making a 3D pipe construction 1

[mechdeskidiot]

I am wanting to design a wakeboard tower (made of aluminum pipe) in mechanical desktop 6 and I am not sure about how to go about drawing it up. I tried using the 3D pipe command but all that gives me is a blue line representation of the pipe. I would like to be able to set the pipe diameter and then view it in 3D so I can get a good idea of what it will look like. Any help in this will be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[PatCouture]

I think you will be forced to do multiple sketchs and multiple extrusions to accomplish a 3D pipe and I would go with a variable for the diameter.

Good luck

Patrick

 

[smcadman]

Did you get the "blue line representation" of the line using the "am3dpath" and using the Pipe option? If you did, your on the right path. After using that command, if you accept the defaults, it automatically makes a plane perpendicular to the path, and it also makes a work point. Start the circle command, and pick the workpoint as the centerpoint of the circle. After making the circle and profiling, dimension it, then start the "sweep" command and your'e done.
In case you didn't notice, on the "3D Pipe Path" dialog box, the last column is "Radius". Just enter the desired radius for each corner that you want a radius.

Flores

 

[mechdeskidiot]

thanks smcadman that helped a lot, but now when I try to put it on the drawing page and give it dimensions and what not, it doesnt know any dimensions for the drawing. How can I fix this.