Part-file: "project cutting edges" won't work

Hi all,

I attached a fairly simple part with only one sketch cutting through it and trying to use the tool "project cutting edges". I am clearly cutting through solid material, but I can't get the edges.

Why??

Problem_cutting_edges.ipt

The surface intersection I circled is causing your problem. On that picture I deleted the end face so you can see it. A radius in the inside corner allowed me to project curves. Not sure how you made the curved feature, maybe using a revolve caused that funny business?

The slight radius on the tail of the curved feature is not tangent to the straight edge.

If I delete this face and replace with a patch - it works.

Thanks for suggesting solutions (ecshclark and JD Mather). They both work perfectly.

My concern is, that my example is just a small slice out of a much bigger and very complex model. My cut for the sketch is in a region, that is perfectly all right and the cause of the trouble is far away. How can I know, where the origin of the trouble is located? I can't easily study a complex model in the same way we did with this small example?

Do you know of any kind of analysis tool to check for unresolved issues somewhere in the model?

I have good experience with intersection analysis for separate solid bodies when I export my part file bodies into an assembly and let them analyze there for intersections.

.... How can I know, where the origin of the trouble is located?....

Find the red End of Part marker at the bottom of the feature tree.

Drag the red EOP to the top of the browser hidding all features.

Save the file with the EOP in this rolled up state.

Right click on the filename and select Send to Compressed (zipped) Folder.

Attach the resulting *.zip file here.

I will find the source of the problem for you.

Thanks JD Mather for offering assistance. I really appreciate it.

Unfortunately, I can't post the file here, it is classified material (and it is big: 130MB).

I would need a "stand alone" solution, so that I don't need to bother you (and others) with ever coming up troubles of the same sort.

(yesterday I stumbled over a second origin of trouble and there might easily be many more hidden in the whole project).

It may be intimidating to study the model as a whole when you get to the point where you're at, but it's something that needs to be done. If you have to, roll the EOP all the way back to the beginning and study your features one at a time. Just check each one, looking specifically at the areas where your new feature joins to your existing part. It'll take a while the first few times, but as you do it more and more, you'll start to get a feel for what sorts of things are likely causing your problem, and you'll eventually get to the point where you can just look at the model and your problem areas will just jump out at you. You won't be able to not see them.

Just takes practice, that's all!

Good luck!

Thanks Bishop for finding words of hope.

In my case though it seems to be hopeless, as I am at the end of the line of construction. Moving up the EOP marker would mean, that I would have to check all the proceeding work and the mistakes related to it.

I am just not responsible for all proceeding work and I simply don't have the time to get responsible.

If that's the way it is, then Inventor is in my opinion a stand-alone start-to-end-single-user software.

The way that we implement it at my company, it sort of is single-user when you're modelling the parts, but when the part is finished everyone shares them.

It can be very frustrating to pick up someone else's model and finish it. I know when I have to take models from someone else, I find frequently that it's easier and quicker sometimes to just start from scratch and re-model the whole thing myself.