3D Part Design Using T-Splines in Fusion 360 – 3D Design

Fusion 360 is made up of a number of different workspaces which includes Model, Patch, Sheet Metal, Rendering, Cam and Simulation just to name a few. One workspace which people may not be aware of is the Freeform or Sculpt Workspace, which is located in the Model workspace, under the Create Tab.

This Workspace utilises Fusions T-Spline technology to allow the user to create surfaces and take control of these surfaces and manipulate them to suit the shape. Fusion and T-Splines are fantastic for 3D part design where by the body being created has a very organic shape or a design that would be hard to replicate using typical 3D parametric modelling techniques like simple extrudes and revolves. In saying that the Sculpt workspace uses similar commands and workflows like the Model workspace where we can create a sketch and create primitive shapes like boxes, spheres and cylinders. There is a difference between a cube modelled in Model workspace and a cube modelled in the Sculpt workspace.

If we take an example of a simple cube created by extruding a sketch, and a cube created in the Sculpt Workspace, the difference between the two, is I can control each face, vertices and edge of the Sculpted cube to manipulate the shape to match the desired design. Simply click on a face while in the Edit Form tool, and this activates the manipulator, this gives me control over moving the position of the face, the scale and angle.

The Sculpt Workspace and T-Spline technology give designers and engineers a limitless amount of options to create forms which before would’ve been extremely difficult to create using typical 3D part modelling techniques, from my own experience with using surfacing techniques to replicate organic shapes there can be a lot of heartache when editing these features always with the fear that a feature will fail with the smallest change of a sketch or curvature.

For example, I have used the Sculpt workplace and T-Splines to design a 3D part of the Revit Logo which I then rendered and 3D printed at Procad.

Interested in learning more about 3D part Design and using T-Splines in Fusion 360? Contact us by clicking here and ask to speak with our Fusion 360 Specialist.