sketch on curved surface or boolean a pattern on a curved surface

[Anonymous]

So I have this model I'm trying to cut shapes from.

Like I've done here by sketching hexes on a plane and cutting them from the rectangle.

I'd like to do something similar in this situation.

You can see one hex in place, though in reality there would be lots in a repeating pattern that follows the curvature of the face.

- I have tried projecting the sketch onto the surface via the Sketch>project to surface tool but I end up with an un-editable shape.

- I have tried using the Create>Pattern>pattern on path tool which has promise but then I cannot seem to copy the resulting bodies in the Z (vertical) plane to create the pattern (see picture following). Which brings up another issues, when I created the hex shapes in this scenario and then chose press/pull to make a body, it made 2 bodies instead and I coudn't get it to create a single one. Joining the two bodies produced nothing but the same two bodies again.

My hope with this method was to remove part of the outer hexes so that they fit nicely within the curved surface and then remove them from the curved surface, but as long as they remain individual bodies - I can't do this.

Any thoughts on this?

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

I think your Pattern on Path approach should work, and is the approach I would use.  Once you have patterned the bodies, just use the Combine command to subtract the hexagons from your curved surface.

Project curve to Surface should also work.  Yes, the projection itself is not editable, but you can edit the source sketch and the projection will update.  After you have the projection, use Split Body to partition the body, and then you would Remove the hexagons from the larger curved body.

Let me know if this is not clear, and I can put together a video.

Jeff Strater (Fusion development)

[Anonymous]

Awesome, thanks for the response! I did as you suggested and it was successful!

Any idea why when I'm copying the hexagon sketches around to make the pattern (before extruding them) I end up with what seems like lots of copies of each hex on top of each other?

My method is to select a hex by dragging then using ctrl c and ctrl v to paste and move at the same time. Once I have 2, I do the same and end up with 4 and so on. After I finished arranging them I draw a rectangle and use trim to set the boundaries, cutting away excess parts of hexes, but when using trim I'm having to click the same line segment sometimes 8 times to get it to go away - I assume due to the number of layered hexes...

Anyway very happy with the result so far.

[jeff_strater]

Hi @Anonymous, sorry for the slow response.  Regarding the behavior you are seeing with your hexagons getting stacked up on top of each other:  Probably what is happening is that you are pasting (Ctrl-V) too many of them, somehow.  One odd thing about Paste in Fusion sketch is that there are two commands recorded for each Paste.  There is the Paste itself, which copies the objects and puts them right on top of the originals, selects them, and throws you into the Move command.  The usual workflow is to Move them somewhere else.  But, if you look in the undo stack, there are two commands there:  Paste, then Move.  They are recorded separately.

So, if you, for example, do a Paste, then cancel, you are really canceling the Move (leaving the copy right on top of the original).  This is often how this situation arises.  Similarly, if you Paste, then Move, then undo, you are really only undoing the Move, not the Paste.

I agree that this is confusing, and we are working to fix it...

Jeff

[donsmac]

I've made a screencast showing how I would create a hexagon hole pattern on a curved surface.

The first thing to do is to place a 'Decal' on the face. The decal is an image of a hex pattern that can be easily scaled and positioned (be sure to uncheck 'Chain Faces' in the 'Decal' dialogue box).

Next offset a sketch plane and trace over the decal image using the straight line tool. Note: even though the diagonal lines are slighty curved, it's better to use straight line segments for the hexagons. You could use a curved line along the length of of those diagonals and make them construction lines, but still use straight segments for the each side of a hexagon. 

Once the sketch is made it's only a matter of minutes to complete the rest.

Make a single body from the sketch. (shown in the video)

Split the face using the body.

'Push/Pull' the hex faces through the body. This creates hex holes that have sides that are perpendicular to the face of the curved surface.

Fillet and we're done.

~Cheers,

Don

[Anonymous]

Hey thanks for the reply.

I've recorded a vid showing what happens and yes I am very careful with the copy/paste commands making sure I move the sketch after each paste as you can see.

Check it out:

https://youtu.be/rwALSocQEjc

It seems to happen with other shapes - I just made a pattern from circles and got the same results with tons of stacked circles.

[Anonymous]

Wow this is awesome!

I can't tell by looking, but the sketch makes it seems like some of the hexes (left most one) are squashed. Yet once the object is complete the hexes all seem perfect, how does this happen?

I'll have to give this a go myself!

