Create and modify freeform parts

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Create and modify freeform parts.

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After completing this video,

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you'll be able to

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create form bodies from primitives and sketches,

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use advanced edit form controls for soft modification,

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create or modify edges with form tools,

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modify a form with bridge,

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and repair or smooth a form body.

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In fusion,

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let's begin with the supply dataset,

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Form sample.

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F3D.

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This design contains a couple of sketches and

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we'll explore those in our freeform workspace.

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Freeform modeling can be accessed by selecting create form

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from our solid or from our surface tools.

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Freeform modeling is direct modeling that allows us to

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create complex organic shapes by directly manipulating geometry.

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This can be done by starting with primitive shapes such as boxes and cylinders,

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or by using sketch-based approaches.

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In this case,

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let's start by creating a box.

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The box primitive is one of the more common

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primitives to use when creating a new design.

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We need to select a plane,

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and we need to start by drawing a box.

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Once we do this,

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the box dialogue will appear and we can manipulate the values

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more either using the dialogue's input or the on-screen manipulators.

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We can increase or decrease the number of faces that we have in multiple directions,

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and once we're happy with the results,

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we can select OK.

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Note that once we create a primitive,

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we can't go back to the creation dialogue.

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We'll need to either recreate that primitive

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or manually manipulate it on the screen.

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Let's go to our bodies folder and hide Body one for now.

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Some of the other common primitives used are things like cylinders and quad balls.

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Let's take a look at a cylinder.

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Once again,

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select a plane,

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begin creating a circle,

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and then manipulate it either on the screen or by using the dialogue.

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Most primitives will have a symmetry option.

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Circular primitives will have a circular option,

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while primitives like box will only have a mirror option.

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Let's select OK to create this primitive as well.

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We're going to take a look at modifying primitives in just a moment,

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but let's take a quick look at some of the others.

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Plans and faces are common ways to start complex shapes by

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starting with a small number of faces and adding to them.

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The face tool is great because it allows you

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to snap to reference bodies like scan meshes,

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while the plane tool allows you to simply select a plane

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and start by creating a new blank face.

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Using modification tools,

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we can add to this quickly and easily,

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which we'll take a look at in just a moment.

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As we scroll down in this list,

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you can see that we've got a pipe tool,

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which we'll explore in a moment,

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as well as some of these sketch-based primitives.

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When we use Extrude,

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for example,

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we can select a sketch and begin pulling this up.

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We can increase or decrease the number of faces,

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and keep in mind that

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as we start working with complex shapes like spines or arcs,

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oftentimes the number of faces and the approach,

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whether it's uniform or curvature,

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will have a direct impact on how well that matches your original geometry.

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In the cases of creating forms from sketches,

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keep in mind that it is not a direct match.

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If you have a complex sketch,

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it's oftentimes very common for your freeform model to not match that.

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So if you are looking to create a sketch-based approach,

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there is a modification tool called Match,

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and this is the tool that will allow you to match

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your freeform body to a reference sketch or reference geometry.

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Let's go ahead and take a look in the create menu,

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and note that we've also got things like revolve,

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sweep,

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and loft in here.

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There are a couple of other sketches in here,

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and you can play around with these

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creating some various different types of primitives,

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but let's go ahead and explore the pipe tool.

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Under the Create menu,

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the pipe tool is sort of unique in its own sense.

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It allows us to create freeform models using 3D sketches,

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and the pipe tool will create those in 3D based on our selections.

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While this can be extremely handy,

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there are some things that we need to be aware of.

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As we begin to make more selections,

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the intersections between those become more complex.

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So a simple rectangle,

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for example,

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is pretty straightforward.

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But as we start to add these tapered curves

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or curves going from one corner to another,

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the intersections in the corners start to get more difficult and twisted.

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So there will be a limit to how much you can do with this tool.

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But we can change the display mode to take a look at in smooth,

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and notice that as we have more edges coming together,

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the form starts to get pinched.

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So you may find that you need to reduce the number of edges that you select

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and maybe turn off the chain selection option,

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so that way you can manually select specific entities that you want.

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In this case,

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I want to remove this as an option,

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and maybe add this one here and remove this one,

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and this may be a better freeform option to get started on a new model.

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There are end type options.

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You can determine whether or not your freeform pipe is open,

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if it's squared off or has a spike,

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and we can also directly manipulate how many segments we have,

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and we can even select them and begin manipulating

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them individually by adding or removing those sections.

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In this case,

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let's go ahead and say OK,

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but we're not going to be manipulating or working with this freeform model.

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Let's go back to Bo 2,

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the cylinder.

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Now that we have a couple of freeform models,

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let's go ahead and talk about modifying them.

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There are many modification tools that we have,

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and this can become very overwhelming,

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but there are a few common tools that we will explore.

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First is edit form.

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Edit form allows us to select vertices,

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edges,

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and faces and begin manipulating them directly.

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I'm going to double click the right edge here and

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note that we've got a manipulator on the screen.

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This manipulator by default is called multi.

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This allows us to transform or translate,

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rotate or scale our selection.

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For example,

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if I select this arrow,

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I'm going to begin translating the edge.

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If I select the center point,

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I'm going to begin scaling it.

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And if I select one of these planes,

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I can move in plane and make adjustments there.

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We can also begin adding new edges by holding down the alt key.

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Holding down the alt key allows us to extrude and add a new edge.

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Holding down control and alt at the same time allows us to scale

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or translate adding a new edge with a crease on it.

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This can become very helpful as you begin working with your own models.

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For example,

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we may want to

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hold down control and alt and scale this edge down.

