Help Me Design A Workflow: F360 Suitable For "Bas-Relief" type work?

[jmillerXL6J2]

My task is to develop a workflow and set of tools for creating bas-relief type models.

Our objective is to create an efficient workflow that allows for the creation of 3D printed molds. Each mold will be, more or less, a spherical section with an artistic relief sculpture on it's face.

I am attaching a sample image that should give you a general idea of where this is going.

I'm a complete newbie to the 3D world, but have extensive experience 2D tools such as Illustrator.

What lead me to F360 was the inclusion of the T-Spline capability, which I understand is being discontinued as a plug-in for Rhino.

Question #1: Is that assumption true? Is the "form" capability in F360 the only place to get T-Spline functionality going forward?

If you look at the example photo, you'll see an issue that leads me to another question. The text on the spherical section is "taller" on the ends than it is in the middle. It does not follow the flow of the sphere.

Once we are in production, the relief sculptures will of course be far more complex. What I expect is that the base spherical section will be created as one component, and then the relief sculpture will be created as another component with a T-Spline form containing most of the design.

Question #2: Is there a capability in F360 to "drape" or "warp" the design such that it follows the contours of the spherical section. In the 2D world of Illustrator, this would be called an "Envelope Distort".

Those are a few initial questions. I'm sure I'll have more. Looking forward to any guidance or advice you may be able to provide.

Best regards,

[Beyondforce]

Hey @jmillerXL6J2,

Will you please attach the file!?

Cheers / Ben
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[jmillerXL6J2]

There really isn't a file to attach. My question is more general than that.

That said, here's a simple demo file I tossed together.

[TrippyLighting]

Then please post a more concrete example of the exact objects you are talking about.

How spherical are these things ?

How intricate are the relieves etc. ?

Can it be done in Fusion 360 ? Yes, probably.

For 3D modeling and printing relive structures I wold not necessarily use Fusion 360.

[jmillerXL6J2]

I apologize.

The heading on this sub-forum said "Stuck on a workflow? Have a tricky question about a Fusion 360 feature? Share your project, tips and tricks, ask questions, and get advice from the community", which lead me to believe I was in the right place.

Apparently not.

Can you direct me to where my question is more relevant?

In any case, the objects being designed are 6" in diameter (+/-) and about 3/4" thick (+/-).

My concern is that the nature of our relief carving is such that T-Splines is quite useful. If we knew that T-Splines would be available for Rhino into the future then we would go with that.

Rhino has the "draping" or "warping" capability we need, but I can't see any obvious way to do that in F360. If there is such a capability, I would appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

[TrippyLighting]

Your question is relevant!

The details you have provided are just not enough to provide you with proper guidance. I asked these detailed question because I've done CAD and 3D modeling for a timeframe approaching 3 decades. The devil, is in the details and general advise often fails when one looks closer what is to be achieved.

The image you posted in your earlier thread is a simple text logo and it is fairly easy to make this protrude from the spherical surface evenly. However if you want to model things with T-Splines and not use CAM but 3D printing it might be easier to do with a Sub-D modeling package e.g.Blender, which has 3D printing tools Fusion 360 for example does not have.

[TrippyLighting]

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@jmillerXL6J2 wrote:

My concern is that the nature of our relief carving is such that T-Splines is quite useful.

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Are you actually physically carving these objects currently ? If so, can you post an image ?

No, unfortunately Fusion 360 does not have a warping ore draping function. That would really be awesome. However, that's the reason I referred to Sub-D modelers. Moelng with Sub-D meshes is very similar to modeling with T-Splines and if your mesh topology is clean quads then you can export the mesh from your Sub-D modeler as a.obj file and import it into Fusion 360, where it ca be converted into a T-Spline.

If you would want to CAM (machine) such an object the ability yo have a T-Spliene and as a result a NURBS surface is really great to have as the CAM kernel can calculate tool paths based on a mathematically describable precise surface.

However, for 3D printing that might actually be unnecessary. As opposed to NURBS, meshes have a finite resolution.

Most 3D printers accept .stl files, which are triangulated mesh files with a finite resolution. This is is what you export from Fusion 360 and send to a 3D printer.

However, some Sub-D modeling software packages have 3D utilities that would actually eliminate the need to export and convert into a T-Spline and send stuff directly to a Printer.

The advantage of using a Sub-D modeling package is that the modeling tools are far more advanced than the one in Fusion 360. Blender is only one example and I use it because it is Free Open Source Software and actually makes a perfect companion for Fusion 360.