Dimensioning the ID or OD of a rectangle extruded along a helix

[Alan Boughey]

Does anyone know how you can locate the dimensions of the OD and ID of a rectangle extruded along a helix? I have created a spiral for a screw conveyor and went to check the diameters and could not see anyway for the dimension tool (or measurement tool) to pick up the edges of the objects. Can't even seem to overlay a circle on the spiral as nothing seems to pick up the edges.

Also, when extruding along the helical path, is there anyway to control whether the object extrudes on the outside or inside of the helix?

[islandmon]

Keeping in mind that the NURBS 'solid' being described is purely representational via the GPU.

VW utilizes the editable bezier Path and polyline Profile for the algorithmic surface projections.

Here's a simple trick to check the 3d dimensions:

Convert a copy of that helix to Mesh... all the nodes then become Handles recognizable by the OIP ( higher 3d resolution> Prefs = more nodes to play with ).

As for the Path / Profile alignment issues ... trial & error seems to work best : )