Offset spline with a loop, not giving expected results.. at least to me.

[DavePlant]

When I offset a looped spline the offset tool will only pick the inner portion or the right (open) side of the lines for small offsets. (see movie)

The trouble is that the section that I actually need an offset on is (the dotted orange bit):

And offset will not catch that part. I think that a fully external offset would also be a reasonable solution:

Is there a better way of doing this?

Could the sketch offset command get a internal/external flag added to it for these situations?

Cheers,

Dave

[pawel.potyrala · Accepted solution]

Hello @DavePlant!

You are correct here - even though the spline is a single sketch curve, only one closed-loop can be offset at a time.

In this particular case, you can achieve the desired geometry by offsetting the spline multiple times in both directions and deleting/trimming the unnecessary curves. I am attaching a screencast with the workaround.

Best regards,

[DavePlant]

Thanks Pawel!

That works like a charm.

It's still odd to me that there are 3 good offset solutions to the curve, but the sketch command will only propose two of them.

Thanks for the help!

Regards,

Dave