REPOST Pattern Along a 3D spline

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am trying to pattern a cylinder along a 3D spline.

Q1 I need the axes of the cylinder to be equidistant from oneanother but the RECTANGULAR PATTERN tool only spces them with respect to distances along the actual spline. 

Q2.  The cylinders are actually part of a non linear rack so is it possible to orient the pattern components with a guide rail similar to the SWEEP command.

I attach an example where I want to PATTERN 20 cylinders with a spacing of 20mm between their axes.  The upper spline represents the line on which their axes fall as they progress.

Tks

[JDMather]

I have been experimenting with this a bit and suspect there are some errors in logic.

It might be easier to come up with a solution if I knew something about the product and how it will be manufactured.

Problem 1.  Your splines are different length - I suspect one of them should have been a duplicate copy of the other.
Problem 2. Will the linear divisions divide the spline in 20-1 equal distances? I could check this myself, but not sure it is worth the *effort yet.

Problem 3.  The 2D sketches are on parallel planes - what is the design intent on this? I suspect a 3D spline doesn't really capture your design intent as created (I'm thinking a couple of 2D sketchs with 3D spline created from the projected intersection, but I don't know the design intent).

*You could create 19 lines on the spline and make them 20mm length.  Is the division really 20mm or within acceptable manufacturing tolerance.  That also brings up the problem that the splines are exactly equal length as created.

I think once these questions are cleared up - the actual pattern is pretty easy (although I suspect my solution might be a bit different than you might expect).

[Anonymous]

Tks Mr Mather (JD),

Need to compute your response and revert. 

[JDMather]

19 equal divisions (20 points) is closer to 23.0225  (see attached)

[Anonymous]

Tks for the interest.

Thought about the problem since the last post.  The standard PATTERN is based on equal arc lengths . What I require is to pattern the feature using equal chord lengths as presented. 

In addition I need to augment the orientation of the pattern as it progresses using another spline or "Guide Rail". 

Given the above and with the attached, I hope I have explained the position somewhat more clearly.  While these have been manually compiiled with ease, these cylinders repesent the pegs on a rack over which a sprocket will travel for a distance of 2 km.  Having to arrange these manually would be hideous.