Editing Surface Connections in Pro/ENGINEER Interactive Surface Design

Connections can result in different types of continuity between neighboring surfaces. This tip will give you an overview of how to make, break, and edit surface connections using Pro/ENGINEER Interactive Surface Design (ISDX):

• Retrieve isdx_general_connection.prt into session. Redefine the existing Style feature by right-clicking on the feature in the model tree and clicking Edit Definition

• Select the free curve that is the top edge of the spout, then click

• Select the curve endpoint that is snapped to the COS. When the point is selected, the tangent of the curve at this point displays as a yellow line. Move the mouse cursor over this tangent, hold down the right mouse button, then click Surface Tangent

• Repeat this procedure for the other free curve. Click to exit the curve edit dashboard and regenerate the entities by clicking Edit > Regenerate All

• Now the connection between the Style surface and the existing surface can be manipulated to obtain different results. Select the surface, then click  

• The existing connections are Position connections. Clicking on each connection line will make them Tangent connections, as shown in Figure 1

• The connection level and direction can be changed by selecting on the connection arrow/line. To change the direction of the connection, select on the end of the arrow. Selecting the middle of the arrow while holding the Shift key will remove the connection

In some cases it may be necessary to specify a normal tangency connection to a planar surface or datum plane, especially when the feature will be mirrored. For Style features, there are two criteria for establishing a normal tangency connection:

The curves that terminate at the center plane must have tangents of type Normal where they touch the center plane.

The curve which lies on the center plane must be flat (either a planar curve, or a free curve that is only two-dimensional).

• Click  , and select the left endpoint of the top free horizontal curve to display its tangent

• Hold the right mouse button down while the cursor is on the tangent and click Normal

• Select the RIGHT datum plane

• Repeat these steps for the bottom COS. Now the surface can be connected to the datum plane using the steps outlined above and show in Figure 2

• Complete the Style feature by clicking . The two surfaces can now be mirrored and then merged to form a single quilt. Figure 3 shows the quilt after mirroring

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