topic Re: ARRAY ALONG A PATH in Inventor Forum

ARRAY ALONG A PATH

AnthonyHarris90842 — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 08:10:22 GMT

I have this roller chain modeled and want to attach link plates on every second link (See attached file)

On the straight part of the chain the link plates display correctly but not around the the corners.
I used the array command which is the last feature in the tree.
Please help.

Re: ARRAY ALONG A PATH

gcoombridge — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 08:37:39 GMT

I got it to work by cutting the loop back to the final instance. Why that would be I don't know...

Re: ARRAY ALONG A PATH

AnthonyHarris90842 — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 10:08:34 GMT

Hi Gcoombridge

Thanks but its still not perfect.
I inserted an image from your altered model.
See the difference in edge length

Re: ARRAY ALONG A PATH

gcoombridge — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 20:09:07 GMT

Mmmm.. sorry didn't see that. It improved when the start and end point are moved to the centre of the bracket. However they start to separate because the path is circular but the links are segments which will introduce a misalignment (obviously smaller as the radius gets larger).

I don't think the pattern around a path can be used unless the path is made up of 3" segments and then it will get complicated at the interface of the radius and the straight. Attached is a sketch driven pattern that works - it is unfortunately a little more labour intensive as each point needs to be found with four patterns. Interesting problem 🙂

Re: ARRAY ALONG A PATH

AnthonyHarris90842 — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 06:30:39 GMT

Hi Gcoombridge
Will check out your latest attached file.
Thank you for your input

Re: ARRAY ALONG A PATH

AnthonyHarris90842 — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 06:43:09 GMT

Hi Gcoombridge

I tried to edit your sketch driven array to see what you did so that I can re-create the same thing.
Look at the pic below and see what my machine is trying to do unless I am missing something else you did.
As you can see mine is not following the curve.

Re: ARRAY ALONG A PATH

gcoombridge — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 08:49:41 GMT

You need to create a guide surface and select the it under faces in the sketch driven pattern command (each of the four facets - it won't include tangent edges). I extruded this with a sketch offset to the outside face of the bracket. I also selected the base point of the first one though I'm not sure that matters.

Re: ARRAY ALONG A PATH

AnthonyHarris90842 — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 09:08:10 GMT

Thank you so much for all your trouble and help.
Highly appreciated.