Create and modify freeform parts

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Create and modify freeform parts.

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After completing this video, you'll be able to

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create a primitive form and use edit form for free form modifications.

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Let's get started in fusion with a new untitled document and

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we're going to take a look at using create form.

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Create form is a free form workspace that allows us to use T

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blinds in a subdivided modeling environment to create complex shapes.

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The basis for any freeform modification starts by creating some sort of shape.

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While we do have standard creation tools like extrude, revolve, sweep and loft,

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we generally start with what's called a primitive.

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The primitive can come in many different forms and oftentimes

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the choice of primitive is based on what you're modeling.

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Let's go ahead and explore how to create a few

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primitives and then we'll talk about how to modify them.

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First. Let's start with the box.

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A box primitive allows us to create a rectangle

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and turn that into a primitive shape.

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The dialogue that we see for the box creation is only available during creation.

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So any changes that would be made downstream

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need to happen with modification tools

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we can turn on and off. Symmetry at this point if needed.

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For example, adding a length symmetry.

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Once we say OK,

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we now have a freeform primitive body.

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If the body is completely closed, when we finish form,

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this is going to turn it into a solid body with our standard design tools at the ready.

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If it's an open form, it's going to be converted to a surface model.

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When we take a look at other primitives under the create drop down,

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we have things like cylinders, spheres, Taurus squad ball and pipe,

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the pipe tool similar to extrude, revolve,

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sweep and loft will require some sort of edge or sketch input.

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However, other tools like face and plane

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allow us to start the creation without any additional inputs.

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The plane tool is a common tool to get started on

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creating a free form model that has a complex shape.

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This is because it starts with just a simple set of

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faces that we can begin to add to and modify.

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It's important for you to play around with creating different primitive

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forms and remember and understand that once you create that form,

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the creation dialogue is no longer available.

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When working with forms, we are working in a direct modeling environment,

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which means the undo and redo options are the only way for

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us to go back and forth between adding and changing geometry.

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Let's go ahead and take a look at some of the modification tools.

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The main focus of our modification tools is gonna be edit form.

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But I do encourage you to take a look at

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several other tools and try to understand how they work.

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But let's go ahead and dive into edit form.

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For edit form. We need to select a T

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spin entity.

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The default transform mode will allow us to use all options such as translate,

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rotate and scale.

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And the default selection filter will allow

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us to select everything including a vertex,

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a line or an edge and a face.

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These are going to be our default settings but note

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that there are many other options that we can explore

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things like changing the coordinate space.

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Right now.

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If I were to select this space,

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the coordinate space is based on our XYZ on our view cue.

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If I were to change this to my view space,

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it's gonna treat the view on the computer screen as normal to the Z axis.

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In most cases,

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we want to stick with the world space but do play around with those options.

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We also have some object snap options. If you're working with an input mesh.

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For example,

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you may find that as you move around different elements in your free form model,

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you want them to stay snapped to a mesh body.

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We also have tools such as soft modification which we'll get to in just a little bit.

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Let's expand our selection options and just make sure that we take

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a quick look at the ability to grow and shrink our selections.

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And if we're selecting an edge, we can grow or shrink the loop

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as it goes around.

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And if we select a face, we can grow or shrink that loop as we go around the model,

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using some of these other settings,

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we have things like selecting next and moving around our object

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and other options for things like range selections.

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In most cases, when we're making selections on the screen,

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we'll double click to get an entire loop

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or we can select a face and use the shift

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key and the up and down arrows to expand our selection

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at the very bottom.

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We've got our display mode settings which can convert the

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display of our object into a box display mode,

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a control frame display or keep it in the standard smooth display.

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This can also be accessed through shortcut keys as

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well as our utility menu under display mode.

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But now let's go ahead and take a look at some modifications

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at a basic level. We can select a single thing in this case of vertex

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and we have the ability to move the vertex.

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We can also change its position by rotating and scaling.

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However,

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the rotate and scale options don't really

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work when you have a single vertex selected

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if we select multiple vertices. And I use the scale option,

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you see that I have the ability to scale them in a direction relative to each other.

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However,

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the scale options generally apply more so to

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things like face selections or entire body selections.

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When we play around with this,

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it is important to note that the widget that we see on the screen has a lot of control,

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but often times it can be a little tricky to see what's going on.

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These options on the side are going to be our rotation options.

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We can rotate about a single axis in each of these instances.

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The options around the side.

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For example, this line here is gonna be scaling in a single direction

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on the corner. We can scale in plane

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and at the very base, we can scale in all three directions.

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The arrows are going to allow us to move in a single direction

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and these will allow us to move in plane.

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If you find it difficult to work with this default transform mode,

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you can always switch to the specific transform mode that you're trying to use.

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In

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this case, if you only need to move your selection,

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you may want to go to the transform mode for that.

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If you only want to rotate or scale,

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you may find that you want to use those modes as well.

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There are shortcut keys for each of these.

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But for the most part using the selection in the dialogue box is gonna be all you need

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the very bottom. We also have the ability to use numerical inputs.

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If you need a precise input. On a selection, you can do it down here.

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Now,

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let's go ahead and take a quick look at soft

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modification before we talk about adding or extruding edges.

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Soft modification is a way for us to control

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the deformation based on a range of selected entities.

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For example, if we use the distance option,

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we have the option to dictate how far that input is going to affect

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the vertices that we see colored in red are going

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to move more as they transition from pink to white,

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they're going to move less.

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We can also do this as a face count or a rectangular face count,

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changing the number of faces that are influenced.

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This is important because as we begin to create

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complex shapes and we need to make minor adjustments,

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we generally want the shapes to stay relatively the same.

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So using soft modification is a great way to ensure that any

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minor changes don't have a global or drastic effect on the model.

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If we turn off soft modification and we only move a single vertex,

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you can see that it's having more of an impact

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than if we were to use soft modification,

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which is keeping the overall shape relatively the same.

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So play around with soft modification to better understand how it works.

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Next, I'm going to double click the edge of the space that we created.

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Oftentimes when we're using a face or

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plane creation method for our freeform models,

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we need to add new edges to them.

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And we can do this by holding down the alt key as we're using the transform mode

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or as we're using the scale mode.

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If I hold down the alt key and scale, I'll be able to add new entities.

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Or if I hold down the alt key and translate, we'll be able to add new entities.

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There is another method that we can use by

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holding down alt and control at the same time,

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which will add a new entity with a creased edge.

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Creased edges are a great way to add specific details to a model that

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maybe need to have a filet or a champ for added later on,

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creased edges can be toggled on and off by using the modified tools,

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crease and un crease.

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There are many other things that we can do with free

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form tools and there's a lot to explore in this section.

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But the main things that we need to understand at this point is that

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we have basic primitive creation tools such as box cylinder and quad ball.

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And we also have modification tools. The main one being our edit form tool.

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I strongly encourage you to play around looking through some

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of these other tools to better understand how it works.

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But make sure that at at a core level,

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you at least understand the differences between the primitives we can create

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as well as the basic edit form tools available.

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We're not gonna be using this model again.

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So feel free to save it if you want to continue to play.

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But once you're done, let's go ahead and move on.