PowerSHAPE

4. Extruded Surfaces

4. Extruded Surfaces
Introduction to SURFACES in PowerSHAPE
A surface is effectively a skin stretched across a wireframe network (minimum 4 sides) and generally is easily modified should the design specification change. The curves on a PowerSHAPE surface are called longitudinals (along the surface) and laterals (across the surface). In some cases another (optional) curve exists called a spine. This generally runs along the longitudinal direction, often in free space controlling the orientation of the laterals. Laterals This surface contains the minimum, two laterals. Longitudinals This surface contains a total of 7 longitudinals flowing from corresponding points from the first to the second lateral Spine (Drive Curve) The spine (shown dotted) is used to control the orientation of the laterals. A spine is not mandatory and can be created or deleted as required without changing the surface shape. It occurs automatically such as during the creation of Fillet surfaces or as part of the controlled geometry of a Drive Curve surface.

The Cato mark identifies the start point for Laterals and Longitudinals on a POWER surface. It is positioned a short distance from point 1 along lateral 1 with a short line pointing from it representing the Longitudinal direction. PowerSHAPE supports a variety of different Surface types that may during the course of programming require conversion to the most versatile form, the POWER surface. PRIMITIVES or Imported, NURBS Surfaces have very limited editing capability. If full surface editing is required they must first be converted to POWER surfaces. Most of the surface creation options directly create POWER surfaces (This will be covered in more detail later on during the course notes)

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

37

4. Extruded Surfaces

PowerSHAPE

Extruded Surfaces
A surface (or solid) can be extruded along one of the 3 principle axes or normal to the selected wireframe. A separate surface will be created for each wireframe entity in the selection. An Extrusion surface has limited editing capabilities unless it is converted to a POWER surface.

Octagonal Extrusion example

This example demonstrates the creation of an octagonal extrusion with a side length of 50 and a length of 100. Further wireframe options are also covered during the chapter.

Open PowerSHAPE so that you are in a New Model or close the golf_fin model. Select the Line icon, and ensure that the Continuous Line option is selected in the sub-menu (the down arrow will display the sub-menu).

Single Line Mode Continuous Line Mode Rectangle Mode Automatic 3D box around selected items Chamfer with trim Chamfer without trim.

Move your mouse into the new model area.

A temporary line is attached to the cursor. As the cursor is moved the coordinates of the position are tracked in the XYZ co-ordinate area at the bottom of the screen, depending upon which plane you are in.

38

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

PowerSHAPE

4. Extruded Surfaces

Enter the start co-ordinate of 0 (for X0 Y0 Z0) and press Return.

This has now fixed one end of the line. As you move the cursor around the screen, an indication of the line length and angle is given. This is using the Intelligent Cursor. A: 35 L: 49 is an angle of 35 and a line length of 49.

Move the mouse around until you get an angle of 0 (east on a compass). (The angle indicator will disappear at this point). Stretch the line until it gives a line length of 50, and click with the Left mouse button.
The line will turn yellow, indicating that it is now complete. The next line automatically continues on from the end of the previous line.

Move the mouse around to select an angle of 45 , and click the Left mouse button to finish off the line with any length.

Exit out of creation mode by selecting the Select icon.

The finished line turns yellow and has an arrow showing its direction. This line needs to be modified to be exactly 50mm long.

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

39

4. Extruded Surfaces
Select the line with the Right mouse button. As you get nearer the line, the cursor should change into a grabbing hand.

PowerSHAPE

This menu is a line menu and highlights the options available. The title indicates that the item is a line and it is on the level called General, which is level 0. The line can be Cut, Copied or Deleted from the model. Next selection, allows picks the item underneath the line. Blank will blank the line and Blank Except will blank everything apart from the line. Undo, will undo the last PowerSHAPE command. Selection information will print details of the line. Modify brings up the edit form or toolbar.

Select the Modify option and the line editor form appears.

Change the Length to 50 and Accept the form.

Alternatively, once an object is selected, double click using the left mouse button and the relevant edit form will appear.

40

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

PowerSHAPE

4. Extruded Surfaces

Select the Line icon. Move the mouse towards the end of the last line. When the Intelligent cursor finds the end point the word End appears.

Click the Left mouse button. Move the mouse vertically upwards until you get a distance of 50 and press the left mouse button.
The next few lines will be entered directly using the Position form.

Select the XYZ button at

the bottom of the screen.

The Position form appears, with the Cartesian tab selected to show Cartesian options i.e. moves in X, Y and Z.

