CREATING A WIRE - MESH DESIGN

[khushank.ks]

I am working on designing of a wire-mesh, which I need to model in Inventor (for 3D printing).

This is a mesh of 2cm x 2cm dimensions, containing upto 30 wire (or cylinders) running from edge to edge. The coordinates of the end-points of the wires are known.

It is straight forward to form such mesh by using extrude command for the wire cross-section (which will be circle) but repeating the same procedure for 30 wires is taking time. 

Is there any way this can be done faster? 

So far, the coordinate of wires are imported from excel and are joined by straight lines. This way we have a layout of the mesh. Then the major part of the modelling remains (making cross-section on each wire and extruding it); which is time consuming. 

Please help.

[YannickEnrico]

If you're using Inventor 2018, you should have access to Sketch Driven patterns. See attached

[SBix26]

It would help a great deal if you could post a sample image or data set.  I can't tell from your text what this mesh actually looks like.

Sam B

Inventor Professional 2018.2.3
Windows 7 SP1

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@khushank.kswrote:

It is straight forward to form such mesh by using extrude command for the wire cross-section....

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Can you attach the *.ipt file of this single straight forward geometry?

[khushank.ks]

basic layout of the mesh where the cylindrical wires are represented by straight lines

This is how the circle (r = 0.5mm) is made on a plane defined perpendicular to the line passing through the mid-pointThe circle is extruded between the planes at the edges of the mesh

Hope this helps!

[TheCADWhisperer]

No *.ipt file attached?

How will the real world mesh be manufactured?

It appears in your images that you have intersecting cylinders rather than woven wire mesh?

If it is a non-woven fabric - the mesh should still not intersect?

If it is OK for wires to intersect, then this design would be trivial using Frame Generator with a custom size profile.

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi! I think I know what you are after now. You would like to "thicken" these lines so they become solids, right? The quickest way to do that is to use Grill command. Here is what you need to do.

Edit the wire sketch and create a big circle or a big rectangle containing the wires. Next, create a big plate right below the wires. Go to Ribbon panel -> right-click -> check Plastic features. In Plastic features, click on Grill command. It should be fairly straight forward fulfill the selection and create the grill. After that cut away the plate and just keep the grill. Lastly, use Fillet command to round the edges.

Here are some instruction materials for Grill.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor-products/getting-started/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/20...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W9h5U7MlRk

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Could you upload the ipt file please?

[rushabhthakkar_910]

Video helped me Sir....

Thanks...!!