This is a tough one, but there must be way.
I need to apply a knurled texture to an organic curved surface. It cannot be a decal, this is to be rapid prototyped so the knurl must be real 3d. I have an imported Soliworks file that shows exactly what I need (image attached). I do not have access to the author of the Solidworks part so I dont know how they did it. Its part of a pistol grip handle.
Keep in mind that emboss does not support organic surfaces, only cylindrical or planar.
Any suggestions?
Solved! Go to Solution.
Solved by mpatchus. Go to Solution.
Anyway you can get the native SW part? I have SW 2011 at home and if it is 2011 or earlier it is possible I can open it and tell you how it was done.
Curve driven pattern in Inventor.
I did this once on a gun handle.
The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel
I am working on getting the native file. I can't count on it though.
I dont suppose you have the file you created?
I thought of curve driven pattern as well, but I haven't figured out just how to execute.
Thanks
Attach your trial effort here.
The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel
The example is too large to attach (10MB)
Here is a dropbox link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/93464527/Curved%20Knurled%20Feature.ipt
Its a pistol grip.
Just do a simple example and roll up the EOP before zipping and attaching here.
Should take 10 minutes or less.
The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel
There is no trial effort. I (and others) have a made a few attempts that went nowhere and so were not worth saving. Some attempts included intersecting Sweeps using a diamond pattern projected onto the face as paths, modeling individual knurl bosses using lofts, stuff like that.
The dropbox link contains a finished part that I want to emulate (there is an image of it attached to my first post). Rolling up the EOP and zipping does not shrink it enough.
I can attach the part that needs to be knurled.
The process is rather involved and takes several hour to set up.
Project Cut edges in 2D sketch for curve along handle to follow (if more complex path is needed - will have to create 3D sketch intersection).
Loft square to point (or another square) for first knurl location (you might Offset Surface to use to cut off tops instead).
Rectangular Pattern, but set up to follow curve.
I will not have time to set something up till around Sept.
The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel
Would something like this suit your requirements?
Its not a finished product, it needs some tweaking, but its enough to get the idea.
That certainly looks good at a distance. What was your approach?
I basically defined a tool path, projected it onto the surface, then did a sweep of the tool along the path using the surface as a guide.
I've attached the file (Inventor 2012) for you to look at.
NOTE: This generates a lot of faces on this part and will bog down your machine while it processes the sweep. Plan on grabbing a cup of coffe while it works. LOL
I like it. I went down this road, but I did not think of using a continuous curve for the path. I was making individual paths for each row of bosses. That was tedious.
I think this is the solution.
Thanks!
Hello mpatchus. Glad I was directed to this thread/post as we're working on a bunch of knurling patters right now on curved surfaces. Nice execution. I sure wish I could see exactly how you generated that toolpath (with continuous loop and even spacing). Seems like maybe a CAM type function but there must be a way to generate something like that. I noticed that the sketched path/lines are all green which on my screen indicates that they are not constrained.
How'd you do that?
Thanks,
Tom