Hey guys!
I have a part here that has a thick, round surface that instead needs to taper to a thin, rounded edge.
It is important that the XY plane maintains the cross section drawn in sketch 1. The XZ cross section also needs to remain rounded, cannot be stretched in the X axis, but can be stretched in the Z direction as needed.
I am completely new to SolidWorks, anyone has an idea how to do this?
Hello,
I can't decipher what you're looking for.
Can you post something close to what you're after?
Kevin
Hi, sorry for my vague wording! The last design posted by Sarah Dwight is similar to what I am after. Mainly I am aiming to achieve the following requirements:
The shape of the part when viewed from the top plane must remain the same.
The shape of the part when viewed from the front plane must also remain the same.
The bottom curved surface of the part must be able to sit flush against a 12 inch diameter cylinder.
The top of the part should have convex surfaces instead of concave surfaces. (I think this is the only part of Sarah's design that I need to figure out how to change)
Please let me know if there are places where I need to be clearer or more specific!
Could you show us a snapshot of what do you need it? or a drawing by hand? if is it a end cap don't look me familiar....A picture can help us to give you a correct answer.
I tried my hand at what you described. Are either of these close to what you are looking for?
Note: The top views are the original part.
Hi there, thanks for replying!
Your last design is almost what I am after, and is super close to being perfect!
It satisfies the need to maintain the same shape when viewed from the top, and (I cannot tell from the picture for sure) I am assuming that the front cross section is also the same?
Also, is there a way to modify your last design by replacing the concave surfaces on the top of the part with convex ones instead?
Could you teach/explain how you were able to achieve such a shape? I have been trying to use 3-D sketch meanwhile and results have not been pretty...
So I just started learning about Surfaces and thought this would be a good place to use them.
I added a bunch of stuff ...in a trial and error fashion - a lot of stuff did not work!
Let me see if I can figure out what things I actually needed for that last version.
I made a plane on the near end of the part.
Then copied the first sketch there.
I edited that sketch to extend the straight lines, remove the round edge one half.
Then I made a 3D sketch and converted one half of the bottom edge.
I had to delete the OnEdge relation and then Fix the spline so it did not relate back to the original extrudes.
I suppressed the original extrudes.
I made a sketch on the Right Plane of a triangle connecting the two sketches.
Then I use Filled Surface to make the flat side, by selecting that whole sketch.
Then I filled the middle sketch.
Then I selected the bottom two edges of the surfaces and the 3D sketch. (I had to hide the sketches to select the edges.)
Then I selected the top two edges of the surfaces and the 3D sketch.
Then I used Surface Knit to create a solid.
Then I mirrored the body and added a fillet to the top edge.
I am new to surfaces. There might be a better way to do this.
Also I am not sure that the bottom surface is exactly how you want it.
I tried extrude cutting this back to perfectly round, but SW did not let me.
Also my initial attempt had issues with this area being too thin or crossing itself or something.
Maybe there is a way to offset a 3D sketch spline to make a .020" flat edge instead of a sharp?
Thank you for the detailed step by step! You are right about the bottom surface being slightly different from what I need, since it doesn't sit flush against the side of a cylinder anymore, but I am sure that is something I can figure out myself. Everything else seems perfect to me. Thanks again!
Gerui Sheng wrote:
Thank you for the detailed step by step! You are right about the bottom surface being slightly different from what I need, since it doesn't sit flush against the side of a cylinder anymore, but I am sure that is something I can figure out myself. Everything else seems perfect to me. Thanks again!
Instead of recreating the bottom surface, Offset the original surface 0" then trim it back to the sketches that Sarah created.
Is this what you are trying to achieve?
I used Delete Face to get rid of 3 faces. This converts the solid body to a surface body.
Then I used Boundary Surface to create the new surface. We now have 2 surface bodies.
Finally Use Knit Surface to get a solid body.
Hi, thanks for the reply!
It's not quite what I have in mind, but I think I could maybe use your techniques to achieve what I want.
Mainly, the bottom curved surface that you deleted in the first step (the biggest surface), needs to remain. Its designed to fit snugly around a 12-inch diameter cylinder.
I am thinking that I could do something similar by deleting the top surface (instead of the bottom one), and then creating a new boundary surface like you did to knit together with the bottom one?
So I just started learning about Surfaces and thought this would be a good place to use them.
I added a bunch of stuff ...in a trial and error fashion - a lot of stuff did not work!
Let me see if I can figure out what things I actually needed for that last version.
I made a plane on the near end of the part.
Then copied the first sketch there.
I edited that sketch to extend the straight lines, remove the round edge one half.
Then I made a 3D sketch and converted one half of the bottom edge.
I had to delete the OnEdge relation and then Fix the spline so it did not relate back to the original extrudes.
I suppressed the original extrudes.
I made a sketch on the Right Plane of a triangle connecting the two sketches.
Then I use Filled Surface to make the flat side, by selecting that whole sketch.
Then I filled the middle sketch.
Then I selected the bottom two edges of the surfaces and the 3D sketch. (I had to hide the sketches to select the edges.)
Then I selected the top two edges of the surfaces and the 3D sketch.
Then I used Surface Knit to create a solid.
Then I mirrored the body and added a fillet to the top edge.
I am new to surfaces. There might be a better way to do this.
Also I am not sure that the bottom surface is exactly how you want it.
I tried extrude cutting this back to perfectly round, but SW did not let me.
Also my initial attempt had issues with this area being too thin or crossing itself or something.
Maybe there is a way to offset a 3D sketch spline to make a .020" flat edge instead of a sharp?