What tools and design methods would you use to approach designs like this?

[Anonymous]

I'm a 3d printing newbie. I've modeled in the past and getting back into it with Fusion 360. I'm looking for direction from you guys...

what tools would you use or know of any tutorials I should look at for creating stuff liek this?

Or perhaps more interestingly... something like this.

The natural flowing organic shapes (almost bubble like quality to it) is really interesting, but seems like it could be a pain to apply to an entire plate, body or component...

I was curious if anyone had any input of where maybe to start with learning to create and apply this technique to some of my designs.

[Beyondforce]

HI @Anonymous,

Welcome to Fusion 360.

Because of the organic shape, I will go with T-spline (Free Form modeling). But, in order to use T-spline correctly, make sure you have all the basics in place.

This will give you a good heads start:

R.U.L.E #1

http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?learn=sculpt

If you are not sure about something, please don't forget to ask!

Cheers / Ben
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[Anonymous]

Thank you. I appreciate it very much.

I followed those tutorials and see what you mean. That would definately be the way to create the "basic shape."

I think the part that I'm struggling to grasp is how to make the "holes" in this. I'd think modeling each 'hole' would be a cumbersome approach.

Is there a sort of "skin" approach to modeling in Fusion? I'm thinking how in other applications I've applied a bump map to create texture to a plane. I wasn't sure if that sort of logic applied to Fusion. For instance if you wanted to a modeled "fabric texture" to a plane or a bunch of tiny triangles to create a slight "grippy" styled pattern to a plane.   I'd think that same logic might apply to these "holes"  as I'm wondering about applying an entire textrure or lack of face to an entire shape.

Does that make sense?

[Beyondforce]

Yes, it does make sense. But the guys who can help you with that are @PhilProcarioJr and @cekuhnen. They are both T-spline experts.

I'm sure you will hear from them soon 🙂

Cheers / Ben.

[cekuhnen]

@Beyondforce Rule number one - SO OVERRATED hehehehe

(kidding of course)

@Anonymous

There are two geometry types you have, linear and organic

first image: you can use a 3D sketch with only lines and create those planes

later you can

thicken the deign

on each planar face create a sketch offset as needed and extrude through

second image: that one uses a voronoi like structure - so for sure a T-Splines candidate

but the tricky part here is that this is not a planar surface but an bend volume

so the fracture or cell structure you might have to model by hand.

Fusion T-Splines offers a nice Pipe command that blends between pipes

you can later adjust those cross sections easily to sculpt more

@PhilProcarioJr Do you have a different idea? This type I would do external.

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

Honestly, what you want is going to be very cumbersome in Fusion. The cell look is easy using the fracture plugin and the pipe tool in the sculpt environment, but to actually model fabric or holes all over the surface, or anything repeated all over the surface you might as well give up on because Fusion can't handle that type of geometry unless it is an extremely simple model. Fusion support normal and bump maps for renders only and doesn't support displacement maps. Your best to model the forms in Fusion then use MudBox or Zbrush to add the surface effects. Holes all over the surface use Blender. You can try if you want, but your wasting your time on anything but the cell look you originally mentioned.

Just my 2 cents...

[PhilProcarioJr]

@cekuhnen

Your on the right path, I use the fracture plugin and the pipe tool in the sculpt environment, so your correct in how you do it. The reason I use the fracture plugin is because it saves massive amounts of time and looks very natural. It can all be done by hand though. The rest of what he wants is not possible with Fusion alone.

[cekuhnen]

@PhilProcarioJr

https://apps.autodesk.com/FUSION/en/Detail/Index?id=2750937976163552948&appLang=en&os=Mac

does this one work inside T-Splines?

@Anonymous

I second Phills point that the organic looks is quite hard to made without proper flow or bend tools which Fusion

currently (hint to devs 😉 ) does not have. This is also a pretty specialized case.

But I think you can do it in T-Splines with the pipe command - it will however require some time to model and sculpt.

You can start with the basic approach creating a flat ring band with the network (possible cells )you want

then pipe it with a low res mesh

then adjust everything as desired

[PhilProcarioJr]

@cekuhnen

It only works in the model environment on solid models but that's what makes it a perfect fit for this kind of work. Once it is run on a solid you can select the cuts in the pipe tool in T-Splines.

That's how I made this:

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

  

[Anonymous]

This has been extremely helpful. I'm going to take this all in and see what I can create. Thank you!