[skippy]

Can anyone tell me what this kind of shape is called and what is the easiest way to make it in SW? I would have called it a groove or slot but it seems "slots" (in the YouTube S.W. tutorials) go right through the job, and I haven't seen too much there about "grooves" either other than grooves in a circular item (eg: a revolved groove for an O-ring) and "lip grooves" of which it is neither one. F.Y.I. The groove is 10mm wide and first drops straight down by 5mm (i.e. parallel walls) then the bottom and ends have a 5mm radius just like you would get if you used a 10mm ball nose cutter. I'm happy to go with an extruded cut first for the 5mm straight cut then a "revolved cut" for the floor of the groove but am wondering if there are better/easier ways to do this? Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

[victorofga]

in any solid modeler, you have two way for that..

first you create a cylinder with spheres on the ends and subtract of the first object.. then chamfer..

if first object has other than flat surface, then draw two vector on the surface, and with lofting use two half circle, then close it up two quarter of sphere..
then subtract it..
and chamfer..

[ger21]

Filet the extruded cut.

[skippy]

Thanks for your help guys but I did an extruded cut (10mm deep) but when I then do a "full round fillet" to produce the shape that a 10mm ball nose cutter would leave (as per the top jpeg) I can't get it to correctly produce the desired result at the ends.

EDIT: Now I think I have it figured out. Did my sketch on the surface then did "Extruded Cut" with a 5mm depth (as per slot1.jpg) then down on the lower level I did a sketch suitable for the revolve command (as per slot2.jpg) then did the "revolve" command (as per slot3.jpg). Anyone got any faster ways to achieve this?

Obviously if the line was curved or had some turns I would have had to use the "Sweep" command then a "revolve" for the rounded ends.

[cygnus x-1]

Thanks for your help guys but I did an extruded cut (10mm deep) but when I then do a "full round fillet" to produce the shape that a 10mm ball nose cutter would leave (as per the top jpeg) I can't get it to correctly produce the desired result at the ends.

EDIT: Now I think I have it figured out. Did my sketch on the surface then did "Extruded Cut" with a 5mm depth (as per slot1.jpg) then down on the lower level I did a sketch suitable for the revolve command (as per slot2.jpg) then did the "revolve" command (as per slot3.jpg). Anyone got any faster ways to achieve this?

Obviously if the line was curved or had some turns I would have had to use the "Sweep" command then a "revolve" for the rounded ends.

You were on the right track with the 10mm extrude cut. But use a normal constant radius fillet (of 5mm) on the corner edge instead of the full round fillet on the faces.


C|

[skippy]

Thanks cygnus, that did it. As a mate of mine pointed out to me just now, just select the bottom edge (like what you said) or the bottom face and do a normal radius and hey presto. It's embarrassing to admit this publicly but I spent hours trying to sort this out as I hadn't even realised there was a slot tool and I was starting from a centre line then doing a line either side then arcs at the ends, then extruded cut (10mm) then the rest (where I got into trouble). :-(

Now it's down to a few minutes using: "Center Point Straight Slot" "then smart dimension" (70 x 10mm) then "extruded cut" (10mm) then "fillet" (5mm) selecting the bottom face and all done! :-)
Thanks for your input guys.