Welcome to this Ansys How To Series video
In this video, we will focus on how to use the Pull tool and on the various operations
that can be carried out with it
Of the many tools you’ll encounter in SpaceClaim, the most commonly used is Pull
The Pull command is primarily used to create solid geometry, but it contains a variety
of options which allow you to control exactly how this geometry is generated
You are not limited to only making simple extrusions along a straight path
In this video, we will work through several different examples to provide you an in-depth
look at the Pull tool and its many functions.
Ready?
Let’s go!
At the most basic level, the Pull tool is used to extrude geometry along a constant direction
This operation can be carried out on almost any type of entity within SpaceClaim
Our first example focuses on a single line
Click Pull and select the line
Then left click anywhere in the model window and drag the mouse
You can move the mouse forward or backward along the indicated direction to stretch the
line to form a surface
We’ll cover pulling in a specific direction in one of the upcoming examples
The next application of the Pull command is to extrude a surface profile
In this case, selecting the indicated face and pulling it will create a 3D solid prism
with the same dimensions as the profile
Once again, we can pull in either direction, and the distance can be controlled with the
mouse or by typing in a value on the keyboard and pressing Enter
Example 3 highlights the ability to modify existing geometry using Pull
We can select one or more faces on the cube and use Pull to resize the body
If we click the offset circular profile and pull it until it intersects the cube
we have a good example of how the same tool can be used to remove geometry
The Add, Cut, and No Merge options give us full control over the results of any Pull operation
The Pull command also works on edges
By clicking one or more edges on the cube and pulling
we can quickly add a radius to multiple corners
In the options panel on the left side of the window, we will find several additional options
To create a beveled edge, we can activate the chamfer option
The 3 remaining options are Extrude Edge, Copy Edge, and Pivot Edge
Extrude Edge works in much the same way as the line we extruded at the beginning of the tutorial
Copy Edge duplicates an edge and allows us to split a face into multiple sections
The new faces can be pulled independently
Pivot Edge lets us rotate the entire face to a new angle
The different Pull modes can be found at the top left corner of the model window
These include Pull Direction, Revolve, Draft, Sweep, and Scale
The Up To option allows us to specify a reference location where the Pull operation should extend
up to and stop.
Pull Direction allows us to specify an alternate direction to extrude the geometry
Typically, the extrude will be normal to the selected profile, but this is not mandatory
By using Pull Direction, we can designate a new trajectory along a different linear path,
such as the construction line shown here
The extruded profile will maintain its original orientation with respect to the reference direction
Revolve can be used to extrude geometry about a central axis
This is useful for cylindrical or conical parts
The profile is swept around the axis and we can control the distance from 0 to a full 360 degrees
The Draft option will apply a draft angle to one or more selected faces
We first have to specify a plane to draft about
and then select the face or faces to draft
Sweep can be used to extrude a profile along a selected trajectory
The trajectory does not need to be a straight line or constrained to a single plane
However, sweeping along a curve that causes the resulting geometry to intersect itself
may result in the operation failing to complete successfully
Lastly, we have the Scale function
Scale allows us to increase or decrease the size of a selected object while keeping its
proportions fixed
This can be useful for correcting a design
or to quickly create related components in different sizes
The example shown here is a capacitor
At a higher capacitance, the component will be larger, but keep the same general shape
To begin the operation, select the Scale option
then choose a reference point as the anchor point
The body will scale out or in from this point in all directions
The world origin is always a good option, but a point or vertex will work as well
With the anchor point selected, click and drag a box around the entire body
It’s possible to click and drag, but usually it’s more efficient to type in the scale
value with the keyboard
The scale operation can also be constrained to one direction only
Pressing the Alt key we can select the direction we want to scale our model about
So, let's summarize
The pull tool extrudes geometries along specified directions
It can create a surface from a curve segment or a prism from a surface
The extrusion can follow specified curved paths or revolve around an axis
The pull extrusion can be used to add or subtract material on existing geometry
The pull tool can also be used to resize bodies, incline surfaces or smooth sharp edges
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