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Curved Lamp Shade in solidworks? 1

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doncaballero

Mechanical
Joined
Feb 1, 2011
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4
Location
US
I have been trying to create the attached, curved lampshade in solidworks. Each change in direction will be its own individual piece in reality - i just can't get the layout down. Nothing seems to handle running the loft and the curve at the same time.
Thanks for looking!
 
Have you thought about creating a begninning and ending sketch and running a sweep through the two profiles? (That's one way to do it.)
 
Yeah, I'm incorrect though - I think it's a lofted profile.
 
don ... Your first image shows the shade as being convex. The second image shows a concave segment. Which shape are you actually trying to create?
 
Thank you for your responses! It's just the angle from the sweep image that makes it look concave - it is a dome.
I was able to get it to work as a whole using the loft command by creating the I/D and O/D hexadecagon for the top and bottom with 4 spline curves as supports.
My problem was every time i tried to create an individual leaf, there ended up being a diamond shaped hole in between the adjacent plane, or piece.
Still working out the kinks. Thanks Again!!!
 
 http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=e252ee78-8a10-46ca-863a-5e7c7aa536b3&file=lightFixturePart.PDF
Give the sheet metal method a try. It is very simple and as I mentioned before, allows the segment to be flattened for cutting.
 
Here's one attempt I made.

The key trick is using a Derived sketch to add the identical guide curve profile to a plane located at a 360/12° offset.

I then used a boundary surface and a cheap body copy to make the whole shape. You might want to do a better job and do a full set of 12 guide curves and do a proper loft/shell.

Up to you.

Good luck!

-Kevin
 
 http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=f39a954c-61a9-4199-a1ff-483c958bad49&file=LampThing.SLDPRT
CorBlimeyLimey - I tried the sheet metal method, and it worked perfectly. It must have been that I was defining the curve with an arch at the outer edge of the shape when i ran the loft. Very slick approach, though. Thanks a ton. Now i have a flat DWG!

kgwhipp - i am interested in your approach, but i don't have SW11 (of all the things solidworks can do).

/*doesn't it seem contradictory that one can straight up profit from such a socialist activity???*/

i remain supremely appreciative to everyone!
 
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