Help Creating Sweep/Loft

[corradojeff]

Hello, I am hoping someone can help me with some FreeCAD functionality that is new to me. I am attempting to model a fan duct from a mounting plate to the hot end nozzle for a 3d printer. I have created the two frames of where I want the piece to start and stop but I am having difficulties figuring out how to create a wire for the part to follow.

I have only used the Part and Part Design workbenches. I have tried to use Draft to accomplish this but could not figure it out. I am still very new to any sort of CAD work but I read the tutorials on Loft and Sweep but I cant find any useful info on creating a wire in the shape that I am looking for.

The attached photo is an example of the shape I am looking for but it would be in more of a helix sweep.

FullSizeRender.jpg (325.17 KiB) Viewed 722 times

If anyone could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.

Fan Mount.FCStd

(49.25 KiB) Downloaded 31 times

OS: Mac OS X
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6706 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: tag: 0.16.6706
Hash: f86a4e411ff7848dea98d7242f43b7774bee8fa0
Python version: 2.7.11
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 3.1.3
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

[microelly2]

When you install the developer version you can use Bsplines in Sketcher to get such a design

https://youtu.be/eBHWPAb9IcE

I create 3 corners with 3 poles each and two extra poles for the bended sides
It is a cyclic spline.
After drawing you can set the exact data with common sketcher tools.


OS: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.17.10802 (Git)
Build type: None
Branch: master
Hash: 10ce910c03347a90712327a7cc7be2bcdee13afc
Python version: 2.7.6
Qt version: 4.8.6
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.1.0

[corradojeff]

Thank you for the response. That sketcher tool looks very useful I will have to give that some attention.

In the video you shared you have mirrored the shape of the duct in the photo I posted whic, since it is on the same plan, is straight forward to model. My issue is that the lower portion or "mouth" of the fan is about 50mm lower in Z and 40mm offset in the Y so the duct would have the be in a helical shape to make it work. Its that helix shape that I am not sure how to make with the starting points and ending points where I want them. This is pretty new to me so I am not even sure how to describe what I am envisioning. I hope that I am explaining myself well enough.

In the FCStd that I posted you can see what shape/path it would have to follow but I am not sure how to make it do that.

I can loft between the two sketches but of course it just makes a straight line between the two sketches.