CAD Puzzles & Riddles

two featues in CATIA:

1. Combine (based on 2 sketches)
2. Pocket

So here goes my solution!

This profile for sweep cut

Finally L shaped sweep cutout :)

Very smart with the sweep making both the "fillet" and cut at the same time. Great job.

Thank you Adam :)

Here's mine :

The three features are: Rib (Solid Sweep); Pad (Extrude); Pocket (Extrude Cut).

Rib Sketch:

Rib:

Pad Sketch:

Pad:

Pocket Sketch:

After Pocket:

Got the shape........ I am trying for 2 feature design, once I succeed I will post.

Final Image:

First step is okay, combined the shape but a catch here (you cannot combine shape having two domain).

So deleting that circle and combining also will yield to 3 feature---> I can slot the shape as I have made with 3 feature but the shape gets changed (slot cuts away extra material).

Thanks Ananth for attempting my solution and proving my error!

I guess 3 features is the lowest for CATIA and SolidWorks.

Interesting solutions. My solution is not in here. So here you go.

This is a great solution. I liked what Jehan did with the cut sweep. But this solution is perfect since it uses only the basic extrude / cut features.

Excellent work.

Correct. This one is too good.

Just a question about feature count. What do you name a feature? a sketch is a feature? or it's just about solid features?

I believe in CATIA in GSD you can make any shape and a closed volume as a single feature in solid

Or even in surface commands it can be low count, mark all the points, and trace a huge 3d polyline on those points, fill the whole thing with surfaces, and closed volume to make it solid. But the tree will be a monster defining all the points, and lines that make the mega fill to generate surfaces.

If low feature count, then i've seen a few using wraps on models, and keeping this representation to ease the hardware as the model was above 10000parts. Or even seen converting to stp and importing again to lose the specification tree as the imported "manifold solid" is only one feature.

Asi,

I think Fred's intent was to identify innovative solutions to CAD models that minimize the number of steps. I don't consider CATIA's GSD techniques to produce a solid as a low feature count, as I would count the surface and face objects as "features" involving many more steps than using Part Design.

Fred wrote: WELCOME

I'm only familiar with SOLIDWORKS, so I can't comment on how CATIA can work.

In the context of SOLIDWORKS, I think we are considering a feature to be an entry in the feature tree. But, if the feature absorbs multiple other features (like a loft absorbing the profile sketches), it is considered a single feature still.

But a plane would be a feature. A non-absorbed sketch is a feature. An extruded boss, or cut is a single feature even though boss work by absorbing a sketch. A fillet is a feature.

We are also limiting these challenges to pretty basic parts. Simple stuff that can be made normally in under an hour. But, trying to make them in the fewest number of features can often take extra time.

These puzzles and challenges are just for fun. I'd never advise anyone to actually make parts with these techniques.