Practice 03 - Half-assed Loft walk through!

Three planes.Make sketches on all three.

LOFT

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Exporting DXF Files

For this exercise you'll be making a dropout. Simple. I'll then walk you through the process of exporting the Solidworks model as a DXF file. This is useful to know for when you want order parts to be laser cut.


First off, make a Long Haul/Express dropout.

Some can usually be found on the shelf with all the other laser-cut parts.


Once finished, make sure to save.

Make a new drawing and import the part, or click the "Make drawing from part" button.

Insert a side view of the part, and delete the sheet format.

This will get rid of the text and other stuff in the background.

The view should be of the side, essentially blank.

Make sure it's 1:1 scale, otherwise the piece may come back too big, or too small, or just not fit right.

It's also good to note that some laser cutting job shops may require more information such as dimensions to be visible. If that's the case, get your Smart Dimension tool and throw on all the info needed.

Once the drawing has everything it needs, you want to export it to a DXF file. DXF files are very basic Autocad drawing formats that are standard for most places.

Click File>Save As, and simply change the filetype to Dxf.

Send it to the shop through email, and specify the material and thickness in the message for your price quote.

Express/Long-Haul Stay Tubes

In this exorcise I'll be posting images with bits of information. It'll be up to you to make sense of it. You'll be tasked with figuring out how everything goes together, and how to work within a 3D Sketch. That's right, 3D Sketch. It is possible to make this part using a series of different extrudes and angles, but you'll be doing it all as one Swept  feature.

Start your tubing profile sketch on the front plane

Click to enlarge

Easy. 3D sketching, not so much. Start a new 3D sketch, it doesn't matter if you pick a plane or not. Draw out your path, making sure to utilize reference geometry.

Refer to the images as needed.

Don't worry if you can't finish, or are too confused. We'll be going over it in class later, and I'll answer any questions and point out useful tips. We'll need this to complete our Express assembly.

It would also be a good idea to get one from the shop to look at.