Help! User problems

[JohnRitson]

Help! User problems

I am currently working on my first job on Alibre it is a fairly large assembly.. All my equipment is new. I use Catia 3d V5 at work and bought a system that was an significant upgrade to the one used there..My problem with my Alibre assembly is that I can't move or rotate parts easily. I also can't constrain parts easily either. My grapics card is nVidia Quadro Fx 550 and I use a 3D connexion space mouse and a regular Dell mouse. Today it took me 3 hours to do 40 minutes work. Is there anyone out ther using Alibre that can move and rotate parts and constrain O.K. if so what graphics card do you use,what space mouse etc. P.S I tried downloading a Gforce direct x driver (not sure if it was the right one) this did not work. Hope someone will have an answer. John Ritson

 

[MilesH]

John,

Can you say a bit more about exactly what the difficulties you're having are?

You can actually move and rotate Parts within the Assembly using the Space Mouse, but it's a bit of an art....

 

[JohnRitson]

Moving parts

When I use the 3d connexion space mouse the part shoots out into spaor only moves in small jeks or sudden large movements. John Ritson

 

[MilesH]

Yes, it's tricky if the part is completely unconstrained.

The technique works really well for ball and socket joints 8)

 

[mkent]

I found the 3DConnexion Space Explorer to be very sensitive as you zoom in on very small parts. The driver apparently doesn't compensate for scale but the sensitivity is adjustable in the driver setup program.

 

[MilesH]

Re:

I found the 3DConnexion Space Explorer to be very sensitive as you zoom in on very small parts. The driver apparently doesn't compensate for scale but the sensitivity is adjustable in the driver setup program.

Mick,

This is a bug, which we're all hoping will be fixed soon.

 

[JohnRitson]

Comments on grapics card or driver to use.

Does anyone have any comments on the graphics card I'm using,suggestions for another driver or a new card? Thanks John Ritson

 

[JohnRitson]

UPDATE

I opened a new folder and a new assembly and I have just spent the last 2 hours rebuilding my assembly from scratch. I'm 80% done and have no problems with moving rotating the parts and only minor constraining problems. Any ideas why the problem. Thanks for the help. John Ritson

 

[indesign]

Did you try doing the complete rebuild? Or exporting to Alibre step?

 

[jwknecht]

Re: UPDATE

I opened a new folder and a new assembly and I have just spent the last 2 hours rebuilding my assembly from scratch. I'm 80% done and have no problems with moving rotating the parts and only minor constraining problems. Any ideas why the problem. Thanks for the help. John Ritson

I have found that with several changes (like one does when new to the software or when you change your mind several times) sometimes a file can act corrupt (not just in Alibre, but also other CAD programs). Your solution of rebuilding is sometimes the best one. As Tim suggested, you try to export as an Alibre STEP and then import it back in to try to clean the file up.

 

[JohnRitson]

Latest update.

I have finished 90% of my rebuilt assembly and all the problems I mentioned have gone. I will remember the export/inport trick you mentioned in case the problem happens again. My 2D drawing was almost perfect,missing some lines here and there,any comments on this. Thanks a lot for everyones input I take the assembly to the customer tomorrow for review. I managed to export the 3D assembly using step 214 and opening it in Catia V5 without any problems,it looks good. John Ritson