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Surface modeling a spoon

An outline, a side profile and cross sections, a patch over the bowl and a lofted handle, stitched and thickened into a solid.

8:34 · English narration, subtitles in English and Polish · Watch on YouTube

Step by step

Exactly what the narrator says, chapter by chapter. Click the time next to a chapter to jump the video there.

0:00 Introduction

  1. In this tutorial we model a spoon from surfaces in Foremka.
  2. We sketch the outline from the top and the profile from the side, add two cross sections and span a patch over the bowl.
  3. A loft along the side profile makes the handle. Then we stitch, trim and thicken the surfaces into a solid spoon.

0:26 Top profile: construction circles

  1. Start a sketch on the XZ plane, the view from the top.
  2. Zoom out and pan the view so that the whole spoon will fit.
  3. Turn on construction lines and draw a line from the origin along X. Type 190 for its length.
  4. Construction circles lay out the shape. With the two-point circle, draw a 21.6 and a 43.2 millimetre circle from the origin.
  5. A second 43.2 millimetre circle starts at the centre of the first one.
  6. For the neck, a 10.8 millimetre circle on the line, tangent to the big circle. At the end of the line, a 16.8 millimetre circle.

1:25 Arcs of the outline

  1. Turn construction off. A three-point arc runs from the small circle to the top of the big one.
  2. Make it tangent to both circles and give it a radius of 50 millimetres.
  3. A centre-point arc follows the big circle from the neck up to the arc.

1:58 Handle edge, fillet and mirror

  1. From its lower end, draw the edge of the handle to the end circle, and make it tangent to the neck circle.
  2. Round the corner at the neck with a 6 millimetre fillet.
  3. Mirror the arcs and the line across the construction line.

2:34 Closing the outline

  1. Close the tip with an arc on the small circle, and the end of the handle with an arc on the end circle.
  2. Close the bowl with a centre-point arc on the big circle, from one fillet to the other. It bulges toward the handle, so there is no straight seam at the neck. Finish the sketch.

3:05 Side profile

  1. Now the side profile. Start a sketch on the XY plane, the view from the front.
  2. Turn on construction lines and look at the model from an angle, so the top profile is visible. Draw a line from the origin and drag its end to the tip of the arc that closes the bowl; it snaps there.
  3. Look at the sketch from the front again and turn construction off. A three-point arc from the origin to the end of this line forms the bottom of the bowl. Set its radius to 55 millimetres.
  4. From the end of the bottom, a tangent arc turns upward, and a tangent line continues to the end of the handle.
  5. The tangent arc gets a radius of 40 millimetres, and the end of the handle sits 200 millimetres along and 30 up.
  6. The profile is fully constrained. Finish the sketch.

4:36 Cross sections

  1. Cross sections give the bowl its shape. Add a construction plane 43.2 millimetres from the YZ plane.
  2. Sketch on it. Intersect marks where the outline and the side profile pass through the plane.
  3. A three-point arc through these three points is the middle cross section.
  4. Repeat it 21.6 millimetres from YZ, closer to the tip.

5:57 Bowl patch

  1. Switch to the Surface tab and choose Patch.
  2. For the boundary, click the outline of the bowl; chaining picks the connected curves. Add the arc that closes the bowl.
  3. As interior rails, turn chaining off and pick the side profile and both cross sections.
  4. The patch follows all three curves. Click OK.

6:28 Handle loft

  1. Show the top and side profiles again, and add a plane 200 millimetres from YZ, at the end of the handle.
  2. Sketch on it. Intersect gives the end of the side profile; draw a line across, wider than the handle, through that point.
  3. Choose Loft. The profiles are the arc that closes the bowl and the new line at the end of the handle.
  4. Under Centerline, pick the side profile. The loft follows its curve between the two profiles.

7:34 Stitch and trim

  1. Stitch the bowl and the handle into one surface.
  2. Trim: click the bowl to keep it, then pick the edge of the handle in the top profile as the trimming tool. The chain includes the fillets at the neck.

7:53 Thicken

  1. Thicken: click the bowl and the handle, and flip the side, so the 2 millimetres go inward and the outside keeps the shape of the sketches.

8:04 The finished spoon

  1. Hide the sketches and planes. The spoon is ready.
  2. One last look around the finished spoon.

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