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Sweep without twist

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Message 1 of 11
RobJV
1786 Views, 10 Replies

Sweep without twist

I have a sweep using a 3D sketch.  The sweep will form "rails" for a ball run.  I have attached my part and picture.  I assume I have to use a guide surface to prevent the rails from twisting as shown.  Ideally I would like them to end as shown in the sketch in the lower right corner.  Any help in accomplishing this would be great.

 

If somebody has a better method that would be great too.

 

(The run is not exact nor finished and the there are extra unconstrained sketches in the part file.)

 

Thanks,

 

Rob

Inv 2013 Pro

10 REPLIES 10
Message 2 of 11
Mark.Downes
in reply to: RobJV

Hi RobJV

 

I had a quick go at this (made up part), I used a 2D sweeped profile as a guide surface for the

main sweep.

 

Hope this helps

Cheers

Mark

Inventor 2013

 

Capture01.JPG

Cheers
Mark
Inventor 2018, 3DS Max 2018, Vault 2018
Message 3 of 11
mpatchus
in reply to: RobJV

I personally would make each rail its own part, and make this whole thing an assembly.

In the real world, this would not be a single part.

I've always told my students that they can never go wrong by mimicing the real world.

Mike Patchus - Lancaster SC

Inventor 2025 Beta


Alienware m17, Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10980HK CPU @ 2.40GHz 3.10 GHz, Win 11, 64gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super

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Message 4 of 11
RobJV
in reply to: Mark.Downes

Thanks for providing the sample.  I will look over and post if I have any questions.

 

Rob

Message 5 of 11
RobJV
in reply to: mpatchus

Yes, of course I will be making these as separate parts.  (This can still be done as a single part and broken up.) 

Message 6 of 11
RobJV
in reply to: Mark.Downes

Thanks - your sample helped a lot!

Message 7 of 11
RobJV
in reply to: Mark.Downes

I went through and created my own set of ball rails.  I only noticed one mistake in your sample that may help others.  Work Plane 2 should be built off of the top line of sketch 2 and not the angled line.  This will ensure that the track cannot intersect itself.  Thanks again for leading me down the right path!

Message 8 of 11
Mark.Downes
in reply to: RobJV

Morning Rob,

 

My Bad that one (well spotted), here is an updated model. Glad it helped.

 

Cheers

Mark

Inventor 2013

 

Capture02.JPG

Cheers
Mark
Inventor 2018, 3DS Max 2018, Vault 2018
Message 9 of 11
glenn-chun
in reply to: Mark.Downes

Hi Mark, Rob,

 

The sweep body in rail-02.ipt does not correctly pass the required cross-sectional profiles.  See rail-02-check-cross-sections.ipt.

 

surface_normal_sweep.png

 

I recommend to use the pull-direction sweep (aka plane normal sweep) in this case.   Here's how I created the attached rail-03.ipt:  Open rail-02.ipt. Make the XY Plane visible. Edit the Sweep1. Press the Guide Surface button. While pressing the Ctrl key, select the existing selection of the guide surface.  Now the arrow button should turn red because the guide surface selection has been deleted.  Click the XY Plane.  Hit OK.  This will create a sweep body whose cross-sectional profile orientations are controlled by the Z-Axis direction.

 

In rail-03-check-cross-sections.ipt, you can see the sweep body correctly pass the required cross-sectional profiles.

 

pull_direction_sweep.png

 

For the pull-direction sweep, the path doesn't have to lie on the plane or planar face used as a guide surface.  Inventor passes the normal vector of the plane to ASM, not the plane or planar face.  Only the vector information is important for the pull-direction sweep.  When the guide surface is curved, the path should lie on the surface which is passed to ASM.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Glenn

ASM Development



Glenn Chun
Sr. Principal Engineer
Message 10 of 11
Mark.Downes
in reply to: glenn-chun

Morning Glenn,

 

I followed your example using the XY plane, I also deleted the un-used guide surface. That’s a great example, I will be printing this to file away in my book of “did you knows Tip-bit’s”

 

Cheers

Mark

 

Capture03.JPG

Cheers
Mark
Inventor 2018, 3DS Max 2018, Vault 2018
Message 11 of 11
RobJV
in reply to: glenn-chun

Hi Glenn,

 

Thanks for the details.  I have adjusted my model as well.  Great to know about the vector information. 

 

Rob

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