Re: Chap 4 - Sect. Lines, Hatching, & Dimensions

[tkat@tkat.com]

Attachments :SECTION LINES:

After working w/ the pgm ones --- I've given up!

They may work, but not for me. They seem to be European style and only
straight lines. For mech parts here I was taught --- albeit, in the
days of lead & vellum --- that you could bend 'em any which way you
wanted to show the reqd details. We also have a different convention
for the directional arrows.

Here's what I've decided on:


I have made 2 new symbols and added them to my Mech Sym library. The
1st is a right angle pair of lines and the 2nd is an arrow point. I
selected pen #4, and line #4.

1. Select X-line->Polyline
2.Select freehand mode, click in the co-ord menu & set an off-dwg point
3.Enter 0,0 & return.
4.Enter 0,-,5 & return.
5.Enter .5,-,5 & return twice.

This should draw a corner [change direction] sect line. Turn it into a
symbol, Symbol->from window [top menu]. Put the paste point @ the turn
and name it.

Call it back, cmd-E, to any old point, change to line #1 & on top of
the vertical line draw an arrow. I drew one side & then used the
mirror function. Turn it into a symbol, yadayada.

Now go to the dwg and insert the sect lines as desired, cmd-J, will
allow you to rotate the basic angle as desired. Stick the arrow point
on the appropriate vertical lines to show the cut.

TA-DA!

Oh, move the basic point back too.

============================================

HATCHING:

This feature needs some work too. Or at least I think so.

I've 2 areas that need covering. The cut thru the center of the part
on the left & the cut thru the island.

Hatching is found in the tool pallet, 2nd col, 5th row. Starting on
the left sect --- 1st, just flat scale up to 250~300%. You'll never be
able to select the reqd. lines @ 100%.

1.Select Hatching->material. Just do it --- don't ask why.
2. Follow the prompts and select the contour.
3.Follow the prompts.

If this works --- good! You may want to go to Hatching->change attribs
and try correct'n the grey scale pblms I've hit.
[grmblgrmbl]

The right side works the same. It looks like the tapped hole is an
island but no. That's just the scale inaccuracies of the pgm. Treat
it as one contour.
========================================

On to dimensions.

SCREWIT --- It's after 5:00 o'clock s'where. 'Cooler time.

OK, let's work w/ the elevation view 1st

WOOF!! This is s'th'n else!! [After 90 min of work]. It will
generally get the job done but is a bitch to work w/. Let's be "P.C.
--- ah--- polite" and say "needs some work".

1st, it has too many lines. In mech dwgs, all I want to see is a Ø/Ø
symbol for a corner and then a dim @ an appropriate place to denote a
feature. No lines go'n back to the ref. That's known. Program'n is
done from the last point to the next one & absolute mode takes care of
stack up tolerances. H'ever, this is what we have to work w/. 2nd
onwards comments come later.

Work'n w/ the left side 1st: Move the basic point to the Ø/Ø cor if
not there. Go to Options->dim's top menu & set global to yer lik'n

1.Select Dimension->multi parallel & auto mode.
2.Select the btm line as the ref line.
3.Click on the 4 points to be dimed on the left in ascending order.
Work from the bottom to the top.
4.Hit return to position dim's. NOTE: Chain as many as you want and
then hit return. See where I put 'em.
5.Start again: select btm line. Work'n in the mdl of the dwg, this
time click down on the 2 interior dim. Hit return an position as
desired.
Mov'n right.
6. Again select the btm. Select the top of the 60° cut and the top of
the part. Hit return.
7.Select dim placement.
8.Tapped hole. Select Dim->vert. & follow prompts.
9.Since this isn't exact, Select Dim->edit [don't ask why 'change
attrids don't work]. Change to 1.00. Hit return.
10. Now Select Dim->move. Pick 1.00 and move it up to get out of the
x-hatch'n.

