Variable Chamfer Tool Improvements

[AndiACD]

i know the Fillet and Chamfer Tools have had their fair share of airing on the wish list, but since the advent of 2009 no progress appears to have been made in the various updates, so here goes . . . . .

Can we please have the ability to add a variation on the Chamfer Tool prefs as is offered in the Fillet Tool - "Variable Radius" option.

A "Variable Chamfer", "Unequal Legs Chamfer", "Variable Percentage Chamfer" or anything that might get closer to the required result if one could just be made to work adequately.

i am constantly coming up against situations where this option would solve a plethora of problems, so please tell me it's already on the list for an overhaul and due with the next SP.

[GWS]

Here, here!

Can we please also have some improvements to the fact that after applying a chamfer or fillet you have to ungroup it to be able to edit the original object.

[islandmon]

Improving Chamfer & Fillet is always desirable but not at the expense of changing the Grouping Functionality. The original ObjectInstance is part of the history of the procedure, and as such, must be isolated from the new improved ObjectInstance.

Grouping is both efficient and remarkably fast considering what it actually represents.

[GWS]

If you have many different fillets ungrouping them and then re-applying after editing the object can be a very time consuming thing to do. Making my use of the tool quite limited.

[AndiACD]

Improving Chamfer & Fillet is always desirable but not at the expense of changing the Grouping Functionality. The original ObjectInstance is part of the history of the procedure, and as such, must be isolated from the new improved ObjectInstance.

Grouping is both efficient and remarkably fast considering what it actually represents.

Edward, i do appreciate your obvious knowledge of the difficulties programers need confront with regard to Filleting and Chamfering tools (and i do commend them for it), but i have seen these operations work and work well, flawlessly even, in other Applications, all of which use the Parasolids tech, without so much as a "By Your Leave", so it must be possible.

If NNA needs to send a group of Code writers off to a desert island(or better still to collaborate with teams of those companies that have got the recipe right) to rewrite the Fillet/Chamfer tools until they perform adequately and are reinserted after editing without having to reapply Fillet or Chamfer because of the need to "Ungroup" each time an Edit is performed . . . . . . . .

Then so be it!!

Use the resources until "it does do what it says on the tin"!

Fillet and Chamfer.

If improvements were to be made as to how we can govern the way in which we are able to perform these tasks, i.e. Unequal Leg Chamfer, better still.

Guy, tell me about it . . . . . Nightmare!

Edited April 30, 2009 by AndiACD

[GWS]

I second that motion!!!

[islandmon]

Call me weird .. but I actually prefer doing all my procedures from within the isolated confines of the Group. If there's a complex object to be twiddled, then I convert first to a Symbol and work on it within that Container / Group where I can get at it from other files, too. So that's just me ...

as for the importance of the Fillet/Chamfer ... it cannot be overstated ... full functionality needs to be achieved... and that's a priority.

[AndiACD]

Edward, You're Weird, but then so am i!

And that is EXACTLY(not shouting, just emphasising) what i do. Turn all models into Symbols and work through the Symbol when modifying any part of parts, but, where Fillets and Chamfers are concerned i would like to be able to Edit any Filleted and/or Chamfered part of the Symbol without having to remember the complicated procedure that these two Tools often make me go through to obtain a satisfactory finish to that particular part of that particular Symbol.

Let me explain. i posted this because i am having to redraw all parts of a sector of 2 halves of a case which contain many compound curves that must fit perfectly together. So i start with an extrusion along the X then dissect it through the Z to obtain the basic form, a Chamfer is added though trial and error because despite knowing exactly the size and shape it has to match up to the Chamfer Tool refuses often the carry out certain measurements . . . . 7.5mm, 8mm, 9.5mm, 10mm all good, 8.5mm, 9mm bad. It refuses to carry these out. Guess which measurement i need . . . . . .

Now if this was the end of the dilemmas that would not be be OK, but i would find yet another way to work around it, but, trying to apply a Fillet to the already Chamfered surface presents yet another problem. "Select Tangent Entities" not allowing operation to be carried out means this must be deselected, and close to twenty separate Fillets must be undertaken along a single edge, 2 edges on each solid, etc. etc. sometimes it can be managed with as few as three but needing to Ungroup in order to reEdit the Base object means that one never knows what objections the Fillet or Chamfer Tools are are going to "Drum Up" to obstruct the next attempt at finishing that part of the model. Results of the Fillets can be lumpy, bumpy, with dips and troughs but rarely those one would expect a genius mathematicians baby to grow up into.

i manage, after a fashion. i almost get the result i aimed for, but it disapoints me when i go back to cheaper and older software that doesn't make me fight so hard to get what i'm working towards but can't use in VW and software owned by the same umbrella that can manage it.

i would like to think i could start and finish a project under the one VW roof, but, these problems often make it very difficult to.

[islandmon]

Basically,

I try to avoid the extrusion issues and the sectioning protocols whenever possible... for the very same frustrating reasons you describe.

Instead focusing effort on the uniqueness of the curvature using the simplicity of lines & arcs with the basic Chamfer/Fillet to get the shape right.

Working in the isolation of the Group allows for unlimited zoom.

Then , adding the other line elements with joins prior to composing it all. This process will continue as each of the sectional profiles is produced.

Finally , extrusion or conversion to NURBS> Lofting or ExtrudeAlongPath to finish the shape.