Shifted reference line?

[Cameraman]

Shifted reference line?

Hi all,

As with many such forums, it appears that most of the folks here are "lurkers" (compare "Views" to "Posts"), but the those who do post seem quite knowledgeable so I'll give this a shot nonetheless . . .

I am evaluating AD, and have run into a snag when creating a sheet metal part. I created the tab, and then 3 flanges . . . then I went back and edited the tab and my 3rd flange came up with an error -- not an unusual thing, but this time I cannot seem to fix the problem. When I viewed the sketch for the 3rd flange, the reference line that was automatically created by AD when I dimensioned some geometry to the Z-axis was shifted off the axis. I am unable to move the reference line back to the axis -- when I try to do so by constraints, I am told that the constraint already exists -- when I try to add a dimension between the reference line and the axis, it shows 0.000, but the reference line (and thus my geometery) is definitely off-center. If I try to re-dimension the geometry to the Z-axis, the dimension automatically snaps to the reference line, regardless of how I select the axis.

Perhaps it is bad form to dimension to a system axis?

I will probably just delete the flange and recreate it -- I've already spent more time trying to fix it than it will take to re-create it -- but I'd be interested in learning whether I am misunderstanding something . . .

Regards,
Greg

 

[PeteOh]

Shifting lines

Greg,
I am not that familiar with the sheet metlal design to comment. BUT I have used the "Alibre Assistant". This part of Alibre is unmatched. Try sending a message to the assistant, get the help that is part of Alibre Design. He can see exactly what you are trying to do. Start a "session" and he can fix it for you!

Pete

 

[Cameraman]

Thanks for the tip Pete -- that's what Alibre told me as well. I was hesitant to do that because I am just evaluating the package and assumed that I had made an error. And to make things worse, I neglected to save a version with the error in it . . . instead, I just blew away the offending geometry (in this case, a flange) and recreated it, so there is no way to tell for sure what the problem was.

I am in a bit of a time crunch to finish my evaluation before the price increase, but after June 1 I may go back and see if I can make the same "mistake" so that I can show them what happened.

Regards,
Greg