Extrude along 3D spiral

Yes, I have a much better way but it does not involve AutoCAD.

Where can I find 3dspiral.lsp? Thanks

Can you give me details?

Matthew

Sorry about that.

As I said, it doesn't involve AutoCAD. I, personally, would do it in a program that is much more suited to the task. Now, there are going to be a lot of people jumping in here saying how this could be done in AutoCAD with lisp routines or surfacing ect. To those I will say that you can dig tunnels with a teaspoon too but is it worth it?

Hi

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To those I will say that you can dig tunnels

You are quite right, ------- every time I seen the question I wonder what shuld be wrong ,making the spiral in 3Ds and then export it in DWG format and open the new drawing in AutoCAD.,

---------- But even back in AutoCAD don't mean any tea-spoon, acturly you can invoke Lisp in a compleatly different way now, when you don't need to calculate geometric information to acturly draw a new entity, as you already have a spiral drawn 3D and proberly made from 3D faces ; you can make that entity into a block insert it with different XYZ scale ,guess you could find even smarter way's to control the diameter of the actural spiral to, --------- well why even bother extruding along a new path and calculating the new spiral rod , when a block insert can replace 40 K. heavy Lisp code ?

P.C.

As one who actually likes AutoCad, and does a lot of 3D with it, I tend to agree with the above statement. There are a few things that seem like they should be possible, and indeed ARE possible, but they are like teaching your dog Greek. This example is very similar to one used by Bill Fane to demonstrate Mechanical Desktop, back in the earlier releases (one of the Cadalyst columns). He used this example for two reasons - 1) to show how easy it is in a program like MDT, 2) Because his readers understand how complicated it is in AutoCad.

Of course that answer becomes purely rhetorical if you don't have MDT or a similar program, or if you don't want, or can't afford to switch from AutoCad. In that case, I would try making two 3D spirals, one inside the other, extruding two different shapes along these spirals, uniting them and then subtracting the united entity from the base solid.

G Faris

Thanks to all for the responses.

The only shape I can reliably extrude along the spiral is a circle, as it does not matter which way it turns.

This drawing is different from what I have done in the past. I don't think a circle (or series of circles) will do it.

I would be delighted if somebody could prove me wrong, though :-)

So, my original question is still out there. But, new questions: What kind of cost would be involved in purchasing software that could do this easily?

Or, would anybody be interisted in quoting drawing this "spiral" (and the top and bottom ends, shown in "diagram 1")?

Thanks

Sorry Matthew, there is another Lisp program mentioned within 3dspiral.lsp, that is SOL_SPRING.LSP, could you give me this or tell me where to find it?, I think we could try to do some modifications to those program to get what you need, but I do not promise anything, just a trying :-).

Jose Manuel

Matthew

I got a response via e-mail that said the rulesurf command would help with this.

A cool drawing was attached. Found at

It is made up of surfaces. A lisp file should convert this to a solid.

I will let you know when I get more info.

Matthew

Hi Matthew, see

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Hello Matthew,

If you wish to consider using a third party tool, read on,

Our GeoTools program has a command called GT_EXTRUDER which provides a simple and easy way to extrude a closed 2d path profile along a path curve. It internally uses the AutoCAD Extrude command but takes away from the user a lot of dirty work that is onvolved in otherwise rotating, aligning and positioning the extruding profile along the path.

This may be something you are interested to look into. You just have to create your 2d profile and it will be taken along your 3d spiral to create a nice solid.

In addition, GeoTools provides over 190 other tools that may be of interest to you.

Look here for a fully functional download:

Pick up this latest update from

Regards Rakesh

Is possible. You must convert dwg where is the path (spline) in dxf vers 12 and re-import dxf in to autocad and now you can use this path to extrude process.

read my tutorial - sedia thonet

-- Alessandro Miele

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