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Convenient tool / method for creating "tabs" (NOT sheet metal)

tom_augertom_auger Member Posts: 115 ✭✭
edited February 2020 in Community Support


This part is meant to be screwed into a wall so I need some "wings" or "flaps" to extend outward (from the highlighted edge).

The naive way would be just to create a new drawing on the face, [u]se the bottom edge, and then extrude and thicken it. Then repeat that whole process for the opposite side, or mirror the resulting part. I'd love to do this without having to create a drawing just so I can extrude an edge that is already defined in some other geometry. Is there such another clever way of accomplishing this?

Best Answers

Answers

  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,890 PRO
    edited February 2020
    The only thing naive about your approach is creating a sketch, then surface, just to thicken...

    If you are making a solid, just stick to solid modeling techniques until they "can't" do what you need.

    That being said:
    select the face
    create a sketch (shift+s) 
    draw a rectangle (g)
    click one corner of the box
    click the opposite edge
    set a dim
    extrude (new) -> set length
    Mirror (Part) -> (Add)

    Or you could sketch on the Front face of the part (the long face in my example) and draw two squares and make them equal length on each end.

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with either approach. It seems like a lot of steps but, sketch/extrude is the bread and butter of solid modeling. It just becomes quicker with practice.

    For solid modeling, only use surfaces if they shape is "funky"... or you need some sort of re-usable geometry to reference many features.

    edit: forgot to attach the gif...

  • steve_shubinsteve_shubin Member Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭✭
    @tom_auger

    YOU SAID — Is there such another clever way of accomplishing this ?

    Here’s a way that’s more than twice as fast as using the Thin-feature extrude method







  • tom_augertom_auger Member Posts: 115 ✭✭
    steve_shubin  that is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thank you
  • tom_augertom_auger Member Posts: 115 ✭✭
    @tom_auger

    YOU SAID — Is there such another clever way of accomplishing this ?

    Here’s a way that’s more than twice as fast as using the Thin-feature extrude method


    > The screen capture is moving a bit fast and I'm not used to the mobile UI - in this example are you just creating a new sketch on the bottom face and then drawing a rectangle on it and extruding that? If so - are the two sketched "linked' in any way such that if the dimensions of the first sketch change (say the width of the box) then the second sketch will also scale its width (like when you Use an entity)?
  • steve_shubinsteve_shubin Member Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭✭
    @tom_auger

    YOU ASKED — are you just creating a new sketch on the bottom face and then drawing a rectangle on it and extruding that?

    ANSWER IS YES


    YOU ALSO ASKED — If so - are the two sketches "linked' in any way such that if the dimensions of the first sketch change (say the width of the box), then the second sketch will also?

    AGAIN, YES


    Sketch 2 automatically added in constraints that linked it to the box (the extruded Sketch 1). Then as Sketch 2 was extruded, those flanges became one with the box as the extrusion defaulted to ADD.


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