Although the commands are presented in a click-by-click manner, an effort has been made, in addition to showing/illustrating the command usage, to explain why certain commands are being used and the relation of feature selection and construction to the overall part design philosophy. Moreover, since error recovery is an important skill, considerable time is spent exploring the created models (in fact, intentionally inducing some errors), so that users will become comfortable with the "debugging" phase of model creation.
The lessons in this tutorial are meant to be covered sequentially. Discussion of commands is, for the most part, restricted to their use within the context of the lesson. For this reason, many options to commands are not dealt with in detail all in the same place in the text, as is done in the on-line reference material.
The multimedia CD-ROM produced by Jack Zecher at IUPU-Indianapolis is included with the goal of providing users with multi-modal learning tools and experiences. The CD should help significantly in getting "up the learning curve." The CD follows the text very closely, and although it intentionally does not go into all the detail contained in the text, it provides an excellent overview of the material in each lesson. We expect that many users will find it advantageous to go through the CD presentation for each lesson prior to working through the lesson in detail.
OVERVIEW OF THE LESSONS:
Lesson 1 - User Interface, View Controls and Model Structure
How to start Pro/E; representation of Pro/E command syntax; command flow in Pro/E; special mouse functions; Pro/E windows; controls for managing the view and display of objects; the model tree; how parts and assemblies are structured.
Lesson 2 - Creating a Simple Object (Part I)
Creating a simple part using sketched features; datum curves; Sketcher and Intent Manager are introduced; sketching constraints, alignments, and procedures; feature database functions are introduced; part templates.
Lesson 3 - Creating a Simple Object (Part II)
Placed features (hole, chamfer, round) are added to the block created in Lesson #2; listing and naming features; modifying dimensions; adding relations to control part geometry; more Sketcher tools; implementing design intent.
Lesson 4 - More Features for Creating Parts
A new part is modeled using a number of different feature creation commands and options: both sides protrusions, an axisymmetric (revolved) protrusion, a cut, rounds, and chamfer. More Sketcher tools. Edge sets. Mirrored features. Model analysis tools. We will intentionally make some modeling errors to see how Pro/E responds.
Lesson 5 - Modeling Utilities, Parent/Child Relations, and the 3 R's
These utilities are used to investigate and edit your model: changing references, change feature shapes, changing the order of feature regeneration, changing feature attributes, and so on. Suppressing and resuming features. If your model becomes even moderately complex, you will need to know how to do this!
Lesson 6 - Sketcher Tools and Datum Planes
More tools in Sketcher are introduced, including sketching relations. The mysteries of datum planes and make datums are revealed! What are they, how are they created? How are they used to implement design intent?
Lesson 7 - Patterns and Copies
Creating a counterbored hole and hole notes. Patterns (one-dimensional or two-dimensional); radial patterns of placed and sketched features. Pattern groups. Copies using translation, rotation, or mirroring.
Lesson 8 - Creating an Engineering Drawing
This lesson will introduce you to the process of making dimensioned engineering drawings. Two new parts are created (both parts will also be used in Lesson #9 on assemblies). Much of the work in creating the drawing is done by Pro/E, although a fair amount of manual labor must go into improving the cosmetics of the drawings.
Lesson 9 - Assembly Fundamentals
This lesson will show you how to create an assembly from previously created parts. This involves creating placement constraints that specify how the parts are to fit together. Assigning appearances (colors).
Lesson 10 - Assembly Operations
This lesson will show you how to make modifications to the assembly created in Lesson #9. This includes changing part dimensions, adding assembly features, suppressing and resuming components, creating exploded views, and creating an assembly drawing. Display styles.
Lesson 11 - Sweeps and Blends
These are the most complicated (i.e. flexible and powerful) features covered in these lessons. They are both types of solid protrusions, but can also be used to create cuts and slots.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Roger W. Toogood, Ph.D., P.E. is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Dept. at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
Dr. Toogood's research activities in robotics include symbolic generation of equations of motion of rigid and/or flexible link manipulators mounted on fixed or moving bases, development of a natural language interface to a robot controller, kinematics and path planning for automatic obstacle avoidance; and graphical animation and real time control for teleoperation. The dynamic analysis capability has been used to simulate the dynamics and control of a very large flexible manipulator mounted on a moving vehicle traversing rough terrain.
A second area of interest is the application of computer-based tools in mechanical engineering. This has resulted in some expertise in computer graphics and a specific research project in the application of artificial intelligence and expert system technology to mechanical design. Applying AI techniques to the early, conceptual phase of mechanical design, explore diverse design alternatives, without limitations due to either reconceived notions or lack of experience of the human designer, can have the most beneficial effect on the design process.
