How to model this design - struggling with angles and joints

[ashes.man]

I have the design in the picture below I am trying to model.  Please excuse my hand drawing skills!  Its the bottom of a tank where all liquid should flow to the front center.  I had a go at modelling it but could not work out how to joint the individual parts in such a way that they could be automatically extruded to the correct length and also aligned to the correct angles.  Each joint is at odd angles and the angle iron sections do not meet nicely (which is fine in the real world).

I would like to have a single driving sketch for the angle iron profile, and for the overall length, width and front center depth to be adjustable so I can reconfigure the whole model by just changing those dimensions (either parameter or sketch dimension etc.)

I found that by making a component to hold the profile sketch, I can make each length of angle iron as a sub component from that sketch.  But that means they end up as loose components that have to be positioned into place and extruded to correct length.

What I actually want to do is a slightly more complicated design, but I think if I can understand this problem I can apply it to make my final idea.

As an added bonus I also need to work out how to make a sheet metal shape to sit on the angle iron.

Any suggestions on how to do the angles, joints and automatic extruded lengths would be greatly appreciated.

[davebYYPCU]

Build from the surface (Loft)

15 degree Centre Line drop.

Sweep the angle Iron along the face edges.

Might help.....

[wersy]

I tried to put angle profiles on the floor surface from @davebYYPCU .
This seems a bit complicated for me, especially since the middle profiles, which are still missing, would have to be twisted.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@ashes.man wrote:

I found that by making a component to hold the profile sketch,  …

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Can you File>Export your *.f3d file of your attempt to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

[ashes.man]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I am a away from my PC until tonight, but I just wanted to mention that I  want to twist the angle irons.  So each joint may just touch with some gaps.  Imagine building this practically by square cutting off pieces of angle iron from a length.  

[davebYYPCU]

Sweep with Path and Guide surface.  Length / orientation of angle bars will be sorted by construction order.

Might help....

[wersy]

The twisted profiles can also be made with loft.
But I would take flat bars, you do not need to twist them.

[ashes.man · Accepted solution]

Thanks everybody for your answers.  I was able to solve this a few nights ago but haven't been able to post to these forums.

I used guide sketches to create an outline of the outside.  Then used those sketches to orient joint origins.  Then rigid jointed each angle iron to the joint origins and extruded up to the next part.  The driving sketches can be used to adjust the angles etc.  The same sketches were then used to make a 3D sketch for the sheet metal pan.

I have a single driving sketch for the angle iron profile, so can adjust that in one place and everything corrects.  Same for angle of sides and depth of front center.

The final result is similar to @wersy solution, but constructed quite differently.  Always so many different ways to solve the same problem in F360!

[wersy]

In this case, a construction made of angle steel is obviously unsuitable. There are many irregularities on the top surface. Even a flat steel construction is unfavorable.

For such a small tank bottom (1000 x 500 mm) no substructure is needed.
An appropriately thick plate is perfectly adequate.