Adding struts between non planar tubes

WaldPinkler

Here's the model

I'm having a tough time trying to put support struts between these tubes that aren't aligned. How do I go about it?

I feel like I'm hacking things together with projected curves and bridging curves.

The sketch in the picture below shows where I'd like the struts.

dirk_van_der_vaart

This look's really good, a few thing's.
I would model this in half and boolean the middle pipes later.
And for the strange curved pipe's try placing a 3 point plane first in the position you want.

eric_pesty

Probably a bit late for this but using the "frames" tools would have likely made this quite a bit simpler...
For example you can create a straight member between any two points so you wouldn't have needed any of the bridging curves...

That said, I'm not sure which other tubes you are having trouble with...

WaldPinkler

I feel completely blind. I never even used the frame tool.

I was having trouble with the end section as in the sketch. There were small gaps in the horizontal bar to the main frame because of where I was trying to join it to. I couldn't get the inner struts to position correctly.

WaldPinkler

I played with the frame tool. It's easy for sweeping the tubing. It will place tube between vertices but how can I get those for the smaller support struts in-between the rear section? The projected curve loses that information and it's hard to project the struts on awkward angles.

I created the lower rear part with the sketch from the first post and the one below. I aligned the end points with a horizontal constraint to the same in first sketch above.

Just do the same with the struts? The slight angles makes it hard to find which vertex I'm looking for. I could make more sketches but that feels awkward to make changes.



I tried a loft between the frames, a ruled surface for the braces then intersection curves. It's faster and looks ok. I don't know if the intersection curves are straight though, it depends on the loft.


I can't get the same with the rear section because it's hard to select and fill the awkward shape.

eric_pesty

Can you put a sketch on your extruded surfaces (blue pictures above) and use a "pierce" relation with each of your curves?

WaldPinkler

Sure, that works. It means a sketch for every brace but works.

Making a plane 45 degrees to the first sketch worked for the braces. I have to project each separately otherwise it fails. At least it gets me where I want.

dirk_van_der_vaart

This Featurescript is what your are looking for.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/9bddf41e8d9f461ea10840f8/v/131849b5116cc7c1367e35ae/e/79da65d8fe27fc8ee2900deb

WaldPinkler

I gave that a go. It is nice that fillets are added as one continuous curve in 3d. The interface is pretty clunky with it's 25mm default on fields.

3d sketch model

I still run in the same difficulties with the braces. The fillets make it worse. 


The alignment at braces is terrible. I could extend them past frame then project the curves and use the 3d sketch tool to shorten. It's a big hassle if any geometry changes!

dirk_van_der_vaart

I made a copy and added a copy of your Partstudio.
Look for Arch studio copy and see what happens after insert of Plane 1
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/31f3460d8bcce0c90a33e9f5/w/f7f8882f01f129a35312d5b3/e/38e5537477a3939c5b8f5fda