MANUAL FOR PART AND ASEEMBLY DRAWING USING

Pro-E SOFTWARE
Contents
1 About the Pro/Engineer Wildfire 2.0 manual
1.1 What is ro/ENGINEER..............................................................................................
1.2 About this manual.....................................................................................................

2 Introduction to Pro/E WILDFIRE........................................................................................

2.1 Starting Pro/E.............................................................................................................
2.2 Mouse Functions......................................................................................................
2.3 Begin to work in Pro/E..............................................................................................
3 Modeling a Complete Part...................................................................................................

3.1 Complete the Housing top........................................................................................

3.2 Build another extrusion: cylinder bracket
3.3 Build another extrusion: caliper bracket...................................................................
3.4 Create a cylinder........................................................................................................
3.5 Create the hole..........................................................................................................
3.6 Create the two chamfers............................................................................................
3.7 Create the rounds.......................................................................................................
3.8 Create the two slides.................................................................................................
3.9 Clean your directory..................................................................................................
4 Creating a 2-D Engineering Drawing...................................................................................

4.1 Insert views................................................................................................................

4.2 Add dimensions.........................................................................................................
4.3 Other Useful Features...............................................................................................

5 Creating the Disk-Brake Assembly.......................................................................................

5.1 Six Common Assembly Constraints ......................................................................................... …
5.2 Build the disc-brake assembly .................................................................................................... …
5.3 Add Color and Create an Exploded View ................................................................................ ….
5.4 Create a Cutout View ..................................................................................................................... ….

6 Automated CNC Tool Path and G-Code Generation for Volume milling……………
6.1 Procedures 1
6.2 Procedures 2

8 Automated CNC Tool Path and G-Code Generation for surface Milling…… …………...

8.1 Procedures
9 Automated CNC Tool Path and G-Code Generation for turning………………………..

9.1 Procedures

1
 1 About the Pro/Engineer Wildfire manual

1.1 Introduction to include creating parts, assemblies and drawings in Pro/ENGINEER. If you
follow the complete series of procedures, you will learn how Pro/ENGINEER passes 3D design
information to and from every design stage, from solid part creation, to part assembly, to the
output of mechanical drawings.
These procedures also introduce basic techniques of using Pro/ENGINEER in each design phase.
Familiarity with all phases of Pro/E design will help you to understand solid modelling.

1.2 In this manual we take example of disk brake assembly from part drawing to assembly
drawing with thorough steps.

2
2 Introduction to Pro/E WILDFIRE
This section is intended to briefly explain the Pro/E User Interface and get you started with a
simple modeling task. The steps needed to start Pro/E and to generate a part model is discussed in
the following tutorials.

2.1 Starting Pro/E

To start Pro/E on a Windows machine, there may be an icon on your desktop or you may have to
look in the Start menu at the bottom left of the screen on the Windows taskbar. The program
takes a while to load, so be patient. The start-up is complete when your screen looks like the
following figure, which is a default Pro/E screen.

Figure 1 The default Pro/E Wildfire screen.

3
Now, look for the icon under your menu to start a new application. Press the icon; or you
may use the menu FILE > New. Either way, you should be able to launch the following window.

Figure 2 The pop-up window to start a new application.

You may type the name [housing] to replace the default name “prt0001”. In this section, we are
going to create the first feature of a part called “housing”, which is one of the components of a
disc brake assembly that we are going to create in the lab. The focus of this section, however, is
on the introduction of Pro/E environment rather than the modeling techniques. More modeling
techniques will be described in later sections.

After clicking the OK button, you should see the window shown in

Figure 3, which is pretty much self- explanatory. You are encouraged to move your mouse cursor
on top of each shortcut button and read the description from the command description window.
The filter setting selection is for the convenience of picking a feature on the main graphics
screen. The default (or the lazy way) is to leave it as Smart.

HINT: DO NOT resize or move the main or menu window. If you start messing with the window
size and placement, sooner or later you will bury a command menu behind other windows, then
suddenly the computer seems frozen and you are stuck there! So before becoming an expert,
you’d better let Pro/E do its own window management. This also tells you that if the computer
seems frozen, try to move the windows around to see if some menus are hidden waiting for your
mouse click.

4
 Top tool
Pull down chest
menus (shortcut
buttons)

Navigator
Controls
(Currently
shows the
Window
model tree) size Main Graphics Area
control

Right
tool chest
(Shortcut
buttons)
Prompt/Messag
e window Comman
d
descriptio Filter setting
for feature

Figure 3 A description of the Pro/E screen.

2.2 Mouse Functions

Before we start with the hard job (modeling), you should know about some tricks of the mouse.
Wildfire is meant to be used with a 3-button mouse. If it has a middle scroll, it is actually better
and you are lucky. If your mouse is a 2-button one, try to use the <shift> key plus the left mouse
button (LMB) simultaneously as an equivalent to the middle mouse button (MMB). If it doesn’t
work, talk to your system administrator.

Most selections of menu commands, shortcut buttons, and so on are performed by clicking the
left mouse button (LMB). In this tutorial, whenever you “select”, “click”, or “pick” a command
or entity, this is done with the LMB unless otherwise directed.

5
The functions controlling the view of the object in the graphics window are all associated with
the MMB. These are the important Spin, Pan, and Zoom functions. The following table
summarizes different uses of mouse buttons that can make your job easier and more fun. Note: if
you know previous versions of Pro/E, you will find the mouse functions are quite different! Learn
the new functions and don’t let your experience frustrate you.

Table 1 Common mouse functions in Pro/E Wildfire.

Function Operation Action

Selection (click left button) LMB Entity or command under
cursor selected
View Control (drag holding MMB Spin
middle button down)
<Shift>+MMB Pan

<Ctrl>+MMB Zoom
(drag vertical)
<Ctrl>+MMB Rotate around axis
(drag horizontal) perpendicular to screen
Roll MMB scroll wheel (if Zoom
available)
Pop-up Menu (click right RMB with cursor over blank Launch context-sensitive
button) graphics window pop-up menus

HINT: If you mouse seems “dead”, and so are the menus and toolbars, check the message
window; Pro/E is probably waiting for you to answer its prompts.

