Hi,
I am having some issues with offsetting splines... it is a long set-up/explanation here so only the brave should read this!
Question:
If my original spline curve looked fine, why does the offset (bidirectional) of the same great looking curve look so bad (piecewise approximated) when it is offset? p.s. it works great (smooth) with AutoCAD 2000 Lt... go figure :-\
Conditions:
I have a part that consists of a curved groove for cam pin - it is a plate with a groove cut in it for a pin to "trace/track" thru.
Anyway, the spline I created is then put on a drawing, then exported to a DXF file for the CNC machine that uses it as the centerline for cutting a groove of constant width... and it looks great - a high number of points, and thus a smooth looking curve that is cut with little if any linear segments noticeable. The problem is that I need to add a few other features to the part, and so the CNC is not just a simple "follow the line" cut, the corners have special bumps, etc...
To over come this issue, I simply created the groove I want... i.e. I define the walls of the groove - I need to this anyway so that I can do a motion simulation of the assembly to ensure proper operation of the system.
And as a side note, to have SW motion simulate this type of "groove plate cam" with a "CAM Mate", you need to make the entire cut of the cam groove within one feature - i.e. one sketch cut, all tangent lines, spline, curves, etc. with no addition other features adding to the desired groove like, fillets, altered curves in the corners, etc. If you do not create the slot in this way, the mate will fail, and so will the simulation - it took 2 days of "VARing around" to solve this anomaly... anyway,
When, I create an offset from the original spline (to make a groove), create a feature cut into the part, then put the part on a drawing, then export a DXF file it has issues.
The once smooth curve is now a piecewise approximation of the curve and it looks coarse - I would say 1/10th the number of points, maybe less.
Thanks for any help,
Aron SW2006, sp4.1