For this post we will look at how the new loft and multi-sweep commands can be used to design a handlebar grip and a reamer used for horizontal directional drilling. These commands add to the powerful capabilities of Altair Inspire to design your products.

Loft Command

To demonstrate the capabilities of the new loft command we will look at how to design an ergonomic bicycle handlebar grip. This product has a complex shape to support the hand properly ensuring a rider has a comfortable ride.

 

The design was started by creating guide curves to define the overall profile of the grip body. For this design we created four guide curves. Each guide curve is defined in its own sketch and provides the control of the shape every 90 degrees. These guide curves are the key to developing the shape of the grip body.

Once the guide curves were created, 2 profiles were created on each end of the model. The profiles were created by creating a closed spline with the spline points positioned where the guide curves intersect the sketch plane. This allows the guide curves to change the shape of the profiles at different locations through the loft.

Using the four guide curves and the two profiles we used the new loft command in Altair Inspire. This created the basic shape of the handlebar grip.

To finish the model fillets and grooves were added to the grip to improve the appearance and performance of the grip.

 

The handlebar grip is a perfect use case showing the capability of the new loft command. This command improves the ease for which you can design lofted profiles in Altair Inspire.

Multi-Sweep command

To show the capabilities of the new multi-sweep command we will look at how we can design a reamer for a horizontal directional drill. The complexity of this design is the flute that is narrow at the small diameter and increases as the diameter increases. This allows more rock and dirt to be moved out of the hole.

The first step in modeling the reamer was defining the size and shape of the main body of the reamer. This is a profile that was revolved to create the basic size and shape of the reamer. This model is used to help define the size and location of the geometry used to create the flutes.

There are multiple ways in Altair Inspire to design the helix used to define the path of the flute. For this design we chose to create two surfaces and then use the curve created at the intersection of the surfaces. The first surface was created by revolving a sketch to create a cone. The other surface was created by sweeping a sketch and twisting the profile 120 degrees. The intersection command was then used to create a curve at the intersection of these two curves.

This curve could have been designed with the helix command. The surface method was chosen because it was easier to relate the curves to the basic geometry of the model.

Once the curve of the flute was designed, two sketches were created. The first sketch at the small diameter is a circle that cuts into the main geometry of the model. The second sketch is an elongated profile at the large diameter of the main geometry.

 

The multi-sweep command was then used to sweep the two profile sketches along the curve to create the volume of the flute.

A revolved pattern of the flute was created around the main geometry. Then using the Boolean command, the flutes were subtracted from the main geometry producing the final part.

The reamer for a horizontal directional drill is a great example of how you can use the multi-sweep command in your designs. It is much easier to use than the loft command for this type of design.

Conclusion

The loft and multi-sweep commands are great additions to Altair Inspire. These commands will allow users to perform more of their design work within the program. This will save time during the design stage of product development. Give these commands a try on your next design.