How to Get On-line Help

Oops, there is one more thing to say. As any tutorial may not cover everything and some of the
problems in the lab are very creative, both you and your TA/tutor will sometimes need to get the
online-help. The Help function gets more important as you work on your own assignments and
projects. OK, there are several ways to do this.
‰ Choose Help > Help Center to launch a browser, which lists many help items, including
tutorials and step-by-step description of all the commands.
‰ Click the Context Sensitive Help button towards the right end of the top toolbar. Its
equivalent is Help > What is this? Then click on any command or dialog window. (Can you
find the button? If not, you didn’t browse through the buttons. Please use your mouse cursor
to go through those top toolbar buttons and read their description in the message window.)
‰ If your problem gets very tricky, you might need to register on-line at www.ptc.com as a user
and get help from the knowledge base created by the Pro/E user group. Before you go
through this route, talk to your TA as he/she may know the answer to your problem.

6
 2.3 Begin to work in Pro/E
Now back to Figure 3 where we left off. The left side of the main window shows the model tree of the
empty part “housing”.

The main graphics windows shows three orthogonal planes, named TOP, FRONT and RIGHT,
and a coordinate system. These planes are called datum planes, representing the 3-D world.
These planes are very useful as reference planes when creating features and assembling
components. Their advantages are not obvious when modeling simple parts, and in fact new users
find these planes annoying. Whatever you feel now, my advice is to get yourself used to these
“annoying” planes.

1) Prepare for sketching

Click the Extrusion button as shown in Figure 4.

Extrusion
1.1.1.1.1.
Sweep

Blend
Style

Figure 4 The Sketched Features toolbar.

Then you will see
Figure 5 at the bottom of the main window.
Figure 5 only explains the buttons that will be referred to in the tutorial. You should exercise
moving the mouse cursor again to each button and read the description in the message window to
find out about other buttons.

Add or
Extrude as Preview
solid or Extrusion Extrusion cut Cancel
surface depth direction material Accept

Figure 5 Extrusion dialog window.

7
Click the Placement button as shown in
Figure 5, then click Define. A pop-up window will show up as Figure 6.

Figure 6 Sketch view set-up window.

Now go to the main graphics window, click the FRONT plane either on the word “FRONT” or
any side of the plane. You will see the first blank in Figure 6 is filled with FRONT (ignore the
words after FRONT; the same applies for other blanks in this window). This plane is chosen as
your paper that you can sketch on. Image you are drawing a picture. After picking the paper, you
have to place the paper in the right orientation so that you are either in a portrait or landscape
view. That is why there is a reference plane as shown in the second blank in Figure 6. In this
case, Pro/E should automatically fill in RIGHT, which means the RIGHT datum plane is chosen
as the reference plane and it faces the right of your paper, which is filled in the third blank in the
figure. Now, click Sketch button and you will be brought to a new window environment.

The Pop-up window named References appears and lists RIGHT and TOP datum planes as
references. In the mean time, the two planes are shown in the main graphics window as two
perpendicular lines and two brown infinite dotted lines override them. These two references are
used as references for dimensions. As you may appreciate, no matter what you draw on the paper,
you have to know the relative position of your drawing on the paper. This seems very obvious in
a real drawing because human beings do all these things intuitively. But computer needs you to
specify these. Of course, one may deliberately select a particular reference plane. As a starter, we
just accept the default choice and simply click Close on the window.

2) Sketch the geometry

For the sketch, you pretty much work with two groups of buttons. The first group is to control
the views of sketch, as shown in Figure 7. The second group is the sketch toolbar buttons, shown
in Figure 9.

8
 Vertices On/Off
Orient to Grid On/Off
2D Constraints On/Off
sketcher
Dimensions On/Off
view
Figure 7 Control buttons for sketch views.

The view control buttons can help you set the proper view, clean the view, assist sketching, etc. I
found the first button is very useful as I had the habit of using scroll ball to spin the geometry. So
the first button can always bring me back to the paper (the sketch view). The Grid On/Off is
often used as the grid can help the sketch. Now click on the button to turn the grid on. You
should see Figure 8.

The second group of buttons shown in Figure 9 allows you draw different features. Some of these
commands are very obvious, e.g., creating lines, circles, etc. Some are not. These commands may
be explained later in this tutorial.

ƒ Draw the profile

HINT (Sketch tips):
a) Keep sketches simple; try NOT to include rounds, chamfers, etc. in your sketch. This
makes the final model flexible and helps regeneration.
b) Do not sketch to scale
- Firstly, concentrate on getting your geometry straight by sketching large -
Secondly, resolve the sketch by modifying dimensions
c) Use the grid as an aid
- Create lines of equal length, parallel, or perpendicular -
Align sketched entities
Now click the right arrow beside the Create Arc button, as shown in Figure 9, choose the button
with the description “Create an arc by picking its center and end points”. Then click your
cursor on the bottom side of the vertical reference (the dotted line) as the center point, then click
the left side of the horizontal reference, and finish with the click on the upper part of the vertical
reference. NOW CLICK THE MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON TO GET YOURSELF OUT OF
THE CURRENT DRAWING MODE. The MMB is used for canceling the current drawing mode
for other commands as well. You should have drawn an arc. Don’t worry about the dimensions;
just get the shape right at first.

Repeat the same step by clicking on the same center point but with different endpoints. The two
endpoints should right above the end points of the first arc, respectively. You should have a
concentric arc similar to the first one.

9
Draw two lines to connect the respective endpoints. You should have an enclosed profile with
two concentric arcs and two vertical lines. The graphics window should look like that in Figure
10 (don’t worry about the dimensions!).

Figure 8 The sketch plane with grid on.

1) Re-dimension the geometry

In Figure 10, there are some gray dimensions. If you don’t see these, click on the Dimension
On/Off button, as shown in Figure 7. These dimensions are automatically added by Pro/E. Now,
re-dimension the geometry and modify these dimensions to your desired ones.

Click on the Dimension button on your right toolbar as shown in Figure 9. We will specify two
dimensions; one is the total horizontal length and the other is the height of the left vertical line.
Click the two vertical lines using your LMB, and move your cursor to the middle of the two lines
and click the MMB. You should see a horizontal dimension, indicating the length of the profile.
Then click on the left vertical line using LMB, then click the MMB to place the second
dimension.

