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3D helix but not any ordinary job


zorbski

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Hi all,

 

need some help (obviously). I have drawn a helix and extruded it into a solid. It is now a curved helix panel. I want to retain the helix as a solid but made up of randomly intersected rings of 3 various diameters.

 

Is this possible in autocad?

 

Thanks for any help you can give

 

Z

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Welcome to CADTutor. :)

It sounds to me, like what you have created should be a surface.

A Helix is a line, and I don't believe it would be eligible for the Extrude command to create a 3DSolid.

 

Perhaps a screenshot of what you have done would help us to understand.

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The attached image show a balustrade on a helix staircase. I want to replace the solid balustrade with one made up of rings of 3 different sizes in a random pattern. I can create the rings using the intersect command but as soon as I copy one to a different location it loses it's position within the helix and requires rotation which can only be done manually. It would take me absolutely ages to do this for both sides of the balustrade so I was wondering if there was an easy way to do it.

 

Thanks

 

Z

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It is still unclear exactly what you are trying to do. If you want you use rings? can you show us what you mean, and possibly include a dwg with a couple of these rings in the correct and wrong positions, I could be wrong but I would imagine that this would normally be done using a profile and sweeping it along the helix. But I use LT so I might off base. In any case the question needs a bit more information.

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Where are these rings you speak of? I didn't see any in your attached image. It might help too if you attached a copy of the drawing you are working with since an image file is virtually worthless when it comes to troubleshooting a problem in 3D. Please include the rings.

 

I don't believe there is an easy way to do what you want. Sure, you can copy them to the right location on each step but then you have to get each ring-type balustrade oriented properly (rotation-wise).

Edited by ReMark
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Is this what we're talking about?

 

3D Circ Stairs Rings.JPG

 

As far as I can determine the best course of action would be to use the ALIGN command. Since you have just three rings with different diameters you really only have six variations before you start repeating the sequence anyway. Maybe at that point you can align six sets of rings at one time.

Edited by ReMark
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+1

Nice translation of the question ReMark, something along those lines could be done with the divide command and the block option, providing this is what the OP is wanting to achieve

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Thanks. I didn't bother with making the rings intersect as the OP mentioned. I hadn't thought about DIVIDE with the block option. I'd have to give it a try.

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I'd figure out a way to replicate the pattern as a material and assign it to the curved balustrade. Another option would be to switch to Inventor and do it as a piece of punched sheet metal. I'm not 100% sure if you could then fit it to the curve of your balustrade but someone with more experience using Inventor should be able to answer that question. Hey, JD Mather! Where the heck are you? This guy has a question.

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Not a particularly easy task for AutoCAD. I couldn't even recommend the method I used to create the model shown in the attached image, given how many glitches I encountered in the process.

 

I used the add-in here to help the process, though I did find that the routine has a bug that I need to address.

 

The model is too heavy to upload, but here are a couple of views of the outcome.

 

Balustrade.jpg

Edited by SEANT
grammar
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Looks good. Are those rings curved or flat (vertically) :twisted:

 

Curved.

 

I projected the flat geometry onto a helical section of a cylindrical surface. Not all of the projected geometry, though, would work with the SurfTrim function. I had to project the curves to a small and larger cylinder, loft the two corresponding curves to form a surface, that would then function as a viable trimming object.

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Conceivably, the process would benefit from flat circles. My add-in routine does not offer that option, but I may look into it. This curved geometry is extremely heavy, the file is over 11 MB. Flat disks, just positioned normal to the surface would probably serve just as well, and would probably be only 1/10th the size on the hard drive.

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Conceivably, the process would benefit from flat circles. My add-in routine does not offer that option, but I may look into it. This curved geometry is extremely heavy, the file is over 11 MB. Flat disks, just positioned normal to the surface would probably serve just as well, and would probably be only 1/10th the size on the hard drive.

I would have thought that flat would be harder to line up at the joints, especially when you are using different sizes.

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Is that 11MB for just one side of the stairs or both sides?

 

11 Megs for just that one side. I took a quick look at exporting it via acisout, and that was 24 Megs.

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I would have thought that flat would be harder to line up at the joints, especially when you are using different sizes.

 

Probably true. It would be almost impossible to make the juncture between rings to look clean.

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