Had Another Go

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Thankyou!

I went back to the original and tried it. I rounded off the outside edges successfully, but found with the inner ones it would remove rather than add “metal”, rounding both entities’ edges to create a peculiar cut-away effect. I took this to be because here, an edge of one entity meets a face on the other, as two separate objects.

Not really important though, just a minor finishing-touch. It was difficult enough and took long enough, creating the main model. I suppose it would have been more efficient to have modelled a quarter-section of the three channel parts, reflected it twice to the overall shape then added the angle-piece. I can see why that Sweep tool exists for extrusions not parallel or perpendicular to the main axes, but cannot operate it.

The ends of the cross-pieces don’t meet the sides very well. I had to use one corner on each cross-member to locate the side wall so there are tiny triangular gaps in there. Then having extruded the primary sketch realised I’d put the angle-iron cross-piece at the wrong distance and had to remove it by extruding a rectangle through it, and add a new one at the right spacing.

I found that sketch-verifying very frustrating because it lists your mistakes but does not show where. Some are fairly obvious on an enlarged view, but others really are hidden. The inviting button called “Analyze” doesn’t seem to do anything, not in Alibre ‘Atom’ anyway. I expect it does in the higher-power editions.

…

I had first tried to assemble this frame from the set of parts I’d drawn, but failed very quickly.

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Nigel. If a feature is in the wrong place, you don’t need to cut it away – instead either delete the feature in the design explorer, or edit the defining sketch to correct the position.

The analyze tool will show you where particular errors are.  Select any error in the list, and the location will be highlighted.  Not 100% perfect, but it can be very helpful.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

David – the wrongly-placed piece was a part of the sketch itself so I could not delete it on its own, but I could not work out how to edit it either.

I was hoping the analyser would highlight where the errors are but it didn’t, so what do I need do?

I tried switching off 3 of the 4 types listed and pressing “Analyse” but that didn’t seem to make any difference. I think some of the errors were so tiny they were invisible, hidden by the line thickness and the black dot.

The “Heal” button is definitely off – low-lighted.

I cured some by extending the outlines beyond the corners to meet temporary external lines, then trimming them back.

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