Trying to Pattern along a 3D curve

I'm trying to produce a pattern along a 3D curve as in the photo above. However, the problem I'm having is I can't seem to constrain the 2D sketch to the 3D so that the "blocks" stay true to the 3D surface, they just stay parallel to the first block.

I've fought with this for a while, trying different directions of extruding the block, trying to constrain the sketch(s) but I haven't stumbled upon a solution yet.

Can someone help me with this please?

I wasn't able to upload the file directly to the site so here's a link to it (I hope)

http://1drv.ms/1gzP9r9

Ray

See this http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/SkillsUSA%20University.pdf - later today I will demonstrate example.

:celebrate:JD, I thank you from the depths of my soul. I looked through your 60 Inventor Tips and found the relevant section, which I remember reading once before and obviously not learning anything from it at that time, once I noticed the expansion arrows in the dialog box it was easy.

Thank you again, you are my hero for today.

Ray

I thought that the problem had been solved, but on closer inspection (I had more time today) I notice that although the top face of the block maintains its relationship to the curve, the curved surface, because it has a twist to it, swings away from the block. It needs to be constrained to the twisted surface, is this even possible?

Ray

Attach files here.

Because the file is too large to attach (3418 KB) I have to provide a link to it on Onedrive (Microsoft)

The file is called Gunwhale1

http://tiny.cc/08qfdx

Ray

Do to unconstrained sketches and dimensions to decimal places (manufacturing tolerances) that I am not familiar with working with - I could not figure out the design intent.

This might not seem related - but I would recommend going through this -

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/content/DSG322/Inventor%20Tutorials/Inventor%2011%20Tutorial%207.pdf

Thanks for the reply, I think I see what you're getting at and to that end I've cleaned up the file. I can appreciate why people like me must really cause you to shake your head in dismay I'm not a designer, just an old Tool and Die Maker (retired) that loves tinkering.

A little explanation about the purpose of the file. It's actually one side of a small boat, hence the twisted shape. I'm trying to model the gunwale along the side. this would consist of one long strip of wood separated from the hull by wood blocks every 4" or so. Here's a photo of one under construction

I simplified the file somewhat to get it back to the root of the problem I think, there's only one surface ( boat side) and one sweep around the side. It looks good until the front end where it deviates from the surface. I took every precaution I could think of to get everything square and ship shape .

New file http://tiny.cc/lp3fdx

Ray