Tube coping angle and distance from tubular frame / frame-trim tools

faraz_khan466

Hey all,

Designing a bike frame using tubular frame and I was hoping that frame/frame-trim would produce a correct angle / distance which I could use to notch my tube using a a hole-saw but seems like that's not possible? If you take a look at my (WIP) frame you'll see I've use frame-trim to cut my frame to size. My cut list angles all read zero and I can't find a easy way to reference the other tube in my drawings - making drawings not much useful either in this scenario. How would I go about doing this that's not fully manual?

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/8022bf4d22e867af3eace9f2/w/b06c6551fbd00d32aa03a28a/e/cd79e7f1ae5d7b0468af092d

The manual way would be to extend all frames to the center of the tubes they are being coped into - and using an angle manually to get an accurate cut. However I was hoping the CAD frame tools would do this for me.

MichaelPascoe

It sounds like you want the trim tool to produce straight cuts instead of fitting Frame A to Frame B. If you want straight cuts, you can run the frame tool again on the same paths but use a square solid frame instead. You could then use this frame to trim the tubes. Alternatively, you could create a guide sketch and use the trim tool to trim up to planes or mates created by the guide sketch.

Please provide some pictures of specifically which joints you are having issues with and describe what that joint should look like.

Note that the cut list table will not measure double angles or curves, only straight simple angles.

MichaelPascoe

It sounds like you want the trim tool to produce straight cuts instead of fitting Frame A to Frame B. If you want straight cuts, you can run the frame tool again on the same paths but use a square solid frame instead. You could then use this frame to trim the tubes. Alternatively, you could create a guide sketch and use the trim tool to trim up to planes or mates created by the guide sketch.

Please provide some pictures of specifically which joints you are having issues with and describe what that joint should look like.

Note that the cut list table will not measure double angles or curves, only straight simple angles.

faraz_khan466

@MichaelPascoe Thanks! I'ts ALL of the joints of tubes you see in the above CAD. Understood about the cut list. Ideally I want it to produce the coped cuts its doing and be able to reference the high / low point of the curved ends in the drawings - but it doesn't let me which makes the drawings kind of useless as well. Cutting to tangent planes is a good idea to work around the situation and I guess I'll just do that.

MichaelPascoe

You can also create a sketch in the side plane which uses the Use sketch feature for all of the edges of the joints. This will project those joints into the sketch which you can then bring that sketch into the drawing by right clicking the drawing view > show hide sketch

wayne_sauder

@faraz_khan466

Sometimes, WE must make something because we can and want to. So have at it, and good luck. But if you wish to skip this part of the job, why not choose a tube size that OSHCUT stocks, upload the step file to their website, and submit the order? Wait a couple of days, and your pipes will appear on your doorstep, coped and ready to weld if you are in the USA. If not, then you could look for a similar service. Just some thoughts, not really an answer to your question.

Derek_Van_Allen_BD

@wayne_sauder even if you pick a tube size or flavor of material they don't have in stock, I've found that their customer support team is great at getting things added to the menu within a day if I provide a Ryerson stock number and a link through email.