Inventor^® Training

Create 3D Sweeps with 3D Spline Paths

By David Melvin, PE, TEDCF Publishing

You can use 3D splines to draw the path for 3D sweeps, but if you’ve ever tried to do this you may have found that it’s difficult to make the sweep have a uniform thickness. This short exercise will show you how to do this.

Quick 3D Command Review
You’ll use both the Line and Spline command in this exercise, so you’ll need to know how to use the commands. When you use either of these commands the 3D coordinate triad appears.

Click a point to start drawing a line or spline, and then click one of the planes on the triad. This will allow you to select locations for points on the line or spline within a 2D plane. You can also use the Default Work Plane and the Look At command to set the view to a planar view. When you’re finished selecting the points, right click and select continue to finish drawing the line or spline.

Start by Drawing 2D Geometry.
Before you enter 3D Sketch mode…