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How to model the corners of a range hood knob?

maarten_duriemaarten_durie Member Posts: 9
Dear community,

I'm trying to model a range hood knob (FDM 3D printing). To get an accurate look of the original knob, I'm struggling with some rounded corners, see image below & link to model here: https://bit.ly/3Kyw0JG

Does anyone has an idea to get those corners, without the need to create surfaces?
Using variable fillets on the solid doesn't bring any results.
Using Fill on some edges doesn't create a nice surface that can be used.

It seems to be a similar challenge as the Dice corners, see image below.
How would you model this while keeping the edges intact in the middle?


Best Answers

Answers

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    MichaelPascoeMichaelPascoe Member Posts: 1,713 PRO
    edited February 2023 Answer ✓

    Hi @maarten_durie , this is called a "Setback fillet". Here is a custom feature by @mahir that will do this for you: Setback fillet
    He also shows how to do manually without a custom feature here.

    Let us know if you get stuck. Share a link to your document and we can help you fix it.


    Learn more about the Gospel of Christ  ( Here )

    CADSharp  -  We make custom features and integrated Onshape apps!   cadsharp.com/featurescripts 💎
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    mahirmahir Member, Developers Posts: 1,291 ✭✭✭✭✭
    @MichaelPascoe Thanks for the mention. I'm curious though, what is the rationale/difference of linking to garrettmotion.onshape.com?
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    MichaelPascoeMichaelPascoe Member Posts: 1,713 PRO
    edited February 2023 Answer ✓

    @mahir, oops, fixed. It is now set to cad.onshape.com. That's an enterprise I do Onshape work for.


    Learn more about the Gospel of Christ  ( Here )

    CADSharp  -  We make custom features and integrated Onshape apps!   cadsharp.com/featurescripts 💎
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    Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,064 PRO
    Will you share an image of the knob your'e trying to match. I don't see how a setback fillet is the right thing here.
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
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    maarten_duriemaarten_durie Member Posts: 9
    Thanks @MichaelPascoe, nice to be able to stick a name to it and even better to have a feature for that! 
    Unfortunately, the custom feature doesn't like the corner, as there's no uniform radius on the 3 fillets (different angles between faces).

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    maarten_duriemaarten_durie Member Posts: 9
    @Evan_Reese
    These are (poor resolution) images of that knob:


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    eric_pestyeric_pesty Member Posts: 1,500 PRO
    edited February 2023
    Hard to tell exactly what's going on with the transition but you can improve things a lot by using a variable fillet on the bottom edge and also using a "width" fillet" around the perimeter:



    https://cad.onshape.com/documents/1742a39cf2380845cd6bdbaf/w/9e5c3ae921c77967208f081b/e/7b5667bc2b102b0178c013fe?renderMode=0&tangentEdgeStyle=1&uiState=63f8e92e671db70ead8dcce7

    Edit: you can further improve by creating a patch surface for the area (but the difference is pretty subtle at this point...:


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    Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,064 PRO
    This workflow could be streamlined a lot, and the result is imperfect (some surfaces are wobbly or not continuous yet), but the general idea should work. https://cad.onshape.com/documents/46988752a6a0adc1cd58ff8e/w/6e0f77403089fec8c55b0413/e/0fcf72a4620abf8187a9dc9f
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
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    S1monS1mon Member Posts: 2,359 PRO
    @Evan_Reese
    I was mentally planning to do something very much like that, but you beat me to it. Making the top of the oval drive the cross section so it wasn't an ellipse, and having the bottom tangency be on an oval as well.
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    nick_papageorge073nick_papageorge073 Member, csevp Posts: 663 PRO
    I can't say I miss consumer products! All surfacing. ha ha ha.
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    eric_pestyeric_pesty Member Posts: 1,500 PRO
    @nick_papageorge073
    Yeah I don't do much surfacing so my goto was to "fake it" with a variable fillet, which is probably ok in this case if it's going to be 3D printed with FDM...
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    maarten_duriemaarten_durie Member Posts: 9
    @Evan_Reese
    @eric_pesty
    Thanks a bunch for giving it a spin! I didn't anticipate that complexity when I was trying to fix that knob  :smiley:
    I noticed that the variable fillet does has a place here, but I applied it a bit different and was not happy with those initial results.

    In general, these consumer products can become very complex surfacing exercises... Are there any training or tutorials that you find relevant to start with? Or is it simply trying out and learning step by step?

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    Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,064 PRO
    A lot of products are deceptively complex to model. Once you start digging into surfacing it can be an easy trap to fall into thinking that because something is complex to model, or is curvature continuous, that it's therefore "good", which isn't always the case. I've definitely seen great models of bad designs. In any case, check out the surfacing videos in the Onshape Learning Center. You could also pick up some things by watching surfacing videos from other software since a lot of the math and thinking is the same.
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
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    maarten_duriemaarten_durie Member Posts: 9
    Thanks @Evan_Reese, much appreciated for your input. Your YouTube videos are definitely inspiration as well!
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    Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,064 PRO
    Thanks @Evan_Reese, much appreciated for your input. Your YouTube videos are definitely inspiration as well!
    Oh yeah I maybe should have mentioned those too haha. This one has the most surfacing info.
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
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