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| CATAD4
Draw
Direction, Cut Angle Check and Optimisation
The demand
addressed with CATAD4 is to find and analyse draw direction and the
punch angles for all kinds of cutting operations.
One of the first steps in method planning is to find a draw direction
for a given part, having no areas of undercut.
COMPUTING AND ANALYSING DRAW DIRECTIONS
The draw
direction with CATAD4 can be computed based on characteristic points,
wireframe and/or surface geometry. To find a draw direction, two
different approaches are possible.
The first is
essentially based on points. If the user works with points only, this
method is quite clear, if he works with curves or surfaces, the curves
are replaced by a sequence of points depending on user defined
discretization values, surfaces are replaced by a number of
isoparametric curves, from which the points are computed. Surface in
this context always means FACE or SURFACE type of CATIA element.
The second algorithm applies on surfaces only. These
surfaces need to be oriented in a coherent way inside CATAD4.
Each surfa grid of points. In each point the normal vector
is computed. The draw direction is the average vector along all these
points. A faster algorithm, taking only the surface centre of gravity
with a weight corresponding to the area is also implemented.
COMPUTING AND ANALYSING THE DIRECTION OF CUT OPERATIONS.
In case of a complex part it is not always possible to perform the cut
operation exactly normal to the surface. For various reasons this cut
angle has to be within a limited tolerance band of the normal cut angle.
Using CATAD4 enables the tool engineer to complete this step
within minutes. Instead of checking only suspicious areas at some
points, the check can be completely done and documented inside the
CATIA model. This sequence the engineer can repeat for any optional or
additional needed cut direction.
The analysis of
results can be done in global or local routines. Using the global
routine all points inside the tolerance are shown by a green arrow
normal to the surface. A point in yellow shows that the angle is
approaching the tolerance band within 75%. Red coloured areas are
outside the tolerance band.
Local analysis can
show the user also, how either the surface or the direction has to be
modified, to stay within the tolerances.
CATAD4
includes also an algorithm that automatically determines the minimum
number of different cut directions and the necessary grouping of
operations and elements used to cut all holes, etc. in a single run.
All definitions of a computation are stored as application
sets in the model. CATAD4 comes with powerful tools to analyse, modify
and recompute these sets. All parameters and geometry in a set can be
modified at any time. Firm or project specific parameters can be stored
in external files and imported.
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