I have built in a 3D sketch an optical path which, according to an angular dimension, can vary position in space (All other dimensions are constrained). This path is a beam that starts from a focus and is reflected on a mirror and finally dies on a surface. I'd like to have the plot of the point of impact of this beam with the surface, represented by a sketch plane, as a function of the value of this dimension. Is it possible to create points of interest for a given number of steps in 360° automatically? Or, is it possible to save the trajectory of this point when I move it manually, i.e. to trace its trajectory on the sketch plane? In PJ an example of an optical path with 4 sampled positions (0, 90,180,270°) and a moving beam in blue influenced by the 45° dimension. I have already manually drawn a spline passing through the impact points of my beams with the sketch plane but it is not precise enough nor totally constrained.
Could you specify a little what you want, it doesn't make sense. A freehand drawing would be more explicit or better pass the file to us
Indeed, we do not see if the origin of the beam is mobile or fixed and on which plane it is fixed and on which plane the mirror is fixed and what presides over the orientation, knowing that several pieces of information are needed for a single source-target point path
We can make all the guesses we want.
As for the automatism (I don't really believe in it), apart from a macro (and here I'll let the specialists explain how to recover a previously named rating), I'm afraid that you will have to use Excel and a bit of trigo from the odds provided by SW as in my example.
I even wonder if it's not easier to do everything in Excel with or without VBA.
So if I understand correctly, you want to retrieve the curve formed by the end of a 3D sketch by varying a dimension.
With SW, who says multiple variation, says repetition. Problem: SW does not allow you to repeat a sketch or a curve.
Is this a recurring need and how many points do you want to have to generate your curve? This will determine the method to be used and may justify the development of a macro.
I don't see where there would be a curve (in the drawing I don't see any 3D spline) since in optics the beam is always straight (for lasers) so the oriented mirrors (either in x, y, z, or most of the time plane sliding on Y and positioning coordinates on the x-z plane) cause a controlled deflection upto a target flat or patateiform. What is missing is the way the mirror moves or the target moves. In short, what moves and what moves.
If we look at the screenshot provided, we see a kind of circle in the form of a construction line, I think that's the curve we're looking for, it's located on the flat front. In fact, I think that by varying the 45° dimension that we see, the beam starts from a point source (where all the curves meet), is reflected on the Top Plane to arrive on the Front Plane.
The source may be an adjustable mirror, hence the variation in the incidence of the beam on the Top Plane.
I would see it a bit like the lasers that draw figures on the walls.
Thank you for your feedback! Indeed the diagram is not necessarily very telling but @stefbenohas understood the problem. It is not a one-time need but rather periodic with a repetition interval of several months. Currently I would like to be able to recover the trajectory on two different sketches. On the screenshot I created 5 positions of the optical path, but this is tedious with a 3D sketch and since it is not possible to do repetition, I wondered if there was a simple way to achieve my goals. Obviously, this involves a macro.
There may be a way by generating a circular section scan (possibly even a swept smoothing that ends in a point) that can then be repeated, but you will still have to manually retrieve the endpoints to make the final curve.
