I understand everything you describe, which is why I admire your skills and experience. The effort required to accomplish what you have is amazing.
I truly am struggling with just the very basics - like the concept of a sketch vs a solid... It took me a LONG time to figure out how to split a solid to trim it. There are so many options for generating a plane I got lost fast. I finally found out I could "extrude" a line or an arc and use it to split a solid. That was a breakthrough.
Using dimensions and constraints is only a concept for me.
And somehow, I managed to generate two "parts" without understanding how.
The "fillet" tool was my favorite, but even that had a learning curve I'm still climbing.
And yes, those cable clamp features are beyond me, but will be my next challenge. And it is very clear that the finished bracket wasn't precise. The distortion from forming the cable depression was large and there was no trimming operation. I think this is expected for a sheet metal stamping.
I think the software has tools for "sheet metal", which might be a more efficient way to approach this part. Another thing for me to explore.
To your point about the manifold, I learned quickly that it's less about building the part and more about making the part immune to changes. I have no clue how to do this, which is where experience is key. I stretched a couple things and it "broke" others. If I understood why, I'd be learning something useful!
Now that I've dipped my toe in the water, I plan to watch tutorial videos and see if it holds my attention.
Mike
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