Click on the Modify Dimension right below the Dimension button. Pick the horizontal
dimension; you will then see a pop-up window. Deselect Regenerate; enter the value [45]. Then
click the line length dimension, enter [10]. Pick the gray radius dimension for the arc, enter [210].

10
Then click the check mark button. The geometry will be regenerated with new dimensions, as
shown in Figure 11. The message window will show “Dimension modifications successfully
completed.”

Select Create Datum Plane

Create Lines
Create Datum Axis
Create Rectangle
Create Datum Curve
Create Circle
Sketched Curve
Create Arc
Create Datum Point
Create Fillet
Create Coord System
Create Splines
Analysis Features
Create Point/Sys
Use Edge/Offset
Dimension
Modify Dimension
Constraints
Create Text

Trim
Mirror
Accept
Quit

Figure 9 The sketch and datum toolbar.

Now, you can select the Accept button shown in Figure 9. The geometry turns pale yellow. Back
to the buttons shown in

Figure 5, from the Extrusion depth control button, pick the alternative “Extrude on both sides”,
then enter [31] in the blank besides the button. You then click the Preview button to see the
geometry. Remember to practice your mouse functions to spin the geometry around! If
everything is fine, you can then click the Accept button. And yeah, you are done! The final
screen output should look like Figure 12. Though the geometry seems very simple, you should be
very proud of yourself because you have just learnt to….
‰ Understand tricky datum plane conventions
‰ Understand the significance of references planes and the sketcher, which is sometimes

11
 difficult for new Pro/E users
‰ Understand the parametric basis of Pro/E, i.e., the dimension drives the geometry change, and
‰ Create an extrusion, which is the most popular command in Pro/E.

Figure 10 The profile.

Figure 11 The modified dimensions of the profile.

Figure 12 The first feature of the part Housing.

OK, you seem to be getting impatient. Well, fine, I may be very verbose when explaining the first
feature. After that, this tutorial will become sketchy and sloppy. Please be patient with me

12
since the first is always the hardest, and you won’t be able to enjoy this detailed information
before long. Also if you want save time at the beginning, you might end up spending more later.

3) Redefine the feature

In case you messed up the part and cannot get the one shown in Figure 12. Don’t panic. Click the
Extrude 1 feature (or even the sketch feature under this extrusion feature) in your Model tree
window using the RMB. You will then see a bunch of commands including Edit, Edit
Definition, etc. The Edit command allows you modify dimensions in 3D mode and the Edit
Definition command brings you back to the sketch and the extrusion definition environment.
You can then correct the steps that have been messed up with and follow the instructions in this
section to get it right. Another way to modify a dimension is to double click a feature in the main
graphics window; all the dimensions relevant to the feature will show up. You can double click
the dimension you want to modify and enter a new number. Then click the Regenerates Model
button (To use this function, make sure the Filter Setting at the right bottom corner of the window
is turned to Features.).

4) Save, view, and print the model

Pro/E, unlike other Windows applications, does not automatically save your work. You have to
remember to do that. If you leave the program without saving your new work, it is basically
gone! Anyone who says that they have never lost work this way is probably lying! Click FILE>
Set Working Directory to change the default directory to a subdirectory under your home
C:\25.353\start directory. By doing this, you can keep the default Pro/E directory tidy and avoid
someone else accidentally deleting your file.

HINT: Save your model frequently to avoid loss of work.

Now, you should play with the buttons in the top tool chest.

Files Actions Model Display Datum Help

Group

Figure 13 Groups in the top tool chest.

As shown in Figure 13, these buttons can be grouped to five groups. Buttons such as
Regenerates Model, Redraw the current view, and Refit object to fully display are commonly
used ones. Can you find them? Please note these toolbar buttons will change, depending which
mode you are in. Examples of different modes are part modeling model, drawing mode, assembly
mode, sketch mode, etc.

You can use FILE > Print to print your model, or FILE > Save a Copy to print it as a picture or

13
formats readable by other CAD tools. Or, you could simply use the <Print Scrn> key on your
keyboard and then use Microsoft Paint to convert it into a picture file.

3 Modeling a Complete Part

OK, assuming you

‰ Have familiarized yourself with the Pro/E environment and you did either view and/or try
all the buttons, icons, etc.
‰ have built the first feature alright, and
‰ can build the first feature again without reading the tutorial

If the answers to all the above are YES, then move on. Otherwise, go back to the previous section
until the answers are YES. Because the rest of tutorial will be sketchy and, maybe, sloppy. You
will be very frustrated if you didn’t do the first section well.

The part, housing, that we are going to build is shown below:

Cylinder Bracket

Cylinder Round Caliper Bracket

Housing Top

Slider
(both sides) Chamfer (both sides)

Figure 14 An illustration of the housing part.

This tutorial will guide you in modeling, one-by-one, the different features shown in Figure 14.

14
3.1 Complete the Housing top

In the last section, you have modeled only a half of the housing top. Please open this part called
housing. Its file name suffix is “.prt”, which indicates that it is a part model.

We are going to model the other half of the feature by performing a command called “mirror”.
The logic of the action is 1) pick the feature to be mirrored, and 2) pick the “mirror”.

Choose EDIT > Feature Operations. Pick Copy from the pop-up Menu Manager FEAT
window. Click Mirror / Select / Dependent /Done. Pick the feature in the main graphics
window, then Done. Then you see a pop-up window called SETUP PLANE window. You pick
the RIGHT datum plane in the main graphics window. The complete housing top should be
completed, as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15 The housing top feature.

3.2 Build another extrusion: cylinder bracket

Prepare for sketch

Since it is another extrusion feature, please review the steps talked in detail in the previous
section. Let’s review it.

Choose the extrusion icon in your right tool chest. Click the “Create a section or redefine the
existing section” icon in your bottom left tool chest. Now, pick the long side plane of your
housing top as the sketch plan; accept the default reference plane (is it RIGHT plane? It should
be).

Draw a sketched section

Click the “Create an arc by 3 points” button . Locate the two endpoints in a horizontal line
below the horizontal dotted-line (turn on the Grids to help you position the endpoints). Locate the
center at the vertical dotted-line below the two endpoints.

