How to do this (multi boolean, pattern, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Hi all,
I need to create a "wave" by some cylinders, then half cut those cylinders.
5 minutes of work in Cinema4D, but no results after two hours in Fusion360 🙂

• Problem 1: I can't use the pattern tool on the first cylinder, because each of these cylinders is different. So I need to manually create and position each of them.
• Problem 2: I need half cylinders, but I can't use booleans because I can't join all these cylinders into one, in order to obtain only two bodies: the big rectangle and the combined cylinders.

So, what's the most fast and elegant way to obtain the result?

Thank you!

[davebYYPCU]

From the photo, looks like numerous plates standing out of the lower block.

Quickest, is to revolve the curvy cylinder outline, looks like four major lobes, 

Embed half that curvy cylinder down to the top face of the block.

Side view sketch a cutter profile like fingers in a comb, Extrude cut the fingers to make the grooves.

fillet the edges of the fingers that are left standing.

Late now, will check back in the morning.

[TrippyLighting]

Whatever technique you use, you will not be able to join all these half/cylinders into one body. 

Depending on what you want to do going forward it might make sense to collect them in a component.

[lichtzeichenanlage · Accepted solution]

Unless the outer faces do look straight, I would do it like this:

[davebYYPCU]

Takes a but longer in Fusion, here's what I said last night....

Two bodies, are each in their own component, 

the block is quick, making a one piece set of fingers needs some planning.

Effectively the joiner bar is inside the block.

Had no dimensions, so made it look right, 

File attached, let me know if you get stuck.....

[Anonymous]

Hi all,
I have selected a solution but I have to thank you all for your answers.
The lower block in my picture was placed just to substract it from the cylinders, but your solutions show how to directly obtain half cylinders.

P.S. Maybe I'm too used with the flexibility of Cinema4D, but as a long-term 3D user ("3DStudio 4", 1994) I am perplexed to see that Fusion360 won't permit to substract a body from a group of bodies. This software is a breath of fresh air in the 3D panorama, but in my humble opinion the timeline and the multiple workspace are prone to introduce confusion and a "mined", twisted, workflow.

[chrisplyler]

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@TrippyLighting wrote:

Whatever technique you use, you will not be able to join all these half/cylinders into one body. 

Depending on what you want to do going forward it might make sense to collect them in a component.

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He can make it all one body as soon as they are all touching the block.

[TrippyLighting]

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@chrisplyler wrote:

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@TrippyLighting wrote:

Whatever technique you use, you will not be able to join all these half/cylinders into one body. 

Depending on what you want to do going forward it might make sense to collect them in a component.

---

He can make it all one body as soon as they are all touching the block.

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I know that, but I was under the impression that all these separate entities needed to be ... separate.

In C4D and other Sub-D modelers one object can contain many separate meshes. In Fusion 360 the equivalent would be the Component/body relationship.

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I just needed to obtain half cylinders, so I was trying to do a single substraction between those separate entities (as a group) and the lower block. So the choice to treat those cylinders as a single thing or not it's dipends only by modelling needs.

Moreover,
once obtained the desired result, what if I need to modify the cylinders or some face of these cylinders in order to do some "organic" sculpt?
I 'd do this way:

1. Stop capturing design history.
2. Convert the selected faces into T-Splines ("Brep to T-Splines").
3. Go to "Sculpt" workspace and proceed modelling.

Is this good or should I start modelling in a totally different way?
I see that when I convert a face into T-Splines, that face will not simply become subdivided, but a plane is created: this introduce an extra work to "cut" away the what is not needed.

Thank you.

[chrisplyler]

They can't all be one body, but you can perform some actions on them all at once.

For example, you could extrude/CUT the block through them all at once. Or you could Split Body all of them using the block as the splitting tool.

But really, why don't you just create them as half cylinders in the first place?

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

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@Anonymous wrote:

once obtained the desired result, what if I need to modify the cylinders or some face of these cylinders in order to do some "organic" sculpt?
I 'd do this way:

1. Stop capturing design history.
2. Convert the selected faces into T-Splines ("Brep to T-Splines").
3. Go to "Sculpt" workspace and proceed modelling.

Is this good or should I start modelling in a totally different way?
I see that when I convert a face into T-Splines, that face will not simply become subdivided, but a plane is created: this introduce an extra work to "cut" away the what is not needed.

Thank you.

---

No, that's a terrible idea. Trying to convert BRep surfaces to T-Splines is only useful in some borderline cases and it takes a little forethought in modeling requiring some understanding of the T-Spline tools.

If you need these half cylinders to be sculpted you should have modeled them as T-Spline half-cylinders from the start.