Welcome to the Onshape forum! Ask questions and join in the discussions about everything Onshape.
First time visiting? Here are some places to start:- Looking for a certain topic? Check out the categories filter or use Search (upper right).
- Need support? Ask a question to our Community Support category.
- Please submit support tickets for bugs but you can request improvements in the Product Feedback category.
- Be respectful, on topic and if you see a problem, Flag it.
If you would like to contact our Community Manager personally, feel free to send a private message or an email.
Rotation of sweep along a 3d spline
The_Techy
Member Posts: 9 ✭
Hi,
I'm trying to design a track, with a spine, and rails. Eventually I'll add brackets/crossties between them, but for now I'm just focusing on these two parts.
Using the new 3d routing curve tool (which is awesome btw), I made a simple 3d spline, and used the sweep tool to sweep a sketch along it. This worked great, except I would like to angle the track. You can see that here: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/1debd957f080dfe3c706c441/w/5ccb924ab6e6b42e2acba486/e/242229a54a23b2ab232d8207
As mentioned though, I was wondering if there was any way to control the rotation of a sweep along the spline axis. E.G. If I wanted to have the rails facing inwards on the turns, would that be possible? Somewhat like this, but with the spine and rails separated.
I know lofts allow you to do this, but I need to use a sweep, because I want the profile/cross section to remain the same through the whole thing, and lofts kind of 'distort' the shape (in the above photo for example, the rail gets narrower in the middle, then widens again). Unless I'm missing something, there's no options to keep the profile the same the whole way through a loft.
Any advice on how this could be done? Thanks!
Comments
have you messed with connections on lofts?
Yeah, but the cross section doesn't stay the same throughout the whole thing using lofts, which isn't ideal, hence why I'm trying to use sweeps
yeah I played with it for a while in your example and got it better by adding another profile in the middle but still not without distortion. I don't think its fair to have the loft take such a tight turn vs what your larger track is doing and your not likely to even notice the minimal distortion at a much larger scale. For the tighter area if there are any it seems you would need to model those separately.to get the detail/precision you are looking for.. It looks like Solidworks had guide curves added to there sweep tool that would work for this. Looks like the Onshape team needs to be notified about adding guide curves to sweeps. 😉