Hi Michael

I'm sorry but I'm struggling here with the cplane as I can't seem to get my head around it. I've watched that short tutorial about array and cplane and have followed what i've seen but still can't seem to get the groves to flow around the object correctly. Can you point me in the right direction here. Have a quick look at the file i've uploaded and see if there is anything else that may be giving me grief.

Thanks again for your help

Lang

Hi Michael

Sorry just seen yours and BurrMans advice and your probably right it may be that the conical shape isn't actually symmetrical, I'll check it out.

Thanks guys

Lang

Hi Lang,

> Have a quick look at the file i've uploaded and see if there
> is anything else that may be giving me grief.

The part that's giving you grief is that your object is a kind of slightly squished semi approximation of a cone and not an exact cone, so you're not getting things that would help a lot like a "Cen" object snap - since it's only something resembling a circle at the end there and not an actual circle you don't get the center snap that would help you out the most in this case.

I'd recommend reconstructing that part of your object to be more exact - try setting the cplane on the attached file here where I've created an exact cone, you should notice that it's a lot more straightforward here, you can just snap directly on to the center of the end cap.

Actually setting a cplane would not actually help you out very much in your particular case on the "only kind of resembles a cone" anyway since a simple circular array only works for a cone shape not something kind of squished.

I had originally assumed that your object there that looked like a cone was actually a cone, so that's what drove some of my initial comments.

- Michael

It may be easiest for you to just create an initial cone and also replicate the fin piece how you want it all aligned to the world axes and then rotate that whole thing into place.

You can also construct it directly in place by setting a cplane as well though. If you wanted to that you'd probably draw in an axis line for the central line and then set the cplane to the base of that line - that will align the cplane's z axis with that line so that after that you will be drawing in that slanted orientation directly.

- Michael

> You may need to use the Flow command to map a flattened plane with objects on it onto your slanted surface.


I personally would see about using Flow get what you want.

Lang, there are going to be times when the part of a bottle or some object needs that kind of detail yet the surface is not perfect, as in completely flat or circular.

Flow will allow you to place your cutting or detail objects in a very approximate positions - and forget about that accurate cone shape.
If you can isolate the surface that makes up just that cone shape area, You may want to use the Rebuild command with the "Refit" option to make a more smoother-flowing surface for Flowing.


Ultimately, when it comes down to pre-planning a work-flow for solid modeling. You might be best served initially creating the cone/cap area with a series of Lofts. Starting with a circle and transitioning to a series of spoked shaped rings. This way, you can build exactly what you want.

In this particular case you can also use the Array / Circular ;)

Hi Pilou,

> In this particular case you can also use the Array / Circular ;)

I believe you can using a Bisector curve to get the CPlane on the correct angle to the nozzle.

-