Suggested Technique for Measuring the Highest Point on a Surface in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0

The following technique illustrates the use of the Trim Silhouette functionality for measuring the highest point on a surface. The concept for this technique is to trim a surface from two orthogonal directions — the vertex of the remaining surface will be the highest point on the original surface.

This example is at the stage where the datum curves that will be used for surface boundaries have already been created. Figure 1 shows both datum curves as sketched splines.

• The surface can be created by using the Boundary Blend Tool. For the first direction (Curves button), click the curve lying on the RIGHT plane and the two upper edges parallel to RIGHT

• For the second direction (Cross Curves button), click the curve lying on the FRONT plane and the two upper edges parallel to FRONT. Make sure to select one of the edges first, then the middle curve, then the opposite edge. In our example the surface will be created without control points or boundary conditions. See Figure 1 for the completed surface

• For the next step, the Trim Silhouette functionality will be used. The surface can be cut away by picking the surface quilt then clicking  

• Click in the trimming object collection box and then select the RIGHT datum plane

• Next click the silhouette trim icon in the dashboard and click the checkmark to complete the trim. See Figure 2 for the resulting surface

• To get the surface into its final form, use the Trim Silhouette functionality to create a second trim, but click the FRONT datum plane for the trimming object this time (Figure 3)

• The surface is now in its correct form to be measured. Use Analysis > Measure > Distance and click the vertex of the surface where the trims intersect as the first reference

• Click the top plane of the part as the second reference. The result is the distance to the highest point of the original surface (Figure 4)

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