Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Explore building on existing geometry using primitive shapes, how to use the bridge command, and how to use soft modifications.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
6 min.
Tutorial resources
These downloadable resources will be used to complete this tutorial:
Transcript
00:03
In this next lesson,
00:05
we're gonna take a further look at building our
00:06
scope to match our sketch using primitive shapes,
00:11
the British command
00:14
and soft modifications.
00:18
The process I'm gonna take here
00:20
is to define the front and rear sections
00:22
as we have other components which will be assembled to these sections later.
00:26
Therefore, it
00:26
is best if we accurately define these. Now, then bridge the two together
00:31
at times.
00:32
You may find it easier to work with reference sketches based off the canvas.
00:35
So you can focus on specific areas,
00:39
you can create sketches off the canvas,
00:41
then simply hide the canvas when not needed
00:46
before you begin refining,
00:47
I want to address the normals of our cult.
00:50
We can see this yellow face
00:52
which indicates an internal face
00:54
whereas we want to reverse this.
00:56
So the appearance which has been applied to
00:58
our component is showing us our external face.
01:02
If you ever need to reverse these normals, simply use the reverse normal command,
01:07
select the respective body
01:09
and press. OK.
01:11
Now we can refine our mesh.
01:13
And whilst in the edit four mode,
01:14
let's create the additional surfaces for our front section using the York
01:18
drag technique,
01:21
I'll extend the first approximately one third of the way down,
01:25
then use a scale to zero trick to make this horizontal.
01:29
I'll then repeat this a couple more times to the bottom of our sketch.
01:33
I now want to join these two bottom edges at the mirror plain.
01:37
But first, if we go to our left view, we can see that we have a dead straight surface.
01:41
Whereas we need some curvature.
01:44
I just want to get these roughly in position for now using the edit form command.
01:47
As after we merge edges together, we'll be refining to the intended shape
01:57
to merge the edges.
01:58
I can either use the world vertices command,
02:00
making sure the vertex midpoint we mode is selected
02:04
or as in this case, I can use the emerge edge command.
02:12
You can see the newly joined edges are now situated along our mirror plain
02:16
and we have the green line to confirm this.
02:19
Now we have our front mesh section in place.
02:21
I will edit the form to match our canvas,
02:23
making sure we have smooth transitions between faces
02:27
as always going into box display mode at times really helps us achieve this.
02:41
Now, we can take a look at creating our rear section
02:46
as a post surface modeling process.
02:48
We are going to perform solid modeling
02:49
and assembly procedures on this rear section.
02:52
Therefore,
02:53
if we have a perfect circle as our base construction,
02:56
it will help with these procedures as we know
02:58
we are working with a completely circular and uniform feature
03:01
to do this.
03:02
We can add a primitive shape by selecting cylinder from the crate tool bar
03:06
and position it on the YZ plane.
03:10
We can again set the number of diameter and height faces.
03:13
And when doing so,
03:14
it is best to bear in mind the number of edges you will be joining to later,
03:19
I can see four edges on the same YZ plane.
03:22
So I will leave it as an eight silo cylinder. Due to the symmetry,
03:27
I reduced the number of height faces to two.
03:29
So we have one set of edges that can be
03:30
edited whilst having less impact on the outer edges,
03:35
we can always add or remove edges where necessary.
03:37
So best to start with the minimum needed, then go from there.
03:43
Now use the edit form command to move your cylinder
03:46
into a more appropriate position as per the reference sketches.
03:56
Next,
03:56
we want to bridge our front and recently
03:57
created rear services together using a bridge command.
04:07
You'll notice that the rear section turns red, which is not a major issue.
04:11
It just means the mirror from our existing body was not carried across
04:15
to resolve this. Simply clear the symmetry. Then reapply
04:20
you may notice here, I'm using the internal mirror command instead,
04:25
this is when we didn't want to duplicate an existing body,
04:28
but rather create a mirror within an existing body.
04:31
Now we have our front and rear sections, we can start to fill the gaps between
04:36
I'm going to use a bridge command again to join
04:38
these bottom edges between the front and rear meshes.
04:43
Here, we need to consider the amount of edges on any adjacent surfaces
04:46
so that when we go to bridge any subsequent gaps,
04:48
the number of edges on each respective face match.
04:52
For instance, here I can see four edges.
04:55
Therefore, I'll set a number of faces to also four.
