Best way to make part with exact form combined with decoration

[janus2]

Hello!

I have to make a part as seen in the attached pictures.
Some areas must be exact (flat, rectangular,  thread etc) other areas have artistic decorations.
I guess the best workflow is a combination of Model and Sculp.

My idea is to create the basic body from side and front view in Model area. No problem.

And then I use sketches to make the decorations in Sculp. But I have no idea how to achieve this goal.
Are there tutorials or documentation for such a combination?

Thank you very much for any help
Jan

[TrippyLighting]

If you are new to 3D modeling and CAD than this is too large of a bite!

[janus2]

That's not the answer I asked for!

I have decades of experience in CAD/CAM. But I am relatively new to Fusion 360. But also here I have no problems in the area of normal CAD/CAM.

My question is: If I have designed the basic body. How do I apply the decoration? I think this can be done with Sculp and with the help of a background graphic (canvas).

If you just explain the basic procedure to me, I'll find the rest by myself.

Jan

[TrippyLighting]

Understood! But I am not a mind reader and most users that come here with such requests are new. In fact most people that have only ever done CAD modeling run into a wall when trying to use T-Splines.

It depends on what you consider the "basic body". For me this would already include all the helical features and only the detailed carvings would be T-Splines. The areas outlined in red would be T-Spline surface bodies that intersect with teh main body and then I'd use a boundary fill to create a solid body joined with the main body.

Either way, this might need some experimentation. Once you've done he base body - if you can share it, I'll show you how I'd approach the decoration. I basically would trace the carved structures with T-Spline surfaces similar to how I would trace a 2D ornament with 2D splines. However, that does not explain much.

The red areas are T-SpLines, the rest is solid modeling and likely surfacing.

[janus2]

Yes, you're right, I should have made myself clearer.
What is the base body? In principle the envelope. I have to see how far I can get with the normal tools in the area of Design.

I am sure that I have to do the details with Sculp. But here I haven't found the right tool or the right way yet.  I can simply generate a body in Sculp and then shape it using the background graphic as a guide.
But how do I generate a Sculp shape from scratch using the background graphic?

At the moment I have a problem with this step. The rest is just work. It's definitely a lot of work.  But if you have a lot of work you should be sure to use the right tool.

Can you give me a simple tutorial: For example: create a cube in design and then add a decorative element in Sculp by drawing splines.

Thanks for your help

Jan

[mavigogun]

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@janus2 wrote:

Can you give me a simple tutorial: For example: create a cube in design and then add a decorative element in Sculp by drawing splines.

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There are a great number of examples of how to create forms in the Sculpt Workspace- so I won't confront that aspect.    For your needs here, conforming a Sculpt T-Spline Body to a BRep Body (the product of the Model and some Patch Workspace building) isn't that difficult.    By building out all of the geometry not relying on T-Splines first, those Bodies and Sketches may be used as references in the Sculpt Workspace when visible- either as scaffold for positioning new Faces (Create > Face), or as target for conforming existing forms using the tools Pull, Match, Flatten, or as reflexive consideration for other Modification tools, such as Edit, Insert Point, Insert Edge, when Object Snap is selected.   Screencast forthcoming.

[janus2]

Thank you so much for your effort.

But please do not forget: I am a beginner in this field (T-Spline Body). And as I'm sure you've noticed, English is not my mother tongue.

So a sentence like this: ".. conforming a Sculpt T-Spline Body to a BRep Body (the product of the Model and some Patch Workspace building) isn't that difficult"  is not helpful for a beginner.

Let me explain how far I am and where I'm stuck right now.

• I can model the basic body.
• I can draw the ornaments with splines on top of the body.

Now I have to convert this sketch into a T-Spline Body in the sculp environment.
I can't get any further here.

One method I have found so far:

• I create a T-Spline-Plane.
• Then I used 'edit form' to reshape it into the shape of my sketch.

This worked, but is very cumbersome and time-consuming.

Summary:

I am able to achieve my desired result by reshaping a standard form. But I haven't found a way to directly convert an existing spline sketch.

Maybe this is not possible. I just want to be sure to use the best possible tool.

Thanks again for your help.

[mavigogun]

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@janus2 wrote:

One method I have found so far:

• I create a T-Spline-Plane.
• Then I used 'edit form' to reshape it into the shape of my sketch.

This worked, but is very cumbersome and time-consuming.

Summary:

I am able to achieve my desired result by reshaping a standard form. But I haven't found a way to directly convert an existing spline sketch.

Maybe this is not possible. I just want to be sure to use the best possible tool.

---

Sometimes, "best possible tool" in Fusion is clear.   More often, "best" is a contest of values.    Fidelity to design intent  verses speed, for example.    What suits the workflow of the individual designer is best.    So, consider what I do, compare that with what another dose, and develop a method that works for you best.

The method you've describe- creating Faces over a Sketch -is a method I commonly use.    Also, Loft and Extrude are both useful for generating Faces quickly from a Sketch.   The Face of a BRep Body can be Converted to a T-Spline approximation by first disabling Capture of Design History (right click first entry in Browser > Do not Capture Design History), then right click Face > Convert.

When creating Faces, the Points may be snapped to existing T-Spline Body points, or to Sketch Points.    When working in relation to BRep Bodies, I may Project Points on those Bodies to Sketch using Project/Include > Include 3D Geometry.   Then I'm able to get a crude faceted shape placed by Creating Faces snapped to Points in the Sketch, which is then refined.

Some folks work super quick in Sculpt.   For me, it's more often painfully slow work to get exactly what I demand.

[TrippyLighting]

Oops... forgot about this thread.

I had started a screencast, but then abandoned the effort as I personally would not create these ornaments in Fusion 360. This is very detailed geometry and simply takes a lot of work pulling and pushing vertices, edges and faces to create this ornamental geometry. While it can be done in Fusion 360 I find the Sub-D modeling tools in Blender so much faster  (for this kind of work!) to the ones in Fusion 360 that it would be my first choice.

Whatever tool is used, this is a lot of work.

A workflow that is often utilized for this sort of geometry, but mostly for visualization and rendering, not necessarily for CAM is to create this in a real sculpting software, such a Mudbox, Zrush or 3D coat but also Blender. Then remesh and or re-topologize.

This then feels far more close to working with actual hand tools than it would using a manual face-by-face modeling workflow.

Currently I simply don't have the time to demonstrate this.

So below is a time-lapse someone else created in Blender using a manual face-by-face modeling technique. 

[janus2 · Accepted solution]

First of all: Many thanks for all the useful information!
There is certainly software, like Blender, that is better suited. I have watched the Blender video. Very impressive! But how long does it take to master the software and the concept like this? For me it is a one-time problem. So it is not worth learning a new software.

But I am already very far with Fusion 360. I have tested all tools in Sculp.

I analyzed the part:

• The ornaments are located on a relatively simple body and are very thin.
• The part is very small.

So very small details I can't see with the naked eye, I can ignore.

For example fillets with 1/10 of a mm.

So my workflow is:

• Do as much as possible in the normal design environment (The body).
• For the small ornaments I draw the contour (With the photo on the background as help).
• Then I use Extrude in Sculp.
• Then Fill Hole. With Fill Hole all edges become round and I am very close to the desired result.
• The rest is push and pull .....

I'll show you the end result.

Thanks again

Jan