Any elegant way to draw a path, for a sweep, on a curved surface?

[kdeuler]

Hi. I have in the drawing just below a washer that is designed to go against the inside wall of a pipe. The part that's touching the pipe is of course the curved side. The flat side will face towards the center axis of the pipe.

What I'd like to be able to do is sweep a "trough" around the center of the curved surface to accommodate an O-ring.

My question is, how would I go about this path? My only thought so far is to draw a temporary pipe along the axis of the washer, sized so that the outside wall of the pipe intersects the curved in the washer in the center of the path, like this:

... then use the intersection line as the path for the sweep. But that would leave the problem of how to get rid of the dummy pipe without deleting the dependent path, and the sweep made from it.

Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @kdeuler

I have attached a screen-cast for something similar to what you are attempting.

Hope this helps

Regards

John

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

Here's another way using extrude.

Mark

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

If you prefer the half round groove it is a lot easier to project the centreline then use pipe.

Mark

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I used the Include 3d geometry option from the Project/Include selection under the Sketch menu?

Once you have selected the outer edge of the washer select the new curve and right click to get the break link command.

Select the new independent curve and scale it down to your desired location on the washer, then use the pipe command to sweep the O ring that will be cut from the washer.

[kdeuler]

Thanks all for your quick and clear solutions!!!! Forum rocks!!!!