04:59
Not only will this make our lives easier
05:01
but will also help maintain good topology of your model.
05:06
I'll use the bridge command once more to create a central section
05:09
again using four faces. So we can align with the top and bottom faces.
05:15
You might wonder why I didn't include this in the previous bridge command.
05:18
And the reason is to show you some other features in the sculpt environment.
05:24
The world vertices command will merge any two vertices either by the last selected
05:28
their midpoints
05:30
or by a specific world tolerance
05:33
by ensuring we have the same amount of faces on the top central and lower surfaces.
05:37
We can easily weld any remaining vertices together to create one mesh.
05:42
You will also notice I can box select
05:44
over two vertices which may be in close proximity
05:47
and therefore difficult to select and they automatically weld together.
05:53
Now we have our base shape in place.
05:55
We can see we have a number of areas to refine before adding the detail.
06:02
The first thing I want to do is insert
06:03
an Asia approximately where we have this blind point.
06:06
We know we could use an extra set of edges here as the body has a change in direction.
06:10
So it will help create our form.
06:13
I'll double click on an edge to select the entire edge group.
06:16
Select insert edge from the modify, drop down menu
06:19
and place it approximately in position.
06:24
And now want to go back and edit our form to match our
06:26
reference sketch knowing that we have sufficient edges and phases in position.
06:30
Over this time, we're gonna use a soft modification tool. Instead,
06:34
soft modifications affect surrounding vertices depending on the extent
06:38
distance
06:39
transition and weight value set.
06:42
As you can see here, I can amend one vertices
06:45
and any surrounding vertices will also be affected depending on the set of values.
06:51
I'll finish matching our form to the reference sketch.
06:53
Before we finally take a look at the flat and command
06:58
the flat and command lets us align a set of vertices to a best fit
07:01
a selected plane
07:02
or parallel to a selected plane.
07:05
I want our front set of edges to be
07:07
flattened as we will be using subsequent surface modeling techniques
07:10
and to help maintain good form, it is best if these are aligned
07:15
then to finish off, we'll move these back so they match our reference sketch.
Video transcript
00:03
In this next lesson,
00:05
we're gonna take a further look at building our
00:06
scope to match our sketch using primitive shapes,
00:11
the British command
00:14
and soft modifications.
00:18
The process I'm gonna take here
00:20
is to define the front and rear sections
00:22
as we have other components which will be assembled to these sections later.
00:26
Therefore, it
00:26
is best if we accurately define these. Now, then bridge the two together
00:31
at times.
00:32
You may find it easier to work with reference sketches based off the canvas.
00:35
So you can focus on specific areas,
00:39
you can create sketches off the canvas,
00:41
then simply hide the canvas when not needed
00:46
before you begin refining,
00:47
I want to address the normals of our cult.
00:50
We can see this yellow face
00:52
which indicates an internal face
00:54
whereas we want to reverse this.
00:56
So the appearance which has been applied to
00:58
our component is showing us our external face.
01:02
If you ever need to reverse these normals, simply use the reverse normal command,
01:07
select the respective body
01:09
and press. OK.
01:11
Now we can refine our mesh.
01:13
And whilst in the edit four mode,
01:14
let's create the additional surfaces for our front section using the York
01:18
drag technique,
01:21
I'll extend the first approximately one third of the way down,
01:25
then use a scale to zero trick to make this horizontal.
01:29
I'll then repeat this a couple more times to the bottom of our sketch.
01:33
I now want to join these two bottom edges at the mirror plain.
01:37
But first, if we go to our left view, we can see that we have a dead straight surface.
01:41
Whereas we need some curvature.
01:44
I just want to get these roughly in position for now using the edit form command.
01:47
As after we merge edges together, we'll be refining to the intended shape
01:57
to merge the edges.
01:58
I can either use the world vertices command,
02:00
making sure the vertex midpoint we mode is selected
02:04
or as in this case, I can use the emerge edge command.
02:12
You can see the newly joined edges are now situated along our mirror plain
02:16
and we have the green line to confirm this.
02:19
Now we have our front mesh section in place.
02:21
I will edit the form to match our canvas,
02:23
making sure we have smooth transitions between faces
02:27
as always going into box display mode at times really helps us achieve this.
02:41
Now, we can take a look at creating our rear section
02:46
as a post surface modeling process.
02:48
We are going to perform solid modeling
02:49
and assembly procedures on this rear section.
