[skippy]

2015 X64 is the version and thanks for the advice as to the method.

As per adamw's and your suggestion, I downloaded a SW file of a head in Grabcad and what a good move that was. Even though the author of the drawing may have different design intent than the person looking at the drawing, it is still a great way to see how others go about everything (not just the bits I'm stuck on) and what is possible in general.

Thanks.

[Coetzee]

2015 X64 is the version and thanks for the advice as to the method.

As per adamw's and your suggestion, I downloaded a SW file of a head in Grabcad and what a good move that was. Even though the author of the drawing may have different design intent than the person looking at the drawing, it is still a great way to see how others go about everything (not just the bits I'm stuck on) and what is possible in general.

Thanks.

I've attached a sw2012 file (you should be able to open it) with one way to make this part. I think I forgot a section of tube, but you can get the idea. Hope it helps

Thanks,
Gerrit

(also, 7-zip is a great program for making zip files. I wouldn't use anything else.)

[skippy]

I won't get a chance to open it until later in the week as I am flat out at the moment but thanks a lot for posting the file and the tip re 7-zip.

Phil

[skippy]

I did a bit of digging this week and have finally been able to do what I wanted to do. I knew what I wanted to do but not how to go about it. Some of the problems I was having where simply caused by my ignorance in how to go about something. Two items worth mentioning are:

(1) In a 3D sketch on an angled plane, I couldn’t manage to draw circles that were normal to a line. (the line representing the path of the port and the circles for loft or boundary feature) (This is easy to do when working with standard straight planes). Solution: a 3D sketch plane is required but for the plane reference you have to select the point on the end of a line or spline then the line/spline itself. Then draw your circle or whatever on the sketch plane at whatever angle.

(2) I couldn’t figure out how to use the 3D sketch for the valve and port 1a, for the valve and port 1b being the same sketch but on a plane that is symmetrically opposite that of 1a. Solution: I was hoping that in a 3D sketch you could mirror across planes but this is not possible in SW however you can mirror the sweep/loft/boundary feature used for 1a port and mirror it across the right plane for port 1b.

Thanks to Coetzee, I also learnt about "knit surfaces" which I didn't know about before.