Solidworks Tutorial: Approximating a G3 connection in Solidworks

A tutorial that covers approximating a G3 spline-arc connection within sketches to create a smooth pebble-like form.
Model link : drive.google.c...
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[@williamcarriere5778]

Really great tutorial!

[@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio]

Cheers!

[@kkwong7878]

best tutorials Thank you !👍

[@nimanaderifar3680]

👏👏

[@smeece85]

Very clear. Thanks!

[@dellpi3911]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIPchpljfL5qa5Y

[@DCDA-LA]

may i ask what actually happen to the curve if you only choose "equal curvature" without "tangent"

[@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio]

If you mean the constraints in the sketch, solidworks automatically adds the tangent constraint when you create an equal curvature constraint. If you delete the tangent constraint the second point from the end point ( the tangent CV) is no longer constrained and will move if the input geometry moves

[@DCDA-LA]

@@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio thank you, that's clear! High quality design and CAD skill as usual :)

[@PASHKULI]

Though at 14:02 you can definitely see from the curvature radius evaluation that there are "blue" dimples in the "blend" surface. It is small ~2%, but still is an indication that the surfaces do not match within constr. tolerance (depending on file constr. tolerance). Maybe when you knit them it will get resolved somehow (as the mesh polygons for the curv. radius analysis will be forced to align to each other) or maybe because it is a trimmed edge after all... Anyway, you show it at 16:40 and the "blue" dimples are still there on the knitted surface\solid body, so the reason is the trimmed edge on top!

[@PASHKULI]

Also form my experience the best way to approximate G3 (it is pseudo G3 in this way) is by adjusting the tangency magnitude, given that the curvature and the 3rd point are fairly well spaced. This way you can reduce the blend spline to 4th degree in some cases even to 3rd!

[@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio]

You are seeing meshing artifacts in the curvature shader. The curvature of the top trimmed surface does not change once it is knitted to the blend surface. I find the curvature shader in SW to be fairly poor - you have no control over the type of curvature displayed, nor much control over the underlying mesh that SW uses. To further illustrate this issue I imported the pebble form from SW into Rhino and used the curvature analysis tool. In the linked images you can see similar artifacts appearing when the mesh is coarse, and using a fine setting there are no dimples in the top surfaces as there were in the SW analysis. drive.google.com/file/d/1eNXWSYJHSyi0H14jRSMyPWZscyjYDGVZ/view?usp=sharing drive.google.com/file/d/1u79_qlsmrId1ZrZHnodpLNzF2UC9juW3/view?usp=sharing drive.google.com/file/d/16MAJvao1ZulkliQVo36-Q-n9RPdmROH_/view?usp=sharing drive.google.com/file/d/1ITs9dFcKfbdGJjWxVMTsn1RPsQdv2HU8/view?usp=sharing drive.google.com/file/d/1y6H9P7KGT5udu_xH1kHE5ykJZTEwMEDy/view?usp=sharing drive.google.com/file/d/1aSk6we_2nn5DVPfIm-Aqfj5mFTf9E2oA/view?usp=sharing

[@PASHKULI]

@@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio ​ Yes, could be that case indeed as I supposed regarding the mesh. But still it is a fact that you build the blend surface off of a trimmed edge (the top surface). Yes, the top surface is quite simple and therefore clean, so maybe there is no problems. Also, when you build the cross curve it seems that you have chosen arbitrary the two points on each edge (around 12:10 min). I would suggest exploring the maximum curvature points of each of the edges an placing the points there respectively. It would mean you would imply greater control for the blend surface (to not bulge out... as SW\SE and other solid modelers tend to do with complex double\triple curved blend surfs.) at the highest tension spots. I guess you have tried to build the blend surface without the cross section curve. I have not used SW in a while (at least 5 years), so it might have been greatly improved in surface design.

[@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio]

@@PASHKULI I do not see a problem building the blend off a trimmed edge, as the alternative would be to build the top surface from several four sided patches. This was a theoretical exercise so agree, probably better ways to build it. Sorry to say Sw has not had much improvement in the surfacing area recently.

[@PASHKULI]

@@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio Here I found some nice video of a fairly recent version of SW, seems it support G3 constraintes. Please, search for: "G3 Splines in SOLIDWORKS: Torsion Continuity" the channel in KZbin is: Hawk Ridge Systems

[@m.e.p.r]

Is there any chance you could share the final part?

[@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio]

I'll sort something out tomorrow.

[@m.e.p.r]

@@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio that's really kind of you, thank you! I'm actually predominantly a PTC Creo user that has G3 baked in natively (think SW2020 has similar now). I was wondering if you could do a tutorial in the theory behind curve construction itself...a how to, things to take into account etc. Do you also perhaps offer one to one training also? Perhaps over Teams or similar, would be happy to invest in some bespoke training, as this sort of thing is exactly what I'm looking for and very few people understand it or deliver it in practical applications such as this.

[@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio]

I've uploaded the part onto Google Drive, the link is in the video description. Thanks for the idea for the tutorial on curves, I think that'll be quite useful, especially now SW has style spline where the terminology is transferable between different applications. I have thought of doing more extensive tutorials, but I always seem to get busier with client work so the idea gets shelved. I use to use Wildfire quite a bit, stopped about 8 years ago. So you can get G3 splines in the base package of Creo now without having to get ISDX? That'd be really good!

[@m.e.p.r]

@@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio Thanks so much for sharing. The thing that I do not understand is how you set up the curve constraints in the first place i.e. you zip through the constraints that you place on the curve re what is tangent and what is curvature?

[@m.e.p.r]

@@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio Wildfire was a bit of a dog to use (not very intuitive and poor UX/UI ). Creo 7.0 is night and day different in comparison. Creo 7.0 (including style and Keyshot baked in), is now cheaper than the equivalent SW package...or at least the deal I got (single license) is. With Creo you get a top tier CAD package for less than SW (which is the mid-level CAD package in the Dassault Systems lineup). I prefer Catia but its far too expensive, as it NX. Style in Creo is just so nice to use.

[@tonysabu5621]

Apple want to know your location @andrew. ;)

[@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio]

Haha!