New Year

January 7, 2019

A productive start to the New Year despite a cold. Got my first magazine article sent off for editing. In the process I learnt a few things about Fusion360, the first is that there’s a whole workspace I’d not been using the “Patch” workspace. The purpose of Patch is the fix up your models, either to correct problems or to allow other tools to process them more easily. The example below uses patches to simplify a model to improve the machining paths. I can also be used to correct “flipped normals” where the model is effectively inside out, and to join up meshes that have unexpected gaps e.g. two items are right next to each other but not actually joined.

The reason I learnt about patch was that I was trying to place a decal in the centre of a cylinder with a hole through it. The decal was trying to snap to the centre but there was no centre. My work-around was to use a custom material but the guest on the Autodesk forum also suggested that patch would work. Perhaps I’d do a quick video if I can get it working.

I only needed this for a render as my actual component was made from a plywood disk. I had these disks from the Dolls house project a few years back, they were the cutouts from the top windows in the house. They also provided me with another challenge.

I needed to drill a hole in the centre. I could have put them in the lathe but I did not have a good way to support them. So I used a tool I don’t use very often, the “Centre finder”. This allows you to scribe a couple of lines that bisect the circle, where they meet is the middle.

My next project this year will hopefully be a 2019 PSTOIC medal

By Andy from Workshopshed Add Comment

  Posted in: CAD