Structure Design

[OutCell]

Hello,

I am having some trouble modeling a Roll Cage structure. Tubing/Pipes (Standalone) is well under my capability after looking around and following the tutorial in I-DEAS NX5. But how can i combine the pipes/tubes to form the Roll Cage full structure? Can anyone give me a hint please; tutorials, guides, some where to look? etc..

Another question i have is how can i Finite Analyize a tubular structure? I can't apply force on rounded structures?

Thanks

[SDETERS69]

Best way of making a model out of tubes is to do the following

Create reference points at the theortical sharp points in 3D space where the centerline of your tubes are going to meet. Then put a reference point between these reference points. Then put coordinates systems at the beginging and at each theoritcal intersection points. Using the reference point as the origin and using the other reference points as the x axis and y axis. Then sketch on the x,y axis and focus the reference points and draw your lines. Then fillet 2d the curves. Then sweep the circle cross section along them paths.

For the fea just split surface the surface you want to add the force to. This is under the extrude command