I don't know if that's reqd. I don't have a work'n printer ATM but I'd
guess it was.
Please note: I prefer slashes as end markers. This can be selected
from the top menu: Options->dimensions, check global.

It's go-home-time. Chap 4A 2mrw --- dim's on top view.

I know this is tak'n some band width & I hope it ain't in vain. But if
n'th'n else, I'm learn'n and putt'n the notes inna permanent folder.

Ride Tall,
Tkat

From Murphy's Rules of Combat:

"Tracers work both ways."

[RowlandCarson]

At 2005-04-30 18:05 -0700 tkat@tkat.com wrote:

>SECTION LINES:
>
>After working w/ the pgm ones --- I've given up!
>
>They may work, but not for me. They seem to be European style and only
>straight lines. For mech parts here I was taught --- albeit, in the
>days of lead & vellum --- that you could bend 'em any which way you
>wanted to show the reqd details

Tkat - not sure what more you want from the slice lines tool - it
seems to me that it does everything you needed in this drawing. If
you want a curved slice line (eg following an arc of a circle), then
as far as i can see, it won't do that - but I can't remember seeing
such a section (slice) line in a drawing.

I agree the view arrows are a different convention from what you've
used, but I don't find it too difficult to work out what's going on.

Here's how I would replicate your section line using the Slice line tool.

First I decided to use the ends of the horizontal centre line to
define the ends of the slice line. So, to help with that I added a
construction line. Line / Parallel line, click on the right hand edge
of the plan. With centre/end or auto selection mode, click on the RH
end of he horizontal centre line and the parallel line is drawn there.

Now choose the Special / Slice Line tool. It will allow you to enter
co-ordinates or click on locations repeatedly until you hit to
move to the next part of the process. Click on the LH end of the
horizontal centre line as the first point on the slice line, and a
tiny blue x should appear there. Click near the intersection of the
horizontal & vertical centre lines for the next point. Now change to
line intersection selection mode (icon looks like an X). Click on the
vertical centre line (it will highlight in red). next click on the
horizontal centre line through the tapped hole at top right. If you
got it right, the tiny blue x confirm it. Finally, click again on the
horizontal centre line through the tapped hole at top right, then on
the vertical construction line. Hit return to stop adding points.

Now it asks for a text label. It seems you can't just hit return if
you want no text; but a single space character followed by return has
the desired effect.

Finally it asks you to select direction. You need to click on the
side of the section line from which the section will be viewed -
below it in this case. Once the slice line appears you can bin the
construction line.

>HATCHING:
>
>This feature needs some work too. Or at least I think so.
>
>I've 2 areas that need covering. The cut thru the center of the part
>on the left & the cut thru the island.
>
>Hatching is found in the tool pallet, 2nd col, 5th row. Starting on
>the left sect --- 1st, just flat scale up to 250~300%. You'll never be
>able to select the reqd. lines @ 100%.
>
>1.Select Hatching->material. Just do it --- don't ask why.
>2.Follow the prompts and select the contour.
>3.Follow the prompts.
>
>If this works --- good! You may want to go to Hatching->change attribs
>and try correct'n the grey scale pblms I've hit.
>[grmblgrmbl]

I haven't previously found any problems with using any of the fill
tools - hatching, material, grey scale or pattern. Can you enlarge at
little on the problem you found?

The only irritation I have is the handy pop-up material selector in
the Hatching / Change Attributes tool is not available when first
filling a contour. It seems a bit kludgy to have to always choose
Cast Iron and then go back and change it to whatever else you really
wanted.

I did notice one tiny oddity in the Information palette - your
contour & mine are slightly different sizes! I thought I'd got all
the dimensions the same as yours, but the info window shows, for mine
& yours respectively:

Change Attributes
TypeHatching
Pen4
Intensity100%
Color0, 0, 0
Width0.70
Group0
Layer1
Scale1:1
MaterialCast Iron
Area0.296Inch
Contour3.409Inch
------------------------------
Change Attributes
TypeHatching
Pen4
Intensity100%
Color0, 0, 0
Width0.70
Group0
Layer1
Scale1:1
MaterialCast Iron
Area0.28Inch
Contour3.41Inch
------------------------------

Hands up everyone who knew that the area and length of the bounding
contour were available in this way in the info window! Could be very
useful in certain circumstances - even if you don't need hatching,
you could hatch a contour temporarily just to find its area.

