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Sketching / extruding along a curved surface
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Hi! Long time (off-and-on) relatively low-skill user, first time forum participant.
I have a dust collection adapter with some compound curves -- a square design at top narrowing to a hollow cylinder at bottom -- that I'm 3D printing in four parts due to limited printer bed size. I've actually printed a V1 of this design successfully, but I'm unhappy with how the single "puzzle piece" style connector at the top of each part allows the bottom to float freely; it doesn't perform well under the stress of the dust collector suction.
I'm trying to add another "puzzle piece" style connector on the vertical column near the bottom -- you can see my first attempt here. However I can't figure out how to make a sketch or an extrusion that follows the curve of the cylinder.
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Hopefully you can see the issue in these images, or if you have time, you can check out the part here. When I draw the puzzle piece on the plane formed by the edge of one part, it extends straight out, when what I really want is for it to follow the curvature of that circle. I've tried messing with Ruled Surfaces (you can see one in gray in the final image), but I can't figure out how to create a shape along such a surface. Basically if there is a way to extrude in direction = "blind but along the specified surface" then that would instantly solve my problem.
Thanks in advance!
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Best Answer
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james_aguilar160 Member Posts: 51 ✭
I've never personally used it but YouTube for some reason gave me a video that seems to be almost exactly what you want. It's called the "Wrap" tool.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W4TpGx26xc
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Answers
This might not be the cleanest way of doing it, but if you are this far along, you could use a couple of replace face commands to get the curves you seek. Another option is to create a surface to extrude up to. And there are probably many more ways to get there.