Solidworks Tube frame

You might try here:

You have to join to get rid of the annoying pop-up window but that seems to be free.

There's also probably a newsgroup or official web-based forum for SolidWorks.

Hello,

I have used Solidworks 2003 to design a motorcycle frame. I am by no means a Solidworks expert. The way it was explained and shown to me was to draw lines where you want the tubes then use the sweep capability to then make the tubes in the direction of the lines. Each sweep path will need to be in a new drawing or the sweep tool will not work. If you have a line/path at a strange angle and need to add the tube profile to the end of that line then you can add a plane to the part based on the line and the endpoint of the line. You can then use that plane to add the tube profile and do the sweep. I did the whole frame in the line fashion then added all the profiles and the last step is doing all the sweeps. The tough part is that if I want to add a new tube section I have to delete all the sweeps in the part to get to the line drawing version then add the new tube and redo the sweeps. This seems to screw up all the mates to the frame in my main assembly I assume because the sweep IDs change.

Like I said I am no SolidWorks expert but it worked for me.

TTYL, Jeff

Mike wrote:

Hey Jeff,

Hmmm... Jeff Williams and motorcycles. You a member of LMYC??

Brian Laws>Hello,

Hello,

Not sure what LMYC is so probably not me :) Though I am not tooo far from you in Stouffville Ontario. Jeff Williams must be a popular name in Ontario motorcycling as there is also a Canadian Superbike racer from Ontario with the same name. A bike shop tried to give me his bill one time....a $5,199.00 tune up was a tad much I thought (for my $8000 new bike) until I saw it was for his race suspension components.

TTYL, Jeff

Brian Laws> Hey Jeff,

Hey Jeff,

Thanks for the comeback. LMYC is LaSalle Mariners Yacht Club, of which the "other" Jeff and I are both members. I was a bit surprised that he would be on this NG, because it's his Dad and brother who are the mechanical genii. They have a "bike" that looks a whole lot more like a rocket than a bike, which they are putting together to do an assault on the world lands speed record on the Salt Flats. I would think that there is WELL over 6 grand in the beast by now. Well over. The bike part just means it has two wheels. It is driven laying completely supine and viewing through a periscope. Jeff drives it.

Take care.

Brian Laws>Hello,

Reminds me of a funny story. I crossed tracks once with an Army "Butterbar" who was designing some kind of armored vehicle and had some rough drawings on paper.

In the design he had a periscope with three mirrors to cover a blind spot with a somewhat convoluted sight path. I pointed out to him that an even number of mirrors would be better than an odd number and he quickly dismissed that with a snappy comment that "there isn't room for another mirror, this will work fine". So I went away and left him alone hoping his career was riding on the design and that better people would look at it.

Hey Jack,

I've always wished there was a mirror in a microscope. Damdest thing for an infrequent user like me to use the way they are.

Take care.

,noswaL nairB .oiratnO, llewhtoB

ps.. I've seen people drive as though he had gotten it off the drafting board though. My wife backing up is a prime eg.!! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I'd forgotten about that.

I have a video card that will let you rotate your onscreen display right or left in 90 degree increments. When you do that, your cursor movements change to the new alignment. You push up, it moves left or whatever. It is hard to click on menus to get it back where is was. Reversing it is not too bad but 90 degrees in one of two other directions is really spooky.

You want to try it, turn you mouse 90 degrees to the left, grip it gently with your hand across it in the normal alignment, and try to put your cursor on this "X" . Spooky.