How to make an indent on a curved body that keeps continuity and merges with original body shape again?

[fomarsso2]

I'm trying to make an indent on my model like I roughly sketched up but I don't have a single idea how I would go about it. For reference, the white model is almost exactly what I'm trying to accomplish but with the design I sketched but with the smoothness of the white model. Could anyone help me out?

[Rafal.Chlod]

Hi @fomarsso2, thanks for posting.

Did you try the Form environment? If you don't have to stick to strict dimensions, this may be a fairly easy way to model the shape you've attached. Here is an example tutorial on how to use this environment.

[barry9UDQ6]

Something like this?

[TrippyLighting]

I think this is a surfacing project, but it can also be done in the T-spline environment.

Neither of these modeling approaches are beginner projects!

I would also strongly encourage you not to follow that tutorial.

T-spline geometry should be modeled at least 50% in box view mode. Any tutorial that does not follow that guideline is not a good tutorial. 

I am attempting to model this now, so hang on ...

Edit:

A sharp-edged object is relatively simple to model. the real trick will be to get it properly filleted.

 

[TheCADWhisperer]

Can you File>Export your *.f3d file of what you have attempted so far to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

[TrippyLighting]

So for the time being I'll unfortunately have to stop my efforts or find another approach.

Someone tried to improve the loft tool. In the process of it they removed the stitch tolerance setting from the loft dialogue (not a show stopper for this exercise) and then the loft I am attempting repeatedly crashes Fusion 360. That is quite a show stopper!

I reported these two bugs here. And made a post on the Fusion 360 Autodesk Expert Elite slack channel.

[tanwinghoe1983]

This is too interesting to pass up! Attached is my very rough attempt without fillets. Please critique.

[fomarsso2]

Yes, half of it essentially. Then having it converge with the original form again.

[fomarsso2]

This looks good though, definitely what I'm at least trying to accomplish at first before trying to get it all continuous and smooth

[TrippyLighting]

We'll provide the critique once you have filleted it. Looks good so far!

[fomarsso2]

I'm sorry, all my attempts were horrible as I had no idea how to perform this due to my lack of Fusion knowledge. Just hoping for a genius to help me with this haha.

[tanwinghoe1983]

This probably needs some sort of variable fillet, which I am not familiar with.

[fomarsso2]

I really appreciate all your efforts! I had been googling this for a whole day probably, without luck (beside the image I found from another program), so I thought maybe it's just too difficult haha. But here we are doing good progress!

[fomarsso2]

Haha, I'm glad I'm posting something "new" in this community. I at least haven't found any videos or nothing on the web for what I'm trying to do. But yes, this is exactly what I'm trying to accomplish (without the fillets)!

[TrippyLighting]

As I have already mentioned, this is not a beginner project. Filleting this can be a challenge and as I've already posted the software crashed. I'll have to change my approach, but first I'll have to get some of my paid work done 😉

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

Ok, so thanks to @wmhazzard who stitched the surfaces before lofting I now got it "filleted".

BUT ... this is a quick dirty, cheap hack. If I add rails to the loft, it will not complete. The gap that is left is small enough so the large stitch tolerance, which cannot be changed anymore since the latest update, takes care of the stitching. I usually lower that to 0,01mm and in that case it would likely not succeed.

An indentation as in the first image you posted  is a littel more work ...

[fomarsso2]

Oh wow, I'm amazed by this quick and dirty cheap hack haha. And like you mentioned this is pretty advanced even though it's cheap. I was not expecting this to be this complicated, probably because also I've never really gotten into surface modeling in Fusion. I've only been using solid modeling.

[TheCADWhisperer]

@fomarsso2 

My wild guess Attached...