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for straight path, I can just do the arraypath with arcs to generate sine-wave-like wavy line. However, if I have some irregular path, this method is going to brake the line and the wavy line is not exactly follow the curvature of the path. Is there anyway to do this in autoCAD? Like bend the object along the path or deform the object along the path. In 3D case, I would like to have a helix following the path.
I need the exact geometry to be wavy not just the looking.
In inkscape, I can use pattern-along-path selecting with "single,stretch" or "repeat,stretch". It will be very surprising, if a professional CAD software does not have this function. @Doktoro Reichard, thanks! Please refer to the 2 PDFs, where you can zoom as much as you want.
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=ga3dd85d5de7251a09995413078e8a9b1c15291c8c
Wang
Posted 2014-07-29T22:31:18.787
Reputation: 465
I'm not understanding what you mean by "wavy". As it stands, it seems you are just describing splines. Could you maybe add an example of what you mean in Inkscape? – Doktoro Reichard – 2014-07-29T23:47:39.877
You have been active in Super User and in the rest of the SE network and (as I still see it) haven't yet provided enough detail. If you're still expecting an answer to this question, can you please add more detail? – Doktoro Reichard – 2014-08-12T13:50:37.820
@Doktoro Reichard, thanks! according to ur suggestion, I added two examples. – Wang – 2014-08-13T01:11:06.130
This is for the time being an unsearched answer (I haven't got access to Autocad where I'm at), but now that I understand what you mean, I can't see the use case for that particular feature, in a CAD application. I'm not saying it can't be done or that it doesn't exist, but it just seems an odd thing to do. Maybe with arrays but I would have to look into it. – Doktoro Reichard – 2014-08-13T01:20:49.957
@Doktoro Reichard, array cannot do the same thing (even for the 1 example). It will not bend the object along the path. For 2nd case, I remember there was some function called bend. But I cannot find it in the new version. It is very surprising they remove features instead of adding features :-/ – Wang – 2014-08-13T01:44:31.783
I've searched somewhat. First of, there seems to never have been a command called "bend" or similar in AutoCAD (in Inventor there seems to be). There also doesn't seem to be an inbuilt command for this, but considering that "path to path" is a Python extension, it would make sense that the same could be done in AutoCAD by a Lisp script. The best "match" for what you wanted seemed to be this Autodesk forums post.
– Doktoro Reichard – 2014-08-13T22:03:40.230