TurboCad curving surface of King's insignia to cannon surface

[SJSoane]

I am working on a digital file for 3-D printing cannon for my Bellona project (in the scratch-built section). I am using TurboCad for Mac Deluxe version 10.

I have made the insignia a solid, as you can see below, but I can't figure out how to curve its upper surface to match the curve of the cannon. Also, how to merge the insignia into the cannon so there are no gaps or intersecting solids between the two. I assume this would be a bad thing when creating the file for the 3-D printer.

 

Can anyone help with this?

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

[AON]

Mark

Every 3D CAD program is different.

If your program will do it there should be an option to WRAP to a surface and you will be prompted to pick the surface.

This is what it looks like in Autodesk Inventor...

[SJSoane]

Thanks, Alan, I will look for something like that in TurboCad...

 

Mark

[BANYAN]

Mark, not sure but I think think you need the Pro (Platinum) version of TC to do that?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[SJSoane]

Pat, thanks, I was wondering about that. I will have to see if I want to invest in an upgrade. I am not sure how far down the road I am going with this 3-D printing quest as it gets more complicated and expensive! I will contact TurboCad and find out more.

 

Thanks again,

 

Mark

[AON]

the other option might be to apply the insignia flat, protruding from the surface and then manually file or sand it round after printing.

I was told that 3D printing is an open honeycomb cell structure below the thin solid surface so you might have to use some type of filler afterwards.

[tkay11]

A quick search on Google for 'wrap to a surface in turbocad' shows answers that seem to agree with Pat's suggestion that this can only be done with the Platinum version. e.g. https://forums.turbocad.com/index.php?topic=18161.0

 

It's very expensive (£1000) to  upgrade if were to do it from my ordinary version of Turbocad 21!

 

Tony

[wrkempson]

A work around for TC Deluxe is to put your monogram on the barrel, then create a tube around that section of the barrel that has an inside hole that matches the barrel as to angle but is (say) an inch larger in diameter.  Then subtract the tube from the monogram and you will be left with an upper surface of the monogram that is curved with a radius parallel to the barrel.  Takes but a minute.

[Dr PR]

I haven't used TurboCAD in years, but I have used it's sister program DesignCAD since 1988.

 

I can think of several ways to achieve what you want to do. Pick the one that you are more comfortable with and that your version of TurboCAD will allow:

 

1. You can use a version of wrkempson's suggestion.

 

1A. Create a "surrounding solid" with a cannon barrel shaped hole in it that has a diameter larger than the canon barrel that is equal to 2x the height you want for the insignia extrusion (a radius with 1x the height). Be sure the axis of the hole is contiguous with the axis of the cannon barrel.

 

One way to do this is to make a copy of the cannon and subtract it from a surrounding solid - this gives the proper hole shape in the solid. Then scale the surrounding solid so the hole diameter is larger than the cannon barrel by the desired amount.

 

1B. Make the insignia extrusion several times as high as you want it and position it so it extends into the cannon barrel as well as into the surrounding solid.

 

1C. Subtract the surrounding solid from the insignia extrusion. This will produce the desired outer curved surface for the insignia.

 

1D. Make a copy of the cannon barrel and subtract it from the insignia extrusion to get the proper inside curved surface.

 

OR

 

Just "solid add" the insignia extrusion to the cannon barrel to get a single solid - what you need for 3D printing.

 

2. Another way to get the desired curved insignia extrusion is to use your original insignia extrusion to create a curved surface on the cannon barrel, and then extrude it.

 

2A1. Find the intersection of the insignia and cannon barrel. This will be an outline of the insignia on the barrel surface.

 

2A2. Convert this outline to a surface.

 

2A3. Extrude the curved surface to the desired height.

 

OR

 

2B1. Make a copy of the cannon barrel and subtract it from the insignia extrusion.

 

2B2. Explode the insignia extrusion solid and eliminate all parts except the lower surface contiguous with the surface of the cannon barrel.

 

2B3. Extrude the lower surface by the desired height.

 

Phil

[AON]

I attempted to draw a segment of a tube above the trunnion at both ends of the insignia at locations of known diameters.

I then attempted to loft and cut using the two sketches and a 3D line connecting the two as a rail.

My program (Inventor) does not seem to want to cut away with the loft command.

 

With my second attempt... If I cut away a Rotated (tube) segment drawn on the XZ plane above the trunnion that is successful.

As the trunnion is below the horizontal plane it is below the cutaway and is not touched.

 

Edited December 1, 2018 by AON

[SJSoane]

Thanks, everyone, for these helpful suggestions.

 

I am making a newbie mistake somewhere. However I try to extrude or project the insignia, I get an ill-formed solid, as seen below.

Turbo Cad Mac is not very good at identifying the problem areas. When I first attempted to create a solid out of the line drawing, it said there are duplicated or overlapping curves and will not proceed. Unfortunately, sometimes it showed me where the offending problem is, sometimes not. I thought I had fixed them all when a tool like extrusion allowed me to proceed instead of calling an error. But when I proceed, I get these ill-formed solids.