15
Use the same button to draw another arc tangent to the arc and the horizontal reference line at the
left side. You may find that the arc is not shown tangent to the horizontal reference line ( if they
are tangent, there should be a small symbol “T” close to the tangent point). Click the icon,
then pick the . Select the new arc and the horizontal line. The small “T” should show up.
This means the two entities are now tangent. Then dimension the two arcs as shown in Figure 16.

Draw a line to connect the tangent point with the left bottom point of the housing top feature.

In this exercise, we are going to practice using the “mirror” tool in sketch mode. First you should
sketch a centreline which represents the “mirror” plane. Find and click the “Create 2 point
centreline” button and draw a line coinciding with the vertical dotted-line (remember what is
this?).

Pick the new arc and the line (hold the <ctrl> key for multiple selections). Then click the mirror
icon . These two entities should be copied to the right hand side.

Now, click the button, and then pick the top curve of the housing top feature. You should see
this curve turns yellow. Continue to pick the two sides of the housing top feature. Close the pop-
up Type window. By now, you should have a closed sketch section. Dimension the section as
shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16 The complete sketch section for the cylinder bracket.

Click the “Accept” button to finish the sketch. Then go the toolbar shown in
Figure 5, enter the extrusion depth [10]. Practice using the “Preview” button to preview the
extrusion before accepting it; so you can correct any mistakes. Also play with the “Extrusion

16
direction button” and the “Add or cut material” button, and use the “Preview” button to get a feel
what happens. If the preview looks fine, then click the Accept button.
The final model should look like

Figure 17 The housing top and the cylinder bracket.

3.3 Build another extrusion: caliper bracket

Now we repeat the same process to build another extrusion. Get ready for sketch. This time, pick
the other side of the housing top surface as your “paper” (sketch plane). Remember to create a
mirror centerline during Step 4.
Step 1. Click the button
and pick the top curve

Step 6: Modify
dimensions

Step 5: Draw the circle

Step 2:
Draw the Step 4:
three lines Mirror the
(the 2 short three lines
lines are of on the left
the same
length)

Step 3: Draw the centerline for mirroring

Figure 18 Steps for creating the caliper bracket sketch.

17
The steps in creating the sketch of the caliper bracket are shown in Figure 18. The extrusion
depth is [10].

The model so far should look like Figure 19.

Figure 19 The housing top with the two brackets.

3.4 Create a cylinder

The cylinder is another extrusion created from the surface of the cylinder bracket extrusion. Too
many extrusions, right? It is true that the extrusion tool is probably the most popular command.
Get bored with my explanation on creating an extrusion? Fine, I will leave this to you to figure
out (The diameter is 45 and depth is 25.)

Figure 20 Dimensions of the cylinder.

HINT: Use the “Create concentric circle button” and pick the big circle on the cylinder bracket

18
to create the sketch section.

3.5 Create the hole

Now, you will do something different and have some fun. Click the button. Then pick the
axis of the cylinder that you have recently created (of course, you have to turn on the “Datum
Axis On/Off” button). You should now see a hole in pale yellow. Wait, you need another
reference to fully constraint the hole. Click the Placement button on your bottom left tool bar.
Click the Secondary References blank, and then pick the starting surface of the hole, which is
the other side of the cylinder bracket. Double click the dimensions, enter [30] for the diameter
and [25] for the depth. You are done! Please refer to Figure 14 to see the hole.

This is in fact the so-called featured-based modeling. Fancy name, eh? It simply means that Pro/E
allows you drag and play some simple features such as holes and chamfers to the model without
getting into the datum planes  sketch  defining cycle, as in the extrusion definition.

3.6 Create the two chamfers

Since we are in the feature-based modeling mood, let’s finish the chamfers and rounds before
modeling the last two slides. Referring to Figure 14, we are to create the two chamfers on the
caliper bracket.

Click the Chamfer Tool button , a dialog window will appear at the left bottom window.

Figure 21 Dialog window for chamfering.

Pick the line on the caliper bracket to be chamfered. Choose the options and enter data as shown
in
Figure 21. Note that the dimensions D1 and D2 might be interpreted differently by Pro/E than
what you want. In this case, you’d change the value of D1 to [10] and the value of D2 to [3].

Repeat the same steps for the chamfer on the other side of the caliper bracket.

3.7 Create the rounds

There are in total 8 rounds to be created, namely, the four sides of the top surface of the housing,
the intersection curves formed by the two brackets with the housing feature, the outer edge of the
cylinder, and the intersection between the cylinder and the cylinder bracket.

19
Click the Round Tool button , enter the round radius [2] in the dialog window at the left
bottom window. Then pick the eight curves. These rounds should be created accordingly. Refer
to Figure 14 for illustration.

3.8 Create the two slides

Referring to Figure 14, the two slides, located at the two short sides of the “housing top” feature,
are for assembling, which will be discussed later in the Assembling section.

Use the FRONT plane as the sketch plan. You will see that the FRONT datum plane is exactly in
the middle. What a coincidence! (is it really a coincidence?) The section, an equilateral triangle,
is shown below in Figure 22. The extrusion depth is [18].

Figure 22 The sketch section of the slider.

Once the slide on one side is done. Use EDIT > Feature Operations. In the FEAT window,
choose Copy > Mirror / Select / Dependent / Done. Pick the slider for mirroring. Then pick the
RIGHT datum plane. The slider should be mirrored to the other side.

Congratulations!!! You’ve just finished your first complete part. Remember one thing: save your
work.

20
3.9 Clean your directory

One more thing before you complete this section. Every time you save your work, Pro/E creates a
separate file, be it a part, drawing etc. That is to say, if you saved your housing.prt 10 times
during the modeling process, Pro/E should have created 10 files for you namely, housing.prt.1,
housing.prt.2, … housing.prt.10. This does have its advantage in version control. But you will
find the files soon piling up. Therefore, at the end of your working session, you’d delete old
versions of your files by clicking FILE > Delete > Old Versions.

In summary, you have learnt how to:

‰ Build features on existing features
‰ Use more advanced sketching skills such as mirror, constraints, use prev, etc.
‰ Use feature-based modeling tools such as hole, chamfer, and round
‰ Mirror a feature

Now, you should start from scratch, put aside the tutorial, and challenge yourself to see if you can
build the part on your own. If you can do that, you are almost an expert on part modeling and you
are ready to build the other components of the disc brake assembly (ask your instructor/TA/tutor
about the other components). In the next section we will discuss how to generate a detailed
engineering drawing for the housing part.

