I'm trying to bend a complex beam into a circle using Flex feature. When I'm inputting 360 degrees and confirming,the edges don't really meet (verified it by exporting .STL and examining it from real close using other software). There's always very small gap and also the same shape from both ends didn't seem to line up with one other.
Added both the SLDPRT (2015 version) file and a picture of the problem
Verry cool desing
reminds me of the klein bottle
Why this does not work like u expect it has a couple of reasons
when flexing the beam it does not stay in the same shape
the result wil be that the with dept and height wil start to change the longer the part is
it tries to stay as close as possible and the result as u can see is not perfect
the next reason is that the shape u have put it in wil put more stress on certain parts of the beam compared to the other
so deformations wil be bigger in 1 spot comparred to the other
solution:
make the beam have a tapper on 1 end the amount its now to big
make the beam extend slightly longer and then sweep cut it to fit ( use 3 d sketch and the convert entities to help u allong with it)
make the path the beam needs to follow more even all around
make the path with the shape u have now , make the profile with the shape u need it to be , remove the current part , use the swept boss feature then it wil be the same as the swept boss feature does not deform the part
result may be that u cannot make it as to many dimensions wil not stay in the same shape ( but only 1 way to find out)
i believe the knit surface option would also work for this
Hi Nick!
First,thanks for your answer! I considered all the things you wrote but I think there's some gap in our mindsets-SW does not consider 'real-world' like different elongation in different axis while modeling-it does exactly what you asked it to and the part is little shy of a full circle because in Flex there's option to define bending by angle so setting 360 degrees should do the trick.....although it don't lol.
tried a few several other 'odd' setups and Flex don't seem to be very stable tool,it crashed SW even once...
Will learn more about knit surface-seems like a good idea to try-thank you very much!
Kim.. as the others have said.. kewl/fun model!
but,.. unfortunately... Flex is not that accurate and it will not merge the end faces.
..for instance, if you just flex your simple rectangle.. it will result in a gap.
..so, suggest you flex "short" so there is a gap.. then you can loft the two faces to make this continuous.
Hi Paul!
Thank you for your kind words,I try to stretch my friend's 3D printer capabilities and on the way create awesome stuff for me to show off ;]
Lofting doesn't work for some weird error on complex shapes,Tried to do that on simple bent rectangle and it worked but for the complex faces I have,it says that 'The feature could not be created because it would produce self-intersecting geometry.'
Here's the selection and the error:
Hello Kim... yeah,.. I looked at your model again and unfortunately.. even with VOR (verification on rebuild).. there are problems?
..if I cut more away and delete the faces (now surface).. add composite curves.. surface loft between the gaps.. and knit... still a problem.. but.. if I delete the bad face and have it add back the surface.. it solves as solid.
Sadly.. Wrap really messes with the integrity of the topology.
Wow,that's some amazing work-around...your solution will be sufficient for me and when I tried to recreate it-I didn't even need the last Deleteface2 - it become solid body straight away (SW2015).
Although I didn't understood your last comment-in which stage of the process do you want to use Wrap? and what do you mean by 'messing up the topology' ???
Kim.. glad it works.. the messing up.. just imagine the topology is a shirt and the seams of the fabric are tearing.. this modeler (like most) relies on the boundaries (seams) to be water tight to understand what is inside or outside,.. as it gets stretched/twisted.. the integrity or stability of the model becomes comprimised.
That's a cool design, I didn't you could do that so easily.
I guess the two ends don't meet because you let it flex with a radius that is close to perfect, but not perfect.I don't know of a way to make sure those edges meet perfectly.