Scaled Sweep Issues

[HDS]

I am trying to draw an octagonal luminaire arm with a slight taper for a light pole by sweeping along a polyline profile. Sometimes it lets me do it, most of the time it doesn't. I can do a scaled sweep along a straight path and an unscaled sweep along a curved path, but I cannot do a scaled sweep along a curved path. I've spent hours on this and can't seem to figure this one out. What am I missing?

[ReMark]

Have you tried the LOFT command instead using two differently sized profiles at each end of the path?

[HDS]

Have you tried the LOFT command instead using two differently sized profiles at each end of the path?

 

I will give it a shot tomorrow when I'm back at work since I only have '02 at home and does not have LOFT or SWEEP commands. Even if I was able to do it, I would still be curious what would cause it to quit working on a regular basis. Dropped pc performance?

 

I should also mention that I use to do this operation all the time, then it just gave up.

 

Thanks for your response.

[nestly]

I was able to scale-sweep an octagon along spline, ellipse, Polyline, and arc segment paths without any issues in Acad2011. If you have trouble in the morning, perhaps upload a sample drawing.

 

[HDS]

I was able to scale-sweep an octagon along spline, ellipse, Polyline, and arc segment paths without any issues in Acad2011. If you have trouble in the morning, perhaps upload a sample drawing.

 

That is pretty much what I am aiming for. Like I said above, I use to be able to do these, and did quite a bit. Then one day it just said no, on three different computers. I can't figure out what has changed and I do change things often. The times I've got it to work in the past few days I just simply draw a new path and viola. If I delete it and do it again it won't work, maybe. I will try to upload the drawing tomorrow. As I typed this reply it dawned on me that I should try it on a new drawing. I've noticed weird things happening in the past when my drawings start to get more complex, and our computers are not the best for 3d modeling. My secondary question is if poor pc performance would limit drawing capabilities.

[ReMark]

Yes, poor system performance can affect a drawing session. A lack of RAM, a graphics card with meager vidRAM, a slow hard drive (5400 rpm), a hard drive that doesn't have a lot of free space, etc. all can have a negative affect.

 

What are your computer hardware specs?

 

What OS are you running and what version? Example: Windows XP Pro - 32-bit or Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

[JD Mather]

How far are you from the origin when this problem occurs?

What is your taper angle in relation to the profile size and the sweep path length and curvature?

 

Of course the only real way to answer your question is for you to post a file that exhibits the behavior you are experiencing.

[HDS]

I am able to do the scaled sweep when I open a new drawing, but it quits once I add more 3D models to the drawing.

 

The better of 3 computers used is running Windows 7 32-bit and has an Intel i3 3.07GHz processor and 4GB of RAM (2.99 usable). Graphics card is an ATI Firepro 2260. The other 2 are running Win XP Pro and have specs that are embarrassing to mention. After doing a bit of reading, I believe it is a pc performance issue I am experiencing. Correct me if I'm wrong. There was already talk of getting me a new computer and I'm currently reading other threads to determine the setup I will need.

 

Thanks guys

[nestly]

I believe it is a pc performance issue I am experiencing

 

Perhaps, although I just did this on a 7yr old 32bit WinXP machine, which hasn't been rebooted since Monday, inside a 12MB drawing (about 23GB with xrefs loaded) I personally don't think it's a hardware issue, but hey, if you can use it for leverage to get a shiny new CAD station, go for it.

[HDS]

I meant it's an overall performance issue. We just got 2013 and have been running 2007 prior. 2 of the pc's only meet the minimum requirements for '07 and also have UPS and inventory software that run constantly. These computers were not taken care of before I took them and one of them I discovered is still running on service pack 2 for windows xp. To get an idea, my computer takes over 10 minutes to boot up. Simple renders I have been asked to do take well over an hour if it doesn't crash. In the task manager, the CPU is topped out when just running Autocad. I was pretty busy today and if I can I will upload the original file tomorrow. I'm suspicious that it (and others) have become corrupt when trying to do complex operations that overload the pc. The better of the 3 pc's should have easily done the operation but it just refuses.

 

The whole 3D modeling and rendering is new to this company. They like my work but its killing every pc they give me.