surface extrude direction

billy2

extrude in plane of sketch should be possible:

S1mon

That would essentially create a line, not a surface. You need there to be some angle between the sketch line and the direction it's extruding. It's not picking the sketch normal, it's picking the vector of the sketch line.

billy2

Forget about the sketch, I'm thinking it's a curve in space, take this curve in this direction. We don't have 3D sketches so why not? It's nice to have a profile & direction in one sketch. 

I watched the video in the help looking for limitations on direction and there's no talk about a direction limitation as it approaches the sketch plane.

I finally got what I wanted with a loft, but I feel less comfortable with this:


I guess I'm lazy and always looking for the shortest path to get what I want. 

billy2

Ended up with a simple rectangle and surface offset.



Sometimes it's best to just keep it simple.

steve_shubin

Implicit mates are definitely convenient. They can save you a step at times

But for some reason, I just haven’t figured out how to get one to do what I could do with placing a MultiMateConnector FS before the extrusion

The implicit mate will only allow me to adjust the X axis

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/cce52d04c78c7ddfc8c63b62/w/3cabd835f1b33cd8f8180fd8/e/2551f013050e296fc15f29c7

On the other hand, MultiMateConnector will allow me to set up a compound extrusion where I could adjust BOTH the X axis and Y axis to whatever I want

S1mon

Mate Connectors as sketch planes are so close to being amazing, but they are really frustrating... The fact that you can't do the equivalent of Plane's "curve point" method is so annoying. And as you point out, a few more inputs like MMC would be huge.

steve_shubin

@S1mon said:

a few more inputs like MMC would be huge.

YUP !!!

billy2

I like  MultiMateConnector looks really powerful. I wish it kept the string of transformations and applied a curve between each MC. I'm looking for defining a robot's arm and this could be the skeleton in one feature. I'll have to look at the code. It'd be nice if it could build the assembly mates when importing into an assembly.

billy2

They're not going to allow it "no way", you can't even trick it:


There's something about keeping it simple. Even if it did it, a simple sketch would allow any one the ability to maintain it. It's probably no a good idea to come up with some crazy stuff.