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Swept solid 2

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Timelord

Timelord

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Dec 18, 2002
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I haven't loaded SW2006 yet, so I cannot test it but I was wondering if SW has added the ability to sweep a solid yet? I tried to make a barrel cam once but couldn't get the slot so both sides remained tangent to my follower. The only way I can see this being done is to have the ability to sweep the cylindrical shape of the end mill while translating and rotating the cylindrical cam blank. The ability to sweep a solid has been requested of SW and promised since I can remember. It seems to me that this should be a requirement of any decent solid modeler, otherwise it is near impossible to model a simple cut that any 2 axis computer controlled machine can easily make.

TIA,

Timelord
 
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tar writes:

"SW sheet metal functionality makes sure that all edges of a sheet metal part remain perpendicular to the face of the sheet. This is same thing that happens when you machine a slot in the periphery of a cylinder using a cylindrical cutter who's axis is perpendicular to and intersects the axis of the part being machined."

No disrespect, but I think this only holds true if your cylindrical cutter has a diameter of zero. As soon as your cutter has a real diameter, the walls that it cuts are parallel to the axis of the cutter, which is perpendicular to the surface on where the axis of the cutter intersects the surface.

I have solved a similar problem where I was trying to cut a male threadlike form for a camlock (sometimes called a bayonet lock) mechanism by creating a sketch on a face parallel to the axis of the cylinder above the surface and then doing a wrap onto the surface. In other words, create a cylinder that is the "minor diameter" of your cam, then wrap the sketch feature onto it with the thickness of the wrap defining your final "major diameter".

It is a bit tricky if you need the opposite edges of your sketch to connect once wrapped, but it does work.

Scott in San Diego
 
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Scott - take a look at the link Jabberwocky posted. Professor Mather has a great resource for examples and freely shares his tutorials. I had a bayonet feature I had to put into a part which really taxed my MCAD abilities....lucky for me I was doing this in Pro/E 2001 and had a different tool box to pull this off. I used the graph function and Trajpar for those that know Pro/E....did it all in surfaces then did a transform since this feature was part of three around a cyclinder. Anyway, a little of topic.....I worked through that tutorial 5B and it's the way I would do a cam since you can define the profile on that sketch.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford




 
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Timelord,

I just created a Planar Surface from a circular sketch, then created a sketch path line & arc, then did a sweep from the sketch circle (not the planar feature) and created a swept solid. Easy. Nobel Prize please. :)

Jeff

 
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Heckler,

Thanks for encourageing me to look at Prof. Mather's examples. Some great stuff in there.

I started out similar to Mather's example 5B, except my sketch plane was an offset from the tangent plane to an arbitrary distance above my cylinder. I then used "emboss" instead of "deboss". I just played with my sketch until this generated the geometry I needed directly. I don't understand why Mather's example bothers with converting to surfaces and stitching and stuff. Seems to add some unnecassary steps, but I may be missing something. My profile has different geometry for the top and bottom cam surfaces.

Scott in San Diego
 
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Posting images only faq559-1100

Posting any files faq559-1177

[cheers]
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of faq559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions faq559-1091
 
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CBL, TL,

Perhaps what Timelord is requesting and what I read from
his post are two different things. I just created a common sweep of a planar sketch. It is a solid, it is a sweep. Am I missing something?

Jeff

 
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yanceman,

I believe everyone here is talking about creating a solid (cylinder to represent a milling cutter) and then creating a cut that follows a path (helical most likely) with that solid cylinder. This is not possible to do or replicate (easily) with SW.

mncad
 
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Mncad,

Ahh. Well, I know you cannot create an extruded feature, then sweep that solid feature. At the same time, an end mill will have a square profile, and this cut can be duplicated in a cut-sweep, as long as the sketch remains perpendicular to the helix path (like the lands and grooves of a gun barrel).

Jeff

 
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Yanceman said,

"...and this cut can be duplicated in a cut-sweep, as long as the sketch remains perpendicular to the helix path..."

There in lies the trick. In my experience SolidWorks is not very good at keeping the sketch perpendicular to the helical path, even with helical guide curves. Even if it was, this method won't work very well if need your sweep path to have any non-helical geometery like any kind of bumps or indents in the cam surface. The wrap works much better, becuase you have a 2D sketch were you can define your cam geometry and also something to put on the drawing when it is time to actually cut metal.

Scott in San Diego
 
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Here is a link to a part I created in Pro/E using Trajpar and the Graph function. The bayonet cut was made entirely of surfaces and knitted together....this was a real head scratcher. In total it took 15 features to create. A simple part if made on a 5 axis mill.


Anyway, I'm not trying to start a my MCAD is better than yours statement. I done equally complexed stuff in SWx that would be a real pain in Pro/e....ie draft features. Draft is a real pain in Pro/e.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford
 
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Tar,

I looked at your track cam. I has a path that changes in width; no good as a cam. The cam follower will be loose in most of the track.

Timelord
 
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How to approach it along a extremely organic surface......

1)Organic body:


2)Set up sweep, notice that the path is COS, it will only work when the Curve is on srf, and always use a circle as your profile.


3)Complete your sweep, make sure its a seperate body


4)Use the face of the orgainc surface to do a cut with surface to slice away the sweep, so it looks something like this....


5) then copy the surface that was sliced away.


6) Thicken cut....


7) Completed slot....








W.Y.T.D.N.T.Y Manual coming soon :)

"if you can't make it work...Cheat"
 
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Timelord,

I was only trying to share with you a technique to get over a modeling problem that you by your own admission could not crack.

I spent maybe 20 minutes on the parts and didn't bother to work out all the details or even define the sketches involved. There's 20 minutes of my life trying to help you out that I will never get back.

Won't do that again.

 
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tar,

Sorry you wasted your time. I did not say that I couldn't crack the problem. In my original post I said "near impossible" meaning I have worked around the issue, but like you I don't like to waste time especially when it is working around dumb limitations of a software package. I will reiterate, the ability to sweep solids should in any basic solid modeler, because that is how parts are really made. The cam example is just one place where the limitations of 2D sweeps and extrusions becomes obvious.

Timelord

P.S. Your method is not the one that worked for me, it has problems you have yet to discover.
 
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In your subsequent post you said:

" It is not possible to work around this limitation, I've tried many different ways."

My way is the only way I've found using SW2003 which is where I'm stuck at the moment.

It's really just a matter of visual representation anyway. If I'm making a barrel cam I'll spec the cam curve and program the part to that.

 
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Timelord,

Did you try the method in Prof. Mather's example 5B as referenced by Heckler and discussed by Heckler and myself? Did you look at the parts posted by Heckler and myself? Do they accomplish what you are trying to do or are they two different problems?

Thanks,

Scott
 
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