[donsmac]

When you did the paste and moved the geometry, you did an undo for the move, but you have to hit the undo again to undo the paste. You still have the pasted copy on top of the original. 

[donsmac]

Indeed, the hexes are distorted just perfectly so that when it's projected to the curved surface the regular hex shapes are restored and match the decal image.

[jeff_strater]

Just FYI - your post has prompted us to want to fix this problem (the fwo transactions and the cancel/undo problem).  Others have noticed this, as well, and I think the confusion it causes is important to fix.

Jeff

[donsmac]

Suggestion: Whenever an item is pasted, a 'Move' dialogue box is invoked that contains an extra button,

something like:

[Anonymous]

Wow, awesome! Glad to hear it!

In regards to the undo... You're saying that when I copy/paste I'm actually producing two steps and using a single undo is only undoing one? If so, that explains so much!

[Anonymous]

Yeah this is an awesome and tangible solution

[Anonymous]

Hello Don,

Thanks for the video and instructions. I have a couple of questions as I need to apply this operation to several of my projects. I am still learning Fusions tools so please bear with me!

1. What is a decal exactly? Is it a .jpg image? What file types can I use for decals? I have many patterns/sketches that I have created in Illustrator that I would like to be able to apply to curved surfaces. Is it as simple as converting them to .jpg to be able to use in Fusion?

2. In your video you are working with components. I have not used these before.... do you need to be specifically working in/with components to apply decals to curves? Can you briefly explain the advantage/use of working with components as opposed to simply 'bodies' in the browser?

3. In your video, once you had created the 'tool' body and moved it into the curved surface, why did you use the 'split body' tool rather than the combine & cut function?

Any Help would be appreciated,

Cassandra

[donsmac]

Hi Cassandra,

  You can use a .jpg or .png image as a decal. The screencast I made, shows how to create a sketch by tracing over the decal. If you do this, use an orthographic camera view rather than a perspective view. 

Here's a much better way to create the sketch from a decal on a curved surface: 

-because your decal image on the curved surface may be too complicated to trace, as I had done in the screencast, a solution is to use the free program 'Inkscape' to auto trace an image for you, then save it as an .SVG file and import that into Fusion. So to do that, first in Fusion, once you have applied the decal to the surface, just find a view (still using an orthographic camera) where you can see the whole decal. The idea is to render the scene, but play with the render settings so the render comes out as high contrast as possible, trying to get an image that has solid black on white. Before you render, create a sketch plane that will be used to place the SVG onto. (so the sketch plane is perpendiculer to the camera axis).

The rendered image may need further adjusting. Open the rendered image in Photoshop and apply one or two Levels adjustments to get the image to a solid black on white. I suggest to scale the image up 400%, this makes edges smoother. Also crop the image if necessary. Save the image as a .jpg file.

Open the image in Inkscape and auto trace it by choosing 'Path/TraceBitmap', then save as an .SVG file and open it in Fusion onto the sketch plane you made earlier. 

Now just extrude it into the main body or through the curved surface, do a 'split face' and 'push/pull as needed.

For this it doesn't matter if the body is part of a component or just a body in the Body folder.

Briefly 'Components' are useful to organize bodies into groups so you can export the component as a model, or you can turn the visibility of the 'Component' off or on. You can 'activate' a component, so that it is visible and everything else is faded. Or you can 'isolate' the component so that it is visible and everything else is not. Also, when a 'Component' is activated, any sketch you make will end up in the 'Component folder' and not in the sketch folder.

In answer to your third question: I 'split' the face and used 'push/pull' which results in the sides of the holes to be perpendicular to the Curved face. Doing a cut operation would not give this result.

I hope that helps.

~Don

[Burnum]

Seems like it could be possible to have a feature like decal that let you apply a sketch?

[joashdipert]

This is awesome! I have been looking for a solution for a prosthetic leg part thats a foot blade. I have the curved profile and then I have this kind of complex foot shape with holes in the kind of z axis. But every time I would try to make this the holes and the shape would get distorted. Big solution to a headache. Do you have a longer video or anyone know a longer video with commentary on that rendering photoshop part? I get what you're doing mostly, its juts the part of either tracing the shape of the decal or rendering it out. The shape is basically a sole of a foot. 

Thanks for your solution, they should make this easier to find.

[davebYYPCU]

This thread is 2 years old, we now have Sheet Metal, that updates this thread somewhat, I am not referring to the render sections..

Search for

Wrap on a Cylinder, or

fold and unfold,

for more recent activity.

Might help