Pro/ENGINEER Tutorial

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

University of Alberta

Lesson #5: Revolved Features, Patterns, and

Copies
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Overview of this Lesson

This lesson will introduce you to the following operations:
Creating Revolved Features
made by creating an open or closed edge and revolving it around an axis. Can
be used for protrusions, cuts, or slots.
Creating Patterns
generates multiple parametrically-related instances of any type feature
Copying Features
copying a single feature or group of features by translation, rotation, and
mirroring
To demonstrate these features, we will be creating several different parts. The parts
are totally independent of each other, so you can jump ahead to any one of these:
1. Revolved Features
o A Revolved Protrusion
o A Revolved Cut
2. Patterned Features
o A Radial Pattern of Holes
o A Patterned Array of Grouped Features

3. Copied Features
o Copying with the Same References
o A Translated Copy
o A Rotated Copy
o A Mirrored Copy
4. Design Considerations
o Some things to think about when designing with complex features

Revolved Features
A revolved feature is an axisymmetric shape that is created by revolving an open or
closed section view by a specified angle around a central axis. The section can
represent a protrusion or a cut, that is, it can either add material or take it away. We
are going to create the part shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

This is a V-pulley that has been cut away to show the cross sectional shape. The part is
shown on page 391 of Fundamentals of Graphics Communications (Irwin Graphics
Series). The central shaft has been modified somewhat in order to demonstrate a cut
operation. The finished part will have only three features.
Start up Pro/E as usual. Create a part called v_pulley and set up the default datum
planes.
Revolved Protrusion
The first part feature will be a revolved protrusion:
Feature > Create > Solid > Protrusion > Revolve | Solid | Done
Pick One Side | Done, and DTM3 as the sketching plane, and DTM1 as
the Right reference plane. Let the feature creation arrow come towards the front.
The most difficult operation for this part is generating the sketch for the cross section.
We are going to revolve this 360 degrees around the central axis. For reference, here is
the final dimensioned sketch:

Figure 2
Study this carefully, since several dimensions have been implicitly determined by the
Sketcher rules. Using

Sketch > Mouse Sketch

set up a freehand sketch that looks something like this:

Figure 3
Don't forget to add a centre line by selecting
Sketch > Line > Centerline | Vertical
Align the centerline to the datum plane. Also, the sketch must be closed, so you will
sketch (and align) a line down the center of the section.
To dimension the section, here is a new trick: To dimension a diameter, click first on
the outer edge, second on the axis, third on the outer edge again, and fourth (middle
button) to place the dimension. Try to dimension and regenerate the sketch yourself.
If you have trouble, go back and look at the dimensioning scheme shown in Figure 2.
You may have to give some additional dimensions explicitly to over-ride the Sketcher
rules. If you are having trouble getting a successful regeneration, just get as close as
you can for now - simplify the geometry until you do get successful regeneration.
Don't get tangled up in Sketcher problems since we are really interested in seeing how
the revolve works.
When you get a successful regeneration, select Done. Then in the REV TO menu,
select
360 | Done
to specify a 360 degree rotation of the sketch around the axis. Your part should look
like Figure 4.

Figure 4
Now we will add the central hole.
Revolved Cut
To create the cut:
Create > Cut > Revolve | Solid | Done > One Side | Done
Use the same sketching and reference planes as before (DTM3 and DTM1) and create
the following sketch:

Figure 5
Don't forget to align the top and bottom edges of the cut line, and make sure the
material removal arrow points inwards. When the sketch regenerates successfully,
select Done and then
360 | Done
The last job to do for this part is to create some rounds. There are four of them, all
with a radius of 3, shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6

All the rounds can be created at the same time, provided that you want them to always
have a common radius. If you want to change the radius of one or two of them, you'd
have to create them separately. It may be necessary when you are selecting the edges
to reorient the part to see the edges clearly.
As a final note, you might note that we could have created this part using a single
revolved feature that would include the central counter-bored hole and the rounds into
the revolved solid we made here. We will discuss the consequences of this at the end of
the lesson.

