Mating normal on bended tube

Henk_de_Vlaam

I like to mate a clamp on a bended tube. I.e. the center of the clamp cilinder [A] should mate on the orange centerline/curve of the tube [B]. Then it would be nice to keep the connector normal to the curve and have it shiftable.

How to do that?

jon_sorrells

I think this is what you're trying to do.  https://cad.onshape.com/documents/2f78e2d3296ebe68ec1f26e5/w/91b3f6b3f74668f9bfb32d09/e/3581d4852d42f83aaa779808
I used a tangent mate between the sketch for the clamp and the sketch for the pipe, so that the center of the clamp can go along the center of the pipe.  To keep the clamp normal to the pipe, I created a second tangent mate using a second copy of the sketch for the clamp, which was mated to the edge of the clamp, as shown in the image below.

Ben_Misegades

This is one of those things that should be very simple, but I can't figure out how to get OS to do it.

I made a simple model to represent what you're trying to do, and in the clamp model I have a sketch that is essentially the axis of the inside curved face of the clamp with one endpoint where you have your 'A' mate connector. In the assembly I was going to mate that 'A' point to the sketch that defines the sweep path of the tube, and then mate the clamp's sketch line to be tangent to that same arc. I managed to get the tangent mate, but for the life of me I cannot get the other mate to work, OS keeps trying to mate it to the center point of that arc.

I see this as another instance of OS's 'mate connectors' simply not being sufficient in functionality to completely replace "traditional" mates.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/565548e734d6e345c587e868/w/ae353e923451a9cc1c600520/e/9385948ce4ee645022eb9c47

jon_sorrells

I think this is what you're trying to do.  https://cad.onshape.com/documents/2f78e2d3296ebe68ec1f26e5/w/91b3f6b3f74668f9bfb32d09/e/3581d4852d42f83aaa779808
I used a tangent mate between the sketch for the clamp and the sketch for the pipe, so that the center of the clamp can go along the center of the pipe.  To keep the clamp normal to the pipe, I created a second tangent mate using a second copy of the sketch for the clamp, which was mated to the edge of the clamp, as shown in the image below.

Ben_Misegades

@jon_sorrells that's essentially the idea, I believe. Not quite the same way I was trying to do it, but that'd work as well.

Henk_de_Vlaam

@jon_sorrells, thank you for your solution. The job has been done!

The trick was mate a point tangent to a spline which I did not know that this was possible.