Generating a Sketch from a Function

Not really sure about what You mean, but look under in the help for "Sketch blocks" and "Create Assembly from Layout Sketch" to see if this might help You.

// Krister

The closest you can get is called "curve through XYZ points" in 2007. I think it used to be called "curve through free points", but I'm not sure anymore. I never use it. Anyhow, this will create a curve object that is a spline fitted to a set of input points. Those points can be read from a text file or Excel table. The curve is not a sketch, so if you need it to be in a sketch, you could use convert entites to copy it into a sketch. Also, the points cannot update to anything automatically. Any changes have to be made manually through edit feature. I'm not sure if this can be different for different configurations. I doubt it. You'd have to create a new curve for each config, and suppress the ones you don't need.

I believe the API can be used to generate geometry from functions, but I'm not sure of the details, or whether you can only generate spline fits. So, a macro, macro feature, add-in, or 3rd party tool (don't know any current ones) will be necessary to get any significant automation. If there won't be too many changes, some creative work with Excel and maybe design tables could be done to at least use dimensions from the model to drive the function without having to manually copy them.

Thank you very much, i will check tonight, and will update this thread. however if anyone has any other suggestions, please do tell.

Unfortunately, SW has no true curve-from-function capability. The best you can do is through points. No matter how accurate your points are, SW connects the dots with all the finesse of a 3-year-old using crayon.

Isn't that more like sidewalk chalk on a cobblestone walk

I wrote this macro to do pretty much what you're looking for. It automates the procedure of going from excel to Curve Thru XYZ. It's still a spline, but you can get pretty close by increasing the number of points. It also lets you create 3D curves in Cartesian, cylindrical, or spherical coordinates (a la ProE). Matt Lombard's site also has one that does 2D curves.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! takedown :

Boris,

Just because SW doesn't have a direct function for parametric curves doesn't mean it's not doable. But it depends what you want. There are simple geometric constructs producing sums, squares, cubes, etc. Using these a fairly complex expression can be produced. But again it depends what you want. It all happens within a sketcher and it is a lot more powerful than most users think. Can you write out the actual function? I might be able to help you. There are other techniques. For example, a trochoid curve cannot be directly sketched, but still can be done a lot more precisely with a few tricks. Making curves from X,Y,Z points is a useless technique for mathematical curves anyway.

Regards Attila