Curving a Ribbed Cylinder

[ianhughes7UFVF]

Hi

I created this Ribbed Cylinder in Fusion for a friend who is printing it in PLA and intends to use a heat gun to curve it perhaps 30 to 45 degrees:

It is 1mm thick so it should be workable.

What he really wanted was to have it already curved so it was printed in the shape required.

Unfortunately I couldn't work out how to create it other than manually drawing a curve between two lines and make up the compressed top and widened bottom effect. Creating a loft didn't seem to be suitable as I didn't think that would produced the compressed look.

Is there a way of taking this fusion model and creating a curve in it to achieve the desired effect, that of the ridges compressing at the top and widenening at the bottom.

Kind Regards

Ian

[davebYYPCU · Accepted solution]

Cant see that being viable, heating and bending in real life, without drama.

Yep, Loft is the way to go.  Easier with Patch and then Thicken to 1mm.

Sizes to suit, but this was 30 ribs, and not quite 45 degrees.

Step up the timeline, first stab at it, can be done better with hindsight.

[ianhughes7UFVF]

Hi

So it seems I am getting better at guessing the solution. Just not smart enough to implement the idea yet :).

Thanks for that. That is exactly what I need to do. This will help with two projects. Dr Who K9's neck and B9 Lost in space Robot arms, in posed positions.

I will have a look at the sample you created and reproduce it.

Kind Regards

Ian

[laughingcreek · Accepted solution]

If you need to get a little curvier, you could try the old sheet metal hack.  works on any 2d curve.  this is pretty heavy in terms of computation, so there can be some waiting involved, but may give you more "flexibility"

[ianhughes7UFVF]

Hi

Thank you for the methods of creating the ribbed cylinder.

Both seem to be excellent. I have slightly complicated the problem as the type of rib is in the attached file. Its more a rolled surface than pointed which is making it hard for me to adapt your methods to it.

Hopefully you can have a look and let me know what I need to tweak.

Kind Regards

Ian

[davebYYPCU · Accepted solution]

The shape of the profile is not the problem, can be whatever you can draw / want, 

As much as you have done, is fine.  Straight section is done that way,

a 2d curve is done my way, (2 curves). and

a 3d curve is done Alex's way,

and the combination of any / all methods.

The problem is that you don't have a Path, so it's hard to take it further.

I would highly recommend a surface model, that later gets thickened, because we are not having to work with offset geometry.

Might help....

[ianhughes7UFVF]

Hi

Ok, I will follow your directions and have a go. This intial one is to be a straight 42 degree curve at the moment. Its for K9s neck:

The next one is for B9s arms so the variations of methods are good to know.

Kind Regards

Ian

[davebYYPCU · Accepted solution]

Will this do it, 

Sculpt Loft, with scaled edge loops,

Might help...