Why can't I sketch or edit on curved surfaces like a cylinder?

[Anonymous]

I'm still new to Fusion, but I was attempting to add a flower my object, based on this photo: 

To do this, I thought about creating a cylinder and sketching on the surface, to curve out the flower shape.

So far, I found three YouTube videos that present potential methods to create my intended flower. Although I have the most recent version of Fusion, I could tell that all of these tutorials used the previous versions, since they worked in a a Sculpt workspace, which I assume is the same as the form workspace (after hitting "Create New Form".)

In a nut shell, here are the methods explained in the videos: 

1) Cutting shapes from a solid to make custom shapes 

When the instructor was drawing directly on the cylinder's surface, I could not do the same thing.  Despite following the directions, no matter which plane I select to create a spline, the latter always aligns with the selected plane, instead of the cylinder's surface.  Plus, the snaps are also aligned with the plane, instead of the object's edges. 

The ideal:

My attempt:

My top view:

2) Creating tangent and offset planes 

The ideal:

For some reason, when I try to construct a tangent plane, I can't even select any faces on my cylinder neither before nor after creating the form. However, I can only select a face without selecting the tangent line. 

My screen: 

3) Using sweeps:

Ideal result 

Unfortunately, nothing happened after I selected the path and I can't press "ok."  I already tried to adjust the measurements for the twist and taper angles, still nothing happened. Honestly, I just a scribbled it with the line tool, to test this method out.

Does anyone have any suggestions to make edits on curved surfaces? I tried multiple times, but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or if there are better methods for the new version. 

Also, if there is another way to create the flower in Fusion 360, please let me know. At this point, I suppose importing the flower picture and free handing it would be an option.

Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

I'm still new to Fusion, but I was attempting to add a flower my object, based on this photo: 

To do this, I thought about creating a cylinder and sketching on the surface, to curve out the flower shape.

So far, I found three YouTube videos that present potential methods to create my intended flower. Although I have the most recent version of Fusion, I could tell that all of these tutorials used the previous versions, since they worked in a a Sculpt workspace, which I assume is the same as the form workspace (after hitting "Create New Form".)

In a nut shell, here are the methods explained in the videos: 

1) Cutting shapes from a solid to make custom shapes 

When the instructor was drawing directly on the cylinder's surface, I could not do the same thing.  Despite following the directions, no matter which plane I select to create a spline, the latter always aligns with the selected plane, instead of the cylinder's surface.  Plus, the snaps are also aligned with the plane, instead of the object's edges. 

The ideal:

My attempt:

My top view:

2) Creating tangent and offset planes 

The ideal:

For some reason, when I try to construct a tangent plane, I can't even select any faces on my cylinder neither before nor after creating the form. However, I can only select a face without selecting the tangent line. 

My screen: 

3) Using sweeps:

Ideal result 

Unfortunately, nothing happened after I selected the path and I can't press "ok."  I already tried to adjust the measurements for the twist and taper angles, still nothing happened. Honestly, I just a scribbled it with the line tool, to test this method out.

Does anyone have any suggestions to make edits on curved surfaces? I tried multiple times, but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or if there are better methods for the new version. 

Also, if there is another way to create the flower in Fusion 360, please let me know. At this point, I suppose importing the flower picture and free handing it would be an option.

Thanks in advance!

[laughingcreek]

most of your current questions are a result of just not being familiar with the peculiarities of fusion.

my first piece of advise- when learning fusion, don't start with the form (sculpt, t-spline) work space.  working with (and understanding) this space successfully  requires a good  understanding of the the solid and surface work spaces first. 

on to some of the questions.  not being able to snap the lines to the vertices on the t-spline body (that's what you make in the form space).  do you have the following checked off in preferences and in the sketch pallet?

next-tangent planes.  some tools don't on t-spline bodies they way the would on regular brep bodies (brep bosies are what you make in the solid and surface spaces).  this is one of them.  Also a t-spline cylinder isn't a true cylinder, just an approximation.  but since or not going to start learning by using t-splines, we can get into that another time.

sweeps-

in the example sweep, the "profile" and the "rail" cross each other in roughly an X shape.  in your attempt they don't, and in fact appear to be roughly parallel to each other.  that's not how sweeps work.

[Johnc911]

Here is an demo of one way to make a flower. I post this reluctantly, because it's not answering all of your questions. I think @laughingcreek  has started to do that.

[Anonymous]

Hi laughingcreek,

Thanks for your advice, I'll go ahead and familiarize myself with the solid and surface workspaces. It appears that "Allow 3D sketches of lines and splines" was not checked off under my design tab preferences, when I attempted to draw on the curve with that setting, it finally worked!!!  On the other hand, "3D Sketch" was already checked on my sketch palette. 

In addition, thank you for explaining tangent lines and sweeps to me. I still have heaps to learn, but I appreciate your feedback. 

[Anonymous]

Hi Johnc911,

Thank you so much for taking the time to create the demo. Before I saw your message, I attempted to make another flower, but it not as smooth and efficient as your method. No worries, laughingcreek's  explainations clarified my confusion.