Help Creating "Ribbon" Surface

[hst]

Gentlemen:

I am struggling to create a three dimensional surface based on a spline. Looking at it from the top, the surface is .600" wide in Y and 28.200" long in X. Looking at it from the front, or along Y, it is a slightly irregular concave spline created with a series of points.

Think of a length of ribbon held flat between you hands, drooping a bit in the middle.

I created the curve by mapping the points in X and Z, all at Y zero, in 1.0" X increments. Connecting the points with an interpolated spline from X 0.0 to X-28.2 gives me the contour I need. The spline starts at Z 0. at one end and finishes at Z -.004 at the other. Lowest Z point in the middle is -.045. Now I need to make this contour into a surface .600" wide in Y.

I hope this makes some sense. My head is getting sore and the wall doesn't seem to be getting any softer... I would greatly appreciate any help you can give. I am working in V24

Respectfully,

Glenn

[dwood]

if you have one line or spline the shape you want
go to utilities ( translate ) delta
then translate in y .600 with copy
then do a cross section to get your surface

[hst]

Mr. dwood:

Thanks for the help. I had tried that technique a number of times, as well as anything else I could think of, but could not get it to work. I think there was something wrong with the splines I drew.

Curiously enough, when I drew the spline through each of the points in turn, the finished spline did not pass through all of the points. I tried that numerous times and had the same problem. I tried both the interpolated and blended spline with the same results. I was under the impression that the interpolated spline was forced to go through the control points. I am confused.

In any event, I ultimately made the line by connecting the dots with the Continuous Line feature and then put a huge radius fillet in each intersection. Probably not ideal but I think good enough for this. Once I had this line done I was able to do the crossection thing just as you suggested and it worked slick as can be.


Thanks for your help!


Glenn