Patterned Features
Creating a feature pattern is similar to a multiple-copy, except that it is possible to
change the geometry parametrically of each member in the set. The pattern is based on
a single instance of the feature - called the pattern leader. Once created, pattern
becomes a single feature. All instances of features in the pattern can be modified
simultaneously. This is best shown by a couple of examples.
Creating a Radial Pattern - A Bolted Flange
A common element in piping systems is bolted flanges. Here is how to create a pattern
of bolt holes. In addition, we will set up a couple of relations to control the geometry
based on the specified number of holes.
Start a new part called flange and set up the default datum planes. Create the circular
disk with central hole shown in the figure below. The outer diameter is 16, the hole
diameter is 8, and the disk is 3 thick. Note that the disk is constructed on DTM2.

Figure 7
Now create a hole in the disk. This will be the pattern leader:
Create > Solid > Hole > Straight | Done > Radial | Done
Use the upper surface of the disk as the placement plane, and position the hole at
about the 5-o'clock position. See the figure below. Select the axis of the disk, and
datum DTM1 for radial (polar) dimensioning with an angle of 30 degrees. The radial
distance of the hole from the axis is 6. Make the hole one-sided, thru all, and with a
diameter of 1.

Figure 8
We are now going to make a total of 8 copies of the hole spaced equally around the
flange. Select

Pattern > [click on the hole] > Identical | Done

To create a pattern, you first select a dimension that will be incremented to create
instances in the pattern. The dimension can be linear or angular. For the bolt circle, we
want to increment the angular position, so click on the 30 that shows the angle
between the hole and the datum plane. Now enter the increment to be used in the
chosen direction, that is, 45 degrees. Since this is all we want to increment,
select Done, and enter the total number of instances of the hole, 8. If you want to
make an array pattern, you could now select a second dimension. We don't want to, so
select Done. The part should now regenerate and show you the following bolt pattern.

Figure 9
Suppose we wanted to change the number of bolts on the flange. Do we have to do all
this over again? The answer is no - we can use relations! In the PART menu, select
Relations
and click on the 2nd hole in the bolt pattern (the one at about 3-o'clock). You should
see all the dimensions that control the pattern like this

Figure 10
Take note of the symbol for the angular dimension between bolts (d12), the angle of
the first bolt from DTM1 (d10), and the number of holes (P0). We can Add a couple
of relations for these by entering the following:
/* angular separation of holes
d12 = 360 / P0
/* orientation of first hole
d10 = d12 / 2
Before you leave the Relations menu, select Switch Dim. Go back to the PART menu,
select Modify, and click on any of the holes. Change the number of bolt holes to 12,
then Regenerate the part. Check again for 6 holes, 5 holes. Don't forget you have to
regenerate after each modify.
Use Modify to change the diameter of any one of the holes to 2. With the diameter of
2, try to create a pattern of 24 holes. What happens? Remember that we specified a
pattern of identical features. This does not allow the instances to intersect; other
options would allow it. To recover from this error, select
Undo Changes > Confirm
Try to modify the separation angle between holes or the placement of the pattern
leader. What message does Pro/E give you?

A Pattern of Grouped Features

The bolt circle pattern was pretty straight forward - we only duplicated a single
feature, and its size/shape stayed the same for each copy. We can go much farther than
that by using grouped features.
We are going to create the part shown below. The pattern leader is the feature on the
left in the front row. We will use a pattern to set up two rows with the dimensions
incrementing along each row, and between rows.

Figure 11
Start a new part (including datum planes) and create the rectangular base (solid
protrusion 20 x 30 x 3 thick). Now create a circular solid protrusion (diameter 2, up 3
from the lower edge of the plate, over 5 from the left edge, and with a height of 2).
Create a coaxial hole on the circular protrusion going completely through the part.
Finally, add a 0.25 round on the circular edge where it meets the plate. The part should
look like this:

Figure 12
Before we can create the pattern, we have to group all the features on the circular
protrusion. In the FEATURE menu, select
Group > Create > Local Group > [pocket]
Now pick on the protrusion, the hole, and the round. Then select Done Sel > Done
You should be informed that the group pocket has been created. Now, still in
the GROUP menu, select Pattern and pick on the protrusion. You should see all the
dimensions associated with the group as shown below:

Figure 13
First Pattern Direction
pick on the 5.00 dimension, and enter the increment 10

 pick on the diameter of the protrusion 2.00, and enter the increment 1
pick on the diameter of the hole 1.00, and enter the increment 1
select Done
enter the number of instances 3
Second Pattern Direction
pick on the 3.00 dimension, and enter the increment 12
pick on the height of the protrusion 2.00, and enter the increment 3
pick on the protrusion diameter 2.00, and enter the increment 3
pick on the hole diameter 1.00, and enter the increment 2
select Done
enter the number of instances 2
All the patterned pockets should now be added to the part. Go back to
the PART menu, and experiment with the Modify command. What dimensions are
available for modification (this may depend on what feature you pick on)?

