yang686526

blending a sculpted surface
i have created a model using a type of sculpting technique to obtain the form of a complex surface.
i want to cnc machine this surface, but the cnc machine guy would prefer to work with a surface that is more of a blended contour.
is there an easy way to change my model to a blended contoured surface?

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i have attached a pic of the cad system to show what i mean by a sculptured surface. the edegs are not tangent, but the worst error in the profile from what really happens in a cuttng machine is only .002 mm.
anyone know of a way to "smooth" this out to make the model more cnc machine friendly?

are you talking about the top portion of the gear teeth? if so, you may want to consider how you made those areas and do what you can to regain tangency. from what little i understand about nc paths, you'll want faces to be tangent whenever possible, and certainly not misaligned. also, if the misalignment--however small--creates an undercut, i can see you having problems there.
before patterning the faces, perhaps you could use a surface fill or patch--delete the problem area and use the patch or fill features to connect the faces again--a bit laborious, but unless you can edit the original feature for improvement, i don't know what else to try.

jeff mowry
some features that might be of interest... solid sweep, surface fill (as jeff mentioned), boundary surface, freeform surface. solid sweep is a bit new but is being improved on in future releases. if you could model your cutter and its tool path, then you could acheive the accurate geometry that could be cut on your part - its closing the loop on the solid model and cnc programming process...
freeform surfaces have also been enhanced in later releases and will have some promise for the shape you have shown here.
as jeff mentioned too, work on one tooth, then pattern the results.
the region that needs to be improved is on the tooth flanks. this model was in fact created by using the cavity technique in solidworks to simulate the result of a gear cutter. the problem is that i can only manipulate the cutter in incremental units which results in the non-tangent surfaces. however, in cutting such a real gear, such non-tangent surfaces also exist.
i have tried surface patch and fill. unfortunately, when i do so, it signifiantly changes my profile so it didnt work. the current model is accurate to .002 mm. after i use the surface fill or patch technique, it was probably out by as much as .25 mm.
can solidworks create a data cloud of the surface profile and then do an interpolation - smoothing technique?

you can use the cavity technique, delete the surfaces they create, sketch a spline on the face of the tooth to pick up the points created by the cavity technique, then use fill surface and the spline created to control the fill surface. you could also use the boundary surface tool too.
pdybeck's technique should work--it's a bit involved, but you should be able to create a good surface with a bit of knowledge of the surfacing tools.

jeff mowry
pdybeck
i think that the faces you are referring to are acutally curved surfaces at the outer diameter and inner diameter. the profile varies at each radial diametral position. wont the technique you describe just basically create a loft between the two surfaces, not taking into account the change in between those surfaces?
spurs,
the splines i mentioned are for the purpose of interpolation of the surface in between those known points created by the cavity technique. the splines put limts of control on the loft, surface fill, boundary surface, freeform surface, sweep, or whatever other feature you choose to employ.