I have a doubt that i never managed to solve with SW, and now it’s haunting me because I need to model something using this technique,
I have a profile, and a bunch of paths. The paths are all contained in the same sketch (because they are complex, and based on offsets of lines, all related to each other.
I want that profile to create different sweeps for every path in the sketch, but of course I can’t select the path because there are multiple open lines in the sketch.
I tried to convert every single line of the sketch to different sketches with the convert entities, but it’s nuts as there are loads of them. And I can’t do one sweep and then “array” it, because the profiles change slightly from one to the next.
Do you have any suggestion on how to go about with this?
Any hint would be much appreciated.
Thanks a lot
I think a screen dump would help to understand this problem. In my head it sounds like your trying to model a tree of some sort.
I think your going to have to create your paths in seperate sketches that reference back to your ‘master’ sketch if need be…when you say loads…how many is that? You could also control them by using a equation perhaps? there can be more than 1 line in the sketch right?
Pro/e has a nice patterning tool when you can change dims of the sketch as it patterns…does SW have somthing similar? might help
A different way to tackle it might be to pattern them and use the distort feature perhaps? or create lots of soilds and merge them toghter? or have the path line go around the profile isntead?
Yes it would look something like a tree, lots of curves means over 100. The whole equation thing makes me cringe, but I will try some of the things you suggest, especially the distort thing.
Thanks a lot for the suggestions
dude you got to post an image of this this in sounds mental. Did you think of modeling it in somthing a bit more open to doing mad forms, like maya, 3d max or alias studio even?
Hahaha, it could be a mop but not really, it is a bit of an experiment in shape.
Pier, all that sounds pretty much like ancient greek to me, but I would love to get into that!
Dawolfman, the thing is that I like (everytime more) to do things in parametric software, as you can always update it better. Feels like designers are tending to outgrow “simple” modeling software, as there is a trend to go for solidworks and similar which used to be more limited to engineering (is it just me or it looks like a trend??)
I will post an image, but It is not at all that crazy, I just didnt know it could be done.
I wouldnt go for the deform tool. It is very primitive and doesnt allow alot of contol over your design. However for some people who dont really have a design before they model it up might be excited about the deform tool.
If Parametric is your preferance, you have to understand that sometimes things take a while to model up. There is not always going to be a single button push function to solve your modelling problems.
Your design seems very simple to do, but a tedious job - it will take time, but easy time. You only need to spend once on it and alterations can be easily done.
I would use Rhino myself to do this sort of freeforming and deforming using more precise control point techniques
If i have stuff like this, many times I’ll build the curves just right in Alias, then inport the curves to extrude in SW. Eveything stays native SW, but the curves are nicer easier to work with in Alias. The spline tool in SW in absolutely horrendous. Just awful.
