kahnbarsst Posted July 11, 2011 Posted July 11, 2011 I'm trying out AutoCad to see how easy it is to work with (previously I have used infinidi but it can't do what I want) to try and evaluate whether it's worth buying what I'm after is to take a design I've made in Illustrator: and turn it into a cylinder: but instead of applying the pattern as a surface, have it with depth. Is this an easy thing to do? And if it is could someone tell me how to go about it. A quick read of the help pages has yielded nothing so far... Quote
kencaz Posted July 11, 2011 Posted July 11, 2011 If your wanting to actually cut the flat bar with the pattern then it would be much easier on the flattened/unrolled cylinder. AutoCAD is not well suited for this. But it would be possible with a lot of work. Autodesk Inventor, however, could make this part in a few minutes and also give you rolled and unrolled patterns. KC Quote
kahnbarsst Posted July 11, 2011 Author Posted July 11, 2011 no, i'm wanting to make a casting of the cylinder, not a flat bar to be rolled. Interesting to hear it's beyond AutoCad - hence the evaluation! will look into Inventor is it available for mac? Quote
JD Mather Posted July 11, 2011 Posted July 11, 2011 no, i'm wanting to make a casting of the cylinder, .... will look into Inventor is it available for mac? Emboss with Wrap (to cylinder) in Autodesk Inventor will give you the geometry you are after. It will not run in Mac OS, you will need a Windows OS on your Mac. Quote
SEANT Posted July 11, 2011 Posted July 11, 2011 . . . . Interesting to hear it's beyond AutoCad . . . . I’m not sure anyone actually said that. But, neither am I sure about what is or isn’t easy to accomplish in the mac version of AutoCAD. Perhaps post an example of your geometry: The forum may offer a few tips and tricks that keep AutoCAD in the running. Quote
kencaz Posted July 12, 2011 Posted July 12, 2011 Well, You can take a pattern and using a polar array give a pretty good representation of a revolved pattern. With more time you can get some pretty good results. A 3D printer may give you a good mold pattern for your casting, however, You could still cast maybe (2) straight ring halves and roll them. The later may save you a lot of time... KC Quote
SEANT Posted July 12, 2011 Posted July 12, 2011 Well, You can take a pattern and using a polar array give a pretty good representation of a revolved pattern. With more time you can get some pretty good results. A 3D printer may give you a good mold pattern for your casting, however, You could still cast maybe (2) straight ring halves and roll them. The later may save you a lot of time... KC That looks like a good method. If “AutoCAD mac” has any 3d capabilities, that should be part of the arsenal. Here is the work of a prototype add-on. I had to keep the relief rather coarse to stay within the file size limit. I doubt, though, that the .NET code would work in the mac version. Relief.zip Quote
SLW210 Posted July 12, 2011 Posted July 12, 2011 How long did it take you to learn Illustrator? This is by no means BEYOND AutoCAD, but the more modern Inventor/Solidworks or similar would be best suited, though with any of these programs expect there to be a learning curve. You will probably have to give up your MAC. There are some 3D programs for MAC, I would have no idea if they are suited for this. You could try some MAC forums and see what they can offer. Quote
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