Chapter 11: Editing and Evaluation
Using Evaluation Techniques
You can use evaluation techniques to evaluate geometry errors, demonstrate the manufacturability
of a given part, or to some degree quantify aesthetic qualities of a given part, or section of a part. I
discuss evaluation techniques here because the design cycle involves iterations around the combi-
nation of create-evaluate-edit-evaluate functions. I discuss the following techniques in this section:l Verification on rebuildl (^) Check
l Zebra Stripes/RealView/Lights and specularity
l (^) Curvature display
l Deviation analysis
l (^) Tangent Edges as Phantom
l Geometry Analysis
l (^) Feature statistics
l Curvature comb
l (^) SimulationXpress
Many of these techniques apply specifically to plastic parts and complex shapes, but even if you do
not become involved in these areas of design or modeling, these tools may help you to find
answers on other types of models as well.
Taking that scenario one step further, what if a handful of sketch and plane features were used to cen-
tralize control of all of the rest of the features? What if every feature, to the extent possible, related back
to these “skeleton” features? Features such as fillets, shell, and draft by design require selections from
solid geometry, but other features, such as any feature created from sketches, could be made with only
reference to those original skeleton sketches and planes. The parent/child relationship would look very
different for a model made in this way. Instead of looking like a long staircase, this tree would look
more like a tree that gets wide very quickly. There would be fewer “generations,” but each generation
would be more populated.
The first thing to notice is that errors in features at the top of the tree do not cascade down the tree as
they do in the “stairstep” model. Second, it is always much easier to find how a model is constructed,
because all the reference geometry used to build it is set up in the first few features. This scenario also
has the potential to make better use of multi-threaded processing because the logic is less linear and
more parallel.
On the CD-ROM
Examine the part on the CD-ROM for Chapter 11 called Chapter 11 Sketleton.sldprt. Roll back
the FeatureManager and examine it. Notice that sketches do not reference faces or edges of the part, but
other sketches and planes. n