Sweep
Use Sweep to drag a profile along a path. Select the region or regions to sweep, press W, then pick the path in the viewport. Where an extrude pushes a section in a straight line and a revolve turns it around one, a sweep follows a route you point at.
Building one
The profile stays where it is, and the path decides where it goes. Nothing checks that the two are anywhere near each other, so a profile far from the start of its path still sweeps and the result is rarely the one you wanted. Put the section on or near the beginning of the route before you pick the path.
There are no options beyond the path. The section is carried along the route and kept as upright as the path allows, with no twist, no scale along the path, and no choice of how the section stays oriented.
The path is never guessed for you. A new sweep is born with its Path row empty — no lone unused chain is adopted on your behalf — and until you point at something the step sits grey in the timeline rather than red, because it is a question and not a failure. The popover asks for the rows it is missing in turn: the profile regions first if they are not in already, then the path.
What can be a path
Check what the Path row accepts before you plan a part around a sweep. There are four options:
| Pick | What you get |
|---|---|
| A chain of sketch curves | Lines and arcs you drew. Clicking one takes the whole connected run it belongs to, so a route of six segments is one click |
| A model edge | One edge of an existing body. Curved edges are fine here, and unlike a revolve axis a sweep path does not have to be straight |
| A reference axis | A datum line |
| A world X, Y or Z axis | Through the origin |
An axis, reference or world, is turned into a straight run of one metre centred on its origin, so a sweep along one is a prism by another name. The drawn chain and the model edge are the interesting cases.
Because a chain can take more than one click, the Path row stays open while you build it. A plain click adds a curve and clicking it again takes it back off, with no modifier key held; the hint banner names the rest: ↵ keeps the picks and leaves the session, Esc puts back whatever the row held before you started, and c empties it without leaving. A model edge or an axis is a single answer, so one click closes the session by itself.
Regions and holes
A region with an unselected region inside it sweeps as a section with a hole, so a tube along a curve is one sweep. Several regions sweep separately and fuse into one body. Select all of them before you press W.
See also
- Revolve: a path that is a circle around an axis
- Helical Sweep: a path that is a helix
- Extrude and Cut: a path that is a straight line