21
4 Creating a 2-D Engineering Drawing

In this section, we will turn the 3-D solid model of the component housing into a conventional 2-
D engineering drawing.

Choose FILE > New, then select the radio button next to Drawing in the window. Enter the
name [housing]. Uncheck the Use default template button.

Figure 23 Creating a new drawing window.

Figure 24 Drawing set-up window.

22
A dialog window will pop -up, shown in Figure 24. Pro/E automatically brings up the part model,
as long as the filename is the same. The drawing file suffix is “.drw”, a part file suffix is “.prt”,
and an assembly file suffix is “.asm”. Accept all the default settings in this window. Then you
will face a black box for drawing. The size setting default should probably be changed to either
A4 or A3 depending on the drawing requirements.

4.1 Insert views

Click the “Insert a drawing view” button (or use the menu Insert > Drawing View >
General). You will see in the message window “Select CENTER POINT for drawing view.”
Click in the main graphics window to locate your first view (at the bottom left quadrant of the
box). You will then see a dialog window as shown below:

Figure 25 Dialog window for view control in the drawing mode.

In the dialog window, select FRONT as shown in Figure 25. Then click OK. You can double
click the view to change the scale. You will then see the dialog window again. Select Scale in the
left column, and enter the value [0.065] in the Custom scale blank. You should see a defined
front view of the housing.

Use the menu Insert > Drawing View > Projection. Then click at a location right above the first
view. You will see the top view is generated. Repeat the last step to create the right view of the
model. (Hint: This time you need to click the front view first to specify from which view the
projection is created.)

23
You will see now your views are pretty messy with many lines and datum features. You could
press all the datum view buttons and then the Redraw button to clean the drawing a little bit.

Then Click TOOLS > Environment. In the last blank of the pop-up window, choose No Display
for Tangent Edges. After performing a Redraw, all the tangent edges for rounds are cleaned up.
The views look much better.

Last, we need to add an isometric view. This is done by clicking the again. Click the upper
right quadrant for location. Since the default view of the model hides a lot of the features, the
model has to be re-oriented for a better view. Please refer to Error! Reference source not
found. to select Angles from the view orientation section. In the Rotation Reference blank, pick
Horizontal, and enter [180] degree in the Angle value blank.

Click Apply in the Orientation window, you should be able to see the isometric view. Change the
scale to [0.065] in the same way as you did before on the front view. Then press the OK button.

Deselect the button, you can select a view, press hold, and drag it to a desired location (using
the LMB of course and following the exact action sequence please). You will notice that you
cannot drag the views freely as they are inter-connected to satisfy their interrelationships.

The drawing at the current stage should look like that in Figure 26.

24
 Figure 26 The drawing of Housing after the Inserting Views step.

4.2 Add dimensions

Click the button. You’ll see a window as shown in Figure 27. Pick the options as shown in
the figure, and click any view in the main graphics window to select the part. You will see many
dimensions shown on the drawing.
Click the dimension cleaning up button . Click and hold the LMB in the main graphics
window to draw a virtual box to select all the dimensions shown on your drawing (finish the box
by another LMB click). In the pop- up window, accept all the default settings and values about
the spacing between dimensions (By the way, they are standards). Press Apply and Close button
to close the window.

Now, as an engineer, you might find some of the default dimensions (which are created at the
part modeling stage) are not appropriate. You might want to erase some of the dimensions and

add some new dimensions. To do that, you have to use the button and the Add new
dimension button for each detailed feature and dimension. You can also click each
dimension using the LMB, then press the RMB, you will see a menu shown in Figure 28 which
allows you move one dimension to another view (just choose the dimension and click the view of

25
destination), flip arrows, move the dimension text, etc. You will find it is very useful.
Nevertheless, this dimension clean-up process is a little boring, but what can you do?

HINT: You should be careful when using the button after you have cleaned up the
dimensions. You might accidentally bring up all the erased dimensions up again to the views. The
bad news is that you would not be able to Undo it. That means that you have to re-erase these
dimensions one-by-one.

Figure 27 The show/erase dimension window.

Figure 28 Right mouse button menu allows many detailed actions.

HINT: You might notice that the dimensions that you add to the drawing can be deleted but the
dimensions shown automatically at the beginning can only be erased. Why? Because the

26
dimensions automatically shown are the ones you used to create the part model, which are called
driving dimensions. Driving dimensions can be modified to change the part model, but cannot be
deleted unless you redefine the part model. The dimensions that you add to the drawing are for
the ease of understanding and are not driving dimensions. Thus they can be deleted.

4.3 Other Useful Features

Insert a Note

For all the small rounds, you can erase all the dimensions. Instead, you enter a note to the
drawing. Choose INSERT > Note, select No Leader / Enter / Horizontal / Standard / Default
/ Make Note. After picking a point where to locate the notes, in the prompt window, enter [Small
rounds are R2.00.] and press the enter key again to finish. Then click Done/Return.

Show Centerlines

If centerlines of circular features are not shown, you can press the button, pick the Axis
button to show and pick the three orthogonal views. If you see labels of the centerlines, deselect
the Datum axis on/off button in the top tool chest.

Erase Snap Lines

The snap lines (dotted lines generated automatically when you show dimensions) are shown on
the drawing. They will not be printed out when you create hard copies. However, if they bother
you, click TOOLS > Environment, deselect the Snap Lines button in the Display window.
Then click Repaint button. Those snap lines will disappear.

Modify Display

You could double click a view. You will see a VIEW MODIFY window. Click View Disp, then
choose Hidden Line / No Qlt HLR / No Disp Tan / Drawing Color / Done. You can change
the display of a view to the Hidden Line format, no matter what is the setting in the top toolbar.

HINT: The default view display (hidden line, wireframe, etc.) of the drawing is determined by the
view display of the part in the model window. Once you used the view modify window to change a
view’s display as illustrated above, these display settings will become fixed and will not be
affected by the top toolbar buttons.

