Inventor Mesh Grill / Web Structure From A Solid Shape

[Anonymous]

Finally I should have a web (beam) structure for wind screen, to be used with a Zoom H2n digital recorder. There is going to be a double layer web structure around the microphone (the upper half of the recorder). Inner web should be tight enough to hold on and the meaning for the outer web, about an centimeter out from the inner is that we need to have free space between the recorder and fur cloath. That little air space is the thing that clears out all wind noise rumble. It is not working, if we put the fur straight on. I have tested it. Now if I can stay up to learn more again about Inventor, I can purchase the wind blocker 3D-printed, done from some flexible plastic material. Sadly, I hope, my questions are not very dumb, I have not access to any Inventor classes at the time, and I have used searches and google so much past month. And lastly, my English is not 100-percent accurate, so please try to understand and use general words.

1) Have I started right way? I am doing solid structure of the upper half of the recorder. After that we should convert the solid piece to the web structure. Then we could use the offset tool to create the outer web. Somehow then we should connect the the webs together with beams here and there.

PROBLEM: How can I fillet the narrow sides with R624 (mm)? Inventor comprehends only about 2 mm radius without error fail. Low pitched chamfers on the wider faces I managed to cut out with another sketch, cutting the solid with it. I have attached the hand sketch and Pack And Go files. I hope we can solve this thing at first, and after that get to other problems.

kelly.young has edited your subject line for clarity: Web Structure From A Solid

[Anonymous]

Can we progress with this subject?

By the way, I say, the solid model if we had. We can use the Shell tool to create a hollow solid. Then should we use 'some tool' to form the web structure?

How we really can create the web? I would like to start from 2 millimeter beam thickness (diameter of the beams), circle beam, rectangle web structure, curved by the form of the digi recorder. But first we have the find out, how to work the solid ready? Or is it an optimal work flow, firstly?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I am sorry I have hard time understanding what you are trying to do. The part as is cannot have 624mm fillet on the side. There isn't enough space to do that. This is a relatively simple part. It should be done easily. Could you clarify the geometric requirements?

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi!

I did have a hunch that difficulties understand might be. But do not care it. We trough go them.

1) Please have a look on this picture of the digi recorder. Especially the left side.

2) Left (and right) sides are curved by a fillet radius of 624 mm. (Measured with 6 measurements, average taken into account.)

3) My solid is roughly only the upper half of the recorder. That solid should come to be the web structure ONTO the recorder, after formed into the double layered web structure.

4) Beam circle diameter could be like 2 mm at first. The web could be based on 10 x 10 mm rectangle web. Free space between inner (tight fit) and outer web could be 10 mm at first.

5) On right side (picture above) there is few controls that must be accessible even the wind blocker is fitted onto recorder.

6) That is why, I would need to create the right side of the blocker different from the left. So there would be a fold on the structure to the right side buttons. I will annoy you more all of these after the first asking.

7) I anyway hope, that now message understood can be.

[swalton]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi!

I did have a hunch that difficulties understand might be. But do not care it. We trough go them.

1) Please have a look on this picture of the digi recorder. Especially the left side.

2) Left (and right) sides are curved by a fillet radius of 624 mm. (Measured with 6 measurements, average taken into account.)

3) My solid is roughly only the upper half of the recorder. That solid should come to be the web structure ONTO the recorder, after formed into the double layered web structure.

4) Beam circle diameter could be like 2 mm at first. The web could be based on 10 x 10 mm rectangle web. Free space between inner (tight fit) and outer web could be 10 mm at first.

5) On right side (picture above) there is few controls that must be accessible even the wind blocker is fitted onto recorder.

6) That is why, I would need to create the right side of the blocker different from the left. So there would be a fold on the structure to the right side buttons. I will annoy you more all of these after the first asking.

7) I anyway hope, that now message understood can be.

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Ok.  I see what you are trying to make.

1. What is your goal? Answering these questions will determine how detailed your CAD model needs to be.
   1. Reverse Engineering an existing mic/recorder?
   2. Making a similar device to your own dimensions?
   3. Making a 3d model for rendering or other downstream use?
   4. If you are planning to make real-world parts, how will you manufacture them?  Formed metal mesh, a 3d plastic print, cast urethane, injection molding, Machined aluminum?

I will assume you are trying to reverse engineer the screen and produce it out of metal mesh. 

I am on IV 2018, not IV 2017, so I didn't attach my sample part.

1. I would not try to model the actual woven strands of the windscreen.  Instead model the external shape and apply a texture appearance.  Try one of the expanded metal ones that ships with Inventor. 
2. Use surface lofts, boundary patches, and the Stitch command to build the external surface, then thicken to match the mesh thickness.  The screenshots below show my basic approach.  I think I put the mirror feature in too early, but I did not want to remake the part. 
3. I did not include any of the button features, or anything to mate with the recorder housing. 

Basic side curveI mirrored too early. I should have modeled the side, front, chamfer and top before mirroringFinished shape, something is wrong with my install. The expanded metal texture is not transparant.

