Surface Mastery Part 8 - Building Surfaces with 3D Splines | How to Surface Edges and 3D Splines

In this video we are going to build out the lower portion of our Ferrari 308 Fender using only 3D Splines to fill in the gaps. This process can be tricky to control but we will walk through the process and its weak points to prepare you to model your own parts.
If you want to follow along you can download the dataset here: a360.co/3jkLKEx

[@davecoggan9619]

By far the best fusion 360 learning channel I've ever seen. You've helped me progress so much! Have a good Christmas!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Wow, thanks! You too dave!

[@bwilliams1815]

There are so many small details in work flow and selection that you share that makes the difference between success or failure in using Fusion. Thanks for the detail

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Of course! Staying fluid and working in a flexible manner is really the only way to get things done :)

[@sadhucat4476]

Learning so much following along with each video. Also really appreciate the efficiency advice at the end about modelling cars with surfaces vs forms.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Great to hear!

[@TornadoTwins]

Hand-down best tutorials ever. Not just for Fusion360, but the way you explain multiple methods and their up/downsides. Very rare to find someone that can explain like you! Quick question: is there a reason you're using Fit Point Splines in this and not Control Point Splines? Would Control Point Splines be a little easier to select the handles?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Wow, thanks! In general control point splines are much better to use. you get better curvature out of them. I usually use fit point splines IF its just a start/end point. Whenever there are intermediate points needed i generally go to a control point spline. There are some general things you have to think about with one over the other. The main reason you would go with fit point spline is if you needed to snap the point on the spline to something. like construction geometry or another spline that might be a guide rail.

[@teodi2680]

Is it possible to create a curve by projecting/intersecting 3 reference curves at 3 reference angle (top, right, front)?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Um, no? I say that as a question because I am pretty sure the answer is now :) When you create a project/intersect it projects it out normal to the plane it was sketched on and can only be 2 inputs. I can't think of a way you could get and/or control the intersection of 3 curves, but i would guess you would be asking about modeling a curve from the front, top and side of say a blueprint. My rough rule of thumb is to look at the direction of change in the curvature. For example its really hard to model what happens to a wheel arch with just 2 projections because generally after the high point above the wheel you cant see what happens on a blueprint. So a lot of times the front half of a fender will be done from the side and front. While the back half might be done from the side and top.

[@elitesennabubble]

I really like this series, i tried modelling a car in blender but it just wasnt intuitive enough for me. I might have a go again in fusion. I will probably look at doing it with forms

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

I would strongly suggest forms but there are nuances there. Really depends on what the car is. Boxy cars might be a bit easier with traditional method of sketches/surfaces. I have a ferrari 308 series and a Porsche 911 series that walk through the whole thing. Both model the cars in slightly different ways but its a big time investment. The 911 series is 10.5hrs.

[@RaindySuhendra]

can you make this surface to solid body with the thicken feature?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Yup! The one thing you need to be mindful of is the minimum radius on the part. There are certain times when the thicken will have trouble.

[@Ckcdillpickle]

How good is fusion for surface modeling for automotive use? I find that a lot of people use rhino and it seems to do really well. If you look up I believe "electric supercar rhino3d" there's a forum post of a entire car built from the ground up by very talented person. I have a copy of inventor but debated on switching to rhino

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Not great. You can model cars with Forms, which i have loads of videos on here about including 2 full series, but the surface tools and workflow just isn't there. I have modeled cars with inventor, solidworks(surface and forms), fusion and others. If you goal is to model cars then I would point you to a dedicated Class A modeler like Alias. I've heard Rhino is great for this but I haven't had the time to try and model a car with it just yet. Inventor has Freeform like Fusion, but Fusions tools are more complete. Inventor still has some of the same shortcomings with surface modeling like how you build curves, but arguably a better/more complete surface tool set.

[@Ckcdillpickle]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I've tried alias, did not like it. The learning curve was super steep and I could not find much information on it. I used the rhino3d demo and it was really easy and simple but its 1000$ sadly. I def need to watch more of your videos, I've been really struggling on modeling a penta-roof cylinder head

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

@@Ckcdillpickle just let me know if you get stuck on something!

[@Ckcdillpickle]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I've been modeling a engine for fun on inventor and I've started to work on the cylinder heads and its proving to be a pain, cylinder heads are quite complex with all the complex cavities and the chamber itself. I've been struggling with the chamber being a 4 valve pentaroof design, I spent about 6-7 hours trying all kinds of designs for lofts and such but no luck

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

@@Ckcdillpickle Yeah recreating shapes like that can be very tricky. I would start(which you may already have) with defining the spark plug and valve seats floating in space where they need to be. Most of these designs are symmetric so you can work on one half or maybe even one quarter if you are lucky. Which head are you trying to copy?