02:52
Therefore,
02:53
if we have a perfect circle as our base construction,
02:56
it will help with these procedures as we know
02:58
we are working with a completely circular and uniform feature
03:01
to do this.
03:02
We can add a primitive shape by selecting cylinder from the crate tool bar
03:06
and position it on the YZ plane.
03:10
We can again set the number of diameter and height faces.
03:13
And when doing so,
03:14
it is best to bear in mind the number of edges you will be joining to later,
03:19
I can see four edges on the same YZ plane.
03:22
So I will leave it as an eight silo cylinder. Due to the symmetry,
03:27
I reduced the number of height faces to two.
03:29
So we have one set of edges that can be
03:30
edited whilst having less impact on the outer edges,
03:35
we can always add or remove edges where necessary.
03:37
So best to start with the minimum needed, then go from there.
03:43
Now use the edit form command to move your cylinder
03:46
into a more appropriate position as per the reference sketches.
03:56
Next,
03:56
we want to bridge our front and recently
03:57
created rear services together using a bridge command.
04:07
You'll notice that the rear section turns red, which is not a major issue.
04:11
It just means the mirror from our existing body was not carried across
04:15
to resolve this. Simply clear the symmetry. Then reapply
04:20
you may notice here, I'm using the internal mirror command instead,
04:25
this is when we didn't want to duplicate an existing body,
04:28
but rather create a mirror within an existing body.
04:31
Now we have our front and rear sections, we can start to fill the gaps between
04:36
I'm going to use a bridge command again to join
04:38
these bottom edges between the front and rear meshes.
04:43
Here, we need to consider the amount of edges on any adjacent surfaces
04:46
so that when we go to bridge any subsequent gaps,
04:48
the number of edges on each respective face match.
04:52
For instance, here I can see four edges.
04:55
Therefore, I'll set a number of faces to also four.
04:59
Not only will this make our lives easier
05:01
but will also help maintain good topology of your model.
05:06
I'll use the bridge command once more to create a central section
05:09
again using four faces. So we can align with the top and bottom faces.
05:15
You might wonder why I didn't include this in the previous bridge command.
05:18
And the reason is to show you some other features in the sculpt environment.
05:24
The world vertices command will merge any two vertices either by the last selected
05:28
their midpoints
05:30
or by a specific world tolerance
05:33
by ensuring we have the same amount of faces on the top central and lower surfaces.
05:37
We can easily weld any remaining vertices together to create one mesh.
05:42
You will also notice I can box select
05:44
over two vertices which may be in close proximity
05:47
and therefore difficult to select and they automatically weld together.
05:53
Now we have our base shape in place.
05:55
We can see we have a number of areas to refine before adding the detail.
06:02
The first thing I want to do is insert
06:03
an Asia approximately where we have this blind point.
06:06
We know we could use an extra set of edges here as the body has a change in direction.
06:10
So it will help create our form.
06:13
I'll double click on an edge to select the entire edge group.
06:16
Select insert edge from the modify, drop down menu
06:19
and place it approximately in position.
06:24
And now want to go back and edit our form to match our
06:26
reference sketch knowing that we have sufficient edges and phases in position.
06:30
Over this time, we're gonna use a soft modification tool. Instead,
06:34
soft modifications affect surrounding vertices depending on the extent
06:38
distance
06:39
transition and weight value set.
06:42
As you can see here, I can amend one vertices
06:45
and any surrounding vertices will also be affected depending on the set of values.
06:51
I'll finish matching our form to the reference sketch.
06:53
Before we finally take a look at the flat and command
06:58
the flat and command lets us align a set of vertices to a best fit
07:01
a selected plane
07:02
or parallel to a selected plane.
07:05
I want our front set of edges to be
07:07
flattened as we will be using subsequent surface modeling techniques
07:10
and to help maintain good form, it is best if these are aligned
07:15
then to finish off, we'll move these back so they match our reference sketch.
How to buy
Privacy | Do not sell or share my personal information | Cookie preferences | Report noncompliance | Terms of use | Legal | © 2025 Autodesk Inc. All rights reserved
Sign in for the best experience
Save your progress
Get access to courses
Receive personalized recommendations
May we collect and use your data?
Learn more about the Third Party Services we use and our Privacy Statement. May we collect and use your data to tailor your experience?
Explore the benefits of a customized experience by managing your privacy settings for this site or visit our Privacy Statement to learn more about your options.