HINT: Press and hold <Ctrl> key and you can click multiple views. So you can change their
display settings all at once.

27
Change the Drawing Configuration

Pro/E defines many configurations such as arrow width, arrow length, etc. By changing those
configurations, you can have more freedom in creating your drawing.

Now right click and hold RMB in the open space of the main graphics window (not one of the
views). Select Properties, then Drawing Options. You will see a list of options. Choose Sort >
Alphabetical, find the following parameters and change their settings to the values shown in
Table 2.

Table 2 New values for the selected parameters.

Parameters Values
drawing_text_height 0.1
draw_arrow_style FILLED
draw_arrow_width 0.06
draw_arrow_length 0.16
tol_display YES

After the setting change, you will see the arrows and texts are changed.

Display Tolerance

Just for exercise, you can now click the inner circle of the cylinder. Go to its Properties. Choose
the options as shown in Figure 29.

Figure 29 The dialog window for tolerance setting.

You should see the tolerance of the dimension showing up.

The final drawing looks like the one shown in Figure 30. Please note the scale has been modified.
The display of dimensions are also modified a bit to allow zero decimal points except the
diameter for the hole. You should be able to do all these now, right?

28
 Figure 30 The drawing of the component Housing.

In summary, in this section, you should have learnt about:

‰ Inserting different views to the drawing
‰ Showing dimensions and adding new dimensions
‰ Cleaning-up dimensions by moving its position, switching views, erasing, etc.
‰ Inserting a note
‰ Modifying the model display
‰ Modifying drawing configuration
‰ Showing tolerances
‰ Showing centerlines

Now, put aside the tutorial and try to generate a drawing for Housing all from scratch. Repeat
until you know how to do it all by yourself.

29
5 Creating the Disk-Brake Assembly
Creating an assembly is a fun task. Your main challenge will be display management as the
screen gets messy with many features shown. However, you will not appreciate that until you get
into your project.

To actually assemble components, we specify assembly constraints. As we know that the

geometric relationship between any two parts has six degrees of freedom (DOF). To assembly
two components is equivalent to constrain all 6 DOF’s between the two. There are six types of
common constraints that you should know. The rest should be easy to figure out on your own.
Remember that the constraints must be used in combination in order to fully constrain the 6
DOF’s.

5.1 Six Common Assembly Constraints

MATE (or MATE COINCIDENT)

Two planar surfaces or datums become coplanar and face in opposite directions.

Figure 31 The MATE constraint [1].

MATE OFFSET

Two planar surfaces or datums are made parallel, with a specified offset distance, and face in
opposite directions. The offset dimension can be negative.

Figure 32 The MATE OFFSET constraint [1].

ALIGN (or ALIGN CONINCIDENT)

This can be applied to planar surfaces, datums, revolved surfaces and axes. Planar surfaces
become coplanar and face in the same direction.

30
 Figure 33 The ALIGN constraint with planar surfaces [1].

ALIGN OFFSET
This can be done only with planar surfaces: they become parallel with a specified offset and face
the same direction.

Figure 34 The ALIGN OFFSET constraint [1].

ALIGN OREINT
Two planar surfaces or datums are made parallel and face the same direction (similar to Align
Offset except without the specified offset distance).

Figure 35 The ALIGN ORIENT constraint.

INSERT
This constraint can only be used with two surfaces of revolution in order to make them coaxial.

Figure 36 The INSERT constraint.

As you might already notice, for certain geometries and constraints, you could have more than
one choices from the 6 basic types. For example, ALIGN can be used to make two axes coaxial,
equivalent to INSERT, and so on.

Having understood the basic assembly constraints. Let’s assemble the disc brake.

31
5.2 Build the disc-brake assembly

Use FILE > New, or click the button to launch an Assembly application. Name it
[DiscBrake], and uncheck the Use default template button. In the New File Options dialog
window, choose Empty.

You should see an empty main graphics window with a few active buttons (comparatively). Click
the Add Component button to place the first component, which is the Housing part we
created before.
Assemble the disc pad on the caliper side

Click the button again to assemble. Choose the disc_pad.prt from the directory (if you
cannot find them, that means that you have not created them yet. If you prefer, you could ask
your TA/tutor for those components.)

HINT: If you could not see the disc pad part on the screen, oops, you probably used a different
unit system for the two parts. Open each part. For each part and the assembly to be created,
choose EDIT > Setup. In the menu window, click Units. Make sure all the parts have the same
unit system. If not, you can set them to be the same. When you do that, there are two options. You
can either maintain the actual size so that all the dimensions will be translated to new numbers
(the first radio button), or you can maintain the dimension numbers so that the size will either
shrink or enlarge (the second radio button).

The first two buttons at the top of the window shown in Figure 37 allow you either put the two
components in the same window or in two separate windows.

HINT: If you want to assembly components as a mechanism, you’d have to assemble them within
the same window. This seems unreasonable but…we have to live with it.

Continuing to refer to Figure 37, in the Constraints section, choose Mate. Then pick the inner
side surface of the caliper bracket and the outer surface of the disc pad. Then pick Align, pick the
small bottom surface of the caliper bracket and the bottom surface of the disc pad. The default
Offset blank is Coincident. Click it and choose 0.0. Change it to number [2]. You should now
see the dialog window as shown in Figure 37. Down in the Placement Status section, the message
says “Partially Constrained”. It indicates more constraints are to be added. The Reference
section tells the user what are the features being picked for constraints. When you click any
constraint in the Constraints section, the features being picked will be highlighted in the main
graphics window. You can also add or delete a constraint by using the Plus or Minus sign button
in the middle of the window. The window shown in Figure 37 is the one that you have to use
again and again for assembling each component.

32
 Figure 37 The main dialog window for assembly.
Please refer to Figure 42 for the third constraint to complete assembling this component.

3. Align the two 1. Mate the two

side surfaces big surfaces

2. Align Offset
the two bottom
surfaces by 2.00

Figure 38 An illustration of assembling the first disc pad.

33
Having understood the first one, the rest assembling becomes easy. So the tutorial will only give
you some guidelines and leave the details to you. Are you ready?

Assemble the piston

Click and select piston.prt.

