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Way to sweep a regular pattern along a path?

Way to sweep a regular pattern along a path?

Way to sweep a regular pattern along a path?

(OP)
I'm working on a beach chair model and the fabric will attach to the frame with lacing to a zig-zag bent wire welded to the inside of the frame. See here for an example of a chair that uses this kind of fabric attachment.

http://www.patiofurniture24.com/product/8/BLH-GFC-439C/Gravity-Free-Reclining-Loungers.html

It's kind of hard to see the zig-zag bent metal wire that's welded to the frame, but look closely.

I thought long and hard for a good way to model this, and I was able to do so on flat chair segments all on one plane. I created a sketch for a sweep path by offsetting the sketch used for sweeping the aluminum tubing of the frame. Then I did a surface sweep with a line segment perpendicular to the sweep path sketch and choosing "twist-along-path" in the options, to create a helical shaped surface. Then I did a surface sweep along the same path with a circle to create a tube shaped surface. Then under sketch tools I used an "Intersection Curve" to create a helical curve along the path of the frame of the chair, from the intersection of the two surface sweeps. This process is illustrated here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rK6vA3qZO0

I was able to then create a new sketch on the plane of that chair piece (foot rest) by using the "Convert Entities" sketch tool on the helical curve I previously generated. It looks kind of like a sine wave following the offset path of the tubing frame of the chair. I then swept a circle along this to create my zig-zag bent wire welded to the frame of the chair (see attached pic; the fabric doesn't yet have grommets or lacing...)

However, now I need to do this on a part of the chair that's not flat/planar. How can I do it? Can I somehow do the same process to create a helical curve along the required path, then project that onto a curved surface to create a 3d sketch all on the curved surface? Or is there some other way to generate the curve, such as equation driven?

RE: Way to sweep a regular pattern along a path?

(OP)
Anyone? Is it possible?

RE: Way to sweep a regular pattern along a path?

One possible method is to create the zig-zag wire in the flat and then use the Flex function to create the non-planar shape.

RE: Way to sweep a regular pattern along a path?

(OP)
I tried some with the flex fuction but wasn't able to really get what I want. I need the bent wire piece to remain planar with the surface that represents the fabric, or at least need to be able to create a surface to represent the fabric that's planar with the bent wire piece. And the wire piece needs to follow the path of the tubing that makes up the beach chair frame, as it's going to be spot welded on at each bend.

RE: Way to sweep a regular pattern along a path?

Have you tried Wrapping a flat zig-zag sketch onto the 'fabric' surface, and then creating the sweep?

RE: Way to sweep a regular pattern along a path?

Create a 3d sketch and then sweep the profile along it with option of "twist along path"

Deepak Gupta
CSWE, CSWP, CSDA
SW 2011 SP5.0 & 2012 SP3.0
Boxer's SolidWorks™ Blog

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