Beam Feature - problem with orientation of beams

philip_k

I would like to build a simple frame. The frame consits of sketch lines.
I'm having trouble with the right orientation of the beams. By trying to move the beams there is always one beam which does the opposite thing of the other three beams. The highlighted beams should be orientated in the same plane.
What am i doing wrong?
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a8fdb1794e56c307abc81a7a/w/df13f98daa39a9a43c17e5de/e/5c700c2803f6423fbe6feedd

NeilCooke

Are you use the latest version? That was a bug I thought I had fixed. 

philip_k

NeilCooke said:

Are you use the latest version? That was a bug I thought I had fixed. 

Thx four your reply!

In the mentioned document beam version is 422.

I just tried version 531- is this the latest? In case not: where do i get the latest version?

In version 531 i get the following error:
I select the first sketch line -> a profil is generated as it should be.
I select the second sketch line -> the first profil disappears and the second profil is not visible neither.

Error message says: Edge loops must be planar

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a8fdb1794e56c307abc81a7a/w/df13f98daa39a9a43c17e5de/e/47d341f7ec9317bd61230713

NeilCooke

The way it calculates a loop is not foolproof since there are so many permutations. This is failing because you are picking segments from different sketches. This will work in some scenarios but not others and I have yet to find an algorithm to address all cases. 

To workaround this, use "select other" if there are multiple sketch edges on top of each other and try to pick ones that belong to the same sketch. Like I say it will work between segments from different sketches in some cases but not all. I will take a look at a fix but cannot guarantee one short term (since this has been "bugging" me for a while).

Yes 531 is the latest and I put that error message in there because of this issue.

philip_k

Hi Neil,
thank you for your support. I will try your suggestion.

Maybe a solution would be to address the sketch feature. For example a feature that let's you combine different sketch lines to a single new "grouped" sketch.

owen_sparks

Would the use of the "composite curve" feature fix this?

Owen S.

romeograham

I am running into this problem too.

I have a single sketch, with several lines.

I can make an outer frame with a couple of Beam features, but when I want to do all 4 diagonal braces in one feature, the orientation is incorrect:

The top right brace is on the wrong side of the line.

Seems to be the most recent version of the FS:


@NeilCooke
Am I doing something wrong? Or is this still expected (but unfortunate) behaviour?

Thanks
Romeo

NeilCooke

It’s unfortunate. When the lines are disconnected there’s no way (that I can find) that will keep the beams on the side of the line that you would expect. 

romeograham

Interesting. OK thanks.

emagdalenaC2i

@romeograham You should create 4 Beam features more for the 4 diagonal braces.

@NeilCooke In our own Beam FS with my approach of groups that are trimed by the previous group profiles you can create all that frame in just a single feature ;-)
 

romeograham

That's a nice improvement! @emagdalenaC2i can you share your FS?

emagdalenaC2i

Sorry, @romeograham but that FS is part of a set of tools and libraries that we provide for our customers.

I have just tested @philip_k document and as I expected our FS fails too due to that "Edge loops must be planar" issue.

In the next version of our FS I will try to fix that and share that code so it can be added to the Beam feature

romeograham

@emagdalenaC2i I understand about the proprietary tools. I'm not in the business of doing very many of these types of parts (weldments) so I wouldn't be able to pay for them at this point anyway Your FS looks robust and very useful!

The part I didn't understand was that the 4 angled braces ARE planar (on the same plane) and in the same sketch. However, they are not adjacent or continuous, nor to they form a loop. 1 of the 4 braces ended up on the other side of the path every time. It didn't matter the order of selection either.

Looking forward to improvements to the Beam FS.

NeilCooke

Very nice @emagdalenaC2i - that was something I wanted to do with beams when array parameters came out but just didn't have the time. Having said that, a new version of Beams will be published later today (bug fixes and feature requests, though I see you have already implemented part naming).

john_mcclary

Sweet