Twist and curve a body, as if it's formed in laminated plywood

[Anonymous]

Hi forum, new Fusion 360 user here looking for advice on modelling the wooden components of my eco-friendly device.

The device is built from 6mm bamboo-ply panels, moulded nylon, aluminium and some PCBs, the wooden parts need to fit the metal and aluminium parts to a 1mm tolerance height and width, although the plywood-panels can be flexed ITRW, to slot into grooves in the moulded ABS and Polyamide (Nylon ) parts top and bottom.

The plywood shapes are Z-shaped, 6mm thick, 520mm tall and approx 300mm wide.  I need the top and bottom horizontals of the Z to be twisted 30 degrees from each-other, and the diagonal of the Z to curve.

I watched the 'how to make a propeller blade' tutorial, which can create the twist or curve in a simple shape by lofting, but my Zs aren't simple (see screenshots). I'd probably need to loft a flat shape and then trim my exact shapes from the flat.  But how world I add the curve too?

I tried working in Blender3D, it was close, but looked ugly.  I have seen the 'deform lattices' in 3DMax, which would be ideal, but I'm not able to afford that program, or a Windows PC to run it on.

This project requires a working-drawing and a set of moulds to be made, for the factory to laminate and accurately shape the plywood sections. I tried re-designing with flat panels, but it lacks elegance and isn't as ergonomic as it needs to be. 

Does anyone in Autodesk's forum-space have the expertise to model these shapes,  or to advise how it could be done please?

[Anonymous]

I found how to create the shape using a loft, then trimming the Z shape's profile into it. (see attached pic). My only problem is, it's not exactly the right twist angle.

Can I rewind through the timeline to adjust the angle of the top-loft profile?  - I'll post this as a separate question.

[davebYYPCU · Accepted solution]

Yes..All things being normal.

That is the major function of the timeline, make changes to see it flow to the end of the design.