Offsetting a helix

[nicnicman]

Using the helix command I made a spiral by setting the height to zero. This is for use in a personal logo I'm making.

 

I'd like to offset the lines of the helix but acad2010 gives an error: "The selected object cannot be offset. To offset an object, all points in the object must be located in the same plane." Since I set the height to zero aren't all points on the same plane?

 

I tried tracing over the helix with arcs but the helix doesn't use perfect arcs and the trace is not accurate. Is there a spiral command I am not aware of?

 

Any suggestions? Thanks a lot.

[Glen Smith]

Can you sweep a figure along the existing helix?

[nicnicman]

Can you sweep a figure along the existing helix?

 

Yes, I can, but I'm not sure how that helps.

[nicnicman]

Didn't acad2008 have a 2d spiral command? Before that wasn't there polyarcs? The only thing I can see in acad2010 is the 3d helix command.

[rkent]

I am on 2010, I drew a helix, used Superflatten on it and was able to offset. Do an online search for superflatten.lsp

[nicnicman]

I am on 2010, I drew a helix, used Superflatten on it and was able to offset. Do an online search for superflatten.lsp

 

Actually, I think I was reading a thread about that the other day. I'll check it out. Thanks a lot.

[nicnicman]

The flatten command worked for this. Didn't think of it until rkent mentioned superflatten. Thanks.

[ReMark]

I've also come a across a 2D spiral lisp routine over at the CADforum.

[Glen Smith]

My thought was that you could draw a figure that would include whatever offset you were looking for and sweep it over the spiral. You could use that to get your new figure. But if flatten and or superflatten got what you needed, all the better.

 

Care to post what you came up with?

 

Glen

[nicnicman]

My thought was that you could draw a figure that would include whatever offset you were looking for and sweep it over the spiral. You could use that to get your new figure. But if flatten and or superflatten got what you needed, all the better.

 

Care to post what you came up with?

 

Glen

 

Oh, I see what you're talking about now. It turns out that the flatten command was a very efficient solution to my problem.

 

As far as the logo goes it is still very much a work in progress. In fact I was thinking of scrapping the whole idea.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.