Realize shape parts

[cowski]

The company I currently work for makes a lot of injection molded plastic parts. We are looking into getting a "realize shape" license to help with styling these parts. I've seen a lot of demos and youtube videos of the realize shape process, but I've not seen any that make an object suitable for manufacturing (specifically molding). My question concerns adding taper for molded parts. If I model a part with realize shape, can I specify/constrain a certain amount of taper around the perimeter surfaces? Or is taper added after the shape is defined?

 

[Xwheelguy]

The little bit that I've played around with it, you should be able to apply draft/taper downstream after you have the general body close to what you want using Realize Shape. If I recall correctly, there are options for turning off/on the "fillet/rounded" edges that occur when you pull the cage - those can be left as hard edges, which would assist in applying draft/taper. Plus, you could always try Delete Face to remove problematic areas. I didn't specifically try to maintain a given angle around perimeter surfaces during my playtime. There is also the option of using the draft analysis to make sure you're close or exceeding what you need to avoid die lock - something I had to do quite a bit at my previous job, given all the surfacing that we did for the "styled" areas.

I would strongly suggest an attempt to get a 30 day license for a test drive, if Siemens still offers that to their customers. My previous employer was granted one before we bought Shape Studio.

Tim Flater
NX Designer
NX 9.0.2.5 Win7 Pro x64 SP1
Intel Xeon 2.53 GHz 6GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 4000 2GB

 

[Toost]

The thing with realize shape is "quick concepts", when you have reached/ come close to the whatever shape, you can continue "honing" the body that started its life as "realize shape" with all the regular NX tools.
Tapering is no simpler /better on this body than the other types. The resulting Realize Shape body consists of B-surfaces.


Regards,
Tomas

Edit: I attach a very simple Realize Shape model, maybe looking similar to a motorcycle gas tank . NX10 format.

 

[Toost]

the edit- upload failed. I probably didn't press the correct button.

 

[cowski]

I suppose we could do something like in the attached file, but that's giving up more control over the parting line than I'd like...

Not having actually used realize shape yet, my current impression is that it might help to get an initial shape really quickly, but could be a big headache when you want to tweak a mature design. Hopefully I'll be proved wrong if/when I get up to speed on it.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[cowski]

Anybody using realize shape for production parts? I'd be interested in any feedback you have...

 

[PSI-CAD]

Hi Cowski

I upgrated my Mach2 Product to Mach3 Indus last year for 2 reasons:
- to give some training with shape design
- to create services with realize shape (I have many Customer in glass company)

To enhance my experience with realize shape I am ready to create a model for you, then you can try to add taper

Regards
Didier Psaltopoulos

http://www.psi-cad.com

 

[cowski]

Thanks Didier, but the model that Toost posted has already confirmed to me that:
[ol 1]
[li]it's possible[/li]
[li]it will most likely require some new techniques[/li]
[/ol]

My question now is: are you using realize shape to model parts that will be going into mass production and if so, has realize shape improved your process in any way (does it save you time, does it produce better surfaces, etc).

Any other feedback about realize shape would also be appreciated.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[PSI-CAD]

Hi Cowski,

Actually I have no experience about production model.

The surfaces are good.

Have a look at this customer using Realize Shape in Germany:

https://www.facebook.com/diehaptiker

I designed a kettle with the same approach using screenshot with touch screen actions on my tablet and I will post a video on youtube

Regards
Didier Psaltopoulos

http://www.psi-cad.com