Quick Question

Hello All,

I have a spline determined by three circles. Is there any way to have a note
or something show me the lenth of the spline, and update whenever I change
the dimension of any of the circles or thier relationship to one another.

TIA,
Muggs

 

If it is determined by arcs and not actual splines you can dimension the arc
lenghts and draw a construction line with a length dimension you can then
set the length dim through equations to the combined length of the arcs.
You can then use the value of the dimension in Notes and such.

Corey

 

Corey, Yea sort of.
Arcs and lines and then fit spline from a layout sketch.
Take a look here and see if this makes sense:
http://home.comcast.net/~muggs828/solidworks/Poly_V_Belt.png

The green is my layout sketch (dimensioned) and I need to be able to see and
have update the spline.

I hope that clear as mud ;>)

Muggs

 

Sure, what you are looking for is the belt length. So, rather than a spline
as the driven member, make it straight lines & arcs constrained to the
sketch circles. Put dimensions on each of the legs, and then put in a
construction line that has its length controlled by an equation that sums
all the lines & arcs. Then the length property of this construction line is
what you put in your note.

You can also work backwards a bit and let it tell you where the idler should
be based on you giving it a book belt length.

Clear as a MN lake on vacation!

WT

 

OK, thanks Wayne!
Everything seems pretty clear except how do I dimension the arc length (and
not the radius) to use it in my equation?

Muggs

 

*) Dim tool
*) Select the two ends of the arc, then the arc itself

Mike

 

Screeny...
http://www.mikejwilson.com/misc/belt-length.jpg

 

NO STINKING WAY!!!
Man talk about things that you never knew.

Thank you Mike!
I should be able to go to SWW this year.
If your going, I'll hunt you down and buy you a beer.(Man that list is
getting long!)

Muggs

 

You can go one further than Mike W. did by using one of Mike's tricks in
reverse. Draw a single line on the sketch not connected to anything. Write
an equation for the length of the single line that is the sum of the
dimensions for the arcs and lines in your sketch. Now you have the length
of the belt available for Custom Properties, BOM, etc.

Now do Mike's trick of incrementing a line with IIF and you can move the
idler on successive rebuilds with a dimension driven by the belt length
till the belt length fits an available belt.

Is SW a parametric modeler? Wouldn't it be nice is SW had a dimension type
that measured the total length of all connected/chained lines in a sketch,
splines, arcs, lines, parabolas, etc as a single dimension?

 

If I ever manage to go to SWW again, I'm going to have to max out my credit
card buying beers for the people on this group who have been such a big help
to me. There are going to be quite a few people (Ed, Paul, Matt, Mark, the
list goes on...) with really bad hangovers!

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"