Part Three: Wall Mounting Parts - Building the Escutcheon Plate

First I'll start with the escutcheon (Gesundheit!). This is the decorative plate that hides the screws and cuts in the tiles on the wall.
I'll be using the one I created for the decorative toilet handle so that it will match, but I'll show one being made here to be a persistent in the progression of this project.

The first one I made was by using the Loft command with many shaped rings. It failed and made an ugly shape. But I "made lemons from lemonade" and used some of the pieces to make something that looked unique.




When making this escutcheon, start off with actually using the inner and outer circle diameter that will be needed.

In this case, I'd like to use a 1.5" OD pipe.

Tell MoI to make a circle with your inner dimension:




If done before clicking the diameter point with the circle tool - simply type in the diameter.
If needed to be done after making the circle - click on the size description at the top of the side-bar and a dialog will emerge.

Make the outer circle:




I used a diameter of 3.5"

Raise the smaller inner circle up to any height:




Draw a nice side profile shape in a side view with one of the curve tools:




Go to the Top View and rotate it off a little to the side. This will be the edge of one of the detail shapes:




Mirror this curve on center:




Show Points on the original curve, Show Points and manipulate the points to make an interesting shape:
Note that the mirror curve will mimic the points manipulation as part of it's immediate history.




Draw a 3-Point Arc off of the end points at the bottom of the two curves. It should bulge out some.




Make an Arc at the top that matches the curvature of the top circle exactly. Or trim the top circle to get an exact match:
You can make this surface a couple of ways - A Sweep will work. I used a Network because it made the area at the mid-section bow in instead of out.




Circular Array the surface:
Choose enough copies so that there is around the same amount of distance in-between the surfaces.
Choose the center of the circles for the pivot.




Blend a surface between adjacent edges of tho of the detail surfaces:




Since each of the surfaces should be exactly the same - simply Circular Array copy the Blend surface:




All surfaces should Join to one surface. If a part does not, delete it and re-blend that part.




Extrude the bottom ring: Size it a little larger if need be. You only need a planar surface on top of the new cylinder.




Fillet the top edge to make a nice round-over:




I made two lines snapped from the center point and ending snapped to the inner circle created by the fillet.
They should end up close to where the intersecting edges of each smaller body section project to the inner circle.
- You'll see below.




Circular Array copy each set of lines - then run the Trim command with all of the lines and the inner circle:
The lines were put there to cut the inner circle into smaller section curves that will used to Blended to the above surface sections.




Here, I blended the upper body surface section edges to the cut section edges of the side lip of the filleted round-over.
"Drill" select the smaller curve segments on the inner circle and the edge segment curves on each above surface.
Do this all the way around. If you have problems with the sides of the new Blend surface matching, try using Trim to cut the segments into smaller pieces, then try Blend again.




...I did just that when the bottom portion was really two separate segments because of a seam line.
(Worry not - Michael has a better Blend tool in his list where Blend will work across seams and broken separate lines. ;-) )




Everything should Join together into one contiguous surface.




Make the lip for the inner opening to the escutcheon.
Use the Freeform curve tool to make a profile.

I snapped the new curve to the TANgent of the underlying surface's edge.
How did I find a way to snap to the tangent of a surface?
I drew a line along center-X and projected that line to the top of the surface area below, so that when I looked through the Front View port, there was a curve with an endpoint to snap to...




Use Sweep or Revolve to make the lip:




Surprisingly when I went to Join the bottom surface sections to the top lip sweep - everything matched and join into one smooth surface!
It was not this easy when I made the first one. I had to blend sections, cut and everything else to join the matching sections.
This one worked because I made sure the swept surface above was exactly tangent and matching to the underlying surface edge.




Not just revolved or lofted shape, this has some detail. You can add other ridges, floral or leafed patterns, jewels or dots to it as well.

---Next Part: The framework that holds the shower head and other accessories...