Extrude between two shapes

[n8thegr8]

I am trying to create an elliptical rib for a part, however the rib must be tapered along the major axes but not along the minor axes. I created the ellipses for the top and bottom of the rib, they are correctly spaced. I was wondering if there was a way that i could extrude those two shapes together to make one smooth rib with a tapered major axes. Any help is appreciated.

 

[MSPBenson]

Try the Through curves tool if you have the license for it.
Otherwise try the sweep tool specifying 2 sections. You can probably use your major axis as the guide.
Press F1 once you've started the sweep feature to get the help docs up.

Mark Benson
Aerodynamic Model Designer

 

[n8thegr8]

Thank you for the help. However I still cannot solve the problem. I used the swept command to try to connect the sections, i clicked swept - curve - selected the two ellipses - ok. I was given the error message "Gaps in String or Multiple Loops". I also tried to use the help command but was given an error message, i think that there was a problem installing my help files since i cant seem to access and help files. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[JohnRBaker]

The Swept body creation requires at a minimum 2 curves, one that defines the 'path' of the sweep and the other to define the shape or 'profile' of the sweep. Note that you can have up to 3 different 'path' curves and as many 'profiles' as you wish. In your case, if there is no special 'path' that you wish to follow as the body transitions from one ellipse to the other, than you should be able to use Through Curves since this does NOT require a 'path', just 2 or more 'profiles'.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/ugs

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

 

[ugdriver]

n8thegr8,
I think you missed the point of the help docs that MSPBenson was talking about. The sweep feature his very specific how and in what order the line/curve elements are selected. Pay close attention to the cue line too, it will pretty much walk you thru it, but in a nutshell:

select swept

select the guide cure, the curve that runs between the two ends.

Then 'ok', unit the cue line asks for the first section line. Then 'ok' until the cue line asks for the second section line.

The draw back to this type of swept is the resulting solid is quite liner, in other words, the surface probably won't be tangent to the adjoining surface at either end. To accomplish this you'll probably have to add additional guide strings.

Good luck

Mama's don't let your children grow up to be aerospace tool designers...

 

[hudson888]

You may be able to try using the ruled surface tool. Some people are unaware that if the curves make a closed section then it will build a solid body. You have a choice of alignment methods that should be able to get you a result

Plenty of suggestions here, let us know how it goes.

Good Luck

Hudson

 

[JohnRBaker]

I would recommend that you start using the Through Curves function instead of Ruled Surface as our long term plans may be to phase-out the Ruled Surface function in favor of using Through Curves even if you only have 2 profiles.


John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/ugs

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

 

[hudson888]

Yes through curves will do the same thing, and output a solid.
It hadn't occurred to me to do it that way.

I suppose that if ruled surface were replaced with through curves it would be no great loss in that case. It appears that all the available alignment methods are already supported. It would simply be a matter of making sure that the legacy data was still supported.

Regards

Hudson

 

[JohnRBaker]

We would not be removing the Ruled Surface feature type from the data model nor the ability to continue to edit it as a Rulled Surface, just that the Ruled Surface function itself will eventually be moved to a different status where it would no longer appear on the dialogs nor in the pull-down menu. However, for at least a few releases after that, we would probably allow you to 'customize' the toolbar/menu so as to make it available, but at some point in the future (read several years) we could completely obsolete it, which would probably include converting any legacy Ruled Surface features into Through Curve features when part files were updated.


John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/ugs

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