file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.

htm

Lesson

140

Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn about Edge and Corner Chamfers.

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (1 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

CHAMFER USAGE
The chamfer tool is used to create a bevel on an edge or corner. I truly believe that it is an under-used
feature. Many times, people will use an extruded cut or a swept cut to accomplish this, but you are
adding complexity and regeneration time when a simple chamfer can be used.
Just like the round tool, there are no sketches that need to be created, you only have to pick on edges
or corners to chamfer, then modify dimensions.
Also like the round tool, you can create sets with transitions.

EDGE CHAMFERS
To demonstrate an edge chamfer, we will use the following model (Chamfer.prt).

To access the Edge Chamfer functionality, click on the following icon in the feature toolbar.

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (2 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

When we enter into the edge chamfer tool, we see the following dashboard (with the Sets panel
opened up).

The top of the dashboard lists the different chamfer sets we create. The middle portion is used to list
references for each set. The next field down will list the values entered for angles or linear dimensions.
Down in the icon bar, we can see the familiar Sets and Transitions icons, but the next field over is
new. This field is used to pick the chamfer scheme. There are four schemes to choose from, as
shown below.

These are:

D X D You only need to specify the edge to be chamfered, and the distance away from
that edge (D). It creates a chamfer that is symmetric about the edge selected.

D1 X D2 You specify the edge to be chamfered, and then you edit two linear dimensions.
The chamfer is created with the ends of the chamfer at the distances specified from the edge.

Angle X D You specify the edge to be chamfered, and then enter a value for an angle and
a linear dimension. You can reverse the direction of the chamfer with a single click.

45 X D This creates a chamfer that is identical to the D X D. The difference is how it

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (3 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

For now, we are going to keep the D X D chamfer scheme selected, and then pick on the edge shown
in the figure below.

Change the D dimension value to 0.500 so it looks like the figure above. When we go to our Sets
panel, we see the following.

At the bottom of the sets panel, we have a few other things we can define. The first field, that shows
the word Value, can be used to switch to Reference. Choosing reference lets us pick a vertex or other
entity to determine the distance D.

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (4 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

The other field, which says Offset Surfaces determines how D is measured. Currently, it is set to go
along the edge at a distance D from the surfaces that intersect where the edge is being chamfered.
This is the most common method for doing chamfer dimensioning. You can also choose to determine
the distance from a tangent reference which you will pick. We will not demonstrate this, but you are
encouraged to try it out for yourself.
We are going to continue to create additional chamfer sets. Just like we did in the creation of rounds, if
we hold down the Ctrl key, we would add more edges to the current chamfer set. If we just pick a new
reference without holding the Ctrl key down, then it starts a new set. We will pick on the back edge of
the model, as shown below.

Only after you start a new chamfer set can you change the scheme. Once we pick the edge shown
above, we select a D1 X D2 scheme, then modify our values to the ones shown above.
Now, our panel looks like the figure at the top of the next page.

We will create one more Chamfer set for this chamfer feature. Without holding down the Ctrl key,

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (5 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

select the rim of the topmost hole, then hold down the Ctrl key and select the other rim. Once you start
this round set, change over to an Angle X D scheme, and modify the D value to 0.25 and the Angle to
60.0 degrees. Your model should initially look like the following.

The entire dashboard at this time looks like the following.

We can see the Angle X D scheme is selected, and the values of our angle and linear dimensions. At
the very far right of these icons and fields is an icon with a blue slanted line and two arrows. Use this
to reverse the direction of the chamfer. When we do this, our model will now look like the following.

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (6 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

We will accept our chamfer once we are done defining these three sets. Our model will look like the
following.

We will now create one more chamfer feature. This time we will use the 45 X D scheme, modify our
D value to 0.25 and select the edge of the model shown below.

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (7 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

Once we have done this, accept this chamfer feature. The final model will look like the following.

CORNER CHAMFERS
A corner chamfer creates a bevel on a corner of a part. To demonstrate this, we are going to open up
the Corner_Chamfer part, which is a simple 5 x 3 x 2 rectangular block, as shown below.

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (8 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

There is no icon in the feature toolbar to access this feature, so we must use Insert, Chamfer, Corner
Chamfer from the menu bar, as shown below.

When we do this, it brings up the following window.

The first thing we are asked to do is select the corner to chamfer. We will pick the front right corner.
One of the edges will highlight, as shown below. (NOTE: Your edge may be different from my edge,
and that is okay for this demonstration).

In the menu manager, we see the following choices.

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (9 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

Enter-input is used to type in an exact dimension value measured along that highlighted edge from the
specified corner. For quick creation of the chamfer, we can initially use Pick Point and pick anywhere
on the edge. We will use this option, and pick approximately halfway along the length of this
highlighted edge.
Once we select the first point, another one of the edges will highlight in a faint green color, as shown
below.

We will pick approximately halfway along this edge as well. Once we pick, the edge that we just picked
on will become highlighted in a bold red (just as the first one did), and the last edge will highlight in
green.

As with the other two, we will pick approximately halfway along the length of this little edge. Once we
do this, all three edges become highlighted in the bold red color, and we can pick OK from the feature
creation window to finish this corner chamfer.
Our finished chamfer looks like the following.

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (10 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

Now that we have the chamfer, we will select it from the model tree, click with the right mouse button,
and select Edit. This will bring up the dimensions for the corner chamfer, as shown below.

We will double-click on each dimension and modify its value to be the entire length of the line that the
dimension is on. When we modify the dimensions, they will turn green, indicating that they have not
been regenerated yet, as shown below.

We will click on the regenerate icon in the system toolbar (

), and our final chamfer will look like

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (11 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

LESSON SUMMARY
Use chamfers when you need to create a bevel on an edge. It is better to use a chamfer than an
extrude or sweep feature (when applicable) because it does not involve any sketching. It will
regenerate faster as well.
Create chamfer sets just as you did with the round feature. Use Ctrl to add edges to the same set with
the same dimensioning scheme (D X D, for example). Or, select a new edge to create a new round
set, then change the scheme for that set.
Use Pick Point for corner chamfers as a quick and easy way to initially create the chamfer, then Edit
the dimension values to get exact results. This is especially important if you dont know the length of
the line on which the corner chamfer dimension is being measured, but you can always pick on that line.

EXERCISES
Finger_Guide
Create the model shown on the next page. NOTE: You may need to play around with chamfer
transitions if you create the cuts first.

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (12 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm

file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/PROENGINEER WILDFIRE 3.0/chamfers.htm (13 of 13)1/9/2005 8:44:04 AM