Easy part editor contour drafting

[Gene Davis]

I have a partition and want to take a notch 19.43mm wide by 178.43mm high, from its upper L corner.

I know how to use the contour drawing feature to draw straight lines, and then to cut through a part, but I would like to hear from you part editing wizards, as to how best to do this. It is very tedious for me to use the software to do this, but having not been to training, I don't know the shortcuts.

I wish there was a way to reset the grid so as to have the modules be 19.43w x 178.43h, and then to be able to snap the grid's 0,0 origin to a corner node of the part, other than the lower L, where it always defaults to.

The attached pic shows what I want the part to look like when done.

Part editor notch.jpg (14.48 KiB) Viewed 3049 times

[Todd Miller]

I have a partition and want to take a notch 19.43mm wide by 178.43mm high, from its upper L corner.

I know how to use the contour drawing feature to draw straight lines, and then to cut through a part, but I would like to hear from you part editing wizards, as to how best to do this. It is very tedious for me to use the software to do this, but having not been to training, I don't know the shortcuts.

Gene,
It seems that you are on the right track. There aren't really any "shortcuts", that I know of. Everything in the PE is pretty straight forward. Note:When in doubt, right-click!!!

I wish there was a way to reset the grid so as to have the modules be 19.43w x 178.43h, and then to be able to snap the grid's 0,0 origin to a corner node of the part, other than the lower L, where it always defaults to.

You can reset the grid size but you cannot reset the actual UCS origin to a certain point.

Another option would be to take you cabinet part into the PE,
Then create a rectagle and go ahead and cut a pocket through the part,
Save your changes and return to the Cabinet editor
Select the same part,
Then go into the Constraint Manager and Contrain the rectangular cutout to a corner of the cabinet part using the vertical and horizontal contraint tools.
At this point you can edit those constraint values by selecting the "edit" button and selecting the actual value number.
A box will appear to enter the "New dimension value"
type in the new number and press "enter"
Your drawing should update.

Note: You can also use these contraints on the actual cut out itself. Then edit the size the same way we changed its location.

Hopefully this helps

[Todd Miller]

These directions refer to creating a parametric cutout.

Another option would be to take you cabinet part into the PE,
Then create a rectagle and go ahead and cut a pocket through the part,
Save your changes and return to the Cabinet editor
Select the same part,
Then go into the Constraint Manager and Contrain the rectangular cutout to a corner of the cabinet part using the vertical and horizontal contraint tools.
At this point you can edit those constraint values by selecting the "edit" button and selecting the actual value number.
A box will appear to enter the "New dimension value"
type in the new number and press "enter"
Your drawing should update.

Note: You can also use these contraints on the actual cut out itself. Then edit the size the same way we changed its location.

Hopefully this helps

[Mike Seisser]

I use the rectangle tool in the Part Editor and enter absolutes for this sort of thing.

Your origin point would be 0,x (x = the height of your partition). This will anchor the rectangle at the upper left-hand corner of the piece.
Your second point would be 19.43,(x-178.43 ) Use the parentheses, eCabs does the math.

Select your rectangle, right click, choose Cut/Pocket Using Geometric Shapes, Cut Through, OK

Mike