Surface Lofts

Autodesk provides the same options for surface or solid lofts. In this example we will use the Area Loft option. Area Loft allows adjustment to cross-sectional area within a loft.

Create Sketch1

This issues column features surface creation in Autodesk Inventor. We will begin with a design exercise that has been requested in the Autodesk Inventor Discussion Group for many years, and finish with a simple surface model. Hopefully, this will encourage Inventor users to delve into the mysteries of surface modeling when attempting complex solid models.

1. Start a new part file. This exercise is in inches, however, you can adapt this to metric as well. 2. Create a construction circle 10 inches in diameter. Be sure to anchor this to the Origin. This sketch will be used to create additional sketch geometry later.

Taming The Volute

This exercise will utilize various surface modeling methods that may be considered when creating a volute or other self-intersecting shapes.

Definition

A volute is a curved funnel increasing in area to the discharge port. It is often used with impeller pumps. As the area of the crosssection increases, the volute reduces the speed of the liquid and increases the pressure of the liquid.

3. With construction sketch mode still active, Project the YZ and XZ planes.

For this example we will create the casing for a single volute pump. Please note that this simplified example is merely for reference, and does not attempt to create an actual pump housing. More technical information on volute pumps may be found at: http://www.pumpfundamentals.com/pump_glossary.htm other internet and published sources. and

Note: If you pre-select both work planes in the browser, then select Project Geometry, you can create them both in one command. 4. Create construction line segments that will represent the starting and stopping positions for the first loft. The stopping point for the first loft cannot create a surface that self-intersects. In this example, create a line at 48 from horizontal on the upper left quadrant of the circle. Create a second line at 62 from horizontal in the upper right quadrant of the circle. These dimension values are arbitrary and can be adjusted for your own designs.

Problem

Autodesk Inventor and other solid modelers cannot create selfintersecting objects within a loft feature. Now on to a solution using surface modeling with lofts.

Reprint of the article published in The Creative Inventor Magazine Jan/Feb 2011 - Copyright 2011 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.

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Your sketch should now look like this:

Create Work Planes

In this exercise, it will be necessary to create four work planes in order to create the loft profiles required. You will use the Point/ Line method for creating each work plane. Note that Workplane1 and Workplane 3 will be positioned in exactly the same location, but will be created on two different arc segments.

5. Next, turn off construction mode, then create an arc (or spline) that will represent the discharge neck of this volute. Make the arc tangent and starting at the coincident point as shown below. Make sure your Sketch is fully constrained.

Workplane Positions

1. Select the Workplane command then the indicated curve below: 6. Create an arc beginning at the lower endpoint of the arc just created, and ending at the 62 constraint point. Apply a concentric constraint between the new arc and the construction circle. Your sketch should look like this:

, select the point,

7. Construct a third concentric arc between the 62 point and the 48 point. Your sketch should now look like this (red arc represents third arc):

2. Notice that a Workplane has been created on the point and perpendicular to the curve. In many Inventor color schemes, the back face of a Workplane is colored blue, while the Normal side is colored yellow. If this is the case for you, simply right mouse click on the Workplane and select Flip Normal as shown in the following illustration:

8. Finish the sketch, and save your part as Volute - Area Loft1.

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3.

Continue creating workplanes in the following positions:

10. In order to create the first area sweep, you will need to create a 3D sketch. You will use the existing Sketch1 geometry to create the 3D sketch. With no sketches currently active, Right Mouse Click in the graphics area and select New 3-D Sketch.

11. With the 3D sketch active, select the small arc at the top, and the adjoining large arc from Sketch1. This will create a spline curve that will form the basis of our first loft path. Finish the 3-D sketch.

4. Right Mouse Click on Workplane1 in the browser window and select Create Sketch:

Note: Work Features do not need to be shown as visible in order to be selected. 5. With this sketch active, project the center point from the endpoint of the curve. This permits anchoring of the sketch geometry. Create a 3.25 inch circle at the origin and fully dimension and constrain. Finish the sketch. 6. Repeat Step 4, selecting Workplane2 from the browser window. With this sketch active, project the center point from the endpoint of the curve. This permits anchoring of the sketch geometry. Create a 2.5 inch circle at the origin and fully dimension and constrain. Finish the sketch. 7. Repeat Step 4, selecting Workplane3 from the browser window. With this sketch active, project the center point from the endpoint of the curve. This permits anchoring of the sketch geometry. Create a 2.125 inch circle at the origin and fully dimension and constrain. Finish the sketch. 8. Repeat Step 4, selecting Workplane4 from the browser window. With this sketch active, project the center point from the endpoint of the curve. This permits anchoring of the sketch geometry. Create a 4.25 inch circle at the origin and fully dimension and constrain. Finish the sketch. 9. In the browser, turn off Sketch4. Initially we will work with sketches 1,2 and 5.

