Creating a variational sweep

[bfleck]

I would like to sweep/rotate a single line about a circle, similar to a revolved sweep, only I want to vary the angle of the single line as I sweep around the circle, thus creating a variational sweep. I also want to control this angle with a law curve so that I can specify the angle at certain degree points and have a smooth transition between points. The start angle and end angle will be the same. With the variational sweep, I can not find anywhere to allow a dimension to be varied by a law curve.
Can this be done easily.
Thanks

NX 5.0.4.1

 

[JohnRBaker]

Attached below is a sample file showing how to do what you wish with a Swept Surface. I have broken your circle into two sections to show that there are 2 approaches that can be taken, one (the Blue surface) was done with an Angular Law based on a Sketch and the second (the Green surface) was done with an Angular Law using explicit points along the path where you can directly type the angular value desired.

Anyway, give it a look and see what you think.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[bfleck]

John,
Those 2 techniques are exactly what I was looking for. I was able to acomplish the variable surface using the variational sweep and specifying extra sections, however, I found this tool can be tempermental. Using your method with Angular Law based on Sketch is very similar to how I would have created the surface in ProE, except in ProE, the Sketch does not exist in the model, but instead is an item in the part navigator. Anyhow, same result.
I have another question regarding your model and please forgive me if it is a simple question. The sketch you have to drive the angle is mainly composed of a spline. The spline is made up of a total of 5 points (start end and 3 internal). How did you create this spline so that the ends are always tangent to the horizontal line and why did you select a degree of 5. Every time I create a spline inside a sketch and make the ends tangent with other curves, I cannot make the ends remain tangent during modification of the geometry.
Thanks

 

[JohnRBaker]

Don't constrain the ends 'tangent', but rather select the end point of the spline and your reference curve (for direction) and select Constrain and you will see that there will be a 'Slope' option. It's similar to Tangent except it only provides control over the direction of the slope without the spline having to actually touch the reference curve.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[bfleck]

Ah ha. Got it.
Until now I always thought Studio Splines inside the Sketcher were quite limited and non-associative and could not understand why the feature behaved differently to outside Sketcher tool. That helps alot.
Thats John.
As always, you come up with the goods.