Good Afternoon,
A bit of background, in my daily job I typically work with Creo / Pro/E, and that has been what I've become accustomed to in the way of workflow. But in the past couple of years I've been working with ViaCAD and recently upgraded to SharkCAD V12 for a side business. I've mainly been using it to model up templates/jigs/fixtures/stamps for woodworking/leather, generally cutting these out on a ShopBot CNC machine or 3D printing components. But as I've been working with ViaCAD, I've been wondering what does the normal workflow look like for other ViaCAD / SharkCAD users?
Typically if I'm making a part I start with:
1 - For the Concept Explorer, delete existing layers so you have 1 main level for the "Part File", with 3 sublayers (Part, Sketch, and Construction).
*Parts/Sketches are self explanatory, but I use the "Construction" layer for constraints/temporary sketches as I'm working through a design but don't need to always see
2 - Create 3 circles, drawing them on each work plane (top, front, side) to have a central point for constraining lines/other objects.
*Bit of a sidebar here, but this is one thing I've found to be a bit of a struggle. Sometimes these don't always allow you to constrain items, and you'll get the "Items Not Planar" error or
something to that effect. I'm able to get these to work in the "x" and "y" axis, but the "z" axis circle doesn't always play too nice. These circles help some, but every now and then
items have a hard time constraining and I have to simply use the "Locked" constraint. One thing that is a bit frustrating coming from the Creo world is there you physically have
planes/axis/coordinate systems you can SEE at all times for all parts if you want, and they don't have to be planar to constrain. If you want "point A" constrained to "point B", it'll
almost always allow you to constrain without error if the items can touch. I guess sometimes in SharkCAD I feel like I have to "kick" some items around to make them stick.
3 - Begin sketching lines/curves in the "top work plane" or "front work plane", and constraining sketches as needed.
4 - Using the Variables/Equations table, assign values to various sketch data.
*Always use variables/equations on items that could constantly change (think overall size, hole placements, cutout diameters/sizes, etc).
5 - Begin extruding parts out, lathe objects, or other simple 3D operations.
6 - If you haven't already, make sure all objects are restructured into proper layers at this point (sketches/construction/parts)
7 - Combine "parts" into single entity by adding them together
8 - Perform final treatments such as fillets, chamfers, threading, etc.
I've attached a fairly simple part to show a basic workflow, and I'm sure there are much better ways to do what I've drawn up, and am open to suggestions/improvements. (I have a "combined" part, and a "split" part for use if you'd like to play around with the variables/constraints).
Just to note, in this model I've combined metric/standard dimensions to show an error I've had recently when attempting to use variables. You'll see that D26 thru D28 are the same as D25, but if you assign a value of D25 to the other holes they'll have a completely different value (0.168" instead of 0.335" as expected).
Final Thoughts: I'd love some feedback from some of you guys on what your workflow looks like, as I really do like this program overall and think it has potential for larger projects. I've looked around on the forum and haven't really seen too many people posting about using this program from a manufacturing standpoint, and I think it would be interesting to see how others:
- Create individual parts
- Use reference parts (xRef) to create assemblies
- Use parts/assemblies to create functional bill of materials (BOM's)
- Move from part/assembly -> shop drawings
-Al
SharkCAD V12 Build 1582
File Attachment(s):
Head Stock V5_Original.sfx
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Concept Explorer.PNG
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