Sweep body along arc direction

[mailUE6J3]

Hi there, I am a complete hobbyist. I'm designing an a click in and rotate attachment for woodworking vacuum tubing attachment to various tools in my workshop. I have 2 components, male and female. I am trying to create a female attachment for the male attachment by sweeping the male attachment into the female body. So far I have made it it with the 20mm vertical insertion male into female, but then cannot sweep the male component along an arc / circle / rotate by 30 degrees to allow the male component to lock into place, without getting errors regarding the path.  Any help would be appreciated ! I'm hoping to post the 3D print files online once I get this right. 

[jhackney1972]

Please attach your model or models.  

[jeff_strater]

as @jhackney1972 , this will be much easier if you share the model.  However, from your description, I picked up on this:

"but then cannot sweep the male component along an arc / circle / rotate by 30 degrees to allow the male component to lock into place, without getting errors regarding the path"

If you are trying to sweep the entire male component, that may be the source of your problems.  You may need to model one of the round locking pegs as a separate body first, then, before joining them to the male component, sweep just the peg along a path in the female component, to make the locking slot for the peg (be sure to add in some offset, or the mechanism won't have enough play to allow for assembly).  You also may be able to make the slot using regular sweep, not 3D body sweep.

[mokelfokel]

It makes sense as an operation. The face does the same thing as a Sweep of the face profile, but it's a guide for driving the whole solid body at every point it passes through and rotates.

[TheCADWhisperer]

@mailUE6J3 

If this were my design:

I would not have any Loft features. (not necessary)

I would not have an extraneous planes. (not necessary)

I would not have any Moves in the Timeline. (Move is almost always the wrong move as used by beginners.)

I would probably have only 1 very simple and fully defined sketch.

[Drewpan]

Hi,

Since others have already mentioned about uploading your files and the model issues

with moves and such I will just gently remind you again.

I have a couple of questions.

Do you actually REQUIRE a Male and Female mount and why?

Of the many things I have done in my life, being a volunteer Fire Fighter has been one of

them. In Australia, some of our States have different Water and Hydrant connections that

make traveling interstate to help out, which is sometimes necessary, we have to carry all

sorts of adapters on the truck. Some of these issues are purely traditional (we have always

done it that way syndrome) and others are a choice. This is when I came across something

called a Stortz coupling. It doesn't matter which end you hook up to as it is a universal fitting.

I was caught out on occasion rolling out a hose with a male fitting on the wrong end. Very

frustrating. No problem with a Stortz.

What I am suggesting is that in this case where you are simply joining hoses and there is

no real reason to separate them into male and female that designing a single coupling

would be better than trying to do two.

I get it if say it was a spacesuit where one pipe is water and the other oxygen and you

don't want to mix them up is a valid and indeed safer solution to change couplings to

male and female. Do you actually need that functionality here?

Why are you using lugs to join?

I think your simple lug connection will be too weak for purpose. I also think that there will

be insufficient friction to hold these two pipes together with 3 simple round lugs. I think a

much better solution, if you choose the male/female or Stortz style solution, would be to

use larger tabs. A greater surface area will create more friction to hold the connection

together, and overall it will be much stronger by spreading the forces along the axis of the

joint around the face of the connectors and not to three points.

Cheers

Andrew

[mailUE6J3]

Thanks so much for your feedback, I will attach the project. I will go through individual comments and attempt to answer. Thanks so much again.

[mailUE6J3]

Wow this is a great concept, thank you. I will do some research into Storz connectors which make way more sense and I don't have to have one specific male connector for the vacuum tubing and multiple other female connectors for every tool in my shop. I have tried with connectors magnets as other woodworkers have done but found they don't hold well enough and disconnect.  This is a great idea, thank you again.

[Drewpan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Glad to hear it. Simple friction should be fine with 3d printed stuff as long as you get

the two surfaces close enough together. Stortz certainly made my job easier. Seems

pretty much exactly what you need.

Cheers

Andrew