How to make a Airbus A320 EFIS button

[hans.billiet]

I only have some experience with the very basics of Fusion 360.

I'm trying to replicate the button shown in blue (original 3D-mech that I imported as reference).

I'm stuck in how I could draw the front tip. I would like to cut it at an angle, but not with a flat "tool", but a slightly curved tool (the angled tip is kind of bulging).

Can somebody give me some advice or direction on how I could proceed. Or some training video's that can help me explore the right tools to make this solid?

My final goal is to save this as an STL file, and then use Ultimaker Cura to slice it for my 3D printer.

[TheCADWhisperer]

@hans.billiet 

Are all of your sketches fully defined?

I would use Revolve for that feature.

[wersy · Accepted solution]

To be honest, I like your design better than the original.
Maybe a little more rounded?

[hans.billiet]

I did find the solution myself! Let me explain all the different steps, which can be helpful for others.

First I mirror the curve at the back of the knob (top purple area) according to the mirror line (red arrow). I then also draw a vertical construction line in the middle. This gave me the first reference point (top red square).

I then use "3D sketch" to draw a construction line to connect this reference point with the bottom reference point (bottom red square).

I then create a "plane along path" on the middle of that construction line.

I project the mirrored curve on that plane, and use this to draw an arc. This arc will be my cutting tool.

Finally, I split my body using this cutting tool, which cuts my body along the reference line using the curve I just have drawn.

Finishing off with some fillets of 1.2mm give the result that I wanted.

[HughesTooling]

Here's my go. Should have started from scratch really as you didn't have the cone on the main circular part. I needed to fillet using 3 fillet features because Fusion messed up trying to do it all in on go.

Mark

[hans.billiet]

@wersy In the meantime I found the solution myself. But your approach indeed gives an extra twist to the look of the knob by curving the surface in another direction. But as a cockpit builder (hobby, flightsim), I want to stick to the real aircraft design.

But thanks a lot for you feedback!

[wersy]

Hi @hans.billiet 

What must be, must be.

I am glad that you have found the solution yourself.
I wish you a lot of fun with your flight simulator.

[hans.billiet]

@HughesTooling Thanks a lot for your answer. I analyzed it in detail, and learned a lot! It's (almost) perfect!!!

Just one mystery to me. What is this extrusion doing?

[wersy]

And yes, what about the groove?

[wersy]

[etfrench]

Why is everyone making this so difficult?  It's just two mesh section sketches, one on the YZ plane and one on the XZ plane to fully define this.

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

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@hans.billiet wrote:

@HughesTooling Thanks a lot for your answer. I analyzed it in detail, and learned a lot! It's (almost) perfect!!!

Just one mystery to me. What is this extrusion doing?

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When I first tried adding the fillets I had a problem in this area and thought it might be because there's a small overlap so used that extrude to remove the overlaps. It didn't actually make any difference, I just needed to use 3 fillet features. File's attached again without the extra extrude.

[hans.billiet]

Now this is really the perfect solution!!! Thanks a lot!

[HughesTooling]

Just to show the problem Fusion has adding the fillets.

If I select all edges it errors.

But unselect one edged nowhere near the problem and it fillets!

Even fillets like this. But select all edges and it fails.

[hans.billiet]

Thanks a lot for this nice extra! I learned a lot in this post.

[hans.billiet]

Just a detail, but how did you color the groove in white?

[hans.billiet]

@wersy I changed the topic of this post, which allows me (I hope) to ask some more question in this context.

I learned (from you) how to use "split face" to get a groove. But as I like it to be perfect, I would like to have this groove extend up to the bottom.

This is the button how it looks in a real Airbus. As you can see, the groove extends up to the bottom of the knob, even cutting a piece of the bottom circle.

In your drawing (see above), and in my replicated model (see below), I only can use the "split face" function to make a groove up to some mm from the bottom. If I extend the cutting tool to the bottom, I start getting errors. I think it is kind of conflicting with the earlier fillets, but not sure.

I tried many ways to extend the groove, but with no success so far. Do you have any ideas?

My latest model is attached.

[davebYYPCU]

Try a square Pipe > Cut, down an appropriate Path, (side view outline, trimmed to suit.)

Might help....

[hans.billiet]

I probably should stop asking questions, and immediately after it have an "aha moment" where I find the solution myself 🤔

[wersy]

If you set Revolve2 to new Body you can offset the groove to the bottom.

For to change the color in the groove you have to applay to "Faces" and select only the faces