topic Re: Debossing to a bell shape in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Debossing to a bell shape

matt_ruff_spam — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 16:28:29 GMT

All - Per @TheCADWhisperer 's excellent suggestion on previous topic thread: EMBOSSING TO BELL SHAPE THREAD LINK , I'm restarting this as a separate thread here.

I'm attempting almost the same operation, but also running into a slightly different issue. I wonder if someone can point me to the issue. I have a body for the bell itself and used a conical approximation to split the face with the text I need, but can't get the press pull to work. I'm trying to inset the text in this case (debossing), FWIW.

I'm getting this error when I try:

"Error: An existing fillet or chamfer could not be detected.
Try suppressing or deleting existing fillets/chamfers before attempting the operation."

The wrinkle here is that the text falls directly on a split line in the outer surface of the bell. I'm not sure if that's the issue or not, but I can't get the press pull to work. I suspect something happened at that split line due to variations in the surfaces between the bell and the cone I used to split the bell surface.

File attached if anyone can lend a hand, I'd be VERY appreciative!

Here's the original bell I'm modeling:

Thank you!

Matt

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@TheCADWhisperer stated there:

Are you ready (and willing) to start over from scratch?

Step 1 is to Calibrate the image to correct size.

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So, to be clear, that diagram provides the profile of the bell, but there are multiple sizes of bell possible and I had attempted to size my design (maybe not correctly?) for a 14.25" diameter bell size. I'm including a table from the same manual which shows various bell parameters. I am loosely going for #9 type on that table, as it's my best guess on the specs for this bell.

I am having to scratch the back side of my brain to recall the actual size (I photographed the bell in 2014, so it's been a minute. I am pretty sure it was more than 10" in diameter, though. I don't think it was 75lbs, but it was fairly heavy.

I am willing to start over if needed. I originally outlined the profile in a separate SVG file and imported those vectors for my starting sketch. I think that's apparent from the history, but just in case it's not. That SVG contained the diagram JPG as well as the traced vectors from Inkscape.

Thanks,

Matt

Re: Debossing to a bell shape

matt_ruff_spam — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 16:40:47 GMT

I found the actual diagram that aligns to the table, showing where each measurement fits (if there were any question).

Re: Debossing to a bell shape

TheCADWhisperer — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 17:50:21 GMT

@matt_ruff_spam

We won't use svg import as the quality isn't good enough.

Step 1 is to Calibrate the image to the diameter that you want.

Right click on the imported image in the browser and select Calibrate.

Then click at two points on the diameter of the bell and enter the desired diameter.

Attach you progress file here for Step 2.

(As we go through this all of the dimensions will be parametric - so we can edit at any time as needed.)

Re: Debossing to a bell shape

matt_ruff_spam — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 18:51:01 GMT

Appreciate the help! I have reviewed several things and determined that 10" is actually the target diameter for me at the opening (bottom) of the bell, so calibrated to that size. Mostly based on measurements of a VERY similar bell from same foundry:
https://www.skipjackmarinegallery.com/wwii-us-navy-foredeck-bell-greenberg-foundry-san-francisco-6593.html

Re: Debossing to a bell shape

TheCADWhisperer — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 19:03:17 GMT

@matt_ruff_spam

Drag Sketch1 on the Timeline to occur after the import of the image.

I started the sketch to illustrate...

Here I turned off the image to make the sketch start easier to see.

Note that I right clicked on the Vertical line and set to Centerline so that I get Diametral dimensions.

Continue with the right outer side using only tangent arcs and lines (no Splines) to trace the shape.

Attach your progress here.

Re: Debossing to a bell shape

matt_ruff_spam — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 21:13:06 GMT

Sorry to ask, but why tangent arcs vs. splines? Is there a practical difference if am able to trace the curve? Only asking because having issues getting some parts of the curves with tangent arcs.

Re: Debossing to a bell shape

matt_ruff_spam — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 21:55:04 GMT

I've created two sketches (one with splines, the other with tangent arcs). I'm happier with the fit of the spline one, but let me know if you see issues with either one?

Re: Debossing to a bell shape

TheCADWhisperer — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 22:01:29 GMT

@matt_ruff_spam

You can try it with Spline.

Re: Debossing to a bell shape

matt_ruff_spam — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 03:13:48 GMT

Here's the bell with no adornments, using splines.

Re: Debossing to a bell shape

matt_ruff_spam — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 19:40:25 GMT

Long story short, I did figure out how to make it work. Splines worked very well for laying out the profile sketch (as seen in previous posts), this time with no split line through where I needed to place text. That was the key. The rest of the process I used (to good effect) was to use the emboss tool to transfer the text to a representative cone (which was tangential to the outside surface of bell), then to split the surface of the bell using the individual letters of the text on the cone, which yielded minimal distortion since cone surface was close to the same angle as target bell surface. Because of placement of the 2 rows of text, it required 2 separate cones & 2 separate processing steps, but those were identical except size/shape of cone & text itself.

The print came out nice too (5" mouth on bell)!