Need help with combining Revolve and Coil.

[Broomanyollo]

Hi everyone,

I am very new to Inventor and need some experienced opinion on the problem that I am facing with the following idea:

 

Basically I have this column created with revolve and I would like to place these grooves on it like on the following example created with Coil:

I would like to preserve the number of grooves at the base and for them to "compress" accordingly at the narrow middle section of the first column. I tried accomplishing this by creating a new 2D sketch at the base of the column, but it wouldn't let me edit the base circle for the grooves to become "coilable" if you know what I mean. What am I doing wrong and is this the correct way of attempting to implement this idea?

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

Something like one of these images?

[PaulMunford · Accepted solution]

Create a coil in a 3D sketch and then use 'project curves' to project it onto your surface. Use this curve to create your features.

[JDMather]

I prefer to use a Coil Surface to create the curve as much easier to edit.

See attached example.

[Broomanyollo]

Hi again,

I tried implementing your suggestion today, but I run into "axis intersects profile" error when trying to coil round that column. Any advice? Thanks.

[JDMather]

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@Broomanyollo wrote:

... Any advice? 

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Attach your *.ipt file here.

[Broomanyollo]

Also, do you think Inventor is the best software for this sort of geometry as it honestly feels quite unintuitive when creating such features?

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

iProperties would seem to indicate that you have not installed Service Packs 1 and 2 and Update 3.

You are missing a dimension and constraint in Sketch1?

Yet when I add the missing dimension - it is perfect!  What happened to the missing dimension?

For Sketch2 I would change the circle to Construction linetype and I would create a construction line to constrain the normal line at the midpoint.

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

Going back to your Sketch1 - I do not see a logical reason for using a Spline in place of a simple Arc?

The difference between the two would be less than the thickness of a sheet of paper?

Using this logic - attached is my Sketch1.

Note: No repeated dimensions.

Note:  In my Sketch2 the Projected construction line and the normal line to midpoint (turn off Visibility of Sketch1 to see).

I am not sure how this would be done any more logically or "intuitively" in any other CAD program?

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

Once the parametric coil geometry is created - it is easy to get the 3D intersection curve for Sweep path.

[Broomanyollo]

On an unrelated note:

Do you think that a poligon-based cad (with the usual Inventor style parametric modelling + Mudbox-style functionality) is the future? I'd really love to see something like that released. After all if you cram enough poligons into a model it shouldn't matter if they are really poligons, right?