IronCAD - Top 10 Tips
Ten top tips for IronCAD
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Step 1: Display Selection List
Press Ctrl & Alt, when left clicking, this brings up a list enabling you to select which entity you require.
In the example below I needed the hidden face between the two parts, having chosen the face filter I selected on the screen in front of the face, with Ctrl & Alt this brings up the additional menu allowing me to select the face.
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Step 2: Bring in a 3d Curve to a Structured Part
I've often been in the middle of creating a structured part and for some reason or other a 3d curve has been created outside of the part. How do you bring it in?
Example below shows the structured part and a curve as a separate part
Set the part as active and create a dummy 3d curve (straight line shown below), i.e. within the structured part.
Select this straight curve and choose edit. Then select the curve again and right click, choose replace
Then select the curve you require
The curve is replaced within the structured part
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Step 3: Right Click Eyedropper
I've set up material properties for the green part on the left and I'd like to quickly transfer them to the yellow part on the right.
Select the eyedropper tool, and left click on the green part to "suck up" the colour/ properties.
Then move over to the destination part, and rather than left click , right click, this brings up an additional menu.
The smartpaints properties can be applied as per usual, and the material properties can also be applied for either the part or a group.
Select, material and then part.
The material properties are applied to the yellow part
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Step 4: Create Wireframe model
Two steps to create a wireframe model of a solid part
Drop down the selection filter and select Faces by Autofeature
Select the part, right click and choose, Create - Extract 3d Curve
This creates a 3d curve of the edges of the solid, shown below,
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Step 5: Add description to a 2d profile
I can create a fair number of 2d construction profiles and trying to ascertain what is what after a while can get difficult, adding a description is very useful.
Looking at the properties of the 2d profile, within the scene browser toolbar it is greyed out, so how to add one?
Right click the profile, and choose, 2D Shape Properties
This opens the properties dialogue, under the general tab, tick the tick box Include the shape in BOM, you will now be able to enter a description.
You can uncheck to include in the BOM and the data still remains, now visible in the scene browser bar
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Step 6: Right click fillet
When creating fillets within a 2D profile, rather than left click, right click and drag the corner of the geometry, this brings up a dialogue box allowing you to enter a radius
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Step 7: Faces to Intellishapes
Importing parts results in dumb shapes with no features to manipulate, the face to intellishape options allows the quick creation of features
Choose the Face filter under the selection toolbar, select the internal face of a hole, shown below highlighted in green, right click and select Faces to Intellishape.
This command creates a separate hole feature within the imported part that can now be moved and its cross section edited.
If the holes lies within a pattern then IronCAD will recognise this. Select one hole as per the previous step, and IronCAD creates the feature within a triball pattern, see below.
Other features can be created in a similar manner, shown below a milled pocket is present within a block. Use the Faces by Autofeature and select an internal face of the pocket. This selects all the internal faces of the pocket.
Again right click and select Faces to Intellishape, and the resulting feature is generated.
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Step 8: Tracking 2d Profile Errors
How many times have you been unable to extrude a profile as tiny leftover entities remain and hunting them down is time consuming.
There are two method to eliminating them
First off is to use the Clear Duplicates button on the sketch menu
Select all the pieces on the profile, and click this button. A dialogue box is then shown listing the duplicate entities. In the example below an extra line is present, select OK and it will delete them.
What if its not as simple and their a line hidden away but not duplicate?
Right click on the background and select 2D Shape Properties
Select the Outlines tab
Look at the number of outlines present in the drop down box. Outlines 1 and 2 are the X and Y axis. The remaining are the entities on the profile. The dimensions in the table are also given for each outline so you stand a good chance of tracking it down and deleting it.
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Step 9: Dealing with Large Parts
Parts with alot of features can take a some time to regenerate so for example sizing an additional H block on the part shown (with a pattern of holes) on can be somewhat tedious.
Best to go into the options ( Tools / Options )
Select the parts tab
And choose the Wait to regenerate until part is deselected radio button
Aslong as you do not deselect the part, you can size the feature without having to wait for the part to update.
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Step 10: Blend Pattern
Having created a pattern of milled pockets in a block, we want to blend the internal corners, if you separately select the blend and try to pattern that IronCAD will not let you and gives the following error
"Need to select at least one creative feature to finish the pattern feature operation!"
The trick is to select the blend alongside the pocket feature within the pattern toolbar, this enables the blend to be patterned.
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Step 11: Finish
Hopefully those tips were useful ! Feel free to add some comments or like this tutorial
