Create a mesh

ouilogique

I designed a Klein Bottle and I would like to create a mesh from it. You can see the result I want to achieve here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:910737

You can see my model below and I made it public so that you can play with it here https://cad.onshape.com/documents/d7c86b5627294c37b96f2b2a/w/772c5edf6c014f83908872e4/e/398dc3450b15406eb0c069b2

Does anyone have a clue how to do such a mesh in Onshape?

caroline_read

I've been meaning to design a klein bottle but have been a little hesitant about where to start.  This is so great. I don't know how to help though sorry.

3dcad

I don't think Onshape has proper tools for creating such mesh at this point. You might wan't to export into another package for that.

traveler_hauptman

@nicolas What format do you want the mesh in?

_Ðave_

I believe his link implies a Voronoi Algorithm style mesh.

ouilogique

Thank you everybody for your answers.

@caroline_read I hope you’ll have fun with my model!

@3dcad I think you are probably right, Onshape doesn’t provide such a tool yet. But I was wondering if there is trick to it “manually”, like projecting a 2D mesh on the 3D parts (like a sketch on a non planar surface) and extruding it.

@traveler_hauptman I never did such a mesh before, so I am open to any suggestion about the format.

@da_vicki I think you are right, it is a Voronoi Algorithm style mesh. As I said, I am open to other formats.

3dcad

nicolas said:

..

@3dcad I think you are probably right, Onshape doesn’t provide such a tool yet. But I was wondering if there is trick to it “manually”, like projecting a 2D mesh on the 3D parts (like a sketch on a non planar surface) and extruding it.

Sketch on a non-planar surface is not available currently. I have seen some requests on it though.

nav

3dcad said:

nicolas said:

..

@3dcad I think you are probably right, Onshape doesn’t provide such a tool yet. But I was wondering if there is trick to it “manually”, like projecting a 2D mesh on the 3D parts (like a sketch on a non planar surface) and extruding it.

Sketch on a non-planar surface is not available currently. I have seen some requests on it though.

Hi @3dcad, @nicolas this is just a workaround to sketch on non planar surfaces, the operations you can perform in the projected curves are very limited though. Below some images.

Step1. Create the sketches you want to project in an offset plane then use the extrude command (surface) with the up to next option.


Step 2. The last time I did this to probe the concept I left the surfaces and worked in the resulting projected curves, when done I hid the surfaces; this time I used the split command between the part and each surface (It does not generate any additional parts, I get an error message for closed surfaces but it does the trick  "Selected entity does not split the part")



Step 3. Perform some limited operations in the projected sketches. in the case below only thicken and sweep worked.

ouilogique

@nav Thank you for your answer. I tried it in the same document as the Klein Bottle so that everybody can play with it. It works nicely. Though I cannot imagine creating a complex mesh with this technique, it is still very nice to know for other projects. Thank you to have taken the time to share it!

¹ https://cad.onshape.com/documents/d7c86b5627294c37b96f2b2a/w/772c5edf6c014f83908872e4/e/398dc3450b15406eb0c069b2

andrew_troup

Using 'surface extrudes' as a workaround for projecting a sketch to a sketch, face or surface is definitely viable, in fact it's indispensable for now, but fellow beta users should be aware that they may need to use "up to part" or "up to next", until the resolution of a bug which sometimes currently causes "Up to surface" not to work.
It has been flagged and is being worked on.

ON EDIT: I used to sometimes use this method in preference to "sketch to sketch" even when the latter was available, because it can be hard to visualise what's happening with the former.
Surface extrudes are very explicit and WYSIWYG, especially when the result is topologically ambiguous or impossible.

So the workarounds are valuable diagnostic techniques at the very least, and well worth mastering and remembering, it seems to me.

victor_cock

Hi everyone, I am new to Onshape,
I was looking for the same application and found the command "grid extrude". It does not have Voronoi shapes, but it is powerful. The next video could help: https://youtu.be/a5B2pF6iZRg?si=-iNY1iefqSfTDwwy.
Also coul be interesting this Voronoi generator https://voronoi-editor.web.app/%2C for using with wrap command o maping a surface. I hav not used yet but I will share you results if I have it.