In this chapter, we’ll work in the Sculpt workspace and take a couple of short detours through the Patch and Mesh workspaces to make some organic-shaped chairs and a vase.

Tall-Back Chair

Click the Create Form icon to enter the Sculpt workspace and then choose Create → Box (Figure 7-1). Make a box equally sized on all axes (Figure 7-2).

Edit Form

Select two faces on the top, as shown in Figure 7-3. Right-click, and then choose Subdivide. The two faces will turn into eight (Figure 7-4).

Select the edge faces, right-click, and choose Edit Form. A widget will appear; pull the selected faces up. Then select the seat, right-click, and choose Edit Form. Push the face down (Figure 7-5).

Select and right-click the seat edge shown in Figure 7-6 and choose Insert Edge. Drag the handle to place the new edge below the original one and click OK. The chair’s shape will change a bit (Figure 7-7).

Bevel and Crease

Finesse the chair’s shape. Select an edge on the back and bevel it (Figure 7-8).

Then select an edge where the seat and back meet, right-click, and choose Crease (Figure 7-9). That will put a hard edge there instead of a rounded one (Figure 7-10).

Short-Back Chair

Enter the Sculpt workspace and choose Create → Box, and then make a box equally sized on all axes (Figure 7-11). Then enter the Patch workspace (Figure 7-12). The subdivisions on the box will disappear.

Delete Faces

Select the two adjacent faces shown in Figure 7-13 and press Delete.

Thicken Faces and Round the Edges

Select any remaining face, right-click, and choose Thicken. Then drag the arrow or type a specific thickness (Figure 7-14). To round the edges, press and hold the Shift key and select the ones shown in Figure 7-15. Right-click, choose Fillet, and type or drag a fillet radius.

Change Proportions

Let’s change this chair’s proportions. Drag a selection window around it. Click Modify → Scale, and set the dropdown arrow in the dialog box to Non Uniform (Figure 7-16). Then push the z-axis arrow down (Figure 7-17).

Vase

Enter the Sculpt workspace and choose Create→ Cylinder; then make a tall cylinder. Double-click an edge at the bottom to select the whole ring (Figure 7-18). Right-click one of the selected edges, choose Edit Form, and drag the ring out with the manipulator’s center button to deform it (Figure 7-19).

Fill and Straighten the Bottom

Double-click an edge on the bottom of the cylinder to select the whole ring. Then click Modify → Fill Hole (Figure 7-20). The hole will close. The bottom will be rounded, so click Modify → Crease to make it flat (Figure 7-21).

Attach an STL File to the Vase

Let’s jazz this vase up with an imported STL file of a face. Figure 7-22 shows a file I downloaded from thingiverse.com. Enter the Model workspace and click Insert → Insert Mesh (Figure 7-23). Use the manipulators to position it as shown in Figure 7-24. Scale it down if needed by selecting it and clicking Modify → Scale.

Reduce the STL File’s Polygon Count

The face file has a very large number of polygons, as you can see from the dense mesh. This means the Mesh to BRep conversion tool won’t work, so the file can’t be edited. To make the polygon count smaller, enter the Mesh workspace, if Fusion didn’t already default to it when you inserted the file (Figure 7-25). If the Mesh workspace doesn’t appear, you might have to enable it in the Preferences menu.

Select the face through its Browser entry and then click Modify → Reduce. A dialog box will appear (Figure 7-26).

The dropdown menus offer adaptive (preserves the shape) or uniform (removes polygons uniformly) options. You can also adjust density, face count, and tolerance—all three, not just one. I changed the density, which controls how close the changed polygon edges are to the original edges. The smaller the number you enter, the less dense the file will be. I typed .10; Figure 7-27 shows the result.

Optional: Convert to BRep

You can edit the file in the Mesh menu or you can convert it to a solid file to edit it in the Model workspace. It just depends on the kind of edits you want to do. To alter it as a solid, select it, right-click, and choose Mesh to BRep. If the file has a low enough polygon count and has no flaws, it will convert (Figure 7-28). You might get a message saying it will take a while; click and in a few minutes you should have your result.

Thicken in Model Space

Thicken the vase now. Thickening it in the Model (parametric) workspace enables you to edit it later. Select both the bottom and one side face (press and hold Shift), right-click, and choose Thicken. Then drag the arrow or type a number (Figure 7-29). In this case, I thickened it enough to cover the portion of the face that protruded through the vase’s interior.

Repair Flaws

Whether the face file is kept as a mesh or converted to solid, it, like most meshes, typically needs some repair to be 3D-printable. One program might fix it, or you might have to fix it with multiple programs.

In this case, I converted the face file to a solid with the Mesh to BRep tool. Then I exported the whole vase as an STL file and imported that STL file into Autodesk Meshmixer (meshmixer.com). There, I ran the Inspector tool. It found multiple flaws and fixed all but one (Figure 7-30). I exported it as an STL file from Meshmixer and imported it into Tinkercad (tinkercad.com), an Autodesk web app that automatically fixes STL files upon import (Figure 7-31). Then I exported an STL file from Tinkercad and reimported it into Meshmixer to make sure it was fixed. That flaw was indeed fixed, but Tinkercad added a few more flaws! Meshmixer was able to fix those, however, and I exported it as an STL. Finally, I sliced that STL with MakerBot software and printed it on a MakerBot Replicator 2 with Hatchbox filament (Figure 7-32).