Project holes on sphere from coordinates

[bdg215]

Hi!

I would like to learn how to project holes onto a sphere using a list of spherical coordinates. What I have is a list of center points in the form of elevation, azimuth, and radius. Can anyone tell me the best way to start doing this?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Best,

Brian

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

I think this will work. Use Plane at Angle and select one of the origin axis and rotate the plane. 

Then create a sketch on the plane with a line at the correct angle and length.

Close the sketch and use Plane along path to create a plane at the end of the line, create a sketch and extrude the hole.

 

Mark

[bdg215]

Hi HughesTooling,

Thanks for your reply!

I am trying to follow your suggestion, but I'm not entirely sure which values correspond to each step.

As an example, I have an 8" sphere (4"radius), and one of my points has an elevation of 1.759045 and an azimuth of 5.908270. This system uses UP on Z axis as 0 degrees. 

Can I directly input my values in your example, or do I need to perform some math beforehand?

Best,

Brian

[mavigogun]

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@bdg215 wrote:

As an example, I have an 8" sphere (4"radius), and one of my points has an elevation of 1.759045 and an azimuth of 5.908270. This system uses UP on Z axis as 0 degrees. 

Can I directly input my values in your example, or do I need to perform some math beforehand?

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Since the object you're creating has no external reference- it's an abstraction -the only qualifier will be relative consistency.    If you're making a star globe, aren't those values dependent on where on our squashed sphere you stand, Earth having been dropped repeatedly by it's parents?

[HughesTooling]

If I've understood the attached file should be right. If you need to create a lot of these points it will be a lot of work and you might need to look at scripting. Not sure what you need at the point but you will probably need a plane if you want a hole in the sphere.

Mark

[bdg215]

Hi Mark,

Thank you so much for the file!

I believe that I understand based on what you sent me. If I understand it correctly, then I am assuming that the first line (on the Z axis) is there to offer a base line for the elevation. Is it not possible to somehow just use the z axis without creating the extra line?

Also, the second line is 1.8 degrees from Z and not 1.759045 like my example. Is this just for expedience sake, or am I missing something important there (perhaps my measuring method is incorrect)?

Best,

Brian

[HughesTooling]

Unfortunately fusion does not let you just reference the document axis, you can project an origin plane into the sketch but that's more effort than drawing the Z axis like I did. 

In the sketch the document Z is the sketch Y axis, if you sketch a line from the origin you can add a angular dimension from the X axis and Fusion will add the X axis line for you but there's no way to work from the Y without drawing it.

The accuracy you're seeing for the angle is down to the setting in preferences, I'd guess under units you have angular display set to one place. I'm not sure if it's set to display one place and you enter 1.759045 it's rounded or not. The measure tool has a bug when measuring angles and it ignores the setting on the dialog for decimal places and uses the setting in preferences so no quick way to test without going into preferences and experimenting.

Mark

[bdg215]

Hi Mark,

Thanks so much!

Best,

Brian