The task this week was to make on Fusion 360 a version of our tile, render it and display it as a pattern of 9.
Method
- Start new sketch > Draw 100 x 100 mm square using corner to corner rectangle tool > Exit sketch
- Extrude 13mm with a taper of 4 degrees (minimum required draft angle to help release castings from the mould)
To make a draft angle you need to input a taper value of less than -4
- Using the arc tool, curves were created to be the path for the sweep and circles were created to become the profile of the sweep action. Relatively simple to do once the lines were in place, but due to the draft angle, mis-clicks were common.
- Using the sweep tool, the ‘waves’ in the top of the tile were created, by basically removing anything which intersected with the square extrusion
Creating the ‘waves’ using the sweep command
Overall it was quite a simple process to create my tile, although learning the software at the same time doesn’t help. Once I knew how to operate the commands, and which ones were used for making it, it could be made relatively quickly – under 8 minutes.
Mistakes –
I originally tried to use the sweep by just using an arc as a profile curve which didn’t work. Fusion 360 requires a surface to create an extrusion and I was unsure how to make the arc into a closed curve and then hopefully a surface.
Making the ‘Assembly’
I used this link to learn quickly how to copy and paste and move objects around to create an assembly in Fusion 360. While it still works, I prefer the Solidworks Assembly, due to it focusing entirely on the assembly, rather than on making the model, as well.
Rendering
Rendering is using CAD to provide a lifelike image of your model so that colours and form can be better understood without actually making a physical model. It is the next best thing to making physical models especially in the design phase when there may be many different ideas that need to be modelled.
Rendering in process (showing materials tab)
