Recommendations for Sweeps with Guide Curves

The following recommendations will help you when creating a sweep with guide curves.

Path – vertical sketch through ellipse
Guide curve – spline
Profile - ellipse

Path and guide curve sketch

Create the path and guide curves first; then create the section. A Pierce relation is not required for sweeps with guide curves.

The guide curve must be coincident with the profile or with a point in the profile sketch for the sweep to automatically infer that there is a pierce relation.

The intermediate profiles of the sweep are dependent on both the path and guide curves for their definition. The path must be a single entity (line, arc, and so on) or the path segments must be tangent (no angled corners).

Relations

Note that relations such as Horizontal or Vertical may be added automatically as you sketch the section. These relations influence the shape of the intermediate sections, and may produce results that are not what you want.

Use Display/Delete Relations to delete the unwanted relations. This allows the intermediate sections to twist as desired.

Path and guide curve length

The path and the guide curves may differ in length.
  • If the guide curves are longer than the path, the sweep is as long as the path.
  • If the guide curves are shorter than the path, the sweep is as long as the shortest guide curve.

Guide curves

Guide curves may meet at a common point, which is the apex of the swept surface.

You can use any of the following items as a guide curve: sketched curves, model edges, or curves.