Copying Features
In the section above, we saw how to create a multiple-instance pattern of a single
feature or a group of features. The pattern could only be created by incrementing one
or more of the feature's dimensions. The Copy command allows more flexibility in
terms of placement and geometric variation, but only creates one copy at a time. There
are several options available with Copy, and we will create several different simple
parts to illustrate these.
A Same Ref Copy
We are going to create the part shown in Figure 14. The bracket on the left is the
original, and the one on the right will be the copy.

Figure 14
Start by creating a new part with the default datum planes. Create a rectangular solid
protrusion on DTM2 that is 10 x 20 x 2 thick. For the vertical feature, the sketching
plane is a Make Datum that is offset from DTM1 by 5. Thus:
Create > Solid > Protrusion > Extrusion | Solid | Done
Make Datum > Offset > Sel By Menu > Datum > Name > DTM1
Enter Value > [5] > Done
Select the top of the rectangular base as the Top reference plane. Then sketch the
protrusion as shown below:

Figure 15 When you get a successful

regeneration, select a Blind depth of 1.

Now, we are ready to copy the feature. We want the copy to be 10 to the right of the
first. If the geometry of the first feature changes, we want the copy to change too - it
will be dependent.
Copy > Same Refs | Select | Dependent | Done
Pick on the protrusion and select Done Sel > Done.
The Group Elements Window will open up. This is giving us some options about
which dimensions in the copy we want to vary. At this time, we will only change the
distance from the left end. Move the cursor up and down the listed dimensions. As
you do this, the dimension will highlight on the model. Select the dimension 5 that
locates the protrusion, and select it. Then select Done. You are prompted for a new
value for this dimension; enter15, then select OK from the elements window. The new
protrusion should appear at the right.
What happens if you try to Modify the hole diameter on the first protrusion? The
height dimension on the copy?
Delete the copy and recreate a new independent copy. Try the same modifications.
A Translated Copy
We will make the part shown below. The original feature is again at the lower left.

Figure 15
You can keep the same base plate as the previous part (10 x 20 x 2 thick, on DTM2).
Create a solid protrusion near the lower left corner of the plate (dimension 4 from left
surface, 3 from lower surface, diameter 3, blind depth 5). See Figure 16.

Figure 16
Now we will copy the feature and change its diameter at the same time:
Copy > Move | Select | Dependent | Done
Click on the protrusion, then Done.
Translate > Plane > Plane > Sel By Menu > Datum > Name > DTM1
Check the direction of the translation arrow, and enter the distance 10. To move it
again:
Translate > Plane > Plane > Sel By Menu > Datum > Name > DTM3
Check the direction of the translation arrow ( you may have to flip it), and enter the
distance 5. Then select:
Done Move
In the GP VAR DIMS menu, select the diameter of the protrusion as variable,
then Done. Enter the new value 1.5. Then select OK.
A Rotated Copy
We will use a rotated copy to create the part shown in Figure 17 - a large circular pipe
with two pipes joining it off-axis. At the same time, we will see a case where feature
creation order can be used to advantage.

Figure 17
The original side pipe is on the left, the copy is on the right. It can be obtained by a
180 degree rotation from the original.
Start by creating a circular solid both-sides protrusion from the sketching plane
DTM2. Sketch a diameter of 20 and set blind depth of 20. Do not add the inner
surface of the pipe at this time - we will do that later.
For the side branch, use DTM3 as the sketching plane (Top reference DTM2) and
sketch an 8 diameter circle aligned with DTM2 and with a center 5 from DTM1.
Check the feature creation direction arrow. Make the protrusion one-sided with a blind
depth of 15. This will extend it outside the circumference of the major pipe.
Create a one-sided, thru-all, coaxial hole on the axis of the branch pipe. Use the
placement plane DTM3 and make sure the direction arrow is pointing the right way.
The hole diameter is 7. The part should look like the figure below.

Figure 18
Now we are ready to copy the branch pipe. We may want to change the size of the
copied branch pipe, so we will make an independent copy:
Copy > Move | Select | Independent | Done
Pick on the branch protrusion and hole, then select Done. Now we specify the
rotation:
Rotate > Crv/Edg/Axis
and pick on the axis of the main pipe. Enter the angle of rotation 180. Then select:
Done Move > Done
to keep all the existing dimension. However, we have created an independent copy, so
we could come back and change any dimensions of the copied pipe. All the elements
of the copy have been defined, so click OK. The model should now look like the
figure below.

