iCopy placing problem

[jc.alonso]

Hey guys,

I´m quite new using iCopy function and I guess I need some help. I´ve started with something easy. I have a scene (see the image attach) which actually is the exterior girder of a bridge where I want to set a handrail. The top face of this girder is a non-planar surface that makes quite difficult (at least for me) to place an array formed by the vertical supports of the handrail on top with a regular pattern.

Thus, I thought in iCopy. I created a basic sketch that is formed by 3 lines:
- A line that is supposed to connect the two edges that hold the surface (the top face of the beam)
- A line which is the center line of the vertical support. This line is constrained to be perpendicular to the previous one from the midpoint of it an also with a given dimension of 1000mm.
- A third line that connects the exterior edge of the surface with its projection on the XY plane so that I define an unique plane.
This sketch and the points used to define the iCopy are showed in the imaged attached (AssemblyObject.png).

Well, the problem I have comes when I try to create the iCopy instance inside the Target Assembly. I pick the points to place the iCopy object and everything seems good until I click on Next. Suddenly, the vertical axis for the support is flipped and headed down.

I have no idea what is happening and any tip will be much appreciated.

I created a small video recording my screen to help you understand what I mean. Also you can find all the files used in this GoogleDrive folder.

Thank you very much in advance. Best regards.

[mohandis2]

In the assembly target file, iCopy7, edit your sketch1,
Change the dimension to driven, stretch the end of the mid line to the right side, your dimension will change accordingly, change it back to normal dimension, and finally change it to 1.000

[jc.alonso]

Hello and thank you very much for your help.

I'm not sure if I'm understanding you. Once I have my iCopy instance inside the Target Assembly, I can edit the sketch and make it appear as I want easily by picking the ending vertex and moving it to the opposite direction. This works fine but the problem is that I have to create a pattern with around 150 iCopy instances at both sides of the bridge deck. I don't know if there is a way to edit al sketches at the time.

Thank you very much.

[mohandis2]

Would you post you files so I can take a look.

[jc.alonso]

Hi,

Of course, here you can find those files.

Regarding this, do you know if there is a better way to do this rather than using iCopy? As I said before, in a case like this where there is a 200m bridge, the number of vertical supports it's around 120 per side, that means creating 240 iCopy parts which may be not the best way. But I don't see how to apply a regular pattern since the path is a surface with doble curvature. 

Thank you very much.

[mohandis2]

Sorry, your inventor is newer then the 2013 I have and I could not open your files,

Try to put your sketch in a custom plan and flip its normal.