Inventor^® Training

Creating Inventor 2D Splines

By David Melvin, PE, TEDCF Publishing

2D Splines are used to draw shapes with compound radii. Typically, geometry containing compound radii is more expensive to manufacture than geometry drawn with straight lines and tangent arcs, so I recommend that you avoid using them whenever possible.

For those special circumstances when you need to draw complex geometry, this exercise will show you how to draw and reshape a 2D Spline. Subsequent Tips and Tricks will show you how to take control of your splines by mastering all the commands associated with them, and learning how to constrain them.

There are many powerful commands and drawing procedures you can use while you draw 2D Splines. In this short exercise you will draw an arc, move and adjust it, and then convert the arc to an elliptical shape.

Draw a Spline
The first step is to draw a spline. Click the Spline command from the Draw panel of the Sketch tab.

Now you’re going to draw an arc by selecting 3 points. Click the first point to start the spline, click the second point about in the middle of the arc, and then double click the third point to finish drawing the arc.

Type the escape key to exit Spline mode.

Adjusting a Spline
To move the spline…