treading along an irregular contour

[cherokeechief79]

I have a job that requires a thread type toolpath driven along a chain of a couple of lines that change angles along the length.(sorry I cant share)is there a way to drive the tool along a chain that isn't straight?

[Mjölnir]

assuming milling it;

 

there may be a more elegant way but i've thought about it for only a minute;

 

what i've got in my mind is threading a bottle or barrel shape;

 

create a spiral using the pitch of the thread with a radius slightly smaller than the min dia of the bottle

create a swept surface (like a 0° draft surface) from the spiral that intersects the bottle surfs

create splines at the intersection of the spiral and bottle surfs

drive the tool using those splines

[jaydenn]

Sounds fairly simple... Regular old "3D contour" will follow anything you want.

 

If you're describing something like a thread on a square boss, you might just experiment with "2D contour" and use the ramp option. Set your ramp depth equal to pitch.

 

J

[ajmer]

there is a chook called threadC.dll

it is for that purpose

your post has to be setup to use it correctly though