Sweep Solid vs. Sweep Thin.

Thin sweep features can be a little deceiving.  A swept thin does not behave the same as an extruded thin. With an extruded thin, you can have open contours in the sketch. With a swept thin, the profile must remain closed. 

Note: For all these examples, the “pink” sketch will be used as the path, the “green” as the profile.

This first example might be what you would expect a swept thin to be used for. 

 
With the sketches set up something like so...

 
Unfortunately, this is not the case.

 

 

 

In order to create a sweep like this, the profile must be closed...

 

So what is a swept thin used for?  Basically, it is nothing more than a shell.  It just happens to be built into the sweep feature.

  Solid Sweep...                           Thin Sweep...

 

 

 

Nathan Brunner, CSWP

Technical Analyst

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.