DesignSpark Mechanical Online Help

Displaying draft angles

This tool will help you identify the amount of draft and direction on each face in a design.

You can use this tool to analyze parts that will be molded. Faces shown in red (the default color for a negative draft angle) may not release properly from a mold. You should input the draft angle you consider necessary for proper release. The draft angle may depend on a number of factors, including material choice and design constraints.

To display draft

1. Click DraftAngle or taper on an object that facilitates removal from a mold or die. You draft by pulling one or more faces around about another face that you selected as the pivot. You can add or cut material as you pull. in the QualityTools for detecting anomalies or discontinuities in surfaces. group on the MeasureTools for displaying measurement properties of the edges, faces, and solids in your design. tab.

2. Click the DraftAngle or taper on an object that facilitates removal from a mold or die. You draft by pulling one or more faces around about another face that you selected as the pivot. You can add or cut material as you pull. Direction tool guide and select a face, surface, or the World OriginZero point in coordinate system. You can insert an origin at any location in your design where you can anchor the MoveA tool used to translate or rotate geometry. tool, enabling you to dimension from the origin or quickly move the sketch grid to the origin. You can also insert an origin at a solid's center of mass or volume. to set the draft direction.

   If you don’t first set the draft direction, the angle is measured with respect to the Z axis.

3. Set the Angle in the options panel.

   The face highlight color is based on the angle you specify. A face will be highlighted in the positive color if the angle of the face is greater than the Angle value and the negative color if its angle is smaller in the direction you specify. You can change these colors in the Options panelArea of the user interface that enables you to modify functions specific to tools..

4. Click the DraftAngle or taper on an object that facilitates removal from a mold or die. You draft by pulling one or more faces around about another face that you selected as the pivot. You can add or cut material as you pull. Select tool guide and select a face to check its draft angle. You can also Ctrl+click to select solids and surfaces, box-select or select objects in the Structure treeDisplay in the Structure panel that shows you each of the objects in your design. You can expand or collapse the nodes of the tree to view the objects. You can rename objects, create, modify, replace, and delete objects, as well as work with components..

   A color graph of the selected surfaces is displayed. Each value is an angle measurement between the surface and the selected plane.

Tool guides

The following tool guides help step you through the process. Use the Tab key to cycle through them. As soon as the tool guide switches, the cursor may change to reflect the active guide.

Options

The following options are available with the DraftAngle or taper on an object that facilitates removal from a mold or die. You draft by pulling one or more faces around about another face that you selected as the pivot. You can add or cut material as you pull. analysis tool:

Examples

DraftAngle or taper on an object that facilitates removal from a mold or die. You draft by pulling one or more faces around about another face that you selected as the pivot. You can add or cut material as you pull. analysis with color transition low (sharp)

DraftAngle or taper on an object that facilitates removal from a mold or die. You draft by pulling one or more faces around about another face that you selected as the pivot. You can add or cut material as you pull. analysis with color transition set to high (smooth)

The shadow line on these examples show where the angle of the curved face is the same as the draft angle. The example on the left is shown with the Color Transition option set low, and the example on the right shows the Color Transition set high.