Zig-zag or wavey spiral

[Mech_Steve]

Hello folks,


I'm new to this forum, but it seems like a great community with a lot of experience. I'm using PRO/E WF 4.0 and I would like to model a zig zag extrude that spirals around itself. I have attached a crude hand drawing.


View attachment 4540


I need the extrude to be about .010 thick, and I need to be able to control the "z" dimension (the length into and out of the page). If the zig zag cannot be done, a wavey spiral would work just as well:


View attachment 4541


Any thoughts?


Thanks!


Steve M.
Edited by: Mech_Steve

 

[design-engine]

use the trajpar variable using the Variable section sweep.

 

[megadeth0]

Here is a quick model of the spiral version. The zig-zag one will take some thought. This one was very quick. Look through the equation for the initial spiral and the relations for the VSS. You'll see what is going on. Hope this helps anyway.



2010-07-21_173923_zig-zag.prt.zip

 

[Mech_Steve]

Thank you both very much! I'm very new to variable section sweeps, so these will take some time for me to understand. I may have some follow up questions later this week.

 

[xandu]

I wonder if you could also do this with a two-variable pattern, by creating one "tooth" and then patterning it around the axis and radially. You might have to get creative with relations to make sure the tooth-to-tooth spacing would be maintained as the pattern is created, but I don't see why it wouldn't work...

 

[xandu]

Try this. Obviously, the transitions between the zigs and the zags need to be tweaked, but you should be able to work that detail out with some creative modeling...


2010-08-10_143431_zigzag_test.prt.zip