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

41

4. Extruded Surfaces

PowerSHAPE

Select the Polar tab and fill in the values of Angle 135 and Distance 50.
The polar tab allows angles to be defined on the current plane either from the selected position (relative) or from the world X0 Y0 Z0 position. The Angle is the angle measured around the point, the distance is the length of the line and the Elevation is the angle that the line lifts up from the plane. If this is left as 0 a flat 2D angle is produced. Other ways of defining a distance are covered by the other tab options.

Apply the form and the line is drawn and the position form remains available. Select the Cartesian tab in the form. Enter a distance of -50 in the X.

Apply the form and the line is drawn and the position form remains available. Select the Polar tab in the form Enter an Angle of 225 and a distance of 50.

42

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

PowerSHAPE

4. Extruded Surfaces

Apply the form, the line is drawn and the position form remains available. Select the Cartesian tab and enter a distance of -50 in the Y.

Accept the form to enter the line and remove the form. Move the cursor to the end of the first line, until the word End appears and click the Left mouse button to accept that position. Exit out of line creation by selecting the Select icon.
The wireframe of an octagon is now complete. This octagon must be turned into a composite curve. A composite curve is a string of geometry or surfaces edges linked together to form a complete unit.

Select the Curve Creation icon and the Composite Curve icon.

Bezier Curve B-Spline Curve Composite curve Draft Curve Oblique Curve Surface/Solid Intersection Projected Curve

The Create Composite Curve tool bar appears.

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

43

4. Extruded Surfaces

PowerSHAPE

Select any line of the octagon with the Left mouse button and the composite curve will run around the simple shape.

The octagon changes colour to show which areas have been selected and a circle appears to show that the proposed composite curve is a closed shape.

Select the Save button off the toolbar to save the composite curve and the Eject button to exit composite curves. Change to an isometric view. Select the composite curve. Select the Surface icon and the Extrusion option.

Extruded Surface

44

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

PowerSHAPE

4. Extruded Surfaces

This extrudes the selected composite curve up the Z-axis by a default value.

Select an isometric view on the model to see the selected extruded surface.

This default surface can be dynamically sized by extrusion length or can be given an actual size.

Press and hold down the Left mouse button on the double (blue) arrows.
Moving the mouse up and down extends and shortens the extrusion length of the surface.

Release the mouse button at an extrusion length of around 50. Edit the extrusion length to a particular value, by double clicking on the arrows to bring up the Primitive Surface form.

The primitive extrusion can be given an exact length by entering in the value required. The extrusion can be given a positive or negative draft angle. The Keep option will keep the original wireframe used to generate the extrusion. The origin of the extrusion can be moved and complete extrusion can be twisted or aligned to an Axis. Primitive extrusions can be modified until they are converted into Power surfaces. They are then altered in a different way.

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

45

4. Extruded Surfaces

PowerSHAPE

Enter an extrusion length of 100 in the Set extrusion in the Dimensions field. Accept the form and the octagon is now complete. Click away from the octagon with the left mouse button to de-select it.

Now is a good time to save the model with a new name.

Select the File - Save As menu option.

The Save Model As form appears. Existing model names can be checked by using the down arrow.

Enter the Model Name project1. Press Save and the model is saved.

Extruding several shapes

PowerSHAPE can extrude several wireframes at once to a common length. After extrusion they can be individually modified if required.

Example
For this example a new workplane is generated away from the original octagon shape.

Select the Create Workplane icon.

This generates a ghost workplane attached to the mouse. This is fixed by snapping to some geometry or by entering the workplane origin position for the workplane in the position box.

46

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

PowerSHAPE

4. Extruded Surfaces

Select a top view and enter the value of X 200 and Y 75.

Click to the side to deselect it. The new workplane is immediately active (red) and is now the new 0 0 0 position. Generate the following 8 lines around the new workplane.

Each individual line selected would make an individual extrusion, making 8 surfaces, if all of the geometry was selected. By making a composite curve of the rectangle and 'c' shape before selecting the geometry, PowerSHAPE will only make three surfaces.

Select the composite curve icon. Select a line on the box and then save to store the composite curve. Immediately select a line of the 'c' shape and then press save. Press eject to exit the command.

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

47

4. Extruded Surfaces

PowerSHAPE

There are now two composite curves in the model, one open and one closed. The single line does not need to be made into a composite curve, as it is a single entity.

Select all of the geometry by dragging a box over all the geometry. Select surface extrusion icon.
For multiple wireframe selection a different form appears which requires common input for the Length and Draft Angle of all the extrusions. These can later be modified individually if required.

Apply the form with a Length of 70 and then press Dismiss.

