Best way to model curved tube?

[Anonymous]

There's a pdf file in the CF newsgroup of a simple bent tube with some holes
in it.

Many of our parts are similar to this. A tube, say 1.00 square, cut to
length, holes drilled, and formed to a curve.

I'd like to model this in a way that is easy to change as size/radius/hole
count changes. Here's what's important:

Tube true length (the true arc length of the tubing after it's formed to a
curve)
Radius
Number of holes (both on the radiused face and on the top (flat) face)

I'm fine with creating the tube and setting up variables for arc length &
radius, but the holes give me a problem. I'm not sure of the best way to
put those on--the ones on the radiused face.

An option that I like would be to model the tube straight (before bending),
then bend the model on the radius. I'm not sure how to do that... I tried
with sheetmetal tools, but it didn't work. If I did it that way, I could
show a drawing view that's the unbent tube w/ all dimensions, then a
secondary view of the curved tube.

So, anybody here have advice on a good way to do this? Anybody want to
model something quickly? I appreciate your help/advice. Thanks...

Brian

[Anonymous]

GOOD LUCK! i have tried to put holes in a flat as you are in a tube. it does not work. you can not constrain anything to the holes after it has been formed or "rolled" i logged a bug to adesk and they pretty much said tough **** this is how it is.

[Anonymous]

I put an example in iCF that might work for ya'. Try suppressing the folds
and last face.
~Larry

"Brian Mears" wrote in message
news:BC10A945327B718FFE01633F7E3C9B9C@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> There's a pdf file in the CF newsgroup of a simple bent tube with some
holes
> in it.
>
> Many of our parts are similar to this. A tube, say 1.00 square, cut to
> length, holes drilled, and formed to a curve.
>
> I'd like to model this in a way that is easy to change as size/radius/hole
> count changes. Here's what's important:
>
> Tube true length (the true arc length of the tubing after it's formed to a
> curve)
> Radius
> Number of holes (both on the radiused face and on the top (flat) face)
>
> I'm fine with creating the tube and setting up variables for arc length &
> radius, but the holes give me a problem. I'm not sure of the best way to
> put those on--the ones on the radiused face.
>
> An option that I like would be to model the tube straight (before
bending),
> then bend the model on the radius. I'm not sure how to do that... I tried
> with sheetmetal tools, but it didn't work. If I did it that way, I could
> show a drawing view that's the unbent tube w/ all dimensions, then a
> secondary view of the curved tube.
>
> So, anybody here have advice on a good way to do this? Anybody want to
> model something quickly? I appreciate your help/advice. Thanks...
>
> Brian
>
>

[Anonymous]

I put a file in iCF.