Again, a rookie, learning 3D cad, and VC. Working with VC 2D/3D V8, in Mac OS 10.

The situation I™m encountering is that I seem unable to do something in VC that should be simple But the approaches I take don™t work™. In the project I™m working on, I™m drawing up basically a long (~ 50 ft) solid rod, 2 in diameter. The is a slight bend in the center of the rod (..downwards toward either end), then about halfway between the center and each of the 2 ends, another bend (downwards). There is a short arc at each of the 3 bends. All this is in one flat plane (Z™).

The problem I have is that I™ve taken 2 approaches, and neither works:
1.) I tried to use the Extend / Bend™ tool, with a short (say, 4™) rod as a test, using (say) a 1 ft radius, and 2 ft extension. But when I click on the face to extend, then click on the edge for direction, one of three things happens: a.) Nothing; b.) I get an error message saying that it cannot do a 'zero length' extension, or; c.) the rod flips™ (inverts) to the opposite side of the face selected, and only leaves the extension™ amount, and there is no bend. The original rod has also disappeared. I experimented innumerable ways / times to try other selection options to get this to work, but to no avail
2.) I then constructed the centerline for the rod out of separate segments, -- straight lines, and arcs. I then grouped™ these together into one object. Then, with a 2 dia. circular profile on one end, I tried to use the One Rail Sweep Solid™ tool, thinking that this would sweep a continuous rod from one end to the other. Again, no luck. VC just immediately, and totally, shuts down after I select the centerline for the sweep. This happens repeatedly.

So, having failed twice with the two above approaches, I then constructed the rod from separate line and / or arc segments, and used the One Rail Sweep Solid™ tool separately on each of these. Then, I moved each into place, and grouped™ them together into one object. This worked (sort of), but I don™t think that the interfaces where each segment joins™ the next is exactly right, so I™m not sure this is the best solution.

My question is, why do neither of the above two approaches work.? I™ve spent hours futilely trying to construct an object that I think should take only minutes

Jim

Will e-mail the file. In this, note that the (blue) centerline 'template' I developed to try this approach is at the far right, just off the grid. I think I deleted the 2" 'circle' that was joined at the near end, but that's all. You can see in the model I'm working on that my current approach is to 'project' the layout lines onto a skin in the center of the model, then try to extend a solid along this.... Seems like a hard way to do something...

Hi Jim

Maybe you could try using the pipe tool with an inside diameter of 0 to give you a solid tube?


If your radius in the bends is smaller than tube diameter check the allow self intersections. Not sure what the radius is in your bend/arcs.

Regards

Jason

Antoine - Thanks for the offer to assist. I've attached a condensed file for your review. Note that in this, the circle profile is on one end of the truss centerline object. The other object is the one I built showing the completed rod, but this approach doesn't seem to make the connections right....

- Jim
(... your English seems excellent to me...!)

Tim -

Thanks.... I suspected that the sweep tool didn't like the 'grouping'.... I also wondered as to whether some of the points were actually 'connected', - although they (outwardly) appeared to be. I'll put the 'Connect' tool to use going forward, to ensure such ...

I still wonder why the 'Extend / Bend' tool doesn't work on my machine.... Any ideas...??

Along same lines, perhaps my version of VC is 'behind' relative to any fixes / updates that have been made.... Which brings up my next question: Where do I go to upload the latest 'Build' #....?? Or, perhaps, to what extent are these 'available' ....?? It seems that the version I have is 'Build 986' ....

- Jim

Here is your sweep in build 999. No prior prep to the model other then reading it into the app.

http://www.csi-concepts.com/Demo/videos/sweepGroup.mov


Tim

Tim -

Thanks.... This is how I envisioned it should work, but it just doesn't perform like this for me.... On a circular 'rod', when I select the object with the Extend / Bend tool, it really only lets me select one end with the red four-sided 'box'. If I choose the other end, it only puts a red line horizontally across the bottom edge of the rod face, -- but that's it. I don't seem to be able to use 'option', or 'shift' or anything to enable the tool to select on which end to put the red four-sided box.

Then, when I move to the end with the red four-sided box, if I enlarge and select any of the four sides, I get the error message that I cannot select a 'zero length option'. In the input dialogue box, I have entered parameters that do indicate both length and radius, but these seem to be ignored...

So, it seems that something has gone awry here....

Perhaps when you release the SP1, this will effect a 'fix'... In the meantime, I can use the One Rail Sweep to enable me to continue...

Thanks a bunch....

Jim

This happens when the points of each element are not exactly aligned.

Which was the problem with that approach, i.e.: Because the One-Rail Sweep Solid didn't work for 'grouped' line segments, I then 'built' each solid segment separately, using a centerline and profile on one end of each. Then, I 'moved' them into what I thought (...at least visually) was the correct position. A few were, but a couple of others 'snapped' into the wrong place, -- but hard to see.

Tim's re-work of the tool now solves this issue......

Moral of the story: What you 'see' may not exactly be what you 'get'...

Jim