12. Select the Loft command. In the Loft Dialog, set the Output to Surface, Loft Type to Area Loft, then select the sketches in the order shown below. Finally, select 3D Sketch1 for the Center Line. When properly done, you should see a preview of the loft.

Reprint of the article published in The Creative Inventor Magazine Jan/Feb 2011 - Copyright 2011 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.

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Your surface lofts are now complete. You can now turn off all visible sketches and save your file again. We are ready to proceed to the next step.

Trimming and Stitching of Surfaces

In order to turn this surface model into a solid, we will need to first trim off extra surface geometry, and to open up a face where the second loft connects with the main surface body. 1. Activate the Trim command. Select the Cutting Tool (Loft1) then Remove the portion of Loft2 that resides within the main tube. Pick OK.

The first loft is now complete. You will now need to create a second loft that will intersect the first. Because Inventor does not allow self intersecting features, the second loft is completely separate from the first. To prepare for this next step, turn LoftSrf1 visibility to off. This will make it easier to select the needed geometry. Alternatively, you may change Selection Priority to Select Sketch Features. 2. Using the Split Face command, select the Loft 2 feature as the Split Tool, then select the face of the Loft1 feature. Pick OK to split the face of Loft1.

13. Create a new 3D sketch. With the 3D sketch active, select the middle arc at the top from Sketch1. This will create a spline curve that will form the basis of the next loft path. Finish the 3-D sketch. 14. Launch the Loft command once again, using the same settings in the dialog box. Pay special attention to the selection order for the sections in the box below: 3. Using the Delete Face command, delete the small face on Loft1 that was created in step 2.

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Reprint of the article published in The Creative Inventor Magazine Jan/Feb 2011 - Copyright 2011 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.

4. Use the Surfaces >> Stitch tool to stitch Loft1 and Loft2 together into one surface quilt.

Heres the result of the cut: 5. Using the Offset/Thicken tool, thicken all surfaces outward to any thickness of 0.25 inches.

The Volute portion of this design is now complete. Save the file.

Make the Flange

The next challenge in this exercise will be to create a solid flange on the side of the volute. In order to create this flange, an offset workplane will need to be created. Create an Offset Workplane 2.5 inches in the positive Z direction, based of the Origin XY Plane.

Extend the Neck

The neck of the resulting part is too close to the Volute curve. As a result, it will be impossible to create fillets at the end of the modeling exercise. Edit Sketch1 to change the dimensions to the values shown in the next image.

Make the Cut

The next step will be to create an Extrude Cut through the center of the volute. Well use the original shared Sketch1 for this purpose. Use the 10 inch circle with the All Extents option selected as shown in the next image.
Reprint of the article published in The Creative Inventor Magazine Jan/Feb 2011 - Copyright 2011 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.

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Create a Sketch on the workplane created in the last step. Then Project the inner edge formed by the Extrude-Cut. Once the edge is projected, create a larger, centerpoint anchored circle with the dimension as shown below:

Using The Extrude >> Surface option, select the inside circle in the sketch as shown below, extending the surface past the inside edge. The red arrows denote the surface extending past the edge. Set the Extents option to a Distance of 2 inches for this example.

Would a Solid Extrusion work?

Since we have already converted the volute to a solid, logic tells us that we should easily create the flange as a solid feature. Lets give it a try. Extrude the portion between the sketch lines made in the previous step. The To Next Extents option seems like a logical choice. Heres the result: Using the Trim command, select the same inner edge as the Cutting Tool, and select the inside of the surface that you wish to cut:

The error is displayed because the terminating geometry is just too complex. You may try the other Extents options, but it just will not work for you. So, how do we fix this?

Surface Modeling to the Rescue.

Extruded surfaces are the key to creating the flange on this model. Please note that every model has characteristics that are different, and as a result, you must be able to apply the right feature to each challenge. One of the biggest differences between Solid and Surface modeling is the ability to easily trim surfaces back to edges or faces. We will have used this ability many times in this model.

With the trim completed, follow with another Extrude - Surface command. Using The Extrude >> Surface option, select the outer circle in the sketch as shown by the red arrow below, extending the surface past the inside edge. The other red arrow shows the surface extending past the edge. Set the Extents option to a Distance of 3 inches for this example. This extended distance makes it easier to select the extruded surface for trimming.

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Reprint of the article published in The Creative Inventor Magazine Jan/Feb 2011 - Copyright 2011 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.

Verify the Trim

You can easily make sure that the trim completed correctly by simply hovering the cursor over the surface just trimmed. Your result should look like this:

In this step, we will use the outer faces of the housing to perform the trim. Before doing the next trim, lets turn the Visibility off on the sketch used to create these two extruded surfaces. This will make it easier to create this trim.

