pump housing

[TonyBorland]

Hi All,

As i am a new user to Autodesk Inventor 2010 i am learning all the time but would please like some suggestions on how best to create a difficult shape.
The shape is sort of like the number 6.It starts of as a round pipe but ends up like a squashed pipe at the end.
I thought that maybe i would use Lofts or Splines or Sweep.Would i need to place many Work Planes around the shape and draw sketches or use Rails.What is the best procedure for allowing the Work Planes to be placed around the shape if i follow this path for construction of the solid?

I have attached a PDF File picture of the shape i am trying to construct into a solid.What would be the best way to construct this shape as a solid?

Are there any good CD/DVD Tutorials or books that you may recommend please for Inventor

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated

Thanks

Tony

[shift1313]

Hey Tony. I would attack this problem using a Loft. Depending on how the shape needs to be spec'd out you may have to approach it in different ways.

When using lofts you have several options. You need at least a start and end curve but from there you can have a path(center to center) and/or guides. Since the title of the post was pump housing im going to guess this part shape is going to be very specific and you will have a specified diameter/cross sectional area at certain distances right?

Work planes can be defined in many ways. Im going to work up a screen shot for you in a min to show you how i would approach setting up work planes for something like that.

[shift1313]

alright i know this picture is a little busy but ill try to explain it.

I started a sketch drawing a few references circles, a spline(just for visual reference of the shape) and the important part are the lines from 180 degrees all the way back to 90. I drew 1 line and did a circular array. When i exited the sketch i turned on the Z axis visibility(in the origin folder in the model tree). The z axis and these reference lines were all i needed to define a work plane. Since im sure you have specific locations you need these planes you would obviously need a refined reference sketch :D

let me know if that makes sense or not.

[shift1313]

If you dont have specifics for where your cross sections need to be located I would use as few sketches as possible. When you select each cross section for your loft you can set other parameters like how it enters/exits this cross section. Since you have a straight section where the pipe doesnt deform I would use the same cross section at the start/end of that section. You can draw it once, then in your section sketch use the Project Geometry button and select it. then i would make the final shape at the end of your "scroll" and have a path for the loft to follow.

The less you use, the better your shape will be, but physically and mathmatically.

If you cant get it to work out just let me know.