Tri-tangent Fillet & holdding on curve Fillet

[electrorob]

Hi all,

-As a Icem Surf user too, I really miss the tri-tangent fillet tool in some occasions I model detailing parts of a product:

• One typical example would be in a motorbike screen, it normally has a constant tubular radius all around the part. And is very easy to implement this with this function (top surface, bottom surface(thickness of the screen) and the side wall, then you will have the half pipe all way around.
• Also is very common for me implement that in a motorbike seat, in its folded countour where is stapled inside the plate bottom. There are three limits for the 3t-fillet, outer surface(seat) , plate bottom(inside) and the plastic part below.

-The other claim would be the Fillet tool holding on a curve on surface, so that is possible to create a real circular fillet between two surfaces keeping a limit you need to preserve (the holding curve).                                                Maybe in Alias exists a way to do that with variable fillets , but it is not accurate for this kind of cases...

I do not Know why but I was not able to post it in Alias ideas ...by the way, I needed to share it to all Alias users.

Best regards!

Jordi.

[BarryKimball]

Does this image illustrate what you are trying to build?

[electrorob]

Hi,

Yes the idea is the picture you uploaded, but a bit more complicated.

-I attached an image for the 2 typical cases I exposed previously:

#1 (seat skin cross section) and #2 (typical section of a windscreen).

-Moreover, it came to my mind another case, which is also tricky to get it done without that function:

#3 (fillet only touching a limit. Keep in mind that the cross section may change slightly the distance between the two surfaces along the path!).

Maybe the picture 1 and 2, can be done in two fillets (one each side), but sometimes can be a bit time-consuming.

On the other hand, the picture 3, in some cases, it really grinded my gears to have the same constant radius on each side, always contacting the limit. So maybe it makes more sense this tool in this kind of example.

I apologize for my english, is not my mother language and I have a lack of technical words. I hope is easy to understand what I exposed.

Thank you for your attention.

Jordi

[BarryKimball]

i understand your images...Can you the dimensions required to fully constrain the section. Image 1 has a single dimension...I would need to know how the tube/semi circle knows where to stop and how the angle is determined for the straight portion and how long that short flat portion is...Also, there is a small straight segment at the end...

 Image 2 looks like a 3D version of image 1...see attached Fillet Flange images.

 Image 3 we can already solve using the Symmetric fillet tool. Create a skin that represents the dotted straight line, turn on a single patch precision line...the Sym Fillet tool take an input tangent line (cos, patch precision or surface edge) and an opposing wall to create a fillet. The user doesn't input a radius value, the radius size is derived from the input tangent line. see attached Symmetric Fillet image.

 There is a live video demonstrating this tool here: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BJP-o8F5VY&t=18s

[electrorob]

Hi Mr.Kimball,

-It was very helpful for me the Flange fillet tool to solve out the "drop"profile trouble (related to image 1 and 2). It is indeed a very powerfull tool with a lot of variants within.

-Regarding to the Symetric fillet tool, it solves partly the problem of the image 3 (previously posted, the groove with a fillet touching a limit) because to get the same radius valour it is need to adjust manually the distance of the tangent line, in case of the two supporting surfaces have different angles between the limit surface. I attached a picture to show that.

But anyways, that is a big deal for me to have this nice tool!

Thank you.

Jordi.