Features I like today: Indent
Indent is one of those features that has been out for several releases, but you don’t hear too much about it. To me, it is one of those magical features that I don’t use much, but when I use it, it usually saves me a load of time. I can’t say that I’ve taken the time to understand everything it’s supposed to be able to do, but when you need to create a shell or thin wall feature around a shape, this is a great tool.
Here’s my example for today. The red part is the main part, and the yellow is a tool body I created for the Indent. The part is shown sectioned. If you were to create this feature without Indent, you would have to create the shape on the inside of the part first, then make a cut on the outside. But using the Indent, all you need is a tool body. The tool can be simple like the one shown here, or it could be complex, like the envelope around an assembly of parts that you need a cover for. It would be perfect for creating a thermoformed part if you already have the forming die for the part. It has options that allow for a gap between the forming tool and the actual part if you were going to show a spark gap on an EDM type of thing. You can also specify the wall thickness for the indented area.
The interface could be better for selecting areas of the forming tool that are actually inside the main part. For example, if the forming tool doesn’t poke all the way through the part, you can’t select the face of the tool, and have to rely on different display modes of bodies or the Select Other options. It would be nice if it just temporarily made the main body transparent, highlighting the places where the tool body crosses the main body.
Anyway, just another cool tool that exists in the software.
Another neat feature that I had not noticed. I suspect that I know how to use 60% of the features and use 20%. I do not use the features where the geometry is rather undefinable such as: dome, freeform, deform and flex. Lofts can generate an untrustworthy geometry by not quite hitting the profiles. I do not use the bug covering bandaid features of heal edges, and often fill surface. I do not use curve through xyz points because it is all kinky with curvature reversals at every other point. Blocks seem useful, but are sometimes difficult to use. Then there is the whole world of rendering and sumulation.
Indent is great.. We use it with the ‘cut’ option with a small gap to put together non-structural member bodies for weldments.