Pro Engineer/Surface Tips

Symmetrical Models When creating symmetrical surface models only model half and transform, mirror it. Use insert mode to add features before the mirror feature. Merging Merge surfaces at the end of the model where possible, the model will be more robust. Avoid 2 and 3 sided boundary surfaces Avoid using 2 and 3 sided boundary surfaces. Use 4 boundaries to get the best quality surfaces in pro/engineer otherwise downstream features such as solids and offsets may not work correctly. see Surfaces:Avoiding 3 sided boundaries Do not use boundary surfaces to create flat surfaces Using boundary surfaces to create flat surfaces will not result in perfectly flat surfaces. Tips for creating datum curves for use with boundary surfaces Avoid 2 projection curves as it is almost impossible to control the tangency conditions at the curve ends. If 2 projections are used try to line up intersections of the sub curves, otherwise the resulting curves will have lots of segments. Avoid curve intersecting surfaces for the same reason. Try to use curve, thru points because you can control the tangency of the curve. It is also possible to tweak the curve and pull it into the right shape. Or use a curve from ISDX as a single feature. When creating curves for the 'same dir' of a boundary surface try to create it with a similar number of segments. This can be achieved by using divide in sketcher. Build the datum curves with the same tangency conditions as required in the boundary surfaces. When creating splines (and ISDX curves) use the minimum number of points, this reduces the risks of introducing ripples into the curve. (unless of course you want ripples!) Use colours Set surfaces to a shiny black as this shows up the shape of reflected highlights. The outline of highlights should be smooth if not the surface is probably not smooth.