Figure 19
Now we can add the central hole of the main pipe. Make it a straight, coaxial, bothsides hole from the placement plane DTM2. Make it Thru All in both directions, with
a diameter of 19.
Experiment with the Modify command, changing dimensions of both the original and
the copy. You can also modify the rotation angle. What happens if you modify the
diameter of the main pipe to 12 and hole to 11? The part will certainly regenerate, but
is clearly wrong. However, the error is relatively easy to fix. Another possibility for
creating the part (that would cause even greater difficulty) is the following:
create main pipe
As before.
create central hole
As before.
create side branch
We couldn't do this from DTM3 since that would be inside the pipe. We would
have to create a Make Datum using an offset of 15 from DTM3 and create the
branch towards the main pipe using an Up To Surf depth.
create the side branch hole
We could use the planar face of the branch as the placement plane for a coaxial
hole with a depth specified as Thru Next (through the next part surface
encounterd).
These steps would create the same geometry. However, we would have a big problem
if we tried to reduce the diameter of the main pipe to less than 18, since the side
branch solid protrusion would not intersect the surface of the main pipe as required by

the Up To Surf depth setting. The part would not regenerate, and we would have to
spend some time fixing the model. The moral is, you have to plan ahead!
A Mirrored Copy
The final copy option we will look at is the mirror copy. Mirroring is very useful,
obviously if you have symmetric parts, you only have to create half and then mirror to
get the other half. We will create the simple mirrored, curved slot shown in Figure 20.

Figure 20
Start with a rectangular base plate (12 x 20 x 2), centered on DTM2 so that the datum
plane DTM1 is on the centerline of the plate. Create a single Slot using the
dimensions shown in Figure 21.

Figure 21
Add a 45 x 0.5 Chamfer to the upper and lower edges of the slot. The mirror copy is
easy:
Copy > Mirror | Select | Dependent | Done
Pick on the slot and the chamfers, then select Done. To specify the mirror plane:
Plane > Sel By Menu > Datum > Name > DTM1
That's all there is to it! Try to Modify the mirrored copy. Note that for mirrored
features, all the defining dimensions are shown on the original. You should investigate
to see what happens if you make an independent mirror copy of the same slot.

Design Considerations
We have covered a lot of ground in this lesson, and hopefully added a lot of
ammunition to your modeling arsenal! We have also seen how the feature creation
options can control the behaviour of the model. So, now is a good time to say a few
words about part design.
The first part created in this lesson, the V-pulley, consisted of only three features (the
revolved protrusion, the revolved cut, and the rounds). It was mentioned that it would
be possible to create the pulley completely from a single feature (a revolved section
that included the inner bore and the rounds). The last part involved only four features
and a pattern.

You must consider the following when trying to put a lot of geometry into a single
feature:
How easy will it be to modify the feature later?
If the geometry is very complex, it may take a lot of work to get the single
feature to create properly. Perhaps it would be more efficient to create a number
of simpler features that would have the same resulting geometry.
If you plan to do some engineering analysis of the part, for example a Finite
Element Analysis, then minor features such as rounds, chamfers, small holes,
etc., will only complicate the model, perhaps unnecessarily. They will also lead
to increased modelling effort downstream. These features are normally added
last. We will see in a later lesson how they can be temporarily excluded from
the model (called suppressing the feature).
If the entire part is contained in a single feature, it may be difficult later to
make major changes to the part that may not be feasible using that feature.
When creating the patterns and copies, we discovered the ways that duplicated
features could be modified, either during feature creation or after the fact. We also saw
some of the ramifications of feature order in the model.
These considerations should be in the back of your mind as you plan the creation of
each new part. It is likely that there are many ways in which to set up the part, and
each will have advantages and disadvantages. The more you know about the Pro/E
tools, and the more practice you get, the better you will be able to make good
decisions about part design. Good planning will lead to an easier task of part creation
and make it easier to modify the geometry of the part later. Like most design tasks, the
model design is subject to some iteration. We will discuss in a later lesson some of the
tools that Pro/E provides to allow you to change the structure of your model if it
becomes necessary or to recover from modeling errors.