topic Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 15:47:17 GMT

I have been working on this air duct for my drag car. I have got the basic shape pretty much done but I'm getting stuck on the funnel part. I'm fairly new to fusion and just learned basic principles of sketches. Where before I was just doing a bunch of extrudes. Ill attach my current workflow. I was trying to use the loft feature on the shelled surface to make the funnel part. Also, just learned recently that all the lines on the sketch needs to be black. I am struggling to understand how to make them black. I add dimensions and constrains but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. So I'm just not understanding something. In my workflow, you should see how messy the sketch is. Is this why the loft wont work on the shelled faces? The actual body is a little off and I need to push/pull.

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

g-andresen — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 17:21:38 GMT

Hi,

Check out this and some other tutorials from the same channel

günther

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 05:53:47 GMT

I did watch that after you mentioned it but I'm not sure if that is applicable in my case since Mine has multiple angles and curves. I attached some of my progress but I know I'm going to need to adjust the back/right to loft out at a 45 angle.

I also came across this thread as well to help a bit.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/silly-simple-question-creating-a-funnel/td-p/10246321

@TheCADWhisperer @hfcandrew

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 06:29:18 GMT

Here is another attempt.

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

davebYYPCU — Sun, 16 Jul 2023 03:16:06 GMT

There is no fixing this sketch, (outside sketch does not chain either) but yes that is why the Shell would not work, in this case. If you were to fix this it should be lines and tangent arcs, to trace the outline. There is another outline that chains in a second sketch, with hundreds of spline points, - just as hard to repair.

Because that sketch was so bad, I figured it would not matter if cleaned up a bit, and the funnel part is screaming for a simple Form / Sculp body, that does Thicken.

Might get you started....

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Sun, 16 Jul 2023 14:36:28 GMT

Thank you for your response. I'm going to try and either restart the sketch process or take what you did as a starting point. I need to put some tabs on so it locks in place. Ill upload progress and issues as I complete this.

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 04:22:23 GMT

I uploaded some progress to fit better. Test fit was a little tall. I used extrudes. But now I cant seem to get rid of the parts in the loft without cutting the body. Im trying to gain 5mm for clearance for the tabs. @davebYYPCU

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

davebYYPCU — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 08:14:20 GMT

I am not sure, but I think you are saying, this inside edge, is / needs to be the front edge and shape of the inside of the tunnel. Because the sculpt body is not parametric, it can be ignored, and this body edge will work.

Taking the opening and the back of the tunnel 60mm deep, I extruded helper surfaces front (not (strictly) required) and back, then Lofted the 2 openings as a surface Loft. This one does Thicken 5mm, and I did not join it to the opening face, yet.

You should avoid Move and Align Commands, replace them with edit feature for sketch planes.

Might help....

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 14:10:46 GMT

I understood your second illustration but not the first. What about that line was important to the changes that you did? Also, I never used any of the surface related stuff yet. Could you give me a brief overview of when or why to use surface instead of the solid tab?

BTW, thank you for the help.

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

davebYYPCU — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 19:51:25 GMT

Ok, you sort of had the cart in front of the horse. The first picture is your frame, with most of the clutter turned off.

I selected the front inside edge, to indicate what’s next. I didn’t need the sketch, we can use the inside ring of geometry, in the Surface Loft. You had made the better outline, and it is what you have to build from.

Surface tools allow for selections of lines / curves, and you don’t need blue shaded profiles, so much easier quicker, in some cases. You still need clean / smooth outline curves but they can be extracted from body edges or sketches.

Solid loft can not do solid funnel in one go, would be a solid loft of outline sketch detail, and a second Loft, (or possibly a Shell) inside with inside curves as a cut. Because you need the inside shape thickened was easy to make that with Surface Loft, and add thickness - with Thicken set to join it would become one body, but wasn’t sure if you wanted that.

There is another bonus, if you are selecting body edges, you can opt for a Tangent / Smooth transition to the original body being selected, you can’t get this option if using sketches for the Loft. You will see the 2 dummy surface Extrudes were made for this option, but the front one was not needed to get the shape you were looking for. There was no rear sketch in place either.

Cart before the horse? We need the Frame and Pipe, to make the loft.

Might help....

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 20:27:03 GMT

I updated the file again. The outside looks better and the "locking tabs" have enough space where the outer ring wont hit the bumper. However, I'm having a hard time using the surface loft vs solid loft. This is because I want the empty space between the base with the taps and the outer ring to be solid where the rest is hollow. Then when adding thickness, it essentially shells the body.

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

davebYYPCU — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 23:14:21 GMT

You mean, you need this channel - modified - or filled in?

Simplest to fill it in with Boundary fill.

Might help....

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 05:54:00 GMT

This is the look I'm going for on the outside. The tabs are a bit further away from the loft opposite of the circular hole. On the inside, I cant seem to get it to flow correctly. I think because the tab body is not a surface body?

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

davebYYPCU — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 07:53:54 GMT

Again stuck with THAT sketch outline.

Another version without fixing the intermediate sketch.

Inside was lofted with 2 lofts, and surface with offset plane gets the voids filled.

Ideally the loft inside should be with the 3 profiles, but the intermediate body edge was not smooth, and the lofts tried would not complete.

Might help

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:27:36 GMT

So using your most recent F3D file. Do I still need all the surface body's? I'm starting to understand the use of surfaces. So Some of the faces that are on the tabbed body look off. Is this because of my bad sketch work? Heck I could just be in more over my head for now. Can I just create new sketches by projecting the body. This would create a new starting point? Also, earlier you mentioned that it wasn't parametric. Should it be? And how would I know?

I apologize for my lack of understanding here. Heck, I can probably just run with what you uploaded.

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

hfcandrew — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 03:36:01 GMT

Hey I'm back. You still want the hex pattern cover?

See attached, just did like a 1mm wall thickness.

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 04:21:19 GMT

I just uploaded my most recent try. Mostly trying to learn and play with what works. The issue I'm having is the tabs lock it into the inside of the bumper. Then the outer ring kind of funnels out and the funnel is what locks it into the front side. Its a very firm fit. Nothing is flowing/ looking normal to me.

Yes I do still want the honeycomb. Unfortunately, with as much struggle I'm having with this, I just put that on the backburner.

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

jpmxrider489 — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 04:31:31 GMT

Here are some pictures and hopefully you can see the locking method with the tabs and the outer funnel. Im trying to learn core principles here.

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

davebYYPCU — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 10:01:04 GMT

I am also coming back, you were not forgotten, just life in the way.

I traced your respective bodies, for a clean sketch.

I see that your mesh bodies are not aligned to the file origin. There are various versions of the tunnel length and contour positions.

Will need some Z distances from the origin. Say the inside back face of the pink grill, being datum, and all the Z distances from there, back to the pipe's opening, etc. If there is a finished and accurate set of these distances, can you call them out for the respective file.

I am presuming the funnel runs from the inside grill face, to the inside front pipe face, at how?? deep.

That the funnel will replace this blue face.

What thickness to thicken the funnel, from the inside? I will presume the outside frame curves are critical, but the funnel flow will dictate the inside profile shapes.

Clean sketch - no near creases

Tabs will come after the base model is constructed.

Might help.....

Re: Trying to make a airduct/funnel

hfcandrew — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 12:33:44 GMT

Learning is always a process, little steps at a time.

You print settings could use a bunch of tweeking too to clean it up. you layer heights look too thick and the filament looks over extruded.