To Create a Variable Section Sweep

1. Click or Insert > Variable Section Sweep. The dashboard appears.

2. Click one of the following using the variable section sweep to create a:

3. (default) surface

4. solid

3. Click to use the Thin Trim options. These options are only available when trimming a quilt or creating a solid protrusion and cut.

4. Select a trajectory to be used for the variable section sweep.

Note: You can also select the trajectory or trajectories before using Insert > Variable Section Sweep. Use CTRL to select multiple trajectories. Use SHIFT to select multiple entities in a chain.

5. Click Options and specify the following:

6. Click Variable Section to specify that the shape of the section can be changed as it is swept along the trajectory

or

• Click Constant Section to specify that the section shape does not change as it is swept along the trajectory.

• Click the Cap ends check box to create the swept geometry with a capped ended surface.

• Click the Merge ends check box to merge geometry with the solid surface at the ends of the sweep. Note that there must be a solid surface at the ends of the sweep in order to perform a merge. There must be a solid surface at the ends of the sweep in order to perform a merge. Additionally, the sweep must have Constant Section selected with a single planar trajectory.

• Click inside the Sketch placement point box and select a point on the Origin Trajectory where you want to sketch the section. The start point of the sweep is not affected. The start point of the sweep is used as the default location where you sketch the section if Sketch placement point is empty.

5. Click References.

6. Under Trajectories, Pro/ENGINEER displays the trajectory that you selected as the origin trajectory. The selected trajectory is highlighted in red in the graphics window. Select another trajectory or select multiple trajectories using the CTRL key.

Note: Right-click and select Remove to remove the trajectories for creating a variable section sweep. This is valid for all the trajectories except the Origin trajectory. Also, to remove trajectories selected as X-trajectory or Normal trajectory, clear the check boxes to remove the attributes for these and then remove the trajectory. You cannot replace or remove trajectories where tangent references exist.

7. Under Section plane control, the option that you select determines how the section plane is oriented, that is the Z direction of the sweeping coordinate system. Select one of the following from the list:

8. Normal to trajectory—Section plane is normal to the selected trajectory. This is the default for variable section sweep. If you select this option and Automatic horizontal and vertical control, specify XDirection reference at Start. You can select any datum plane or a datum curve, linear edges, a coordinate system, or an individual axis of a coordinate system.

9. Normal to projection—Section plane is normal to the projection of the Origin trajectory along a specified direction reference.

10. If you select this option, select a Direction reference for the projection. To reverse the direction of the reference, click . If you selected a coordinate system as the reference, to select the next axis, click Next.

• Constant normal direction—Section plane normal vector is parallel to the direction reference that you select.

• If you select this option, select Direction reference for the projection. To reverse the direction of the reference, click .

• An arrow at the sketch placement point indicates the current direction for section plane control.

• The Horizontal direction for the section is decided by “Automatic“ orientation or the X Direction reference at Start. You can select any datum plane or a datum curve, linear edges, a coordinate system or an individual axis of a coordinate system.

8. Under Horizontal/Vertical control the option that you select determines how the section plane (the XY axis of the sweeping coordinate system) is oriented along the variable section sweep. Select one of the following from the list:

9. Normal to surface—Y-axis of the section plane is normal to the surface on which the Origin trajectory lies. This is the default option when the Origin trajectory reference is a curve on surface, one sided edge of a surface, two sided edge of surface or solid edge, curve created though intersection of surfaces, or two projection curves.

10. Automatic—The section plane is automatically oriented in the XY direction. Pro/SURFACE calculates the direction of the x-vector such that the swept geometry is minimally twisted. For an Origin trajectory without any referenced surfaces, Automatic is the default.

Note: You cannot orient the sketched section for Automatic for straight edges unless they are sketched and X Direction reference at Start is specified.

• X-Trajectory—X-axis of the section plane passes through the intersection point of the specified X-trajectory and the section plane along the sweep.

9. Click to open Sketcher and sketch the section for sweeping along the selected trajectories. Click to exit sketcher.

Note: If Pro/ENGINEER does not start Sketcher, it means that the references chosen cannot successfully orient the sketch plane.

10. Click to preview geometry or click to complete the feature.

Note: If Pro/ENGINEER does not display the preview geometry, it means that the geometry cannot be constructed.