Complex Surfacing

ben_crews

Hello all! I'm a former plastics engineer with some experience designing using surfacing methods. I used Siemens NX to do this at work. My current side project involves a bit of surfacing as well, but I think I might have hit the limit of what Onshape can do...The project I'm referencing is a public document, just search "Project Zephyr" and I think it will come up.

So I have cross-sections that I'm currently lofting together to make 1 surface, in order to get all the varying shape and control that I want. At the front I have an orthogonal cross-section, so it comes to a point. Both surfaces should be coincident, and tangent (G1 curvature, but I think G0 would work, I might like G2, but not sure) at the boundary. Aft end is currently open.

http://imgur.com/a/1Ysjk

So I'd like to get this to a point where I can import it over to Simscale, and do some CFD work on it. I think Simscale will need a solid model imported.

My question is: Can I merge these surfaces, or close off this volume with other surfaces, and fill up the volume to create a solid part? In NX there was a "sew" command to join surfaces, and a "trim bodies" command to cut away material from solid blocks. I can't seem to use multiple surfaces with the split command, nor can I sew the surfaces together. Any other options?

mahir

@ben_crews, hopefully a "sew" or "knit" command is forthcoming, but for the time being you can do something similar by using the Add option instead of New when adding surface features. Take a look at my take on the design below.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/58fd52a32e4c33108488a01e/w/c3aa7e92d9355d5c9310f2d4/e/3721a0c47b80d5d4f96abf7c

philip_thomas

Ben - we are working on all those capabilities.

In the meantime, there are some simple techniques using;
Thicken / Replace face / DeleteFace
that will do what you're looking for.

Without making any changes to the inputs (there are easier ways of doing this), here is the solution to your request - 
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/58fe506a4ee56b10306c173c/w/40ab82fb4fc6e9df2d13459d/e/28ecde7153a19cbd36a1f8d4

mahir

@ben_crews, hopefully a "sew" or "knit" command is forthcoming, but for the time being you can do something similar by using the Add option instead of New when adding surface features. Take a look at my take on the design below.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/58fd52a32e4c33108488a01e/w/c3aa7e92d9355d5c9310f2d4/e/3721a0c47b80d5d4f96abf7c

philip_thomas

Ben - we are working on all those capabilities.

In the meantime, there are some simple techniques using;
Thicken / Replace face / DeleteFace
that will do what you're looking for.

Without making any changes to the inputs (there are easier ways of doing this), here is the solution to your request - 
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/58fe506a4ee56b10306c173c/w/40ab82fb4fc6e9df2d13459d/e/28ecde7153a19cbd36a1f8d4

ben_crews

Thanks to both of you for the quick replies!