Sweep extrusion with curves in 3 dimensions

mark_dutton343

I have spent hours trying to sweep with both curves in xy and yz dimensions. I have looked at examples from others doing similar things using lofts, etc, but I can't fathom it.

My use case is I have a wire frame (a stand for an electric unicycle) that I want to attach a base to. It is bent to a certain shape that is all curves in multiple directions. I have drawn the curved paths from two faces (top and right), but I can't figure out how to make a sweep, or loft follow these two paths simultaneously to get the complex curve I need. My drawing is here https://cad.onshape.com/documents/640ed90f394fa65ae9f3cad8/w/a72a9f52503df2e8fe1ebb8b/e/22aae96bcb1efc9e8605b71e

I can sort of get where I want to go using a loft if I use one of the paths as a guide, but not both. I have tried attaching these paths to all different places, but I am totally stuck now.

I am hoping this is possible. It is otherwise a very basic drawing.

MichaelPascoe

Hi @mark_dutton343, 

One way to do this would be using several sketches, then Project curve, then sweep along the curve. However, project curve is tricky when the sketches do not have a clear line of site with the entire projection edge. In this case, you would have to split it up into several sketches so that each sketch has a clear projection path.

Alternatively, you can use a great custom feature: Freeform Spline by @Evan_Reese. It will let you create a spline in 3D from the original reference points! See this workflow below. Note that I clicked the "Final" button. This lets you preview the rest of your feature tree while editing a feature. Very neat when working with Freeform Spline.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/57b7997cd4fbb22f45754779/w/9b403a9909dd0cd234794c28/e/c25f2909c725b0dddb2533fd?renderMode=0&uiState=6369511290a099709b09a435

mark_dutton343

Thank you Michael. You are a legend. In my case, I can probably get away with the projected curve, but I will also check out the Freeform Spline.