{"id":358,"date":"2012-07-11T15:02:02","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T14:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/?p=358"},"modified":"2013-05-09T14:06:44","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T13:06:44","slug":"solidworks-using-curvature-combs-to-inspect-curvature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/07\/solidworks-using-curvature-combs-to-inspect-curvature\/","title":{"rendered":"SolidWorks: Using Curvature Combs to Inspect Curvature"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite ways to inspect curvature is to use curvature combs. These are graphical elements that display the amount of curvature at a given point on a sketch element. They\u2019re fantastic for predicting problem areas in sketches, especially splines, that will be used to generate complex surfaces.<\/p>\n

To display curvature combs for a sketch entity, simply right-click on the entity and choose Show Curvature Combs from the pop-up menu. When you do, SolidWorks will create a set of lines normal to the sketch entity at points along that entity; the longer the line of the comb, the more curvature there is at that point.<\/p>\n

While the combs are very useful as is, they become even better more useful when you turn on the bounding curve. The bounding curve of a curvature comb makes it very easy to see even subtle changes or inflections in the curvature of an entity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Curvature Combs with Bounding Curve off<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Curvature Comb with Bounding Curve on<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To turn on these helpful bounding curves, go to Tools, Options, System Options, and pick the Sketch page. On that page you\u2019ll find a checkbox: Show curvature comb bounding curve.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s an option I knew I had, but I had forgotten about it until recently when I was trying to explain using Curvature Combs in an Advanced Part class. I could mentally trace the flow of the curve because I knew what I was looking at; my students had a harder time until I increased the density of the curvature combs. I then thought to myself, \u201cWasn\u2019t there a way to show the flow of these curvature comb ends?\u201d A little digging into the SolidWorks option pages and there it was! Use it and you\u2019ll find it even easier to predict surface behaviors when created from your sketches.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

John Setzer is Training Coordinator at Graphics Systems, a SolidWorks Value Added Reseller with locations across Wisconsin and Illinois.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite ways to inspect curvature is to use curvature combs. These are graphical elements that display the amount of curvature at a given point on a sketch… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[19,23,37,25,26],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solidworks","tag-cad","tag-design","tag-hints-tips","tag-solidworks-2","tag-support"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1061,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/1061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}