Duplicate everything and then rotate inside body? Simple mold design

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm trying to make a simple two-part positive mold for resin casting.

My file is attached.
Also attached is a screenshot of the project as it is, and an image that shows roughly what I'm trying to achieve (the yellow and blue box in the top left).

What I want to do is duplicate everything (the components, bodies and sketches) and shift the copy so it's snapped alongside the original.

Then I want to rotate the centre object (body4) 180 degrees (around the centre of the circle at the base) so the final mold will cover the whole object in two parts.

I then plan on pushing the circle sketches up on one side and pulling them down on the other for registration pins.

So the main question is :
What is the best workflow for duplicating everything and then properly rotating the body?
What I've tried so far either loses the correct axis of rotation, or it rotates 'outside' the box. Do I perhaps need to define a centre point of the circle base to do this?

Any feedback on the process or design of this object is welcome also 🙂
I have another question about how to combine some imported meshes I've made in blender for surface detail, but I want to check my process makes sense first.
Thanks!

[davebYYPCU]

Downloaded the file, checked the Timeline, few strange moves there, not criticising, and happy to help,

I would first say - let fusion do the hard work.

First thing I noticed was that you are after a top and bottom mold, the very first move command is therefore not needed, the "plug" was orientated correctly for a top and bottom mould as it was first placed/built.  That move command would work for a side to side mold, but you are asking about 180 degrees as well, not sure here.

So I progress to the second Extrude, and Ok, we have what we need to make the mold, but you didn't, you turned it into the 'container", and all those Press Pull commands later on, don't help me understand where your going.

You want to mold one article at a time with a two piece mold that has a set of registration pins, and a container, that is open at the top. Right? then

You need 3 components, the "plug can stay in the root assembly area,

You have the container,

You need a mold component with two components inside it, as top and bottom.

Let me know if I am making sense, or I have missed the point, can point you to the next phase as

Keep the plug,

Make Component for Mold, extrude a covering box over the plug, (Same as the 2nd extrude you have)

Subtract the Plug from that mold box with Combine > Cut, "Keep Tools on"- then hide the plug from now on,

Split body with horizontal mid plane.  Make (top) Component (and Bottom component) from body, inside the Mold Component.

Hide the top component, and make the sketch for the pins, extrude join to the bottom component, hide it, then extude cut the pins into the top component.

Arrange the right size container to hold the mold in it's own Component. 

Can screen cast if you wish...

Might help

[davebYYPCU]

I have since had a fiddle with your file, renamed and attached what I think you wanted.

[Anonymous]

Dave, 

Thank you so much for stepping through that clearly, and for providing the file. I really appreciate it. And sorry it's taken so long to respond.

The process you demonstrated is clear (although I still need to go over it and practise it with different objects).

But I'm still confused about how to make a machinable *two-part* positive countermold.

I probably didn't make this clear enough, but what if the plug was asymmetrical? Or for another example, it had some surface detail on one part of the object only? 

This is why I ask about rotation. So even though the process you laid out until this point is clear, in the end I still need to have two mold boxes with a 'half-plug' inside each. Front and back I suppose is one way of looking at it.

And that is why I wonder when in the process it is possible (and if so how) to duplicate the plug and rotate it 180 degrees - before or after creating the mold box around it?

I hope that makes sense!

In the first reference image I sent 'concept.jpg', the shape in the yellow boxes is asymmetrical (there's a different curvature running down the centre) and rotated 180 degrees so the mold captures the whole piece, if I understand correctly. That's what I'm aiming for (except both yellow bodies would be inside a mold box like the blue one.

I've attached another example of what I'm aiming for as a final piece; the shape in this piece (the countermold) is very simple, two cavities and two 'half-plugs'.

Thanks again!

[davebYYPCU]

I have sent a PM as I am not clear about the problem,

Is it about the two halves being different, detail on one side would be either face up or face down, on one side of the mold, (depends on the draft

or about the move / rotate command, positioning commands?