1. Use the Insert constraint and pick the outer surface of the piston and the inner surface of
the hole in the part housing.
2. Use Align, pick the top surface (the open end) of the piston and the inner surface of
the cylinder bracket of housing. Key in the offset number [2.0].

Assemble the pad housing

Click and select pad_housing.prt. The assembly sequence is illustrated by Figure 39 (refer
to Figure 40).

HINT: The sequence of constraints does matter. The tip is to bring the two components in the
same window. After one constraint is specified, the component will move its relative position. A
good sequence of constraints should bring the component closer (conceptually, not necessarily
physically) to its final position after a constraint is added.

HINT: Turn on the datum plane display to view and select the datum planes.

3. Mate the sliders 1. Mate the surface with the top

surface of the piston

2. Align the two RIGHT

datum planes

Figure 39 The procedure for assembling the pad housing.

34
Assemble the other disc pad

Procedure:
1) Mate the outer surface of the disc pad with the corresponding surface of the pad housing.
2) Align the RIGHT datum plane of the disc pad with that of the housing.
3) Align the bottom surface of the disc pad with that of the existing disc pad.

The final assembly show look like the following:

Pad Housing Disc Pads

Housing

Piston
Figure 40 The disc-brake assembly.

5.3 Add Color and Create an Exploded View

Alright, since you have done the assembly, one common thing that engineers like to do is to add
colors to different parts, though they are often not good at colors. You may see mine in the
electronic version. Hopefully, there is at least one person who finds it pleasant.

Click VIEW > Color and Appearance. The rest should be straightforward. I will leave those to
you.

An exploded view is useful when you create an assembly drawing. To create an exploded view,
click VIEW > Explode > Explode View. The default exploded view will show, which often
does not make sense. Then you should use VIEW > Explode > Edit Position to adjust the
relative positions of the components. In the dialog window, you are asked to pick the motion
reference, which is like a guide for your moving. Play with it until you get the position you like.

Figure 41 shows my exploded view and the colors assigned to the components.

35
 Figure 41 The exploded view of the disc brake assembly with colored components.

5.4 Create a Cutout View

You might notice that there are some modeling tools such as extrusion in the right tool bar. These
tools allow you create assembly features on the spot. One example is that we can create a cutout
view by creating a cut feature in the assembly.

HINT: To do that, you just need to create one Extrusion feature. The sketch section is just a line
coinciding with one of the datum planes in the middle. The cut depth should be set to “Extrude to
intersect with all surfaces”.

Figure 42 The cutout view of the disc brake assembly.

36
In summary, you have learnt:
‰ basic assembly constraints
‰ assembling components by assembly constraints
‰ adding colors to components
‰ creating an exploded view
‰ creating a cutout view

37
 6 Automated CNC Tool Path and G-Code
Generation for Volume Milling
Objectives
A. To create a solid part
B. To create work piece
C. To perform the machining operation setup
D. To define the machining operation
E. To View tool path simulation and cutter location file

6.1 Procedures

F. Produce the part model. The part consists of two features, together forming a block (4” x
8” x 1.5”) with raised letters “CAM” as shown in Figure 1.10.

1) Start the Pro/E program. Windows menu items, Start → Programs → PTC25 → Pro
ENGINEER→ Click on the icon Pro ENGINEER.
2) Set working directory. File → Set Working Directory, select working directory.
3) Create the part name. Pro/E main menu, File → New, select Part in the New window,
enter part name: CAM.
4) Start of the part. The part contains some features already. The main graphics area
shows 3 datum planes and a coordinate system as shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 Start of the Part

5) Create a 4” x 8” x 1.5” rectangular block as shown in Figure 1.8.
• Choose INSERT → EXTRUDE from the menu. You should see a new toolbar

38
 called dashboard appear as shown in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2 The Dashboard

• Click on the placement on the extrude dashboard (Figure 1.3) and select define.
The sketch dialog window appears as shown in Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.3 The Extrude Dashboard Figure 1.4 Sketch dialog

Choose the datum place FRONT by clicking on it in the graphics window. Accept
the default on the sketch dialog window and just click on the Sketch button.
References sub-window pop up as shown in Figure 1.5 and click close to start
sketch.

Figure 1.5 References dialog Figure 1.6 The Sketcher toolbar

• Choose Create Rectangle icon on Sketcher Toolbar (Figure 1.6) to sketch a

rectangle for extrusion in plane FRONT by clicking on the bottom-right and top-
left corners of the rectangle in the drawing windows. Click middle mouse to

39
 finish drawing the rectangle.
• Modify the dimensions to 4 x 8 by double clicking on the dimensions on the
rectangle. To end sketching choose Accept icon on Sketcher Toolbar (Figure 1.6)
and click OK in the Section dialog.
• Extrude the rectangle to form the solid block. Enter depth value as 1.5 into the
depth field of the extrude dashboard (Figure 1.3) and click the Accept tick to
finish (Figure 1.7).
• View the rectangular block as shown in Figure 1.8. View → Orientation →
Standard Orientation.

Figure 1.7 Dashboard controls

Figure 1.8 Block

6) Create 2” x 6” x 0.5” letters “CAM” on top of the block as shown in Figure 1.10.
• INSERT → EXTRUDE from the menu. The dashboard appears as shown in
Figure 1.2.
• Click on the placement on the extrude dashboard (Figure 1.2) and select define.
The sketch dialog window appears as shown in Figure 1.9. Choose top surface of
the block as sketch plane and accept the default on the sketch dialog window and

40
 click on the Sketch button.
• Produce letters. Sketch → Text from the menu and pick two points on the sketch
plan to determine the height of the text and enter letters CAM as shown in the
figure 1.10. Modify the size of the text to 2 x 6 and locate the text to the center of
the block as shown in figure 1.11.

Figure 1.9 Sketch dialog Figure 1.10 The Text dialog

Figure 1.11 Letter CAM

• Extrude the text to 0.5” out of the block.

• View the created part (Figure 1.12). View → Orientation → Standard Orientation.
• Save the part. File → Save and Exit or Close to continue.

41
 Figure 1.12 Part model

B. Create the workpiece. The workpiece represents the raw stock of material from which the
part will be machined. Pro/E refers to this procedure as an assembly operation.

