LRA to XYZ Conversion

[MateuszM]

Hello everyone,
I am about to reverse engineer one complex tubular structure and everything I have is CNC bender coordinates in LRA (Lenght, Rotation, Angle) format and Center Line Radius. I need to convert it to XYZ to draw a centerline in Solidworks, because I need to have a 3D model.
Is there any free LRA to XYZ Converter, I have found only commercial one which is not cheap (in terms of our company) and this is needed only once.
Or maybe someone has an access to such software and could help me converting those coordinates?
Any help will be appreciated.

 

[MadMango]

In a previous life I had to design custom rigid AC lines and exhaust system re-routings. It was not fun. We used a hybrid form of MIL-D-9898C and Bend Data. This isn't software, but it might help:

http://www.clarkfixtures.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/whitepaper.pdf

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[drawoh]

MateuszM,

This question properly belongs in forum559.

If you have data in LRA format, you should be able to create a 3D[ ]sketch directly from it. If your tubular structure is welded, you are most of the way to being able to use SolidWorks' welding feature.

--
JHG

 

[rb1957]

i understand your data to be bend tables ... so not so easy to use. can you draw the individual tubes (ie reverse the bend table) ?

another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?

 

[3DDave]

I did a full-round trip software LRA -> XYZ -> LRA a long time ago.

I think it would be about as easy to build the features using LRA references as to recreate the software, but either way, the tough part is bend allowance calculation - which is simple geometry and is in many discussions - recently in

http://hackaday.com/2016/05/18/the-art-and-science-of-bending-sheet-metal/

Other than that, the conversions can be done with whatever local coordinate systems/datum planes are available to build the model.

The other method is just using augmented matrix multiplications to transform the coordinates while walking back along the list of bends, just like the bender works.

I wish I still had it, but it's with another company, and probably they discarded it.

 

[MateuszM]

Thank you for all answers. I have managed to reconstruct it using Solidworks welding module. I have used bending tables and bent but not welded tubes as a reference and it somehow works.
Cheers.