Combining Sweeps ? 3

[hephestus]

Hi All, I am new to this forum and I am sure this question has been asked a million times, but I have not been able to find the answer in the archives.

I am having problems combining swept solid bodies together. I am building a simple hand grip for injection molding. There are three swept profiles that comprise the grip. The backstrap, bridge, and finger groove. I swept the two outside bodies first, and then used edges of those bodies as the path and guide curves so that the center sweep makes full contact with both outside bodies along the entire path. However, the mating surfaces between the three sweeps have irregularities that prevent me from merging or combining the bodies. How do I fix these gaps in the mating surfaces so that I can creat one solid body? I cannot build the ribs until I get this solid. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Can you post an image to clarify the problem?

How Can I Show An Image In A Post faq559-1100


Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091

 

[hephestus]

Thanks for the rapid reply!. The first image shows the two outer profiles. The second image shows the Sweep that uses the two outer profiles as guide curves. The third image shows the gaps that prevent me from merging. Thanks!

 

[hephestus]

Sorry, I was having problems posting all three images at once.

 

[Theophilus]

You may want to try your two bodies as surfaces instead of solids. Fill the gap between the surfaces using the surface edges and a couple of sketched lines for guides (or extruded surface edges to define your boundary--convert edges to Composite Curves).

You can knit the surfaces after joining them, plug the remaining top and bottom holes, knit with Try To Form Solid selected as an option and then shell to your desired thickness later.

Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[hephestus]

Hi Jeff,
I initially built this grip with surfaces, but couldn't thicken the surface. The "Check feature would alway reveal 1 "Open Surface". If I fixed the open surface that was pointed out and ran check again, there would aways be 1 more "Open Surface". I finally gave up and tried this method. If I can't find a solution, I guess I will just loft it. I was trying top avoid lofting because this method would be much faster to change and maintain tangency of all surfaces.

This image depicts the guide curves and path.

 

[rfus]

I would copy the surfaces of the grip and the handle using offset surface with a value of zero. Then create a 3d skethch where you convert the edge entities and conect them with splines with tangent end conditions, and then generate a filled surface of the closed 3d sketch with tangency selected. Then create planar surface caps at the top, bottom and base plane (if you cant move the plane slightly and use trim surface). Then mirror the surfaces with your base plane, knit them all together and check try to form solid. Split the solid with the base plane and then shell. Thats what I would try from looking at your pics but there are a thousand ways to skin a cat.

RFUS

 

[bvanhiel]

To fix what you have: Instead of making your 3rd sweep a solid, make it as a top and bottom surface. Then copy the side surfaces of your existing solids. Cap the ends with fill surfaces and knit it together into a watertight surface. Make the now closed surface solid and you're done.

I personally would have made the entire outside with surfaces, then made it a solid and shelled it out to create the shape.

-b

 

[Theophilus]

hephestus, I missed something earlier that could save some trouble. Did you knit your surfaces together before trying the Thicken feature? If not, that could be the problem with the open faces.

Also, did you create Composite Curves to act as your Guide Curves for the sweep or not? I'd recommend using Composite Curves over mere edges or sketch entities--much better results.

And like I said before and bvanhiel just said, creating all this as a surface first and then converting to solid should be a simpler route. I'd recommend trying this with surfaces with the above methods and seeing what happens. Also, consider creating your loft between your surfaces more of a perpendicular direction from your surface edges (or all of it as a single loft or sweep at one time).

Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.