In the BASIC SETTINGS you can define your space which is meshed later and where the calculation is performed. Adapt the bounds to the part by click onto the face and drag them. (The bounding box maybe altered later if required to enable the design of the casting system.)

For sand casting it is a good choice to select the overall dimensions of the drag and cope mold half. Open the EDITOR TOOLBAR at the bottom of the screen, bounds can be introduced here also by click onto BOUNDS . To add a Constraint Plane click onto the “Layout button” in the MAIN FEATURES. Then open the LAYOUT TOOLBAR at the bottom of the screen. A click onto the CONSTRAINT PLANE in the LAYOUT TOOLBAR adds a plane into the workspace. A click onto the considered constraint plane in the LAYOUT MENU opens the CONSTRAINT PLANE DIALOGUE.

“Support” is the offset of the plane (position within the workspace in mm), “Normal” allows to change its orientation by selecting “Horizontal”, “Vertical” or “Lateral” according to the orientation of the instance. You may even use the Rotation functionality which can be opened by pressing the button.

To add a grid to the constraint plane open the WORKSPACE TOOLBAR and click on “Graticule” button to open its DIALOGUE. Set “Visible” and “Snapping” onto “True”. Set the “Resolution” onto a useful value, e.g. 50.0 mm with a subdivision of 10. The size of graticule is 5 mm now. When you click and hold the right mouse button in the workspace, its coordinates are shown in brackets, e.g. (-55 | -5 | 0).

To add a vertex, you open the LAYOUT TOOLBAR in the MAIN FEATURES again. (Vertices are used for the placement of components or for the design of Edges.) To add a vertex click with the right mouse button at the chosen position in the workspace grid.

Click onto the “Create Vertex” button in the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. The vertex is shown in the workspace as well as in the LAYOUT MENU. Its DIALOGUE can be opened by clicking onto the name of the considered vertex in the LAYOUT MENU Entity list, or by using the “Inspection Mode” of the EDITOR TOOLBAR and selecting the vertex by left mouse click in the workspace.

The selection of a vertex can be done by selecting it in the LAYOUT MENU within the Layout Entities, or by clicking the “Inspect” button in the EDITOR TOOLBAR. Alternatively you may use the “Select” button in the EDITOR TOOLBAR or you press Ctrl (Strg) on your keyboard and click onto the desired vertex in the workspace.

When a further vertex is produced, the previous one is deselected, indicated in the LAYOUT MENU Entity List by the missing hook as well as the color change to purple in the workspace.

To move a vertex within the workspace you need to “select” it and enter the new coordinates into its DIALOGUE. Alternatively, you may use the “Translate” button in the EDITOR TOOLBAR to change to the translate mode. You may now drag and drop the vertex with the mouse in the workspace.

To bind a vertex to the corresponding constraint plane, you “Select” it as well as the constraint plane in the LAYOUT MENU, then open the LAYOUT TOOLBAR and click “Bind Constraints” . To remove the binding of a vertex (or vertices) from a constraint plane, you “Select” it and also the constraint plane in the LAYOUT MENU and “Unbind Constraints” in the LAYOUT TOOLBAR.

To create an Edge between two vertices “Select” both and use “Create Edge” in the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. By this the vertices are deselected and the edge is selected. Alternatively you can create a further vertex and an edge between them by placing the locator at the intended vertex position in the workspace and then use the “Extend Graph” from the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. The binding of vertices to a constraint plane is important as it affects the orientation of components assigned to edges and vertices later on.

To assign a component to a vertex you “Select” the vertex and then open the COMPONENTS TOOLBAR. Choose the component you want to design. Click onto the End of the Straight to open its PROPERTIES DIALOGUE and you may change the shape from “Blind” to “Ingate”.

To create a feeder and assign it to a vertex, you need select the vertice then select the “Feeder” from the COMPONENTS TOOLBAR and open the FEEDER DIALOGUE by clicking onto the feeder name in the LAYOUT MENU (the name appears in purple). In the FEEDER DIALOGUE you can select its “Shape” as “Side” or “Top”. Enter the local part Modulus (data out of the modulus analysis (default is 0,3 cm)). You can set the “NeckModulusFactor” to 1.0, you may increase it later according to the modulus analysis results of the feeder. You may change the “PartingRatio” (default is 50%). 0% means the feeder neck is in the drag mold - and with 100%, the feeder neck in the top mold. The “HeightRatio” (default is 0%) is to modify the feeder height with 0% for the feeder height = 1.5 x feeder Ø and 100% for the feeder height = 2.0 x feeder Ø.

Feeder necks can be designed by opening the STRAIGHT DIALOGUE by clicking onto the straight listed in the LAYOUT MENU entity list. The setting of the “FeederNeck” onto “True” in the STRAIGHT DIALOGUE (default is “False”) creates automatically a feeder neck with dimensions according to the feeder zone modulus.

Open the “End” menu by clicking onto the end listed in the LAYOUT MENU entity list and set the shape onto “Ingate” creates sharped edges. Open the EDITOR TOOLBAR for analyzing of the cross section properties and select PROPERTIES . With the “Inspect”-Mode and the selection of the cross section area of the straight, it's PROPERTIES DIALOGUE opens. The cross section area in this case is limited to “Generic” only.

If the casting geometry does not fit to the standard feeder neck properties, you may adjust its dimensions as close as possible by setting “FeederNeck” in the “Straight” DIALOGUE onto “False” and then open the EDITOR TOOLBAR and “Inspect” in the EDITOR TOOLBAR you may set “Shape” onto “Generic” and change the “CalculationBasis” from “TotalArea” to “TotalHeight” and you can use the fields “TotalHeight”, “TotalArea”, “DraftAngle”, “Diameter” (Width) etc. for the design of the feeder neck.

You can do the same for the feeder neck cross section area next to the feeder body, as both areas are not necessarily the same.

To check the modulus of the straight, click onto the modified straight and check the modulus according to the custom dimensions calculated by Visiometa. The feeder neck modulus has to be the same then entered into “PartModulus” in FEEDER DIALOGUE. If the modulus of the custom feeder neck does not match with the local part modulus, go back to the cross section areas of the feeder neck and design a feeder neck according to local part modulus and most close to the existing geometry.

A full 3D view of the created design can be found in the LAYOUT of the MAIN FEATURES. You need to “Built Patterns” .

To export data to an STP, STL or IGES -file, you select the relevant data from the Layout FEATURE MENU and press Export Selection . The Model Exporter opens automatically where you may select the export mode “Fusion”:

• True = all data are fused to a single file
• False = all data are saved as single files

“Start” in the MODEL EXPORTER DIALOGUE starts the export.