Loft, Helix ,Sweep? Not sure what to use.

richard_crook

Hello everyone i am still very new to C.A.D. and onshape I have been trying to make a cable chain attachment for the extruder on my Ender 3 S1 Pro, I have made the front and the back but I cant make the twist in the middle, I am not sure which tool to use or how to go about it. the first picture is what i built, the second is what it is suppose to look like. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you 

S1mon

You should be able to do that with loft, but are the input parts all .STL? Onshape can do some things with mesh parts, but this kind of shape is probably best with really clean and simple shapes. 

Sweep with a helix will keep the section constant, but won't have the ease-in/ease-out that you show in your second image.
If you want a constant section, you can do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJdRixQ-Gpg&t=42s

I would make a very simple version of the cross section, and think carefully of where you want the centroid of the thing that you're guiding to be. 
Here's my quick version: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b704dca6602cd35235bfb66e/w/270af4d0dab12fe121bb7b13/e/4188b5881869e913c1abade7

S1mon

@richard_crook

Your document link doesn't work for me - I get an error that it's in the trash.

Take a look at the model I've shared and see if you can implement something like that.

S1mon

You should be able to do that with loft, but are the input parts all .STL? Onshape can do some things with mesh parts, but this kind of shape is probably best with really clean and simple shapes. 

Sweep with a helix will keep the section constant, but won't have the ease-in/ease-out that you show in your second image.
If you want a constant section, you can do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJdRixQ-Gpg&t=42s

I would make a very simple version of the cross section, and think carefully of where you want the centroid of the thing that you're guiding to be. 
Here's my quick version: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b704dca6602cd35235bfb66e/w/270af4d0dab12fe121bb7b13/e/4188b5881869e913c1abade7

richard_crook

Hello S1 Mon Thank You,  I have been trying to figure this out for like two weeks. sorry I should have read the forum tips a little better before I started. This is the link to my sketch  https://cad.onshape.com/documents/e43a2e3dbd29029f8bbf18d1/w/4dffab9a749f199607bee236/e/8f97e5351a3d25e851cfaae8 . Every time I tried it would turn red. Thank you again

S1mon

@richard_crook

Your document link doesn't work for me - I get an error that it's in the trash.

Take a look at the model I've shared and see if you can implement something like that.