Hi there,
thats my first post in the forum. I had the chance to work with my V6 Pro license for 8 weeks now. I had a good start also with help of the forum, thanks for your more than valuable feedback collection. So far I keep being impressed with the software. All things I had grasped already were extremly well and very productive to use.

However, there are a few issues piled up which I could not resolve yet. I searched the forum extensively but either looked for the wrong key words or missed a section entirely.

The issue at hand about using the history in solid modeling. I think I do understand the idea behind the history function, which is accessible via the concept explorer/Feature tab. I found in the forum that I shoudl have layer for all helper geometry (which solves a lot of issues I had). What I could not find out was how to modify a position of an object in the history.

Lets make a quick example:

I create a cube 100x100x10. Then I have a second cube 10x10x10 and I move it to an overlap position with the first one. Then I use the solid subtract tool to produce a cutout in the first cube, lets say in the upper left corner.
Now going to the history I can see the first cube and the subtract modifier with the second cube as child. I can select the latter and modify its dimensions in the object properties dialog. Works like a charm. Now I find I need to change the cutout from upper left to upper right corner. I would think there is a way to select the second cube and (maybe interactively) move the cube to the new position. Trouble is I could not. I found one post with a reference to use CTRL key for subselecting the part. I tried on my Win PC all sorts of combinations, but all it did was producing a copy without history of the whole part. Also thats exactly whats happening when I try to move the part interactively. Sometimes I manage that only the cutout is highlighed, but when I click it to move it I am moving the whole block with the cutout.

I do remember I managed once to select a hole in a part and move that around, but I am not sure if thats technically the same and sadly, I could reproduce it any more (suddenly worked after long trials but then I could tell how I did it...:-(

I am sure there is something very basic what I am missing and i would gladly appreciate any advice. Luckily the system is so efficient that I usually get around this by deleting the whole feature and redoing it. Also I found that I can use the Move Face feature to easily subselect substructures of a solid and move that very intuitively -> great tool! Its not preferable though as with more complex parts it make the part history unnecessary long and complex.

best regards
hans

PS: I am still looking for some 2nd level introduction-type reading for new users, so I can spare you the most silly questions. I have not found a post or thead on that topic. I found some useful posts with general understanding q&a with "newbie" in the title. Thats great, so I can have the most useful information in one forum search.
On anything else I appreciate a link or other hint.





I am using V6 Pro Build 856 on Win2k.

I can't remember whether this is in v6 or not, but in v7 there is a 'Replace Solid' in the Feature Tree Menu. To use this first draw a replacement shape then select the object with a boolean, select the boolean in the feature tree, bring up the menu and select 'Replace Solid'. Select the object to be replaced in the feature tree and then its replacement in the drawing.

Hi billbedford,

This function is in v6 as well. I admit I did not understand how to use it. I tried your suggestion and works well. I do get back the other block. I think by pressing CTRL while selecting the part I can keep my newly created replacement, if not its consumed in the original part.

Actually I had some trouble when I tried to delete the freed part. Its warning me about the dependencies that will get deleted. I thought there should be no dependencies left, so I did.
I tried this on a solid with a total of 4 boolean subtracts. There the deleting of dependencies it took a long time (30secs) and when it came back had almost deleted the history tree of the part. It could be undone, however. Maybe I had to suppress the boolean before replace?

Tim, do keep these videos coming as I'm finding them to be very useful and I'm sure others will too.
Thanks.

Martin.

Very Good! Tim!

>>Is there a way to get a hole moved after the part has been deselected?

At the time you create the hole you can have a point created at the center. Moving the point entity then moves the hole center. Unfortunately I do not have a way to turn on that point after its been created. After its been created with out a point, you might try the Move Face tool.

Tim

I think thats absolutly vital information. I would never have guessed that I'd loose history modification capability without the point. Tim, if there is no way to later turn on the point, maybe it would be possible to invert the creation logic to "'ctrl' to create without history" and make the point the default.



Ok, I noted that with the point I do have a leaf in the history tree with position coordinates. I am able to change them the same way as other hole parameters.
Billbedfort, although I was able with l/r select to make the point data show up in the Object info dialog, initially it is not shown in the viewport but only when you move the mouse over the circle again.
As you say I can modify parameters. That means I can not do anything with the mouse like grab and move the point. I did try various ways but could not select the center point (thus not tranform it).

hans