Extruding to several different surfaces with one block

[davedye810]

I am trying to extrude a block upto a part that has several surfaces at different heights and angles. is this possible in AutoCAD 2013 or am I wasting my time trying?

[Patchy]

Can't extrude block.

[nestly2]

Welcome to the Autodesk forums

If it's literally a block object, then as Patchy said, it's not possible (unless the block is exploded first), however if it's an object that can be extruded, then you have several options.  If you can post a screen shot, or a sample drawing, we'll be able to provide the most relevant option.

[davedye810]

If I draw a box under the surface data, I can extrude the box. I would like to extrude it up to several differnt surface in my surface data for my part.

[davedye810]

Attached is the screen shot. I would like to be able to extrude the red box up to the surfaces of the gray part without going through it.

[Patchy]

You can try Extrude pass it and then subtract.

[davedye810]

I have tried that, however, the data was obtained from Catia (which I do not have access to). All of the features are seperate, some can be thickened and some cannot. Once thickened, you have to union them in a specific order or they will not join up. Thanks for your suggestion, I will try it again. If you ahve any other options, please let me know.

[JDMather]

You can do this in Autodesk Inventor.

In AutoCAD - patch the holes.

Extrude beyond the surface.

Slice with Surface option.

Can you zip and attach the original file here (I assume you got the file in STEP or IGES format).

[davedye810]

I am not sure how to get to it, but, I did share this drawing in the 360 forum. The link is below, it it works. The data was from an iges file, saved as a .dwg. At the present time, myself and another engineer are working on this. After several days of trying to get this sorted out, i posed the question here.https://360.autodesk.com/#/Item/Details?id=a9ac2ab8092141d79f9dc75c546d68fd&itemtype=file

[JDMather]

How large is the zipped IGES ( I don't want the dwg)?

Can you attach the zipped IGES here or on Autodesk 360?

If you upload to 360 - be sure to Share the document.

[JDMather]

I can't download your dwg file - did you set it to Share?

See pgs 33 & 34 for similar example

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/AU2008/ML205-1P%20Mather.pdf

[davedye810]

JD,

I just checked and it is shared publicly. Here is the link for that drawing, http://a360.co/1akOt0k. I am currently using AutoCAD 2013 and Inventor Fusion.

[JDMather]

I was able to download the file this time.

It might be a while till I can spend some time on this.

I assume you are trying to make tooling. (how extensive?)

More information on the design intent might save me a lot of time.

[davedye810]

We are trying to design tooling for a die. We currently have this die in house, however, there has been a slight change made to the part. We need to be able to work with the surface data to design the new die block. We have been trying everything that we can think of. The surface data is separated into many surfaces. Many of the surfaces we can thicken (1.6mm material thickness for the part), any some we cannot. This is where we are having trouble. As stated before, I am using AutoCAD 2013 and Inventor Fusion. The other engineer working with me on this project has CatiaV5 capabilities as well.

We were thinking that there should be a way to draw a box and extrude it up to all of the surfaces at one time in one direction, and then in the other direction to have the profile of the part on the extruded box.

Thank you for your help Jeff, it is greatly appreciated.

[nestly2]

I'm not able to access the file,  but maybe instead of trying to extrude the lower object "up" to the surfaces. create new surfaces around the perimeter extending "down" to a lower plane.  Close the lower edges of the new surfaces with yet another surface, then SURFSCUPLT it into a Solid.  You will have to close the holes so your surfaces are watertight before SURFSCULPT, so perhaps make a copy of your original first.

[JDMather]

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@davedye810 wrote:
 Many of the surfaces we can thicken (1.6mm material thickness for the part), any some we cannot.

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Why do you need to thicken - do you need both sides of the tool?

(extruding blocks up to the surface is relatively easy - getting the edges is the work)

[davedye810]

Jeff,

Was this done in AutoCAD or Inventor? If it was done in Autocad, could you explain the steps for this?

[JDMather]

No, I did this in Inventor.

There were 74 surfaces that needed repair (I do not know of a way to do that in AutoCAD) and one missing surface.

I intend to get back to this one (the example image I posted was 5 minutes between classes) and see how far I can get with it, but I am going to be busy till at least next Monday.

What you are trying to do is not trivial.

[davedye810]

Thanks for your help.