1) Start the Pro/E program. Windows menu items, Start → Programs → PTC25 → Pro
ENGINEER→ Click on the icon Pro ENGINEER.
2) Set working directory. File → Set Working Directory, select working directory.
3) Create the part name. Pro/E main menu, File → New, select Manufacturing in Type
window and NC Assembly in Sub-type window, enter name: MCAM as shown in
Figure 1.13

42
 Figure 1.13 Creating a new file Figure 1.14 Figure 1.15

4) Load the part. From MANUFACTURE menu, select Mfg Model → Assemble →Ref.
Model. Select CAM.prt in the open window. The component Placement window pops
up. Select to place the part at default location as shown in Figure 1.16. Click OK
to close Component Placement windows as shown in Figure 1.17.

Figure 1.16 Figure 1.17

5) Create a workpiece 6” x 10” x 2.25” . From MANUFACTURE menu, select Mfg

Model → Create → workpiece. Enter a name for the workpiece: BLOCK. Select
Solid ProtrusionExtrudeSolidDone. Select
NC_ASM_FRONT as sketch planeand NC_ASM_RIGHT as reference plane in
Figure 1.19. Create a rectangle 6” x 10” surrounding the CAM part as shown in
Figure 1.20 and extrude it to 2.25” as shown in Figure 1.21.

43
 Figure 1.19 Figure 1.20

Figure 1.21 Reference Model and Workpiece

44
C. Perform the machining operation setup. The setup consists of defining the type of
machine to use. It also requires defining a coordinate system if one does not already exist
and a retraction plane for the cutting tool. The coordinate system must match the mill
orientation and the part zero.

1) MFG Setup → Operation. Operation Setup window pops up automatically as shown

in Figure 1.22.
2) Define NC machine. Click NC machine icon in Figure 1.22, Machine Tool Setup
windows pop up as shown in Figure 1.23. Enter the parameters as shown below
Machine name: Victor
Machine type: Mill
Number of Axis: 3
CNC control: FANUC

3) Define Machine Zero. Click Reference Machine Zero icon in

Figure 1.22. Create MACH CSYS as Figure 1.24. Pick workpiece to create
coordinate system in. Pick 3 reference planes as Figure 1.27 (click two sides and top
planes while holding down Ctrl key) to place origin as shown in Figure 1.25. Orient
X, Y axes as shown in Figure 1.26.
4) Define retract plane. Click Retract Surface icon in Figure 1.22.
Retract Selection window pops up (Figure 1.28). Choose Along Z Axis, and in the
panel of Enter Z Depth, input 0.5, click OK to close the window. The retract plane is
shown in Figure 1.29.
5) Complete Operation setup. Click OK to close operation setup as Figure 1.30.
MFG Setup  Done  Return.

Figure 1.22 Figure 1.23

45
Figure 1.24 Figure 1.25 Figure 1.26

Figure 1.27 Defining the Coordinate System

46
Figure 1.28 Figure 1.29 Defining the Retract Surface

Figure 1.30 Completed Operation Setup

47
D. Define the machining operations. The setup consists of defining the type of tool to use
and machining parameters (tools size, cutting speed, etc.), and specify the volume of
material to be removed.

1) Machining → NC Sequence → Volume → 3 Axis → Done.

2) SEQ SETUP window pops up. Ensure that tool, parameters, retract and
volume are checked and then choose DONE. (Figure 1.31).

Figure 1.31

3) Tool setup table pops up. Enter the tool values as shown in Figure 1.32 and
APPLY OK.
Cutter_Diam.25
Length 4

48
 Figure 1.32 Figure 1.33

4) MFG PARAMS → Set. Param Tree window pops up. Input or change the
values as shown in Figure 1.33. Select Advance button to change MACHINE →
CIRC_INTERPOLATION → POINTS_ONLY as shown in Figure 1.34.
5) Retract Plane → Retract Selection window pops up. Select ADTM1 created in
previous operation setup (Figure 1.35) and click OK.

Figure 1.34 Figure 1.35

49
 6) Create Mill Volume. To specify the volume of material to be removed.

Figure 1.36 Figure 1.37 Figure 1.38 Figure 1.39

• NC Sequence  Define Vol  Create Vol (Figure 1.36) and Enter a name: mv1.
We will use the sketch command to create the volume of material to be removed
from our workpiece. We will remove all the workpiece that lies outside the part.
• Create Vol  Sketch Done (Figure 1.37).
• Solid Opts  Extrude  Solid Done (Figure 1.38).
• Attributes  One side  Done (Figure 1.39).
• Select NC_ASM_FRONT as sketch plane (Figure 1.40). Flip the arrow and select
Okay. Select NC_ASM_RIGHT as Sketch View Right (Figure 1.41).

50
 Figure 1.40 Figure 1.41 Figure 1.42 Figure 1.43

• From Pro/E pull down menu, select Sketch  Edge  Use and select all four
outer edges of the workpiece (not the part). Click Close (Figure 1.42) and to
complete sketch. Up to Surface (Figure 1.43)  Done and pick the top surface of
the workpiece. Select OK (Figure 1.44) to complete the protrusion.
• We have sketched our entire workpiece as the mill volume. But we need to leave
the material that represents out part. At this point Pro/E provides a Trim function
that will “trim” the part from mill volume. Select Trim and pick the part we wish
to be “trimmed” out of the mill volume. Done/ Return.

Figure 1.44

E. View tool path simulation and create cutter location file.

51
1) Machining → NC Sequence → NC Check → Run. The simulation of machining
process is shown in Figure 1.45.

Figure 1.45

2) Machining → CL Data → Output → Select Feature → NC Sequence → Volume

Milling. PATH → FILE → Done. Enter name: cam in the Save a Copy window.
Pro/E will save the file as cam.ncl.1.
3) The cutter location file can be converted to G-code file through post processor
program written for specify CNC milling machine.

52
Advanced Features
Pro/Manufacture supports more advanced functions in automated CNC tool path generation from
CAD model; G-code generation; simulation of CNC machining or tool path verification; and
surface quality verification for given tool path and machining parameters. These advanced topics
are covered in our Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM) course, MECH460. The following
figures from the Advanced Pro/E tutorials of the CAM course illustrate these applications.

Design Surface Part and Stock

NC Tool Path Verification Surface Engraving

53
54