PowerSHAPE has created 3 surfaces, as you move you mouse over them they change colour in turn. When an object goes purple it will become selected if the left mouse key is clicked. Once selected an entity will be coloured yellow.

Blanking
Blanking is a very useful facility in PowerSHAPE. When you blank one or a number of items it removes them from the screen, without deleting them. To bring all blanked object back on the screen, the Unblank option is used. This is used to temporarily filter away parts of a complex model from the screen providing easier visibility and access.

48

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

PowerSHAPE

4. Extruded Surfaces

Pull down the Views menu.

The two options for blanking are Blank Selected and Blank Except. Blank Selected will hide all of the selected objects. Blank Except will hide everything else EXCEPT from the selected objects. This shows the keyboard shortcuts.

Save the model using the Save icon. Resize the view and experiment with the blanking options.

Deleting Surfaces
Select the surfaces by dragging a box around them. Click the Right mouse button over a surface edge, to bring up the Surface menu. Select Delete off the menu.
The surfaces are now deleted. Alternatively, once selected you can use the Delete key on your keyboard to delete the selected surfaces.

Deleting Lines
Delete any surfaces left and create a few lines as shown.

To delete a line, select the line shown using the Left mouse button. Hold down the Right mouse button until the Line Edit menu appears. Select Delete from the menu and the line disappears.
If you have made a mistake you can go to the Edit menu and select Undo, or select the Undo icon on the top toolbar.

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

49

4. Extruded Surfaces

PowerSHAPE

Once the Undo icon has been used the Redo icon to the right of it becomes activated, so you can redo the command that was undo.

This allows you to go forwards and backwards within PowerSHAPE. You can also use the Delete key on the keyboard or the Delete icon on the top toolbar to delete selected items.

If you already have a line selected and wish to select another one to delete, hold down the Shift key and pick the other line. Both lines are now selected.

Stretch a box over the geometry using the Left mouse button.

The default command is to select everything that goes through or is within the area. If you press delete now, you would delete all of these lines. The whole box command selects only the whole items within the area.

Select the selector icon and pick the whole box icon.

Select items partially in box Select whole items in box Selection Filter Quick Select all wireframe Quick Select all surfaces and solids Quick Filter for wireframe Quick Filter for surfaces and solids

50

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

PowerSHAPE

4. Extruded Surfaces

Stretch a box over the geometry using the Left mouse button.

Only the two lines completely inside the box are selected.

3D geometry
Composite curves do not have to be made up of flat ' 2D' geometry but can also be made using 3D geometry. The 3D composite curves can then be used to make surfaces.

3D Geometry Example
The following triangular form will be extruded from a 3D network of lines.

Create a continuous line entering 3 sets of incremental coordinates from 0 to 100 to 50 50 10. Create the last line by snapping on the start of the first line or by typing in abs 0 (for an absolute co-ordinate of 0). Create a Composite Curve and create an extruded surface of length 50.

Rotating the model will show that the extrusion has taken place normal to the 3D wireframe (not along the Z axis)

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

51

4. Extruded Surfaces

PowerSHAPE

Select Undo (Main toolbar) the command. From the main pull down menus select Tools Options Objects Surfaces .

Untick the box Create extrusions normal to planar base. Select the Composite Curve and generate an extruded surface by 50mm in the Z-axis.

Rotating the model will show that the extrusion has now been applied along the Z axis.

52

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

PowerSHAPE

4. Extruded Surfaces

Select Close from the File Menu to close this model.

Pump Project Example

In this example an IGES file containing wireframe data is Imported into PowerSHAPE and the Surface Model will be created in stages to compliment the remaining chapters. This stage will include the creation of an extrusion surface from a composite curve.

Generate a new model by selecting the New Model icon. Select File and then Import. Import the IGES file pump.iges from PowerSHAPE_data\iges.

Many different types of Cad data formats can be imported into PowerSHAPE depending on the customer having purchased the relevant translators. Data translations can also be carried out on the Internet on a pay as you go basis through our Technical Support department.

The multi-coloured wireframe appears

Turn the base profile into a composite curve.

In this case as it is a single profile, you can use Alt and mouse button 1 for a quick shortcut for the creation of this composite curve.

Create a 40 mm surface of extrusion up the Z-axis.

The above model will be SAVED for further use later during the training course.

Issue PSHAPE 5.0

53

4. Extruded Surfaces

PowerSHAPE

In the main pull down menus select File Save and in the form enter the name pump-project2. Close the model.

Exercise
Produce the knight shown. The top half is an extrusion and the bottom a circular base.

-----------------------(PARALLEL)

54

Issue PSHAPE 5.0