Approaches to curving this rectangle

susan_buck · September 2022

New to CAD design, so apologies in advance for the simple question.

For practice, I'm attempting to model the following rectangle that is slightly curved.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/45/gnjnjhe74lit.jpg

Here is my workspace: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/1730c6703536fdba9c90142a/v/d7abd3745bd26aa2da15527f/e/032ad39d57a05146483545f6?renderMode=0&uiState=633302a3e3081e3139aa8faa

In the Part Studio called "v1" I approached the design by sketching the bottom edge with the curve and then extruding it.
From here, I am not sure how to make the holes on the curved rectangle face.

In the Part Studio called "v2" I approached the design by sketching the rectangle and holes and then extruding it.
From here, I am not sure how to make it curved.

Would love any input on best tools/strategies I should use in both approaches.

MichaelPascoe · September 2022

Hi @susan_buck, Your approaches are good. I would go with something similar to v1, but there are many ways to do this.

One thing that boosted my Onshape abilities a ton was the learning center. If you are new to Onshape or old to Onshape, definitely complete the Learning Pathways if you plan to use Onshape often.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/225ad235a97fa299d3d8180c/w/8985b3cae3e3ea7cbfb4cfad/e/4416b673de696781c294da23?renderMode=0&uiState=6332c79cb4435505ba394c53

Improvements to v1:

Constrain your sketch so that it is not blue. If it is blue, it will move around when you try to change a dimension in the future.
4 fillets are not needed; you can group these into fillets of the same size. I have reduced this to two fillets, one for each size.
Nothing else, very nice organization and use of folders.

Vents, here is one way to do this:

Create a sketch of one of the vent holes.
Extrude remove that sketch from the part.
Linear pattern the extrude feature. It is best to stay away from sketch patterns because they are not very parametric. (It is said that a face pattern is quicker, but I have tested it and a feature pattern or part pattern is perfectly acceptable in most cases.)

I noticed all of the side faces are straight up and down. It looks like this is intentional based on your main sketch. However, if you did need the side faces to be normal to the curved surface instead of straight up and down, that is possible to, but would require a slightly different workflow.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/6e/usqvfv3n9vgs.gif

susan_buck · September 2022

This was very helpful, thank you Michael.

The key takeaway I learned was sketching the vent on the perpendicular plane.

Applying this, I tried to adding a little tab piece that extends on the concave side of the piece, but because it's by the edge where it curves, it juts out the other side.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/1730c6703536fdba9c90142a/v/5638932167978e090b601535/e/032ad39d57a05146483545f6

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/sc/vq5p4btnhl7p.png

Any tips on how you would approach this is greatly appreciated.

ps - Learning about linear patterns was a nice bonus. And noted on getting the sketch lines all blue/constrained. 👍

NeilCooke · September 2022

Use Delete face.

susan_buck · September 2022

@NeilCooke Got it! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

eric_pesty · September 2022

NeilCooke said:

Use Delete face.

Or set a "second end position" in your extrude.

Approaches to curving this rectangle

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