Extruded cut on a dual curvature

Hi,

I'm sure there is a very simple way of doing this, although I can't seem to work it out.

So I'm drawing a motorcycle tyre. I've drawn the basic body using 'Swept Boss/Bass', but now I want to extrude the tread of the tyre. I want to do this at around 45 degrees on either side of the surface of the tyre, repeated about 6 times around the diameter. Lets for arguments sake say the tread is a repeated 'S' pattern.

Do I need to make a new plane on a tangent to the external radius?

I've tried using split line although I can't seem to do an extruded cut when I've got the desired pattern.

Also, I wish the extrusion to be from the centre point of the 'radius' of the external surface of the tyre. If that makes any sense.

I can add screenshots if required and any more details required.

This is my first post so, Hello!And please go easy on me!

Thanks. Darren.

Exactly what program are you using?

What an absolute tool I am. This is an Autocad forum and I'm using Solidworks.

Sorry for the inconvenience. If an admin could delete this thread that'd be great... hah.

Thanks, Darren.

Or move it to the Solidworks section? Thanks.

Just as I thought. This... Swept Boss/Base ...kind of gave it away.

I'm pretty sure I've seen Solidworks tutorials regarding creating wheels and tyres on the Internet. Have you tried searching?

Of course, that was meant to say 'Swept Boss/Base' ...Not Bass.

I've worked it out. I was missing a simple drop down to extrude from a surface. Staring at a computer screen for too long, that is! 10 min break and I'd worked it out

Thanks, Darren.

Daren, glad you sorted it out! It can be a harder problem than most think. There are many ways to do this. Since you already figured it out ill just outline a few for people that find the thread.

1. Use extrude cut. In the end condition box you can choose "offset from surface".

2. Do a split line on the surface or a projected curve and do a sweep cut.

3. Curves drop down and split face. You can actually extrude from a split face on complex geometry. On the surface extrude you could even specify to delete the original and cap the end.

There are more ways but there are so many types of tread that you really need a specific case. Most of my mc tires are slicks...super easy to draw

I have done 2 mc series. 1 is kind of hidden away on a resellers site but ill see what videos were made public. The other I did was taking a pdf for learnsolidworks.com and making a video series out of it. Its a chopper but fairly complete.