Modeling Cast Iron Pedestal

[milleramatt]

Hello 

First I'd like to say fusion 360 is awesome. I learned Solidworks in college, but Fusion 360 has grown on me and I now prefer Fusion 360 to Solidworks.  

I have a question regarding the best approach for modeling my old cast iron pedestal.  It has lots of curves and I'm not sure which is the best way to model these features.  I was able to accurately measure and model the middle section of the pedestal using the loft command because it's much simpler I tried modeling the top section and bottom but it's not very good using the loft command.  Would you guys offer solutions to accurately modeling the pedestal? 

https://a360.co/2umMQpg

Please see attached pictures.

Thanks,

Matt

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

@milleramatt, 

Glad you are enjoying Fusion!  One simple suggestion to get you pointed in the right direction, is to use the "Tangent (G1)" condition for any Loft that connects to an existing solid.  Here is a quick screencast showing how to use this on the base part of your pedestal.  I also adjusted the fillet to look more like the images you posted.

I suspect that you probably could/should apply the fillet after, but I did not explore that too much.

Hope this helps

[milleramatt]

Jeff, you're the man!  Thank you for showing me a quick and simple solution.

[chrisplyler]

Just as an alternate idea...

IF your shape isn't too complex to do it this way...

You can just use two sketches, at a right angle to each other, representing the front/back and left/right sections of the thing. Extrude one sketch as a new body, then extrude the other as an intersect.