Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

Register Log in
  • Congratulations SSS148 on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Spline point tangent angle problem. 2

Status
Not open for further replies.
Nexim

Nexim

Electrical
Feb 7, 2008
22
I'm having a problem with a sketch I'm doing in SW 2007. Please see the image attached. Basically, I have a spline, and a vertical centerline, and I want to mirror the spline about the centerline. However, I want it so that at the intersection of the spline and centerline (1st spline point) the tangent is horizontal. (Such that the original and mirrorred splines smoothly connect).

You can see where I have selected the spline point, and tried to change the tangent angle. The only way it is letting me change the actual angle is by manually rotating the spline by dragging one of the handles with the mouse. When I try to type a number into the box, as soon as I click back out of the box (expecting to see the change), the number just goes back to what it was again.

Being a perfectionist, this is driving me mad. I need to get the angle at 180', and 179.78...' isn't good enough.

Does anyone know why it's not letting me input the angle?

Thanks
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Sort by date Sort by votes
Use sketch constraints. You cn constrain spline points perpendicular or tangent to lines. Constrain the spline endpoint perpendicular to the symmetry line, or create a horizontal line and constrain the spline end tangent.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Do the constraints show that the solid black line is horizontal, and that the spline and line are tangential?

[cheers]
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
By sketch constraints do you mean the dotted lines that appear, showing you how a sketch entity can align with other entities, when you move the cursor around? If so, I don't get any of them when I move the cursor, which is why I created the horizontal line, hoping that one would appear, but it hasn't. If I move a spline point in line with it, the dotted line appears, but nothing appears when I'm trying to get the tangent of the curve at that point parallel with it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The dotted lines are actually "Inferences". i.e. they just infer what the constraint will be if attached to. The actual constraint is what is shown in the LH side panel when an entity is selected.

[cheers]
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you don't understand what sketch constraints are, you need to dial back a bit and learn those before you set about spline-wranglng.

Constraints are things like tangent, parallel, perpendicular, conincident conditions defined by the user, that determine how sketch entities relate to one another.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you select two entities, the constraint manager (LH side panel) should appear, and the required constraint can be selected.

[cheers]
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks, managed to fix it now.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Proizvodnja
  • Locked
  • Question
Reference point at intersection
Replies
4
Views
6K
Proizvodnja
Proizvodnja
PEU
  • Locked
  • Question
two paths two pivot points
Replies
12
Views
8K
PEU
PEU
AF2023
  • Locked
  • Question
Problem with chamfering a tapped hole in Solidworks 5
Replies
15
Views
770
ASIT859
ASIT859
Sangramkr1992
  • Locked
  • Question
Equation of a spline from SOlidworks 1
Replies
4
Views
553
handleman
handleman
nia573
  • Locked
  • Question
Problem with Ordinate dimensions 1
Replies
11
Views
604
moon161
moon161

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top Bottom