Bending wrapped wires

[dr_gallup]

I have a coil assembly with a bobbin, 2 terminals and a wound coil with start & finish wires. During the coil winding the start & finish leads are wrapped around the the terminals and welded. Later the terminals are bent. I have modeled the terminals in sheet metal & it is no problem to have family table instances of the straight & bent terminals. I modeled the coil start & finish wires as pipe features through datum points offset from a coordinate system. I would like these start & finish wires to follow the terminals when I bend them. I created the wire coordinate system from references on the straight terminal but it does not move & rotate with the bent terminal. I don't want to have to put every point offset value into a family table, way too much to manually keep track of. Any ideas?

 

[jason_]

I modeled the coil start & finish wires as pipe features through datum points offset from a coordinate system.


It sounds like you have the general idea. How are you handling the bending in the family table? Are you turning off the straight geometry and adding the bent geometry or is it being varied with dimensions only? Are you adding the CSYS and points to the terminal model itself or externally referencing in the pipe part or the assembly? Also, are you using the pipe feature in the Insert>Advanced menu or are you using the Pro/Piping module?
Edited by: jason_

 

[dr_gallup]

How are you handling the bending in the family table? Are you turning off the straight geometry and adding the bent geometry or is it being varied with dimensions only?
I'm just suppressing sheet metal bends in the straight part.

Are you adding the CSYS and points to the terminal model itself or externally referencing in the pipe part or the assembly?
I added the CSYS to the wire model but used an external reference to a portion of the terminal that gets rotated & translated in the bent model. I was hoping that the CSYS would follow the bend.

Also, are you using the pipe feature in the Insert>Advanced menu or are you using the Pro/Piping module?
I'm using Insert/Advanced, don't have Pro/Pipe.

 

[dr_gallup]

I tried creating the CSYS in the terminal model with the bend suppressed. I picked a point to locate it and two edges to define the orientation. When I resume the bend, the CSYS moves with the point but it keeps it's previous orientation rather than rotating with the bend.

I redefined the wire points for the pipe to the terminal CSYS but they don't move even when the terminal CSYS moves.





Edited by: dr_gallup

 

[jason_]

Refer to my next post.
Edited by: jason_

 

[jason_]

OK, I got it to work, it has to do with the references you are selecting so you will have to Query Select to make sure you get the right one.


First, make sure that the sheetmetal part is in the bent state, so resume the bend, or else you won't see the bend references that you need. Use the same type of references you are currently using. So the Origin reference will be a vertex where the two edges meet. Then over in the Orientation is where the tricky bit happens. Make sure that at least one of the edge references comes up like this:


Edge:F8(BEND):SHEETMETAL


Instead of both being:


Edge:F8(FIRST WALL):SHEETMETAL


From my experience, the longest edges normal to the bend are the ones that are the "BEND" edges. Then whenever you resume or suppress the bend you will have to regen the assembly and they will reposition/reorient.Let me know if that works. It worked for me but I got the same thing as you at first.
Edited by: jason_

 

[dr_gallup]

Jason

Thanks for your efforts. I can make the CSYS a child of the bend, however, it becomes suppressed in the instance without the bend. So that didn't work.

Next I tried using the bend angle in the family table instead of the bend feature. This almost works! The only problem is the angle can not be zero. However, it can be pretty small. 0.25 degrees will regen, 0.20 degrees fails. I can probably get it lower with increased accuracy. So it's 99.75% solved.

 

[dr_gallup]

I had to add the external reference to the wire family table too. Now it all works other than the minimum angle is 0.02 degrees which is pretty close to zero.

 

[jason_]

Something else I tried and worked or me would be to create curves using the non-bend edges and reference the CSYS to those curves only.Select the edges with the Geometry filter on and then copy/paste. You should end up with a curve sitting right on the edge (may need to layer it on, if it's off) then you can select those as references for your CSYS. Select two curves that meet (not a vertex) and you should have enough to contrain it fully.


The problem I see with your particular situation is that in thatarea you only have two straight edges (because of the round) and one is the "bend edge" and if you create a curve on that edge it will fail when you go back to the straight state. So you may have to sketch a straight curve from the corner towards the other side of the part.


If what you've done with the near zero angle works then I'd just go with that. Then if you need a completely straight sheemetal part for your drawing then just create another instance with the bend suppressed.


Glad to help!
Edited by: jason_