Harpoon 3D

To draw a new part using the harpoon interface, first select the material and die.

This will enable the options to type dimensions in the Tri-Star value fields, or pull the directional points from the harpoon axis by clicking and dragging them in the display area where the new part will be designed.

The harpoon has six different directional points. Each will pull the current straight length of the part in the chosen direction.

To start designing the part, click and drag one of the points in the desired direction. The straight length of part will be dragged out from the harpoon (the new part will be represented by a gray tube). This can also be done by clicking the direction point and directly keying in the distance value or by typing the numbers into the designer value fields on the left hand of the screen.

Note: A single straight length can be dragged in 3 total directions. For example, if the darker green harpoon point is dragged out, the light green arrow cannot be pulled. In the designer entry fields, if the light blue field has a value of 500, it will be set to 0 if any values are entered in the darker blue field.

In summary, parts can be designed three different ways:

1.) By selecting a harpoon point and dragging it into place.

2.) By selecting a harpoon point and typing in the value.

3.) By entering values directly into the fields.

As the part is being drawn, the lengths, angles and rotations will be automatically generated in the designer entry fields on the left of the screen. The values in the colored fields in the harpoon frame show how far and in which direction the current length of tube has been moved.

These features are available in the Harpoon 3d stand alone interface.

• To add a bend to the part, click the "Add Bend" button. Or hover over the end of the tube, and once the small green axis appears, double click. The new bend will be added and the harpoon tool will move to the end of the part.

• To remove the last bend, click the "Remove" button.

These features are available in Assembly as an add-on and can be accessed under the "Design" tab.

• To add a bend to the part, click the "Add Bend" button. Or hover over the end of the tube, and once the small green axis appears, double click. The new bend will be added and the harpoon tool will move to the end of the part.

• To remove the last bend, click the "Delete Bend" button.

• To add points, click the "Create Points" button to place points along the current part. Note: This will only place points, the actual part will not be created.

• To complete the part, click the "Apply" button.

Once more than one angle is applied to a bend (Example: Pulled the light green harpoon point and then pulled the red harpoon point), the angle as well as the axis that the angle is along will be shown below the value fields in the left panel next to an axis icon. The colors of the small arrows on this icon correspond to the axes that the angle is along. These angle values can be also edited by entering values directly into the given fields. The length of the straight can also be entered or edited in the "Length" field.

If more than two angles are added to the bend, two more angle values will be generated. These will also have axis icons that will show which axes the angles are along. These can also be edited by directly entering values into the fields.

Individual bend angles can be locked by clicking on and toggling the lock icon on or off. When a bend is locked, the angles of the bend will be locked in place if any attempts to change them are made. While locked, dragging the harpoon points will only adjust the length of the straight after the bend.

Each bend can be assigned a die by selecting the bend number in the bend list and selecting a die from the Die drop down menu. The dimension type of the bends are determined by the current option selected under Bend Mode.