FeatureDetail - Profile-offsets in SolidSteel parametric for Siemens NX

FeatureDetail - Profile offsets
Possibilites in SolidSteel parametric for Siemens NX

Practical helpers for everyday use

Often it is the small functions that make the design work easier. The functions for parallel offsets and individual offsets in SolidSteel parametric for Siemens NX certainly belong to this category.

Parallel offsets

The possibilities for parallel offsets of profiles have one thing in common: The system line used for alignment is always inside the bounding box of the profile.

In the following four pictures you can see a profile cross section where we have made visible by red dots the nine possible alignments of cross section to system line that can be selected in the Beams menu and show some possibilities of alignment or alignment combinations that SolidSteel offers with just a few clicks.

Individual offsets

With the Profile offset tool it is possible to create individual offsets of components. In contrast to the method described above, the profile can also be placed outside the system line.

In the following example, we show this using the example of a cross bracing. The system lines represent the idealized static system in which all connections always end in nodes. In practice, this is not possible in most cases with e.g. cross bracings and therefore you can use the Profile offset tool to move the profiles by one exactly as you wish.

While the usual offset moves the start or end of the profile along a vector, activating the "parallel offset" option moves the complete profile along a vector.

FeatureDetail - Profile offsetsPossibilites in SolidSteel parametric for Siemens NX

Parallel offsets

Individual offsets

FeatureDetail - Profile offsets
Possibilites in SolidSteel parametric for Siemens NX