I prefer not to use the surface trim tool, as when you change the geometry of the body ever so slightly sometimes the trim flips and causing lots of downstream problems. That can be fixed, but the more complex the model gets with drafts and fillets it can be pretty hard.
Very true. Sadly I have found that to be the case even with split body/split face. If you split a body there are times upon a change/rebuild that it will grab the wrong part. If Boundary Fill didn't seem to be broken(selection boxes) it might be a reasonable solution, but there are just too many times you need that trimmed/split edge to function/design. Thanks for the comment!
All of this is very interesting! I've been getting better and better at manipulating complex shapes with just solid tools, and I'm learning quite a bit with these tutorials on surfaces, but to be honest, as of right now, the most compelling reason for me to use a surface workflow compared to a solid is just how laggy and unoptmized the extend to surface tool is. It's such a cool tool and helps immensily with complex shapes, but for some reason it makes modelling anything such a slow and painful process, I can feel fusion struggle for a simple action and I do have a good PC that I work on. Not quite sure if it's just me or a quirk of the program, or maybe just me trying to use it on difficult cases, haven't figured it out yet.
Yeah it really depends on a few things with the Up To Object. I find in several cases I end up making an Offset surface for the area i want to extrude up to. Part of the problem comes when you select a body vs a surface. it might not know where to extend to. Of if you are extruding a profile wider than. If you watch Part 3 of the recent scan to part design series i ended up having to do a lot of surface work because extruding up to an object didn't work. As far as performance, i haven't noticed that. It either works or doesn't. But even last night I was modeling something and wanted to just push a face in. I split the face and tried offset, no luck as the surrounding geometry was messed up somehow. I tried to extrude offset from a face. nope. So i ended up offsetting a surface. deleting the original and building back everything else with lofts and patches. Knowing how to do it all when the simple option fails is key!
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign yeah see, I hadn't thought about offsetting a surface from the solid and using the tool to that surface instead of to another solid, maybe fusion just doesn't like that type of operation. Thanks! Also, since I have you here lol, how do fusion 360 toolset for surfaces and form type objects compares to other cads? Are these type of operations comparable to what we could find say in solidworks?
@@MrChoklad Solidworks doesn't natively have SubD (form) modeling unless you by Power Surfacing add in. They do have it in their web 3d experience platform but its independent. In fusion its "direct modeling" but its in the timeline so you can work in the context of your file. What you will find is most CAD programs that include SubD tools will have pros/cons. Solid Edge has some sub d but its limited and they don't work well with scans. Power surfacing in solidworks is great and has some options missing from Forms in Fusion like a true edge weighting. So you can say do something between smooth and a crease. Rhino (haven't tried 8 yet) has a bad ui/ux design so its clunky. Rhino 8 is supposed to be better. You generally get better tools when you go up in price like Alias, Creo, NX etc. Surface tools in Fusion still have a ways to go honestly. The quality isn't great and you end up doing a lot of extra work that would be eaiser in others. For example in Solidworks you have "mutual Trim". You can pick like 10 surfaces and then pick which pieces you want to keep. In fusion you have to do 10 trims to get the same result....
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign oh, great info, I ask because I'd like to get some solid basics in 3d modelling (it's not what i mainly do, I'm studying EE at the moment, nothing related directly to this), but sometimes I wonder if fusion is the right program to learn or I should go for something more "professional". I was also thinking about programs like blender where you manipulate the mesh directly, and was thinking, for these kind of projects, with curved surfaces and all, cad tools like these are inherently better than direct mesh manipulation or the question doesn't make sense?
@@MrChoklad If you plan on doing any PCB design I would say Fusion is the way to go. I do have some "Absolute beginner" courses as well as a game controller design which is CAD, PCB and programming on my website. www.learneverythingaboutdesign.com/
This channel has been an absolute gift! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.
My pleasure!
