I need to bend a 3D tube 180 degrees in Autocad 2000 2

[GregCost]

I need to bend a 3D tube 180 degrees in Autocad 2000. Does anyone know how to do this without writing code or cutting a torus in half and doing a union? Or is there a freeware or shareware tool out there that generates pipes or tubes that can be manipulated? Thanks

 

[PLB]

Hi GregCost,
I haven't done a lot of 3d yet, but, I was thinking of the basics and the way that I would try would be to draw 2 concentric circles (representing wall thicknesses) and then REVOLVE them 180 degrees. Then rotate them in the correct UCS view to get them oriented the way that you want. It may be a little slow, but it should still get you what you want.

Hope this helps,
Paul

 

[CDH]

one way you could do it is draw a pline that would represent the center of the tube, and then draw the shape of the tube at the end of the pline (looking at the end of it) and then extrude the shape along the path of the pline.

 

[GregCost]

Hi Paul, it works I get a 180 deg tube with the proper distance between the two center points of the straight pipe going into the 180. But, I need to collapse the arc to a tight ellipse so that the two pipes are very close together.

 

[GregCost]

CDH if I understand what you are saying I can draw the shape I want with the proper arc and then extrude a 3D object to follow the shape of the pline?

 

[CDH]

Basically yes. When you extrude the object, it has an option for "path" and you just select the pline that will create the path. Also, you aren't really extruding a 3d object, what you are really doing is extruding a 2d object, and then is becomes a 3d object. For example, if you do a circle, it will become one solid mass. In order to get a pipe, you will need two circles, both extruding along the same path. Then you can use the "subtract" command, and subtract the smaller circle/mass from the larger one.
One last thing, make sure to set "isolines" to a higher value. The higher the number the smoother the extrusion

 

[GregCost]

I tried it and it works GREAT! I bumped up the ISOLINES value and used a 2D object. I want to thank you CDH and Paul for your help.