Sculpting a Line sketch

[Anonymous]

Hi All

I am brand new to 3D modeling and have watched many 360 videos.

I am trying to design a simple item. I sketched it out with the line tool but I am not very good with angles and curves but I do have the approximate shape.  I extrude and it looks ok, but it needs volume in some areas, less in others, smoothing and refinement (like for finger grips). I thought that sculpting from scratch would be a better method but unfortunately I am not advanced enough to start from scratch. (I tried) It just comes out a mess and nothing like my design I have in mind.

I would like to know if there is a way to take a line done and extruded in the "model" mode and then refine it using the sculpting tools after.  I have tried this and when I turn on sculpting mode, I cannot do anything with the extruded line shape I have made.

I am sure I am just doing it wrong, can someone help?

I only want to take a shape I have made and sculpt it a bit.  I am better at learning on my own and trying things but I am totally stuck.

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

Can you post some pictures of what you want to do?

[Anonymous]

I want to take this sketch

and turn it into a hand held salad chopper 🙂

The shape is not refined, it will need volume and divits on the handle, edge sharpness and a lot of push pull to get the design I want.

I tried doing it in sculpt mode using a box but I cannot get the shape to come out right, so I figured.. use a sketch of the basic shape and push pull and subdivide with the sculpt tools.

It's grayed out, cannot do anything with it at all in sculpt mode.

I also tried creating a new line shape in sculpt and I can't do anything with that either.

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

Did you watch this tutorial?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igLXNO7rwpk

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the link, I had not viewed that one. I also thank you for your time helping me 🙂

However, imo that is not really a tutorial, it's a video of "what I did to make this model" without any of the actual steps to do it. "I created a sketch", "I spent a fair amount of time sculpting" is not a tutorial unless you already know what all of those things entail, and sadly, I do not. 😞

I assume you wanted me to see how to use an image as a plane canvas and then use sculpting to work from there?

I think I am just fundamentally misunderstanding modeling in general in 360. I assumed I could draw or shape something, then sculpt it, this seems not to be the case and instead a "sketch" just becomes a reference point to make a body.  I started with Blender, it didn't seem to offer as much as this software, but in blender, I can draw a shape, extrude then subdivide and push pull etc to my hearts content on any/multiple faces.  In Fusion 360, I am just completely lost, but the sculpt tool potential look awesome.

I just spent about 40 minutes creating the shape I want, it's almost perfect, I extruded it and it became a body, now I want to make the "handle" bow out in the middle, and the "knife" edge get much thinner, which would be really easy to do in sculpt mode with the shape/body done, but I can't do anything else with the body now to do all of that.  I guess I could probably spend hours grabbing edges and using the chamfer tool etc, but eventually I'll get errors as I have already trying it.

I just want to take basic line work, turn it into a body and then refine it with sculpt.  Is this not possible in 360?

1. Line tool (sketch) New Shape: Apply Extrude = Body
2. Sculpt New Shape = Body

The only two options yes?

Then once you jump out of sculpt mode, no more "sculpting" can be done on either?

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

I wanted you to see a workflow with that video.

After looking at your picture I would start in the sculpt environment. If you share your Fusion file I will make a video and show you how to do what you want.

[PhilProcarioJr · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous

" I assumed I could draw or shape something, then sculpt it, this seems not to be the case and instead a "sketch" just becomes a reference point to make a body."

Yes and no, you can use sketches to create solids, patches and T-Splines. Using sketches for T-Splines as more then just a guide can get tricky for new users so I would suggest at least for now to just use it as a reference. 

" I started with Blender, it didn't seem to offer as much as this software, but in blender, I can draw a shape, extrude then subdivide and push pull etc to my hearts content on any/multiple faces.  In Fusion 360, I am just completely lost, but the sculpt tool potential look awesome."

You can work this way with T-Splines it just takes a little bit of understanding in how they work.

"I just want to take basic line work, turn it into a body and then refine it with sculpt.  Is this not possible in 360?"

Converting a solid into a T-Spline is an advanced topic and for now I would suggest you learn the T-Spline tools first.

"Then once you jump out of sculpt mode, no more "sculpting" can be done on either?"

If you right click on the sculpt icon in the timeline below and choose edit then you can do what your wanting.

See if this helps get you started...

[Anonymous]

WOW.  That's what I want to do.  That is pretty darn cool. Thank you for that.

Thanks for your time and patience as well. 🙂

 (btw: I just made a sugar bowl with fancy lid in 360, my wife broke ours, I will be printing that out today, lol, I am going to really love 3d modeling I think)

[Spit40]

Fantastic! Just what I'm needing. I don't see much about this technique on the web but I imagine it has a lot of applications.