Howdy, I'm a beginner using IV4. I'm trying to construct an imaginary
part: a perfect tetrahedron, 200mm on a side, made out of 1mm diameter
wire. Each vertex of the tetrahedron should have three wire edges
coming together at a point.
I can make a triangle no problem:
1. sketch a rough triangle
2. make dimensions d1 and d2 both equal d0
3. return and create a work plane perpindicular to original sketch:
a. select "work plane" tool
b. select one edge of triangle
c. select one vertex of that edge
5. create a sketch on the new work plane
6. "project geometry" the coincident vertex into the sketch
7. create a center-point circle centered on the vertex
8. return and "sweep" the circle around the triangle
I would like, as a next step, to create a work plane at the right
angle to the plane of the triangle, coincident with the center of one
of the lines. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to do this. The
work plane reference page in help says that to create a work plane at
an angle, I select two parallel faces and enter an angle into an edit
box. But since I don't have two parallel faces, I don't get an edit
box. I've searched for another way to do the edit box, but haven't
found it. I figure there must be a constraint-based way to acheive
the tetrahedron.
I have tried hacking my way to a solution:
1. sweep out triangle as above
2. create a work plane on the interface between the wires at a vertex
by selecting three points around the edge of the vertex interface
3. create a sketch in this work plane
4. project the vertex into the work plane
5. create a center circle with radius equal to the length of an edge
(200mm). This is purely for construction purposes
6. return and repeat steps 2-5 for a different vertex
7. project circle created in step 5 into current sketch
8. draw a point at the intersection
9. return and create a work plane as the combination of the point
from step 8 along with two vertices from the triangle in step 1
10. create a sketch in the new work plane, project the vertices, draw
another pair of edges, return, create a 1mm circular profile and
sweep
11. repeat step 9 with another pair of vertices
12. repeat step 10 in the new work plane
This does make a tetrahedron. The problem is that the vertices of the
last step don't line up! I can't seem to make the work plane
intersect the actual endpoints of the original triangle.
I imagine that I could just put three triangles together with
constraints in an assembly. But it seems like I should be able to
acheive the same goal by just creating a part. Can anyone offer a
simpler way to acheive this goal?
Thanks,
Dave