Curve Through XYZ Points Tool for 2D Spline Creation
Instructions for importing X and Y Coordinates to make a spline, then a
sketch of that spline.
Have your X,Y,Z coordinates in an excel format, make sure not to have anything else but
the coordinates as shown below:
In this case we only want a 2D spline but in order for it to work you must enter Z
coordinates, so enter 0 for the Z coordinate.
Next highlight and copy your coordinates from Excel and open Word Pad and paste them
using CTRL V.
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It will look something like this:
In Word Pad perform a “Save As” like this below:
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Make sure to save it as a Plain text document.
When this warning pops up in Word Pad upon saving select YES:
Then close Word Pad and open SolidWorks.
In SOLIDWORKS go to File, New, Part.
Then Go to the pull down menu for the Curves tool and select Curve Through XYZ Points as
shown below:
The Curve File dialog box will appear:
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Select the Browse button change the file type to *TXT as shown here:
Locate your Word Pad TXT file you saved.
Select Open, (Don’t worry if the preview shows XY or Z coordinate out of place.)
Notice that the Curve File Dialog box is now populated with your data.
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Select OK and your Spline should appear. Depending on where is was referenced you may
need to do a zoom fit to see it:
Notice Curve 1 in your Tree.
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Find the plane where your spline is located on and create a new sketch on that plane.
Once in Sketch mode select Convert Entities
Green Check for Ok.
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and select the spline then hit the
Exit the Sketch and notice you now have a sketch in your tree of the spline.
Now your spline is usable and can be surface extruded or manipulated as you wish.
Let’s create a Surface Extrude.
Go to Insert, Surface, Extrude as shown below:
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Here is your final result:
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