[Anonymous]

Wow! That was fast, it is when you know, what you are doing.

I am going to try to explain a little more. I am not trying to reverse engineer the whole recorder. But am trying to create EXTERNAL wind screen onto recorder. Put and play wind screen. I am going to order it 3D-printed from some flexible plastic material. As a little tight it should set on with friction. So we can model it a little tight = measured dimensions. Modelling is not needed to be super accurate, also because of the flexible material. Also, I have measured the recorder dims fairly accurately so measurements has to be accurate enough.

And when someone is wondering what the wind screen (wind blocker) is going to be like, I am going to try to explain it again, as my English skills can.

1) Wind blocker is formed of two layers of web structures. Outer and inner web.

2) Inner web sits fairly tight on the recorders upper half. Outer web offsets 10 mm farther from the inner. 10 mm free space between the webs is critical in wind noise removal as explained before. The fur coat sits on not until the outer web.

3) Both webs should consist of circle beams, diameter 2 mm at first.

4) Both webs should be rectangle mesh, eye size 10 mm x 10 mm at first.


I would want to learn how to do this.

[swalton]

Ok.  I get that you are making a cover that sides over the existing recorder.

I understand that the cover is 10mm thick and will have holes or other passages cut in it to allow the sound to pass.  

I don't understand what kind of holes or what kind of structure you want between the inner and outer surfaces.  

I tried the Grill tool, but it was not robust.  Some dimensions worked, others failed.

[Anonymous]

Not thickness but distance between the webs. Have I used a bad word. Should use maybe mesh. So two meshes. inner and outer. We would need to make the solid model into two meshes. Inner fits tighly onto recorder and the outer surrounds it 10 mm off. And the eye size of the meshes should be 10 mm x 10 mm (rectangle). Mesh beams should be 2 mm of diameter.

The two meshes should be connected to each other with diameter 2 mm beams here and there. These connective beams have to be 10 mm long to make the 10 mm free space between the inner and outer meshes, of course. I am very bad at hand drawing so no help there too! 😉

[Anonymous]

So I have understood that you should create surfaces instead of solids. Ok, can comprehend but how about after that?

By the way, the whole topic title is awful, web really can be not-so-good word describing the subject. Mesh structure can be better, really. I can not edit the first post which is freaking weird.

[swalton]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I have understood that you should create surfaces instead of solids. Ok, can comprehend but how about after that?

By the way, the whole topic title is awful, web really can be not-so-good word describing the subject. Mesh structure can be better, really. I can not edit the first post which is freaking weird.

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I think that there is a 30 minute window to permit edits after a post is made.  Once it expires, the posts are fixed.

I don't do a lot of surface modeling, so there may be some method that is better than what I know.   I think you will have to construct the mesh between the inner and outer surfaces by hand.  It could be quite tedious.

Mesh at the inner and outer surface:

• Check out the Grill tool in the plastic part modeling toolbar.  You might be able to make that work to create the holes in the inner/outer boundary's.
• Use workplanes and the boundary surfaces to make 3d intersections curves, then sweep rectangles/circles along the 3d curves.  This might give you holes with walls that are normal to the surface.

Internal supports:

• make a support part with a grid pattern of cylinders.  Derive the surface part (the inner and outer surfaces) into the grid part and trim the cylinders to the surfaces.   
• Add workpoints at the nodes of the inner and outer surface meshes.  Create 3d curves between those workpoints as sweep paths
• ?

[Anonymous]

After little hand pain episodes I can say "I'm back". So let's dig back into this training project!

I must tell, many of your guidance was/is a little hard to understand resulted from little experience of Inventor using. But you just have to start from some point. At the point, I have never used surface editing tools.

So should I use the solid model at all to create the inner mesh? How about the outer mesh? Can it be made with some kind of offset tool?

And, of course, to remark, there is those must-be-accessible buttons on the narrow sides of the recorder. So the windblocker mesh structure must have grooves for them.

[Anonymous]

Good New Year Evening, folks!

Back into this project. It has been halted for over a year or so because other things in my life. But interest to versatile usage of Inventor has not went down. So I'd appreciate if you could offer help as much as possible.

It is very hard to explain the goal in sufficient detail because of my English skills.

1. Goal is to create a completely separate part (shaped windscreen mesh)
2. It is going to be made out of flexible but still a bit tense material, 3D printed
3. A tight fit onto the audio recorder, like a hood
4. It must be double layered, 10 mm space between the inner, tight-fit mesh and the outer mesh, meshes connected by ribs here and there
5. The 10 mm free space is vital for windscreen effectiveness, almost all commercial windscreen furs setup direct onto mic/audio recording gears surface and wind noise still remains
6. Have you seen fishnets? I mean that kind of thing with 10x10 mm mesh size, just double mesh structure, inner tight fitting onto recorder and outer 10 mm farther
7. Sides of that thing must have bends so the buttons can be accessed without removing the windscreen hood
8. Fur coat for wind removal is going to be installed onto outer net, just a little hand weaving work