Basic Lofts in SolidWorks???

[thansen]

CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME?!!?

I know this is probably a stupid question for
this advanced forum, but I am learning SolidWorks,
and am trying to do some tabletop products,
that require lofts or sweeps.

I have done the line drawings for these in
AutoCAD with front, side, and top views, and
then open the dwg in SW. However, I am
having a hard time doing the actual loft or
sweep because I need to align the dwg lines
to each other.

I know this is really simple, so can someone
help me figure out what I am not doing right?
I could even email a dwg of a sample product,
similar to the ones I am trying to do.

Thanks!

 

[bcampbell]

It's not simple

First, it's not simple.

Lofting surfaces is an art and can be mastered by practicing.

Remember a few basics:
1. Surfaces always have 4 sides.
2. Don't worry about the surface, concentrate on the curves to build the surface.
3. Surfaces can be trimmed.
4. There's only one surface, there's many ways to create a surface ie..lofts, sweeps, fill, revolve, extrude, plane.....

The best way to learn surfacing is to drink a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning and play with them. Hopefully without the pressure of getting something done.

Good Luck,

 

[Lotus14]

If I read your note correctly, you are importing an AutoCAD drawing, with three standard views of top, side and end; not an Acad 3d model.

If the views in the Acad drawing were aligned then I would expect the imported version would be also. But having said that, although I do not know what you are modeling, I would import the drawing to all three planes, make the images visible, and remove the information for the views not related to that plane. I would then align the “views” by what ever method suits, such as drawing construction lines to intersect on the different views as a guide to move the images. This might be considered the hard way, to the experts, but I’ve done similar and it goes pretty fast if you know what you want. One or more of the views will give you information as to the extrusion, loft, or whatever that you need to create the model; other views are not much more than a check to see if you’ve gotten what you want. You are effectively projecting the view on a plane (you may need to relocate, or copy the plane) and creating a “box” which you build the part within. You might be able to extrude in one plane, and cut away material with the other two planes; rather than doing a sweep, or loft. After that you can add features as needed.

I have done similar when importing ‘drawings’ from manufacturer’s web sites for gadgets I want to model in an assembly.

I hope this helps.