Sweep two rail?

[Anonymous]

I did not understand if it is possible to make two rail sweep!

Thanks

Fabio

[AndrewSears]

Hi Fabio,

That is correct.  We do not have that ability.  This is a good suggestion so I will add it as a product enhancement.

For now, you could use a series of sketches to produce a lofted feature as a temporary solution to get the part completed.  Try that and let us know if you are having any issues so we can help you find a solution.

Thanks,

Andy

[schneik-adsk]

Create an idea station entry and we can keep you informed as we work on new features.
I would add it but my ideas don't count as much as yours 🙂

[schneik-adsk]

here is a shot using loft.

I add points to the quadrants of the circles, so i can project these into the sketch for the splines. This ensures that the rails intersect the profiles.

[Anonymous]

This seems to me an interesting solution ... you have to understand the limits! It would be interesting if you did a short film, I'm always very useful and can be easily stored to be able to look for when you need them.

Fabio

[rms_adsk]

scheink, Can you explain how you did this: 

"I add points to the quadrants of the circles"

[Anonymous]

OK ... I tried it with the loft, it is not that simple! When selecting the various curves indicates errors, I realized that I had to follow an order of selection by holding down the shift key.
I believe, however, that the two rail sweep is simpler ... also the network of curves

Thanks

Fabio

[AndrewSears]

Hey Guys,

Kevin just showed this to me.  I will make a video and post it to the thread explaining the image and what he said.  Seems the update yesterday fixed an issue I kept having making me think this was not possible.

Andy 

[AndrewSears]

Hey Guys,

You are correct that you need to know about the limits of the part instead of letting the software decide the end conditions for you.  Below is a workaround instead of using Sweep.  My apologies for the quality of the video.  We have a 1.5 MB file size limit so I had to shrink it down.  Email me and I will send you the higher quality video.

Review this video and steps below.   Regarding Kevin's comment "I add points to the quadrants of the circles"; in my video you will see where I created 2 closed loop profiles and added the points he mentioned to the circle sketch.  

- The Circle was the first sketch.  

- The Spline was put on the second sketch.  

- The next step is adding the points to the quadrants of the circle sketch.  This is just making sure they are aligned horizontal to the origin.

- Now I changed the Spline curve to make sure that 2 nodes are in the same plane is the nodes in the circle.  

- To get different outside (lofted) profiles set up the RAILS as you want.  Just make sure that all 4 nodes (from the 2 sketches) are in the same sketch plane.  In the video I used a "M" shaped spline and an arc.

- Loft between the 2 closed loop profiles

- Change the swap to "convert to rails" and select the 2 sketch lines.  

- I chose to create a new component but you could leave it as a body if you want.

The 2 closed loop profiles do not need to be parallel if that helps you get to the correct part.

Let us know if this answers your workflow questions OR something is still keeping you from making the part the way you want. 

Andy 

andrew.sears@autodesk.com

[rms_adsk]

OK, I managed to get this to work. The key thing I was missing was that it was necessary to create construction points at the intersections of the profile sketches, and also to Project those construction points into the rail sketch. I thought I was getting snapping to intersections in the other sketches, but I guess not.

(btw, for tutorial videos it really helps to use the standard toolbar...had to do a lot of squinting and hunting to figure out which commands you were using from the tiny icons in your customized toolbar 😃

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

OK... all very understandable

Thanks