2 Part mold from existing model (body)

[Anonymous]

Hello, 

I'm new to fusion 360 and 3D modelling in itself. I am at a standstill and I can't find any solutions, perhaps I'm not using the right terms. 

I have a body which I am trying to make a 2 part mold out of. I've had some success using construction planes and boundary fill but I can't get it perfect. If you view the top view screen shot, I would like to get a mold of the inside part and a second mold of the outside, the second 'top' mold should overlap the edges. I have roughly illustrated what the inside mold should look like. 

Thank you! 

[Anonymous]

Here is the working file

[Brady_Fulton]

Top view only shows the contoured part. Do you want a mold for the 3 sided planar shape part or just the contoured one? Are you asking for a mold of the exterior face and a separate mold for the interior? Kudos to you for sharing images and file right away, makes it a lot easier for those who can help. I need a little more clarification and am turning in for the night. Hope someone is can add to the thread to get you going towards a solution. I'll check back tomorrow. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the quick reply! I've been playing around to try and get a better visualisation to clarify what I'd like to achieve. It's hard to explain as I've been doing this for a whole 2 weeks. 

I would like to get one mold of the interior shape, as shown in the screen shot. And a second exterior mold of everything on the outside of the pulled up parts, if that makes sense. I'm considering continuing how I am now and trying to close off this inside shape, and try to get an exterior mold part doing boundary fills, but I feel theres a much simpler way to do it. 

Thanks again. 

[HughesTooling]

What sort of mould are you trying to make? Is it from a rigid material or something flexible like silicone? If you are trying to make a mould from metal you're not going to find it too easy, in the image below it shows the draft angles if it opening along the Z axis. The thin light blue area would be the shape of the split line on the outside.

If you can give a bit more info on the type of mould you're after I'll put some more thought into it.

Mark

[Anonymous]

Hey Mark! 

I'll be doing a prototype with my 3D printer using PLA and when I get the design right I'll probably get the interior mould done from a commercial printer for better quality. I've attached an image of another prototype for the interior mould made out of aluminium. 

The exterior mould I'd like to get done with a commercial printer as well, given the nature of the shape, I'll probably split it into 2 parts for easier release. I was considering a fibreglass layup but I realised I'd only have to get the actual piece and take a mould off that. 

The materials I'll use for the mouldable piece itself will be carbon cloth and foam core. 

Thanks! 

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

This should be quite easy using Offset surface in the patch workspace to extract surfaces from the model then build the model of off the extracted surfaces. Unfortunately today's update has broken Offset so you can no longer set a zero offset.

A workaround might be make a component and copy the handle body into the new component. Then change to the patch workspace and delete all the internal surfaces and build surfaces of off that.

Here's a short screencast to give you an idea of what I mean. One tip, try designing your parts symmetrically around the origin, it will make making sketches and planes a lot easier.

Mark

[Anonymous]

Hi Mark, 

Thank you so much! That is a perfect solution. The screencast is a massive help as well. Cheers!