3D Ripple wall model

Hello,

I am trying to draw a 3d model of a 'ripple wall' (please see attached photo, its the background wall)

It needs to be solid model that I can use for CNC manufacturing. I use Autocad 2007. The wall itself will be 20mm thick.

Im not sure how to go about producing this, ive looked on here for other approaches but am still not sure how to create a smooth transition between the peaks and troughs.

Any comments and ideas would be appreciated.

do you just need that effect or you need to replicate that one exactly?

Most Cam softwares will recognize a surface as well as a solid. I have drawn a few surfaces and Mastercam has picked up on it.

As for your wall i would draw a few sketches and use the loft command to make that.

i would have the left and right sides drawn, straight lines on the edges and some splines in the middle as guides.

A brief tutorial on that process would be just grand.

i went to open MDT right when i posted and my serial # wouldnt work:) If i had something else with loft i certainly would have. I can draw it tomorrow morning at work.

Thanks for this, I thought lofting between the lines would be the way forward, but sometimes when the lines intersect it doesnt work and just crashes my computer.

Its doesnt have to be this exact pattern, just similar. I will also check to see if a surface can be used for the cnc programme.

A tutorial would still be appreciated.

Is this what you are trying to replicate?

http://www.pangu.hk/picture/pic2/MDF-Wave-panel-3017.jpg

Yeah its something pretty similar. Any ideas?

sorry haz, the only computer ive been near all day has acad 06(no loft). ill try to get to one some time today for at least a little while.

At this point, I’m unsure on how that could be created. I was going to as the router guy here, but apparently he is not in today.

Lofting crushes my computer, along with the massive file sizes. So as was mentioned by shift, a mesh surface may be the way to go.

What sort of router do you have?

okay so i did this real quick with no dimmensions but you get the idea. I used 5 cross sections(inventor 10 by the way). and no guide lines. I drew one cross section then copied it to two other planes. I then copied just the bottom and sides(straight lines) to two intermediate planes and drew different tops using another spline. This gave me the 5 cross sections and i just lofted between them.

if you need me to go into more detail let me know.

ps thats a solid and not a surface.

just another note. My cross sections were all very smooth by using a single spline. If you want to add hard edges to some cross sections and soft ones to other this will give you more of the effect you are looking for, but like i said quick and dirty, maybe 5 min drawing.

Thanks for this, I can produce a surface but I dont seem to be able to create a solid shape. This is the surface ive created, which is getting close to what I want.

But when I try to loft between certain elements to create a solid it doesnt work.

Ive tried creating closed shapes and lofting between them but it wont work either....any suggestions?

How was your solid created?

I didnt have the straight lines you do. you wont need them. Ill draw a cross section and show you.

I drew one last night in acad 09 and it worked fine but now in 07 its not working right. very odd. ill have to play with it a bit more.

I basically drew 3 lines and a spline, then converted that to a region. i drew multiples like this and lofted between them and everything was fine and it created a solid. ill see if i can make some time to play with it.

Ive created to regioned shapes from the image before, but it says the 'selected cross section is not a valid type?

How is the "wall" to be manufactured? I assume vacuum forming of a plastic sheet?

Its to be CNC milled from a 12' x 4' 15mm thick mdf board!

i assume that you still haven't figured this out? if not, try this... this is the way that i would do it...

draw the shape pretty much as a pixilated image... draw it with sharp edges and flat faces. i would use cubes/3d triangles, etc. stack them together in a relatively random pattern. just make sure that the base is solid when you are done. "union" them all together. now comes the fun part... figure out a fillet radius and do a 3d fillet on all the sharp edges. i would do the fillets a little at a time to minimize the risk of crashing the system.

another option would be to make some splined poly-lines. make a few of them and randomly place them on the screen, all at the same elevation. make circles on the end, and extrude them along each path. once again, make sure all of your holes are filled in, then fillet the sharp valleys.

the dimensions will probably take some trial-and-error to figure out what works and what doesn't, but that's the way i would go about it. let us know if that works or not.

Later,

Andy

Ive created to regioned shapes from the image before, but it says the 'selected cross section is not a valid type?[ATTACH]9953[/ATTACH]

are you sure that your faces are flat on the UCS? i've run into that issue before when the UCS is not properly aligned.

Later,

Andy

maybe its the difference between 07 and 08-09. 09 let me loft a region using lines and a spline. 07 will only let me do this if the curved line was created using arcs.

try making your "wave" using arcs. Fillet the edges between the arcs, then use pedit to join all the arcs and your 3 straight lines. For some reason 07 doesnt let you loft with a region and im not sure of another way to make a close pline using a spline in 07.