deform examples

I know this has been asked here before, but it's been a while. I'd like
to see what someone thinks is a good example of the Deform feature,
either Point, Curve to Curve or Surface Push. I don't need bad
examples, I have plenty of those. I don't need the actual model,
although that wouldn't be a bad thing if someone would offer, I really
just need a believable application where it might actually be used on
geometry where it looks good and works. I know, so many conditions.
I'm not trying to bash the feature, that's been done before and is far
too easy anyway.

Thanks for any constructive suggestions.

Matt

 

We were molding a long, thin part with a U shpaed cross section -
imagine a part that's 24" long, 1" wide, and maybe 5/8" deep (that is
the direction of the open side of the 'U').

The part was attached to a panel only on the ends - there was no
economical way to add a fastener to hold it down in the middle. No big
deal if it warped concave (relative to the mating panel) when molded -
the middle of the part would be in contact with the panel and the
screws on the ends would suck the ends down and the part would lay
flat.
However, mold-flow analysis showed that the part would warp convex when
molded no matter what we did with the gating and cooling. Uh-oh.

It is our policy that we design parts and it is up to the molder to
give us those parts to match our prints. But when talking to the
mold-maker he was going to cut the file right from out data and we knew
that wouldn't work. So we violated our policy a bit and provided him a
pre-bent part (using deform) that would then warp back to the part that
we wanted in the first place.

Prediactably, the job got killed before we could see how it worked for
real. However, mold-flow showed that the bent parts would warp back to
flat, and (more useful) cast prototypes from an RTV tool of the bent
parts warped back to flat just like we expected.

That was a few years ago. I have not had an occasion to use it since.
Ed

BTW, I think Parel had an online tutorial which used deform or flex to
change a sculpted handle. Though I do not personally agree with that
(I figure model the part you want in the first place) I can't fault
anyone for it if it works for them.
Ed

 

I've modeled anti-warp into parts, and it's not fun. Sometimes the
process is the lead man on the design team.

I don't need to show modeling best practice, I just need to show it
working, and I'd rather not do something completely abstract on a block.

Thanks,

Matt

 

Hmm. Interesting. What type of Deform do you use? I'm most in need of
a decent surface push which will shell.

 

Thomas Parel's stuff was harder to find than it should have been, thanks
for the lead. I agree, I probably wouldn't choose to do things that way
either, but it is interesting to see. For other folk's reference, he
has a mouse surfacing tutorial from an ID perspective at:

http://www.productdesignforums.com/index.php?showtopic=230&st=0

I wonder if he has his own site where he could accumulate things of this
sort?

Thomas Parel, are you listening?

Matt

 

Did you find the drill-handle one he did? That's the one I remember
using deform - to add a bend to the handle.
-Ed

 

No, although I saw the jigsaw cowl handle in the Help file. I only saw
the mouse with the deform used on the side ribs. Where is his drill handle?

Matt

 

Sorry for the late reply. Yeah I have used the deform to massage
certain areas of a handle that are made up of multiple surfaces. Ed is
right about design intent though. There is no real record in the
sketches and dimensions about your construction method. But it can be a
quick fix to pump to SLAs or CNC. I dont think I posted a tut anywhere
though. It was a quick example that I will try and scrounge up. You can
also use it for general proportion changes to a model.

However if you want to see a lot of good ideas on how to use Deform go
to www.think3.com
javascriptopUp('../multimedia/playmovie.asp?m=ring_demo_1_full&t=Design%20Changes:%20Parametric%20Changes%20and%20Zone%20Modeling','600','800','no','yes','no','no','no','no')

Deform is not part of my everyday repertoire. It is iffy and not
entirely predictable. The surfaces sometimes wrinkle up depending on
how Solidworks calculates the deform or the severity of the curve
change. But from time to time it comes in handy.

 

Parel,

Thanks for the response. I agree about the "iffiness" factor. I just
don't get involved in the kind of modeling where the gsm bit makes much
sense, but I had to have an example that wasn't just tugging on a block.
I think I have something useful now (as an example).

Do you have your own website, or do you just post to those forums?

matt

 

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/2640/defrom0eb.gif

Here is a quick example. I usually go through curve to curve
deformation. It is relatively predictable.

 

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/2640/defrom0eb.gif

Here is a quick example. I usually go through curve to curve
deformation. It is relatively predictable.

 

Thats a great use of the deform tool Mhill. You can use original Art
and wrap it around the geometry. Neat.