Keep profile constrained on a sweep

[Anonymous]

I've been trying to rotate a profile around an ellipse while sliding the profile vertically to follow a 3D path.

When I sweep a profile around a 3D sketched loop, the profile stays normal to the curve. Because of this, the profile tilts and turns, rather than remaining vertical. Is it possible to keep the sweep from tilting the profile? If not, is their another way to do the same thing. Would a loft do something like that.

I attached a part file that contains the profile at two different positions along the sweep, as well as the 3D curve, and a 2D sketch with a flattened version of the curve.

One more thing. In the part file, the 3D sketch appears pink on my screen. I couldn't figure out why, is it related to the fact that there is a circled "i" next to the sketch in the browser?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me. I'm sort of new to Inventor, and still learning.

[Anonymous]

I think you are going to need to do a loft with at least 3 rails to get this part. You may need some intermediate section profiles.
Where did you get the 3D sketch from? It appears to be a projection from another part.
You might want to check out a file in the Samples folder. I think it is called surfaces or maybe bottle. The part is a bottle that makes use of 3D sketches generated from intersecting surfaces.
I would try modeling one half of the part and then mirror. I assume that you want a flat bottom. When you do the loft you will get some geometry below the "bottom" plane but that can be easily cut away with the split tool.

[glenn-chun]

>> When I sweep a profile around a 3D sketched loop, the profile stays normal to the curve. Because of this, the profile tilts and turns, rather than remaining vertical. Is it possible to keep the sweep from tilting the profile?

Try plane normal sweep if you use Inventor 11 or later.  Select Path & Guide Surface as Type in the Sweep dialog.  Select a work plane as a Guide Surface.  The work plane could be one of the base planes or a user-defined work plane, but do not select any work plane parallel to the profile plane.  The orientation of the profile will be constrained to the normal vector of the selected work plane.  Compare four examples on the attached image.

Glenn C.

[Anonymous]

A guide surface is the best way to control orientation. Examples abound including Mastering Inventor 2009. Not sure if it made it into MI-2010 or 2011.

[Anonymous]

Here's an example that actually forces a twist.

[JDMather]

Uhmmm guys, this is a 6 yr old thread.  A lot has changed in 6 yrs.  Hopefully the OP has moved on.

[Anonymous]

Dates?  What Dates?  LOL!

Still relevent Info for newbies....