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Bend body

Bend body

Ability to bend bodies in model mode.kgb.JPG

106 Comments
Anonymous
Not applicable

This thread is frustrating. People don't seem to understand how these things work. You can't just go around saying, I'd love something so flexible I can do anything I want. Start with the basics. One tool at a time here. Otherwise it gets ignored. How useful in every day life is freeform deformation of entire model? I can count on one hand how often I use that a year in Rhino. It creates crap geometry, and is only useful to show what you want visually once. 

 

I came here to just get the tool I assume is the same as what is in inventor. 

 

I have a part. I need it to bend along a path. So I create a profile curve and pick it. 

In Rhino, you have flow. It's similar. 

 

If you want to get fancy, then do something more similar to flow along surface.  

Select the model to be bent. Select the original surface. Then select the bent surface. Fusion would apply whatever deformation from surface A to surface B to the model. That doesn't Seem like it would work. The software has to make assumptions of volume in terms of the surface normal. One downside there is though, that you can easily turn the model in on itself. 

Say the model is 10mm thick. You create a bend that is only 5mm 180deg. You just created some Terrible geometry. But similar to fillets that are too large, fusion could detect collisions and just tell you it failed. 

 

We really should just start with a simple 2D bend though. You've got the model created flat in XY, then create a profile in ZY to bend it. Simple. It's in pretty much every other parametric software out there. We need it.

cekuhnen
Mentor

@Anonymous

 

"Select the model to be bent. Select the original surface. Then select the bent surface. Fusion would apply whatever deformation from surface A to surface B to the model. That doesn't Seem like it would work. The software has to make assumptions of volume in terms of the surface normal."

 

 

yeah that is why I would never bend a finished model! Never as you would bend the fillets.

I would only bend sheets or hard edge models and add details afterwards.

Anonymous
Not applicable

@cekuhnen

 

In Rhino you wouldn't want to bend a finished model due to fillets changing. But in software like this where the entire model can be generated at any time by running through the entire timeline you can insert things wherever you want and reorder. So you could bend something as a group or keeping individual definitions like fillets and chamfers. It could just bend before those, and reapply them in that case. Also bending while keeping volume isn't even an issue with fillets. 

Certain objects could also be forced to never deform. Like, a bolt/nut, and the hole for those. You would never want to bend them. They would just need to be repositioned to the normal of both sides of the bend. That's where things get really complicated, but that's not what I'm after.

 

The example I always think of from my past is the KitchenAid logo band on a stand mixer. It's a fancy piece of sheet metal stamped basically, with some nice treatments on it, but when you break it down to modeling, it's just a piece of sheet metal. The way that's engineered is flat, to fit onto the standmixer, but you never get it bent. It's manufactured flat. Of course. But you want to see what it Looks like as your making other changes, or like me you need it for animations/renderings. 

I would bet if I asked someone there for a model I'd get the standmixer as one file, and the flat band as another. So in Fusion what am I supposed to do? It's not even quite flat. The logo needs to bend around the front. It's not like all these "bend a model" examples that don't actually bend a model and instead they are modeling a bent model, which you can't actually do past 90 degrees in any of their examples, and you also can't design to a specific length because you're making it already bent.

 

In this case, I go back to rhino and do the same thing I'd do if I had creo or solid works. define a surface to start, and define a surface that that should be bent to, and it bends the entire thing. In this case it's not a model that will ever be manufactured. It'll still be manufactured as a flat piece. The intent is actually to bend fillets, and whatever else. I mean, that's what will happen right? You made it flat, then bent it. 

 

It's really nice to see what happens to your flat design and how it works with the rest. I'm still frustrated that they haven't added this tool yet. 

cekuhnen
Mentor

@Anonymous

 

I agree - SW and such also offer bend or twist functions as parametric modelers.

I still best practice also there is to do the filet stuff later.

 

this will speed up the design changes too as the fillet has not to be bend!

