Quick concepts part 3: Refinements and History-based editing

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In this video, we're going to work through some models quickly. Let's make sure you've got your settings set up for speed. Make sure that the snap and show settings are all turned on. I'm using inch units, but you can follow along in metric if you feel more comfortable there and that's it. The fastest way to start sketching is to click on the sketch button first and then click on the plane where you want to sketch.

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Then if you're using a setup with a keyboard, press L for line. The hotkeys really speed up your workflow. You can make your own custom hotkeys under help keyboard shortcuts. I like to start with a center line that roughly gives me the dimensions of the object I'm modeling and put a dimension on that so you know what your modeling envelope is.

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You can sketch a center line along one of the axes through the origin and lock the end point to the origin, or switch to construction geometry and then start sketching. If you switch to construction geometry, make sure you change back when you're done.

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I like to leave a little bit of the center line sticking out from the rest of the sketch in case I have to select this center line apart from the rest of the sketch. Center lines and construction lines should display in a long, short, long line font. And the two terms are really used interchangeably. We're going to start out with a revolved shape. So sketch something roughly as shown.

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just keep clicking on points and if you're careful, you can keep clicking to make an entire chain of lines until you've completed this sketch.

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Make sure to use the grid snaps to get horizontal and vertical lines correct.

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Use the purple lines to line up with existing sketch geometry.

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Apply dimensions by selecting sketch entities and filling in the dimension box that appears. You can accept the existing dimensions by clicking the lock icon or key in a new value. Make the last couple inches of the device slightly slanted as shown. This is in part to create an early version and to set up a change for the next version.

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Now press escape twice to turn off the line tool and again to deactivate the sketch.

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Then press V on the keyboard to initiate a Revolve feature. Read the prompts at the top center of the screen until you are familiar with the workflow. Click inside the light blue shaded area, which is called a filling, and then select the center line.

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To finish the Revolve, you can click the checkmark at the left of the screen or select Done from the right mouse button menu.

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From here, click the down arrow next to the name of the project in the upper left of the screen and give the current model a name such as version 1 or concept 1. Then click the left arrow to go back to the recents screen and change over to the private space. Then right click on the image of the project that you just renamed.

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and select Duplicate from the menu. Click on the new image to open that. So you've just made a copy of the project and you can work on the new copy as a separate version. Give this new project a new name such as version 2. Next, make a copy of the existing body. Make sure that the items list on the left is open.

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Select the copy badge in the screen and drag a copy a few inches away from the original.

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Now switch from bodies to sketches in the items list on the left and select the first sketch. Make some edits to this sketch.

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and notice that the copied body also changes. Knowing where to make changes so that the changes either propagate or don't propagate is an important distinction.

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Click the end face of the original body and drag the arrow. Notice that the edits to the sketch aren't added to the history list, but edits where you move a face are added.

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Any edits made to the model before the movement feature that copied the body will propagate to the copy, but any edits in the history list after the movement feature will not propagate. Likewise, any edits to the version 1 project will not propagate to these models because they were saved as a duplicate. These are individual, completely separate files.

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Editing items from the history list constitutes history-based model edits, even if the feature you're editing is a direct edit feature. Making non-sketch-based edits using the arrows is generally called direct edit, but in Shapr3D, this software keeps a history list even of the direct edits, which is not how direct edit usually works. But if you go back

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in history list and edit something from the list, there is no record of the change. For example, if you edit the original sketch for the part, there is no record of that change. But if you make a direct edit, selecting a face and dragging an arrow on the screen, the software remembers it. This is a little different from other direct edit software, but if you've used history-based modeling before,

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It probably makes sense to you. Back to working on the part. Select the Move tool and pick the small diameter end of the copied body to move. Use one of the curved arrows to tilt that face 45 degrees. Now draw a circle on that face as shown.

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Now get out of the sketch and make an offset plane from the angled face at zero distance.

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Now from the Tools menu, create a construction axis and set it perpendicular to face. Click on the angled face and then the check mark, then click on the sketch circle and then click Done.

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This face is going to go away, but we still need to reference its location. Next, select the angled face and the conical face together and delete them. Now we are going to make a mistake and come back and correct it to display some history list manipulation. We noticed that we need a couple of additional things, but don't want to delete or undo that delete feature that just showed up in the history list.

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So right click on the feature before the deletion feature and select insert breakpoint. This temporarily suppresses anything below the breakpoint.

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You can drag this breakpoint up or down the list by dragging the line with your cursor. Move the breakpoint above the Face Offset feature.

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From the Tools menu, select Offset Edge and select the edge between the flat face and the conical face. Make a small offset, such as 0.1. Notice that you can't copy the edge or make a zero distance offset, and you can't add draft to the conical face, so we have to employ some workarounds here to get what we need to get.

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Anyway, next click the small x next to the break point in the history list to rebuild the entire tree with the new offset edge sketch that you just created. Notice all the suppressed features from the break point are back in the model again. Now sketch on the end face of the model and make a smaller circle approximately as shown.

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Exit the sketch, click M for move on the keyboard, and select the smaller circle. Drag it out a few inches as shown.

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Now use the Loft tool to loft from the offset edge to the angled circle to the small moved circle.

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This loft feature should interpolate from the large to the small angled sketch to the flat sketch to give you a tapered cone.

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Under Tools, select Split Body.

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Pick the conical body and then the angled plane that you just created. Use the bodies filter in the items list to verify that the conical body is split.

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Next, press M for move. Select the smaller conical body from the bodies list. If you just pick the conical face in the graphics window, you'll just move the conical face instead of the entire body. Move the arrow gizmo to the axis until the gizmo reorients along the axis. And then make sure the curved arrow centered on the axis is selected and key in 90 degrees.

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or just drag the curved arrow. This gives you a version of your model that can be angled. Make another copy of the first body and add a larger area on the big end for a battery or motor.

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and then add chamfers on the edges.

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Now add a charging port.

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Finally, we make a duplicate project, delete the other models, and make some changes to the final copy we want to work with.

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And now we can insert this model into the project with all of the attachments.

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Let's start by saving this out to a local external file.

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Use File, Export to Shapr3D, locate and name the file.

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Now go to the main project and import to current project.

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Notice that all of the parametric history-based features are inserted with this new file, and you can make edits as you wish to the imported model.