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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Create and modify geometry in the Sculpt workspace using Edit Form, Insert Edge, Bridge, and more.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
5 min.
Transcript
00:04
Let's start to develop a quick concept model for the back of the reciprocating saw.
00:09
We have several ways that we can create geometry.
00:13
We can start with primitives and modify them to capture form
00:17
or we can start with two D profiles and extrude
00:20
revolve sweep or loft them into T blind bodies.
00:26
I'm going to start by creating the housing
00:28
around the motor of the reciprocating saw.
00:30
And to do that, I'm going to use the face command,
00:33
the face command in the sculpt environment allows me to
00:36
create T spine faces that we can use to build from
00:40
or to fill in surface faces.
00:43
I'm going to create a four sided face on the origin plane of my model,
00:48
roughly mimicking the area that covers the motor
00:51
and aligned to the lines of my sketch.
00:56
Hopefully, you're starting to get familiar with the edit form tool.
00:59
After creating the handle,
01:01
we're going to use the edit form tool to move this new face into location,
01:06
allowing for some tolerance from the motor of the saw,
01:10
move the face using edit form 35 millimeters off of the origin plane.
01:17
So far we've used the edit form tool to modify geometry.
01:21
But holding alt on a PC or option on a Mac will add
01:25
a modifier to extrude another face from a selection of faces or edges.
01:32
While selecting the edge of the face we created hold all and drag out
01:36
another set of faces to create the transition faces that wrap around the motor.
01:42
You can see how easy it is to create geometry using this technique
01:49
depending on where the geometry was created. I also might need to use edit form
01:54
and window select the back two faces to better match my concept sketch.
02:01
Using the same technique, use alt and drag
02:05
to add another set of transition faces on the bottom of the geometry
02:09
and manipulate the faces to closely resemble
02:11
the concept sketch we imported earlier.
02:20
Now it's time to build the transition between the two TPL
02:24
bodies we've built so far
02:26
in the modify menu select bridge,
02:29
bridge will build the transition faces between open edges or faces in fusion as
02:35
long as the input edges are the same or multiples of one another.
02:40
In other words,
02:41
you can bridge two edges into four edges but not two edges into three edges.
02:49
Even though I can bridge the two faces of the
02:51
cylinder to a single face on the other side.
02:54
A
02:55
best practice would be to maintain an even topology of faces wherever possible.
03:01
Subdividing the faces around the motor will
03:04
maintain an even face loop around the handle
03:08
to subdivide we will use the insert edge command in the modify menu,
03:13
insert edge will subdivide a face or faces based on an insert location.
03:18
You select graphically or through the dialogue box.
03:23
The insert location is a ratio or fraction of the overall face size 0.5 or 50%
03:30
will divide the selected face in half.
03:41
Once you subdivide the faces,
03:44
use bridge in the modify menu to build the transition faces,
03:49
select the two edges on both bodies
03:52
and notice that you can view a preview of the faces in fusion
03:57
as well as control the transition faces. You would like to build between them
04:03
with the new faces created.
04:05
I will now modify the geometry using edit form to better align with my concept
04:17
with the bottom edge. I can either align all of the vertices to my concept sketch.
04:22
But instead I will overbuild this bottom set of faces allowing
04:26
me to use the surface trim tools and the patch environment later
04:30
to create a clean edge for the saw to sit on the table.
04:55
Now let's move to the top of the saw and build the transitions for around the trigger
04:60
using the same techniques as before I'm going to hold all and add another set of faces
05:05
and I'll scale and rotate them to modify them into position.
05:10
After adding three transition faces, I'll continue to use edit form
05:15
to modify the feature line on the top edge
05:18
to match my my concept sketch.
05:29
I'll also
05:30
edit the feature line on the inside near the trigger.
05:35
You can see that the leading edge of these faces is not straight
05:39
and being mindful of your edges is certainly a best practice.
05:43
One technique that helps maintain a clean topology of your T
05:47
blind edges is to scale the edge to zero, which will flatten the edge to an axis.
05:54
You can see by scaling this edge to a larger value,
05:57
it will exaggerate the angle of the edge
05:59
and scaling it to zero will flatten it out.
06:08
Now it's time to build another transition.
06:11
Earlier in this exercise, we used the bridge command to build in transition faces.
06:15
But let's try another approach.
06:21
First, I'm going to use alt drag to add a set of faces for my transition.
06:26
And you could see that these two sides are not connected to one another
06:31
to fix that in the modify menu select weld vertices.
06:36
We vertices will allow you to explicitly connect two vertices together
06:40
by either moving a vertex to another vertex,
06:44
moving two vertices to a midpoint averaging out their distance
06:49
or by welding them together within a tolerance.
06:53
You'll notice when welding these together,
06:55
your design will temporarily display in box mode,
06:59
box mode in the sculpt environment is a
07:01
great way to understand the topology of your design
07:04
and to modify and refine your teeth blinds
07:08
fusion will display in box mode often when
07:11
it cannot compute the smooth representation of a design
07:15
once you weld the second set of vertices together,
07:18
it will switch back into smooth mode.