Anonymous
Not applicable
It really depends on the manufacturing method. Mechanical engineers wouldn't bend a fillet, no. But if you're after surfacing, then it's your choice. You can use the fillet tool to make very large fillets that end up being part of your surfacing. So you might want to bend it.
And also the bent model may only be for reference anyway. If you're designing an object that gets wrapped onto something else, then need clamps to hold it in place, you'd probably want a reference to what that all looks like in the end, even though that part would be manufactured in it's original state.
A software's options shouldn't be dictated by the way someone thinks people should use it. That's just a guide for direction. Good software allows you to create whatever you want. Currently there are quite a few things in Fusion that you just can't make. And if someone's answer to use T-Splines then they haven't really explored T-Splines all the way to manufacturing with lots of parts mating together. Making sun glasses or a bike frame? Sure, but that's about as far as you should take it. Build off of them and you're bound to cause it to fall apart.

What I'd like is to have a system that can automatically add fillets and drafting based on rules so there is some finishing layer in the design that can be turned on and off that by default gets applied at the end (though with the option of doing manual post-processing when necessary)

 

Mixing those things in with the rest of the design process consistently creates headaches for me and is one of the things that breaks reusability and modifiability the most

Anonymous
Not applicable
I believe rule based fillets is already available to a degree? Perhaps I am remembering a different software, but I think it's in there.
But if you're doing surfacing as well then it generally fails. Somewhere you'll have broken a surface up for one reason or another and there ends up being a cut near a corner which causes a fillet to fail, causing All of the fillets to fail.
Now, if Fusion showed where something failed instead of just telling you it failed maybe that wouldn't be too bad. I want to say Alias does that? But I haven't used it since 2002 or so. So my memory might be a little foggy.
Anonymous
Not applicable

Is there still no bend tool?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Please make a bend like in Inventor. I need it for my furniture design https://carstenbuhl.com/index.php/one

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

The bending utility would be awesome. I would use this to create objects that contour to body parts. Fusion thus far is great for rigid solids, but I'm not linking the work around (creating a curved plane and extruding the sketch onto a plane with a curve and choosing its intersection.).

 

Is there an ETA on when this ability becomes available?

-Nick-
Advocate

Hi,

 

I often work with sheet materials like galvanised steel, aluminium or composites.  In the finished product, these are laser cut, drilled and when assembled, flexed into position to meet fixing points, i.e. not bent permanently. 

 

To design these parts In Rhino, I would sometimes start by using a curve to define the shape, creating a developable surface from that curve and use 'unroll surface' to get the flat part. If starting with a part which had previously been manufactured, I would flow the part along the curve of a new design and place the fixing points accordingly.  This is not like working with sheet metal, more like working with long strips of wood which are bent along the hull of a boat, where either you cut the strips to fit the curve of the hull or make the hull to fit the strips of wood you've already cut.

 

Either way bend, twist and flow along curve are the operations I can't currently replicate.

huszak.marcell
Advocate

Any updates on this one? 🙂 
I could really use it sometimes.

yebyps
Enthusiast
I don't know. I see a blue label on the thread saying 'Accepted' but submissions on this started in 2014.


GeorgeHorsey
Participant
the sheet metal update is enough for what I need to do but there is no bend
on line in 3d model
Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi all,

 

Am I a designer in a Ski company. I was a solidworks user but I am really suprised about Fusion36'. But there is one BIG thing that bother me - and this is BEND SOLID BODY. It is very important feature in development, so add this asap 

I wish u all the best
Luka B.

GeorgeHorsey
Participant
In the meantime you could sketch the side profile and extrude. But i agree
bend body would be extremely helpful.
Anonymous
Not applicable

Yes, totaly agree with you. But is MUCH MUCH... more easy to work (add 3D features) on flat surface and than bend it. (Tip is the problem at ski modeling. 
Really looking forward to have bend tool in Fusion 😉

BR

thburn
Collaborator

Dear all,

 

since this idea is marked as 'accepted' I wonder where I can find this feature in F360 now?

Anonymous
Not applicable
Accepted means they are trying to do it. Implemented means they did it and it's available.
So no, it isn't available yet. I had to use Rhino to model something super basic just the other day since this is missing. We are actually likely outfitting Everyone here with Rhino since it's been proven to be faster to model most things than Fusion. It's just not there yet. Too many subtle things take too many steps, or are just missing.
sanket223.patil
Collaborator

If it comes In fusion , That will be great . Is this Function coming in fusion ?

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