 

This image below is based on a drawing of control point splines. I have tried converting this drawing to interpolate splines, simple curves, etc. but the solid is still ill-formed. I will keep trying edits to see if I can at least get a clean solid from which to try the good suggestions above.

 

I just wanted you all to know where I was with this....

 

Mark

[SJSoane]

More work, it seems I have projected the walls, but not the top surface.

At least I figured out how to make a female mould of the curve above the insignia, which I used to subtract from the top of the insignia. Now I just need to find out why I am not creating a top surface...

[AON]

Have you selected SHELL as opposed to SOLID?

 

[AON]

I sometimes find the program suggests you have joined one line to another... but it did not.  It stopped short and left a gap or it went beyond and overlapped the line.

To get away from this I purposefully draw the line beyond so I can see it and then trim it back.  Extra work but it keeps me from banging my head against the wall and throwing the monitor out the window!  😠

[druxey]

When you achieve this, remember that the actual edges are softened, not sharp!

See:

 

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-cannon-george-reigns-king-george-cannon-cuba-cuban-caribbean-carribean-2028190.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=B036DD34-BA8E-4CAE-A876-0438B6BD3991&p=483&n=0&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3dbar%26st%3d0%26pn%3d1%26ps%3d100%26sortby%3d2%26resultview%3dsortbyPopular%26npgs%3d0%26qt%3dbritish%20bronze%20cannon%26qt_raw%3dbritish%20bronze%20cannon%26lic%3d3%26mr%3d0%26pr%3d0%26ot%3d0%26creative%3d%26ag%3d0%26hc%3d0%26pc%3d%26blackwhite%3d%26cutout%3d%26tbar%3d1%26et%3d0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3d0%26loc%3d0%26imgt%3d0%26dtfr%3d%26dtto%3d%26size%3d0xFF%26archive%3d1%26groupid%3d%26pseudoid%3d%26a%3d%26cdid%3d%26cdsrt%3d%26name%3d%26qn%3d%26apalib%3d%26apalic%3d%26lightbox%3d%26gname%3d%26gtype%3d%26xstx%3d0%26simid%3d%26saveQry%3d%26editorial%3d1%26nu%3d%26t%3d%26edoptin%3d%26customgeoip%3d%26cap%3d1%26cbstore%3d1%26vd%3d0%26lb%3d%26fi%3d2%26edrf%3d%26ispremium%3d1%26flip%3d0%26pl%3d

[SJSoane]

Aha! Got it. Not quite sure how. I had to create a cover skin of the line drawing, then pull the skin into a solid, then subtract from it a female mould of the barrel shape + ¼" radius. Then add to the barrel.

 

druxey, if I can figure out how to profile this with rounded edges, I will come out of retirement and start a CAD business!☺️ But thanks for the photo; it is great to see what we are trying to approximate here.

 

Mark

[SJSoane]

I just converted the file to STL, which is what Shapeways asked for. But it is quite faceted. Is this the best I can expect for a 3-D file? I saved it as a Binary file, although there was a choice for an ASCII file. There was also a choice for number of facets in the Binary option, I have shown the default that I chose.

 

Apologies for the dumb questions; this is my first ever effort at 3-D printing, not quite sure where I am heading.

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

[aviaamator]

How can I master this science?!!!

[AON]

Mark, try increasing the deviation.

Druxey, adding a radius (softening the edges) of such a complex shape would be, IMHO, nightmarish for the 3D.  It needs to calculate the whole mess and if you haven't a NASA computer the humble home computer will likely crash.

[druxey]

That's good to know, Alan. I expect a quick brush with abrasive on the finished article will do the job equally well, then!

[SJSoane]

druxey, I was thinking the same thing!

[SJSoane]

Nice, Alan, I upped the surface deviation from 0 to 45. Much better. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

It turned into a 2.2 MB file, so too big to show here.

 

Mark

32 gun for export deviation surface to 45.stl

Edited December 2, 2018 by SJSoane

[AON]

You are very welcome.

Happy I finally could help someone.

 

Use the windows snipping tool and capture the screen image so others can see.

Sometimes I just take a pic with my phone and use it after resizing with MS Paint.

[thibaultron]

In DesignCAD you can also goto "File/Image/Save Image File" to save a graphic of the screen/drawing. I don't know if TurboCAD has a similar command.

[SJSoane]

Good suggestions. Here is a screen shot of the higher resolution file.

 

Mark

[SJSoane]

a little more research on STL files today, and I found a much finer setting. I put all setting at 0 except normal deviation which I put small at 2.25. Putting this at 0 really messes it up, for reasons I don't understand. But this file size is 24 MB. I will have to find out the max resolution for the printing company tomorrow.

 

Mark

[AON]

Our local library prints for free but limits the file size to 8Mb as it takes them 5 hours to print that size.

 

I submitted my file two weeks ago this Tuesday and am still waiting.

[rshousha]

Very nice effort. Looking forward to seeing the finished piece. There is a LOT of demand out there for printed parts.