The Boundary Command

At this point, we have two open surfaces that cannot be closed to make a watertight surface. Unless these surfaces are closed, they cannot become a solid feature. The Boundary command (also known as a boundary patch) creates a surface by selecting one or more edges. In this exercise, its a simple task to select the outer surface edges as show below: In the Trim command, use Ctrl-Select to select the two outer faces as the Cutting Tool for this step. Holding down the Ctrl key wile selecting allows multiple selections in commands where available.

Note:

Once the Cutting Tool faces have been selected, pick on the second surface on the inside of the housing cavity. The selected side will be removed.

This next step is not really necessary for this model. However for surfacing other models it will come in handy. We could directly move to the Sculpt command to create the solid flange. However, using the stitch command first will verify that we have properly selected all unattached surfaces. Continued - Next Page

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If we miss one or more of the three surfaces just created, it will be shown outside the stitch feature as shown below:

In the Scupt command, first select the main Volute body, then the Stitched quilt. Because this Solid was created from surfaces, the original surface will hightlight.

The Stitch Command

We used the Stitch command command previously to join the two surface lofts for the Volute together before thickening. This time, the command will be used to join the three surfaces comprising the flange together as one quilt. You will note that if you have created the surface geometry correctly, then the Maximum Tolerance setting is very accurate. If there are gaps in the resulting quilt, then the model will not be watertight for the next step.

When adding a Sculpt feature to a part originally created as a solid, Inventor will automatically recognize and pre-select the solid. The final result is shown below:

The Sculpt Command

The Sculpt command has several options for creating geometry. In the image below, you can see the options for Join, Subtract, and New Solid. We will use the Join option.

At this point, you may turn off the visibility of the original surfaces.

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Reprint of the article published in The Creative Inventor Magazine Jan/Feb 2011 - Copyright 2011 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.

Mirror The Flange

This next step is simple. Because we built the model around the XY Origin plane, we can use that plane to mirror the Sculped flange to the other side:

Why? Because, many times when building a complex model, Editing the model as completed will result in failed features when your software fails to do sequential feature by feature rebuilds. Once the first fillet is complete, add the 0.35 in radius fillets on the flanges, on each side of the Volute body. You will note in the image below that my model selected 6 edges when only two were picked:

Assuming that you extended the neck of the Volute to the dimensions shown at the top right of Page 21, you will be able to place a 0.5 in fillet across the top of the neck as shown below:

Heres the resulting surfaces. By creating the fillet across the neck first, the side edges were chained together.

If this fails, drag the EOP (End of Part) marker to the position just below the Volute surface before changing those values.

Continued - Next Page

Reprint of the article published in The Creative Inventor Magazine Jan/Feb 2011 - Copyright 2011 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.

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Adding the threaded holes on the flanges are easy. Simply position and create the first hole (I used 3/8-16 UNC, 0.5 in deep), as a Sketch place feature:

About the Author:

Dennis Jeffrey is the original founding author of Mastering Inventor 2009. Expert user, courseware developer, and trainer/tech support on Autodesk products for 25 years. He is the editor and publisher of The Creative Inventor Magazine.

Dennis is CTO/Operating Manager of Tekni Consulting LLC in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The has taught at Autodesk University since the 1990s He has been a Manufacturing Instructor and Power Track speaker at AU for 11+ years. He has been a member of the Fort Wayne area AMUG and DRAW user groups since 1987. He is celebrating 45+ years of mechanical design and manufacturing experience. He is also a member of SME and has spoken at numerous SME events. Dennis may be contacted at: djeffrey@teknigroup.com.

Want To Learn More About Surface Modeling?

Advanced Inventor Surfacing Class
Instructor: Dennis Jeffrey

Dates:

March 11, 12th, 2011 9am - 5pm, Eastern (US) May 13, 14th, 2011 9am - 5pm, Eastern (US)

Location:

Available in Fort Wayne Classroom or via Live Web Meeting

Maximum Students Per Class: 8

Pattern the hole feature. I used 16 instances /360 degrees.

Fully Mentored course: 90 days mentoring support after end of class. Free retake guarantee.

Prerequisites:

Inventor Level I trainingivalent experience. High level competency with work features (workplanes, work axes, workpoints.

Courseware:

Creative Design With Autodesk Inventor - Advanced Surfacing, Exercises.

Cost: $895.00 USD per person. Registration and Payment Deadline: 7 Days before
start of class. Payment by check or Credit/Debit Cards
Finish the part by Mirroring the holes to the other flange. Ill leave it up to you to create a bolted flange on the top of the Volute. This tutorial is part of an Advanced Surfacing class taught by Dennis Jeffrey. The next class is scheduled for Early March, 2011. See the next panel on this page for more information.

Call Tekni at: 260-338-4561 for more information.

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Reprint of the article published in The Creative Inventor Magazine Jan/Feb 2011 - Copyright 2011 by Tekni Consulting LLC on behalf of the Author.