Creating Swept Surfaces

This task shows how to create a swept surface that uses an explicit profile.
You can create a swept surface by sweeping out a profile in planes normal to a spine curve while taking other user-defined parameters (such as guide curves and reference elements) into account.

You can sweep an explicit profile:

  • along one or two guide curves (in this case the first guide curve is used as the spine)
  • along one or two guide curves while respecting a spine.
   
  The following sub-types are available:

Open the Sweep1.CATPart document.
 

With reference surface

  1. Click Sweep .

    The Swept Surface Definition dialog box appears.

  2. Click the Explicit profile icon, then select With reference surface from the drop-down list.

  3. Select the planar profile to be swept out, that is the circle.

  4. Select a guide curve (DemoGuide1).

  5. Click OK to create the swept surface.

    The surface (identified as Sweep.xxx) is added to the specification tree.
     
    Check Projection of the guide curve as spine so that the projected spine is the projection of the guide curve onto the reference plane.
    It is available with the Reference surface sub-type if the reference surface is a plane.
 

With two guide curves

  1. Click Sweep .

    The Swept Surface Definition dialog box appears.

  2. Click the Explicit profile icon, then select With two guide curves from the drop-down list.

  3. Select the Profile to be swept out (DemoProfile2).

  4. Select Guide curve 1 (DemoGuide1).

  5. Select Guide curve 2 (DemoGuide2).

    You can also specify anchor points for each guide. These anchor points are intersection points between the guides and the profile's plane or the profile itself, through which the guiding curves will pass. 

    You can define the following anchoring type: Two points. Select an anchor point on each guide curve. If the profile is open, these points are optional and the extremities of the profile are used.
    If you do not explicitly select anchor points or anchor direction, they are automatically computed if the profile is planar. Note that the selection is still available. The anchor points are computed as follows:
    • for Anchor point 1: intersection between the profile plane and Guide curve 1 (I1).
    • for Anchor point 2: intersection between the plane, passing through Anchor point 1 and normal to the spine, with Guide curve 2 (I2).

  6. Click OK to create the swept surface.

    The surface (identified as Sweep.xxx) is added to the specification tree.
     
    Check Projection of the guide curve as spine so that the projected spine is the projection of the guide curve onto the reference plane.
 

With pulling direction
  The With pulling direction subtype is equivalent to the With reference surface subtype with a reference plane normal to the pulling direction.

  1. Click Sweep .

    The Swept Surface Definition dialog box appears.

  2. Click the Explicit profile icon, then select With pulling direction from the drop-down list.

  3. Select the Profile to be swept out (DemoProfile2).

  4. Select the Guide curve (DemoGuide2).

  5. Select a Direction (zx plane).

  6. Click OK to create the swept surface.

    The surface (identified as Sweep.xxx) is added to the specification tree.
     
    Check Projection of the guide curve as spine so that the projected spine is the projection of the guide curve onto the reference plane.