Quote:
Originally Posted by Chak
Solidworks has a pattern tool, and I assume other CAD software are similar. How is this method better/different than just modeling it from scratch?
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Speed. I use an IPart Generator in Autodesk Inventor to make about 80-90% of the tubing I use. Its about 10-15x faster to enter a few numbers and select from a few drop down menus than draw the tube and and add a hole pattern. Part generators also have the benefit of reducing errors in dimensions, material selection and hole sizes.
Inventor also has a design accelerator called frame generator that allows you to create a custom profile and apply it to a 3d sketched outline of whatever you are designing. Essentially rather than designing a chassis as 10-25 pieces it can be designed as 1 sketch and then pick different pieces of tubing at the assembly level to fill it in instead of making each individual piece and having to constrain them into the final frame.
I also use iPart generators to procedurally generate any thunderhex shafts in my CADs with drop down menus for snap ring groves, 1/4-20 threaded ends, bearing rounds, and .25 diameter end holes for encoders.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ASD20
At least in Inventor, there is a thing called iParts that I believe has exactly what you made built in and with more versatility.
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iParts do exactly that. But they do have the downside of not allowing you to put the cut length in the part name at the time you create the file.