I prefer not to use the surface trim tool, as when you change the geometry of the body ever so slightly sometimes the trim flips and causing lots of downstream problems. That can be fixed, but the more complex the model gets with drafts and fillets it can be pretty hard.
Very true. Sadly I have found that to be the case even with split body/split face. If you split a body there are times upon a change/rebuild that it will grab the wrong part. If Boundary Fill didn't seem to be broken(selection boxes) it might be a reasonable solution, but there are just too many times you need that trimmed/split edge to function/design.
Thanks for the comment!
Explanation received. Thanks.
All of this is very interesting! I've been getting better and better at manipulating complex shapes with just solid tools, and I'm learning quite a bit with these tutorials on surfaces, but to be honest, as of right now, the most compelling reason for me to use a surface workflow compared to a solid is just how laggy and unoptmized the extend to surface tool is. It's such a cool tool and helps immensily with complex shapes, but for some reason it makes modelling anything such a slow and painful process, I can feel fusion struggle for a simple action and I do have a good PC that I work on. Not quite sure if it's just me or a quirk of the program, or maybe just me trying to use it on difficult cases, haven't figured it out yet.
Yeah it really depends on a few things with the Up To Object. I find in several cases I end up making an Offset surface for the area i want to extrude up to. Part of the problem comes when you select a body vs a surface. it might not know where to extend to. Of if you are extruding a profile wider than. If you watch Part 3 of the recent scan to part design series i ended up having to do a lot of surface work because extruding up to an object didn't work.
As far as performance, i haven't noticed that. It either works or doesn't. But even last night I was modeling something and wanted to just push a face in. I split the face and tried offset, no luck as the surrounding geometry was messed up somehow. I tried to extrude offset from a face. nope. So i ended up offsetting a surface. deleting the original and building back everything else with lofts and patches.
Knowing how to do it all when the simple option fails is key!
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign yeah see, I hadn't thought about offsetting a surface from the solid and using the tool to that surface instead of to another solid, maybe fusion just doesn't like that type of operation. Thanks!
Also, since I have you here lol, how do fusion 360 toolset for surfaces and form type objects compares to other cads? Are these type of operations comparable to what we could find say in solidworks?
@@MrChoklad Solidworks doesn't natively have SubD (form) modeling unless you by Power Surfacing add in. They do have it in their web 3d experience platform but its independent. In fusion its "direct modeling" but its in the timeline so you can work in the context of your file.
What you will find is most CAD programs that include SubD tools will have pros/cons. Solid Edge has some sub d but its limited and they don't work well with scans. Power surfacing in solidworks is great and has some options missing from Forms in Fusion like a true edge weighting. So you can say do something between smooth and a crease. Rhino (haven't tried 8 yet) has a bad ui/ux design so its clunky. Rhino 8 is supposed to be better. You generally get better tools when you go up in price like Alias, Creo, NX etc.
Surface tools in Fusion still have a ways to go honestly. The quality isn't great and you end up doing a lot of extra work that would be eaiser in others. For example in Solidworks you have "mutual Trim". You can pick like 10 surfaces and then pick which pieces you want to keep. In fusion you have to do 10 trims to get the same result....
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign oh, great info, I ask because I'd like to get some solid basics in 3d modelling (it's not what i mainly do, I'm studying EE at the moment, nothing related directly to this), but sometimes I wonder if fusion is the right program to learn or I should go for something more "professional". I was also thinking about programs like blender where you manipulate the mesh directly, and was thinking, for these kind of projects, with curved surfaces and all, cad tools like these are inherently better than direct mesh manipulation or the question doesn't make sense?
@@MrChoklad If you plan on doing any PCB design I would say Fusion is the way to go. I do have some "Absolute beginner" courses as well as a game controller design which is CAD, PCB and programming on my website. www.learneverythingaboutdesign.com/
Thanks a ton, im currently watching one a day and putting those tips to work, it has taken my surfacing knowledge to another level
Great to hear!
Nice.
very helpful .. as always top. thank you
Glad to hear that!
Great video, and series
Glad you like them!