Dome and Design Table

[dtone314]

Hi, I am designing a lens. I start with a cylinder and have domes on the top and bottom of the cylinder with radius editable via design table. I would like to be able to change the direction of the dome via the design table as well. That way the lens can be convex/concave as needed. Is there a way to do this? I tried to change the dimention to negative whatever my dimention for the radius of the dome is to reverse the pull of the dome, but no luck. Any ideas welcome! Thanks in advance!

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

In the Dome Manager there is a Constraint point or sketch option which can be used to control the domes shape.

If the "cylinder" of the lens is extruded using the Mid-plane option, the constraint point position (within the sketch) can be controlled with a dimension from the origin of the cylinder and can be manipulated to reverse the direction of the dome. The dimension can be driven by a DT.

Does that make sense?

 

[TheTick]

just curious...

Does Dome provide adequate control of the surface to make a decent lens?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

That was also my first thought, but then my curiosity got the better of me and I had to find a solution.

It would probably be better to have separate parts for concave, convex and combination lenses and use a revolve to create the required shape.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

...or you could create both convex & concave domes on both ends of the cylinder and create configs in a DT which suppresses/unsuppresses the domes to suit.

 

[dtone314]

Hi thank you for all your responses. I tried to put a concave and convex on each side, but solidworks would only let me put one or the other. I even made a new plane and converted entities on the same edge the first dome was on and I couldn't install another dome... any ideas on getting both to work on one side?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

You should be able to create one dome, suppress it, and then create another on the same face.
You can then create configs with a DT controlling the suppression state.

 

[lumenharold]

I would suggest dropping the table driven part file for both concave and convex lenses. A typical concave lens surface will have a flat annulus and a convex lens surface will have an edge break. If you are designing a lens to be custom manufactured then you will need to include those features in the print (and I would assume in the assembly model). I model lenses frequently so I have produced templates for each type of lens as CorBlimeyLimey suggested. If you use standard catalog lenses or if you have an Optical Engineer specifying a design, you can still use a table to enter the data instead of editing the sketch.

Harold
SW2007 SP1.0 OW2006 SP4.0

http://www.lumenflow.com