07:22
Now let's continue to build the rest of the saw.
07:26
Repeating the techniques from earlier use, edit form,
07:30
hold all
07:31
and drag out additional faces on the top of the saw,
07:35
I've chosen to add three faces so that the topology
07:39
lines up well with the three faces surrounding the motor,
07:43
you can see that when I stitch these faces together,
07:46
I'll maintain an even topology of faces through the saw.
07:52
There are multiple tools and techniques that I might use to close up this geometry.
07:57
I could weld vertices.
07:59
But let's use another modification tool called merge edge.
08:04
Merge edge allows me to select the three faces on one side of the saw
08:09
and merge them into a single edge with the three edges of the other.
08:14
You can see that fusion quickly heals and solves the geometry
08:20
in a few short minutes, we have a concept model of the side of the reciprocating saw.
08:25
And now it's time to create the opposite side.
08:28
I want to use mirror symmetry to create the right side of the saw.
08:32
But before I do that,
08:33
I wanna make sure that the edges and vertices are all on the center origin
08:38
plane of my model to ensure that the T spine body will weld together properly.
08:44
To do that. I'm going to preselect the parting edges down the middle of the saw
08:49
and in the modify menu select flatten
08:53
pres selecting the edges prior to entering the flatten tool
08:56
will automatically grab all of the vertices on the edges.
08:60
Otherwise you can select them all individually
09:03
or
09:04
make use of selection filters. And window select
09:10
you can flat in vertices. One of three ways
09:13
you can flatten them all to fit which
09:15
will flatten them relative to their current position.
09:19
You can flatten them all to a selected plane
09:22
or you can flatten them parallel to a selected plane.
09:26
In this example, I want the edges on the origin.
09:29
So I will select the plane option and hit OK.
09:34
You can see that the edges on the inside of the handle
09:36
move to the origin plane
09:39
and will now give me the best result. When I add symmetry,
09:44
symmetry in the sculpt workspace offers a ton of speed and control when creating t
09:49
blind bodies.
09:51
Internal symmetry
09:52
will allow you to make one side of the body symmetrical to the other.
09:57
But in this case, I want to duplicate the saw
09:60
and mirror while maintaining that one side is identical to the other.
10:06
Choose mirror, duplicate symmetry,
10:09
select the saw body
10:11
and then locate the origin plane and select it as a mirror plane.
10:16
The result
10:18
we'll give you a right side and a left side of the reciprocating saw
10:21
and a green edge that denotes a line of symmetry
10:25
making changes to one side of the saw will automatically change the other
Video transcript
00:04
Let's start to develop a quick concept model for the back of the reciprocating saw.
00:09
We have several ways that we can create geometry.
00:13
We can start with primitives and modify them to capture form
00:17
or we can start with two D profiles and extrude
00:20
revolve sweep or loft them into T blind bodies.
00:26
I'm going to start by creating the housing
00:28
around the motor of the reciprocating saw.
00:30
And to do that, I'm going to use the face command,
00:33
the face command in the sculpt environment allows me to
00:36
create T spine faces that we can use to build from
00:40
or to fill in surface faces.
00:43
I'm going to create a four sided face on the origin plane of my model,
00:48
roughly mimicking the area that covers the motor
00:51
and aligned to the lines of my sketch.
00:56
Hopefully, you're starting to get familiar with the edit form tool.
00:59
After creating the handle,
01:01
we're going to use the edit form tool to move this new face into location,
01:06
allowing for some tolerance from the motor of the saw,
01:10
move the face using edit form 35 millimeters off of the origin plane.
01:17
So far we've used the edit form tool to modify geometry.
01:21
But holding alt on a PC or option on a Mac will add
01:25
a modifier to extrude another face from a selection of faces or edges.
01:32
While selecting the edge of the face we created hold all and drag out
01:36
another set of faces to create the transition faces that wrap around the motor.
01:42
You can see how easy it is to create geometry using this technique
01:49
depending on where the geometry was created. I also might need to use edit form
01:54
and window select the back two faces to better match my concept sketch.
02:01
Using the same technique, use alt and drag
02:05
to add another set of transition faces on the bottom of the geometry
02:09
and manipulate the faces to closely resemble
02:11
the concept sketch we imported earlier.
02:20
Now it's time to build the transition between the two TPL
02:24
bodies we've built so far
02:26
in the modify menu select bridge,
02:29
bridge will build the transition faces between open edges or faces in fusion as
02:35
long as the input edges are the same or multiples of one another.
02:40
In other words,
02:41
you can bridge two edges into four edges but not two edges into three edges.
02:49
Even though I can bridge the two faces of the
02:51
cylinder to a single face on the other side.
02:54
A
02:55
best practice would be to maintain an even topology of faces wherever possible.
03:01
Subdividing the faces around the motor will
03:04
maintain an even face loop around the handle
03:08
to subdivide we will use the insert edge command in the modify menu,
03:13
insert edge will subdivide a face or faces based on an insert location.
