it’s so blurred I can’t make out which tools he’s using.  He’s in ordered mode, and I’m synchronous.

Ho hum!

Cheers,

Dave

[ChrisLHParticipant @chrislh]

In case anybody out there, like me, is using SolidWorks Maker edition, it too supports engraving or embossing on a wobbly surface. I have only tried it on a cylinder (analytical) so far but it looks as if other surfaces (spline) can be treated. Like Jason I didn’t need to create a tangent plane, an existing one through the cylinder origin was OK. Strangely the spacing was tricky. With equal letters and spaces, diameter times pi divided by 52 was close but Z overwrote the A. Had to do it by trial and error in the end.

Yet again totally failed to create a screenshot !

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Let joy be unbounded!  I think I’ve cracked it.

Ian’s coincident plane advice didn’t work, but it got me somewhere.  Like other attempts Ian’s suggestion, which works for him, failed at my last stage – the Extrude.   I wondered if Extrude is the right tool for this, and it isn’t.   Hidden away in the Add subsection of the Solids toolbar, there’s another tool , it’s labelled ‘Normal Protrusion’ :

It allows all the text to be selected, and then does a cut or add that works, hurrah!

 

 

 

 

Taken several hours to break this problem, and the answer is simple.  But only when you know how.   I’ll explore further, but this feels like a breakthrough.

Thanks for suggestions, all very helpful even if not spot on – made me think out of my box.

Cheers,

Dave

 

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Typical of CAD, different providers use different name for similar functions, or different functions for the same name.

Once you know the name to look for, things are much easier.

[Nick HughesParticipant @nickhughes97026]

Deleted as solution found

[IanTParticipant @iant]

No, for this –  ‘Project’ distorts the beginning & end of the Text if you go too far around the cylinder face with a larger font- but ‘Wrap Sketch’ works just fine.

Hard to see the ‘Cut’ in the image below (as I probably set it too deep at 0.75mm) but it’s there….   🙂

Regards,

 

Ian

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