>It looks like the tapped hole is an
>island but no. That's just the scale inaccuracies of the pgm. Treat
>it as one contour.

I think it may be the inaccuracy with which the tapped hole was
positioned that makes it look as though it's an island. I have never
come across any problem that I could attribute to the accuracy with
which CADintosh stores elements. On my version of the drawing, the
top of the tapped hole is indistinguishable from the top surface of
the plateau. In any case, you can also get the same result by
treating it as an island. Note that it keeps asking repeatedly for
islands until you hit return without having defined an island. Being
a bit slow on the uptake and not cosidering the possibility of
multiple islands, I found that a bit confusing at first - "why's it
still asking me to define the island, I've already done that!"

>On to dimensions.

>WOOF!! This is s'th'n else!! [After 90 min of work]. It will
>generally get the job done but is a bitch to work w/. Let's be "P.C.
>--- ah--- polite" and say "needs some work".

I have reported a couple of minor bugs in the dimensions and I think
Thorsten has fixed those in the latest beta. I don't think there are
major problems there, but obviously practices differ in various parts
of the world, and in different industries. I guess if there was
enough demand for a particular type of dimensioning capability,
Thorsten might consider implementing it. But, you have to remember
the size of his market. If the relative size of the Yahoo groups
(51:741) is anything to go by, there are over 14 times as many
customers for GraphicConverter as for CADintosh, and I suspect the
ratio may be even bigger. So, I'm sure that Thorsten has to apportion
his time according to where the money is!

I will upload my version of this drawing when I pst this message and
you can see how I chose to lay put the dimensions. I found the
Dimension / Reference tool worked OK for the outside ones, but I
couldn't make it do what I wanted for the 2 vertical items within the
section, so did those with the plain Vertical dimension tool.

For the angles, I changed the dimension option decimal places to 0.
The version I'm using still has a minor bug that causes a problem
when angular dimensions are edited, so I didn't do it that way. I
also put in a couple of temporary construction lines (where the
"helper" lines are) to make it possible to have the dimensions appear
as I wanted them.

>8.Tapped hole. Select Dim->vert. & follow prompts.
>9.Since this isn't exact, Select Dim->edit [don't ask why 'change
>attrids don't work]. Change to 1.00. Hit return.
>10.Now Select Dim->move. Pick 1.00 and move it up to get out of the
>x-hatch'n.

As you will see on my tapped hole, the depth I have is not exactly 1"
either, but in my case it's because I originally created the symbol
in a metric drawing; it's actually M6 x 25mm and I didn't bother to
re-scale it when positioning the symbol. I did a little test later
and found that if I did an insert & explode with angle and scale
values of 0, 6.35/6, 25.4/25, then put a vertical dimension on it, it
came out at 1.000". That indicates to me that the underlying
arithmetic is being done to a satisfactory accuracy for my purposes!

Dimension / Change attributes - all the options in that work OK, but
none of them are _intended_ to edit the text of the dimension.

It's not always necessary to use the Move Dimension tool - after a
bit of practice you get a feel for how it's going to look and can
click on almost the right place for it first time. Note that even
with "centre text" chosen in the creation tab of the dimension
options, you can click _outside_ the 2 points of the dimension and
have it appear as it is for the tapped hole in my version.

Another option for dimensions that fall within a hatched area is to
choose "white background"; I've not tried it, but that sounds useful
if the dimensions can't conveniently be put outside the hatched area.

Hope this all makes sense to anyone who's still listening. I'll stop
now & upload my drawing.

regards

Rowland
--
| Wilma & Rowland Carson
| ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...