Troubleshooting
Basic Concepts
- use Tools>Sketch Tools>Check Sketch for Feature
- can use SketchXpert to help solve overdefined sketches (click on Over Defined button)
- to check if something is a planar face, click on face. If it is planar, the sketch tools will enable.
- understand limitations. For "up to next" the face needs to have a complete "next" to go to. If it goes outside the body it won't work.
- complex fillets occur when there are more than three edges meeting in a vertex, or when they are of mixed convexity. Fillet what you can, chop out the bad part and apply a blended patch
- you can Rollback to move among time-dependent features in an assembly
- you can pick on a face and RMB>View Mates. You can also just view the errors (RMB>View Mate Errors).
- use File>Find References to make sure the files are being pulled from where you think they're coming from
- use Find References
- turn on T>O>S>Feature Manager>Arrow Key Navigation to scroll through . Focus on rollback back and use up-down arrows to visually follow construction.
- flex your components
Along the Way
- if a shell cannot reorder features, check the parent child-relationships
- feature order is important. adding draft can cause problems with fillets. do draft first, then add fillet later.
- if possible don't import wireframe geometry since they use a significant amount of system resources
- use Tools>Check to find import errors, or Tools>Import Diagnostics to find and repair errors.
- use MateXpert (MateGroup>RMB>MateXpert) to diagnose assembly build problems
- use FeatureXpert to solve problems when fillets and draft features fail
- Use FilletXpert (under Fillet) to create multiple fillets quickly. Use change, remove to remove fillets you did not want to keep. It uses FeaturesXpert and Reorder to help resolve problems.
- do a draft analysis to make sure your faces are drafted properly
- complex blends (K,T,X,Y intersections) are not done with fillets.
- use Tools>Feature Statistics to see how long it takes to build your part. You can see what features take a long time to rebuild and edit/suppress to improve efficiency.
Techniques
- you can temporarily or permanently deactivate all external references. Lock All allows you to unlock the references later. Break All permanently gets rid of the external references.
- you can Lock All external references to temporarily stop having a part be updated. This may help with workflow.
- when diagnosing mate problems, best to start at bottom and work your way up
- best practice: fix errors as they occur
- don't use break all references. Can lock all instead, and then can unlock later. Instead of break use edit. break your references from bottom to top.
- use FeatureWorks to repair imported parts. Usually works better on prismatic parts.
- only mate to Time Dependent Features (assembly features, geometries, in context features, component patterns) when it is the only way to achieve design intent.
- sometimes loft gives you an approximate surface, but avoid degenerate surfaces. Model surface in a different way (e.g. Filled Surface).