how to draw fabric mesh ?

[archteryx]

I'll need to draw a meshes of different thicknesses as shown on the attached image.

 

Also some components of the wall assembly have negligible thickness, and some are even fluids lapping between two parallel planes (see second image). I would like to be able to represent the fluid with a curvilinear boundary as shown.

 

What's the best way to draw these in order to facilitate later tweaks? I had originally been extruding 2D profiles of the surfaces, but find that there is no functionality in the resulting surface and had to redraw them as the development of the detail progressed. I had considered using regions, but suspect the same limitations. Ialso thought about drawing and arraying a tile block, and also wondered if there is a material I could apply to the face of a plane/region/solid. I expect to hear that I should be using 3Dmesh (seems fitting). Any guidance on how to make these resemble the image would be very much appreciated.

 

Now that I have begun to rant, I may as well mention that I'm struggling with modifying drawn solids, as it seems I have to align the UCS to each surface in order to simply grip-stretch an edge. Even then I only have one middle grip to use on the edge. I can't seem to load the 'subobject selection panel' (aCADv.2009), or find the names of the commands in order to create a toolbar.

 

Any assistance would be very much appreciated.

thx in advance.

[MikeScott]

Negligible or not, they still have a thickness, so try drawing it accordingly.

 

If you want to render it, you could use custom materials to... hey.. didn't I suggest this to you already? lol

 

Hatching would do a surface too, but as far as my version goes, it won't render a hatch.

 

Good luck, maybe someone else has a better idea for you.

[shift1313]

i would draw them as solid sheets and use materials on them. Your system resources will thank you.

[archteryx]

You did, Mike.

This stuff is pretty new to me so forgive me, but I'm just putting these various strategies out there to the CAD universe to see if I can learn any new nuggets.

[shift1313]

Any time you throw a lot of features like perforated sheets, mesh, expanded steel and so on, they really hog memory resources so unless there is a very good reason to do so, applying a material to the face of a solid(or surface) is the way to go. This is the same reason we dont typically model threads in holes or on bolts unless you need to render a bolt. The extra feature really drag a model down and make the file size huge!

[archteryx]

Matt, I have been loathe to begin using materials because I was getting a suitable image by manipulating face colors, and visual styles (and am familiar enough with these). Is it true that materials are not visible until I render? It seems that once I begin to use materials, I am committed, and so I need to apply materials to all surfaces... correct ?

[MikeScott]

Run the render once, and see what it looks like. You aren't going to hurt anything.

 

There is a default surface called "Global" that will make the non-materialed surfaces look a bit like smooth plastic in the color they're shown in. you can modify the properties of "global" though to adjust it as you like.

 

You CAN change the visual display style in options to permit you to see the materials on the parts without rendering.. I don't know the option menu system for 2009 but it should be in there under a button (something like "advanced") next to the display driver. Just turn on the "render" button that's in there, and it'll show it to you in your shaded views.

[JD Mather]

...Is it true that materials are not visible until I render? It seems that once I begin to use materials, I am committed, and so I need to apply materials to all surfaces... correct ?

 

 

No, there is a setting to have materials visable without rendering (but at a lower quality than rendered). And No, you do not have to use materials on all faces.

[archteryx]

I'm struggling with getting a suitably high resolution in plotted PDFs... I've tried to increase the settings in the "Dwg to PDF", and the "Acrobat" emulations, but still get poor results (and HUGE files). ANy advice would be appreciated