Projecting SolidWorks points onto surfaces

To do it manually, you would use points in a 3DSketch that each have an AlongZ relation to the corresponding point in the 2d skecth created by your macro. To do hundreds or thousands, you will need some sort of macro. Such a maro should be fairly simple for a pro SW macro coder (not me), especially if the target surface is a single body. Perhaps the macro you already have could be altered to do the job.

I'm guessing that points on the surface is not your end goal. Is there a chance someone may be able to suggest another path to your goal that does not involve projecting points onto the surface?

This is the macro that I found online that adds a coincident relationship between the point and the surface. Any suggestions on how I would go about modifying this would be appreciated.

Thank you again,

Vlad

Dim swApp As Object Sub main() Set swApp = Application.SldWorks Set Part = swApp.ActiveDoc Set Sketch = Part.GetActiveSketch2 If Sketch Is Nothing Then MsgBox "The 3DSketch must be open", vbCritical, "Points on Face macro " End End If Set Sel = Part.SelectionManager If Sel.GetSelectedObjectCount 1 Or Sel.GetSelectedObjectType(1) 2 Then ' FACE MsgBox "You must select the face", vbCritical, "Points on Face macro " End End If Set Face = Sel.GetSelectedObject(1) points = Sketch.GetSketchPoints For Each i In points i.Select False Face.Select True Part.SketchAddConstraints "sgCOINCIDENT" Next i End Sub

I just had a thought although I am not sure how well this would work. Could a macro that does this maybe work:

Import points with xy coordinates and z=0.

Create an axis for every point using the point and face/plane option. Each point will form an axis with the help of a plane that is an offset from the xy plane above the surface.

Next we import the points again in a new sketch with xy coordinates and z=0 (because of the order of features created if we try to edit the previous sketch, the axes will not be available - unless macros work differently)

We set an intersect relationship between each point, its corresponding axis just created and the surface. I know that the logistics of writing such a macro may be difficult but at least I have some hope that it may work.

Let me know what you guys think.

Thank you,

Vlad

ModelDoc2::RayIntersections is the API you need. Do you have only 1 possible intersection for each points, or more ("folded" surface) ? If you have some $ to spend on this, I might help you more ;-)

Just before this line:

Part.SketchAddConstraints "sgCOINCIDENT"

you would need to get the x,y coordinates of the point, and then reset the coordinates to those points after that line. I don't know enough about the API to tell you what functions you would need. If you have thousands of these to do and at least a little VBA experience, you can probably figure it out a lot faster than manually aliging the points.

If you don't get far with this, you should probably consult a macro pro. There are several around who specialize in SW macros.

snipped-for-privacy@ball.com wrote in news:1182282255.671675.239460 @p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

A macro could do that, but a macro can also accomplish the same thing with just the math, and not adding axes.

See Phillippe's reply. He's definitely a SW macro/API pro who's been around for a quite a while, and he has identified the function that can find all 3 coordinates based on just the x,y coordinates and surface body (or maybe face). Take his advice over mine on programming.

You said that you'd tried importing your coordinates as a curve, and that had not worked. What about importing them as a series of line segments or a single polyline? That should force SW to retain your original XY coordinates.