03:18
You select graphically or through the dialogue box.
03:23
The insert location is a ratio or fraction of the overall face size 0.5 or 50%
03:30
will divide the selected face in half.
03:41
Once you subdivide the faces,
03:44
use bridge in the modify menu to build the transition faces,
03:49
select the two edges on both bodies
03:52
and notice that you can view a preview of the faces in fusion
03:57
as well as control the transition faces. You would like to build between them
04:03
with the new faces created.
04:05
I will now modify the geometry using edit form to better align with my concept
04:17
with the bottom edge. I can either align all of the vertices to my concept sketch.
04:22
But instead I will overbuild this bottom set of faces allowing
04:26
me to use the surface trim tools and the patch environment later
04:30
to create a clean edge for the saw to sit on the table.
04:55
Now let's move to the top of the saw and build the transitions for around the trigger
04:60
using the same techniques as before I'm going to hold all and add another set of faces
05:05
and I'll scale and rotate them to modify them into position.
05:10
After adding three transition faces, I'll continue to use edit form
05:15
to modify the feature line on the top edge
05:18
to match my my concept sketch.
05:29
I'll also
05:30
edit the feature line on the inside near the trigger.
05:35
You can see that the leading edge of these faces is not straight
05:39
and being mindful of your edges is certainly a best practice.
05:43
One technique that helps maintain a clean topology of your T
05:47
blind edges is to scale the edge to zero, which will flatten the edge to an axis.
05:54
You can see by scaling this edge to a larger value,
05:57
it will exaggerate the angle of the edge
05:59
and scaling it to zero will flatten it out.
06:08
Now it's time to build another transition.
06:11
Earlier in this exercise, we used the bridge command to build in transition faces.
06:15
But let's try another approach.
06:21
First, I'm going to use alt drag to add a set of faces for my transition.
06:26
And you could see that these two sides are not connected to one another
06:31
to fix that in the modify menu select weld vertices.
06:36
We vertices will allow you to explicitly connect two vertices together
06:40
by either moving a vertex to another vertex,
06:44
moving two vertices to a midpoint averaging out their distance
06:49
or by welding them together within a tolerance.
06:53
You'll notice when welding these together,
06:55
your design will temporarily display in box mode,
06:59
box mode in the sculpt environment is a
07:01
great way to understand the topology of your design
07:04
and to modify and refine your teeth blinds
07:08
fusion will display in box mode often when
07:11
it cannot compute the smooth representation of a design
07:15
once you weld the second set of vertices together,
07:18
it will switch back into smooth mode.
07:22
Now let's continue to build the rest of the saw.
07:26
Repeating the techniques from earlier use, edit form,
07:30
hold all
07:31
and drag out additional faces on the top of the saw,
07:35
I've chosen to add three faces so that the topology
07:39
lines up well with the three faces surrounding the motor,
07:43
you can see that when I stitch these faces together,
07:46
I'll maintain an even topology of faces through the saw.
07:52
There are multiple tools and techniques that I might use to close up this geometry.
07:57
I could weld vertices.
07:59
But let's use another modification tool called merge edge.
08:04
Merge edge allows me to select the three faces on one side of the saw
08:09
and merge them into a single edge with the three edges of the other.
08:14
You can see that fusion quickly heals and solves the geometry
08:20
in a few short minutes, we have a concept model of the side of the reciprocating saw.
08:25
And now it's time to create the opposite side.
08:28
I want to use mirror symmetry to create the right side of the saw.
08:32
But before I do that,
08:33
I wanna make sure that the edges and vertices are all on the center origin
08:38
plane of my model to ensure that the T spine body will weld together properly.
08:44
To do that. I'm going to preselect the parting edges down the middle of the saw
08:49
and in the modify menu select flatten
08:53
pres selecting the edges prior to entering the flatten tool
08:56
will automatically grab all of the vertices on the edges.
08:60
Otherwise you can select them all individually
09:03
or
09:04
make use of selection filters. And window select
09:10
you can flat in vertices. One of three ways
09:13
you can flatten them all to fit which
09:15
will flatten them relative to their current position.
09:19
You can flatten them all to a selected plane
09:22
or you can flatten them parallel to a selected plane.
09:26
In this example, I want the edges on the origin.
09:29
So I will select the plane option and hit OK.
09:34
You can see that the edges on the inside of the handle
09:36
move to the origin plane
09:39
and will now give me the best result. When I add symmetry,
09:44
symmetry in the sculpt workspace offers a ton of speed and control when creating t
09:49
blind bodies.
09:51
Internal symmetry
09:52
will allow you to make one side of the body symmetrical to the other.
09:57
But in this case, I want to duplicate the saw
09:60
and mirror while maintaining that one side is identical to the other.
10:06
Choose mirror, duplicate symmetry,
10:09
select the saw body
10:11
and then locate the origin plane and select it as a mirror plane.
10:16
The result
10:18
we'll give you a right side and a left side of the reciprocating saw
10:21
and a green edge that denotes a line of symmetry
10:25
making changes to one side of the saw will automatically change the other
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