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And then we can right click and select OK to finish our operation.

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So,

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edit form is going to be one of the default tools that we use to create our geometry.

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This is going to also be the default selection at the top of our modify menu.

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Let's go ahead and select a couple of other edges and just play around with this,

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scaling these out

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and noting that we also have a tool called soft modification.

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Soft modification allows us to make adjustments to our selection,

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and we can dictate how much that has an effect on the overall model.

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You can see that as I'm scaling this up and down,

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the rest of the model is moving.

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This edge here is staying still,

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but you can see that there is an influence

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that happens based on the color of these dots.

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We can increase or decrease that based on face count.

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We can also do it based on a specific dimension.

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For example,

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I can say 10 millimeters,

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and if that falls within

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the realm of any of the other selections,

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it'll have that influence.

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As we increase this to say 100 millimeters,

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you can see now it's only going to impact or affect that next set of vertices.

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So playing around with soft modification is a great

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way to preserve the overall shape of your design,

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while allowing it to modify and manipulate some surrounding geometry.

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There are many other options in here,

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for example,

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changing the view of our object to box display,

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our control frame display,

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or back to our smooth display.

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By default,

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our freeform models are box displays,

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and that box display is what's actually controlling

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the tangency in the direction of our curvature.

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But

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oftentimes the final result is going to be our smooth display.

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This is what we want to look at

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to make sure that our final shape is correct.

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You can get to this with some shortcut keys as

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well as from our utility menu under display mode.

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Let's go ahead and say OK for now,

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and let's talk about some other modification tools.

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In some cases we may find that our primitive doesn't have enough edges.

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We can subdivide it,

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we can insert edges,

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or we can insert points.

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Using insert edge allows us to select an edge or edges,

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and then using the insert tool,

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we're able to add a new edge to allow us to make more modifications.

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We can dictate how far that is away from our original selected edge,

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and we can also use either the exact or simple insertion mode.

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Simple will place the edge affecting the overall shape of the design,

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while the exact will determine where that edge can go and keep the original shape.

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Let's go ahead and say cancel for this,

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and let's explore the insert point.

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Insert point will allow us to manually pick where these edges go,

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once again giving us either simple or exact insertion mode.

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This allows us to add edges to add more detail to certain areas.

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I'm gonna use Control Z to undo that.

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We also have the option to subdivide either a specific phase or an entire model.

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Once again,

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we have exact and simple insertion modes.

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This will allow us to add additional faces once again to add more detail.

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From our modification menu,

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we've also got tools like merging edges,

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welding vertices,

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and bridging.

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Using tools like bridge,

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for example,

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we can double click on this inside edge,

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rotate our model around,

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go to side 2,

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and double click on this edge.

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What this allows us to do is create an internal blended section

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that will connect those two edges together.

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Using the keep creases option,

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we'll ensure that we've got a sharp edge here.

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If you want to add or remove creases,

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you can also use the crease or uncrease tool.

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For example,

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if I want to select uncrease,

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I can double click this edge,

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say OK,

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and now I've got a smooth transition going into this section,

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but a sharp transition on the inside.

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It can be very easy to get overwhelmed with these tools,

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but playing around with them is the best way to learn how they work.

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While talking about edges increasing edges,

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we also have a tool called the Bevel Edge Tool.

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Now the bevel Edge tool can work on sharp or creased corners such as this,

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we can say,

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OK,

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or it can work on edges like this.

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I'm going to right click and say repeat bevel Edge.

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I'm gonna double click here and then go to a bottom view.

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We also have an option to keep creases,

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although if we want to keep the original edges creased or sharp,

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we can do that in our models.

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But oftentimes the bevel is a great way to

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add sharper transitions without having a hard crease.

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There are multiple ways that we can dictate this bevel,

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for example,

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distance from the surrounding edges or relative offset.

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This is going to be a ratio or a percentage away from our current edge.

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We can also dictate the number of segments,

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the spacing,

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and we can include a crown value.

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As we increase the crown value,

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this is going to create a sharper transition,

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creating more of a tighter radius.

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If we decrease the crown value,

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this will create a flatter transition.

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Playing around with these values will have an impact on the final design.

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So again,

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do make sure that you explore them and understand how they work at a very basic level.

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We also want to make sure we identify the utilities.

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We've already talked about our display mode,

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but we also have repair body and make uniform.

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Oftentimes,

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as our designs become complex,

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we have issues with them.

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Things like error stars or T points become a problem on our model

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and prevent us from converting it to a solid or a surface body.

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Using the repair bodies is a great way

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to identify those problems and automatically repair them.

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Another common utility tool is the option to make uniform.

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When we use make uniform,

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this allows us to take a look at the overall model

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and create a more uniform

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distribution of faces.

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As we begin to add more detail,

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we may find that we end up with a lot of edges in certain areas,

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and using the tools like make uniform can be a great

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way for us to turn that into a more uniformed model.

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Once again,

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there are many different free form tools available to us,

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and the best way to learn them is by playing around.

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Remember that once we finish a form,

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any of these bodies that are closed are going to be converted into solid bodies.

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Anything that is open is going to be converted into a surface body.

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So keep in mind that as you're modeling in the freeform workspace,

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if you need a surface downstream,

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Make sure that your design stays open.

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If you need a solid body,

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make sure that your design is closed before finishing the form.

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And if you need to make any modifications,

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you can always double click and go back and edit this feature.

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Even though it is direct modeling,

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it is saved in the timeline and you can go back and make changes at any point.

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For now,

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go ahead and save this design and continue to play around with these freeform tools,

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and once you're done,

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go ahead and move on to the next step.