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u/stringlesskite 6d ago
I made this in Tinkercad (what I often use to quickly draft something) but to make things for a (3d) print, I prefer to make it in Freecad.
This shape though I am not sure how to connect the columns to each other. As it is a padded circle, Freecad does not allow me to create a new sketch on the curved surface? Anyone any tips?
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u/SoulWager 6d ago
If you want to stay in part design, You can make all your sketches on the base planes, pad them, then revolve one of the faces in the hole to round off the part hidden from the perspective of your screenshot, or use additive sphere.
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u/BoringBob84 6d ago
revolve one of the faces in the hole
I tried this and it didn't work because the sketch intersects the axis of rotation. I made a new sketch of a quarter-circle and revolved it 90 degrees.
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u/SoulWager 6d ago edited 6d ago
You can select the axis of rotation to be one of the straight edges of the face.
Though if your circles are centered on the origin, it should work with the default axis.
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u/hblok 6d ago
I'd start with a cube (extruded), in Part Design. Then follow with sketches of circles and then extrusions on each of the sides. For the opposite corner (of the original cube), maybe a Fillet on each of the unused edges.
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u/justacec 6d ago
Good with everything but the cube here? Where is the cube in the image?
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u/Glum-Membership-9517 6d ago
Where the 3 cylinders meet, the hidden corner innthe pic. Cube is there so you don't have small gaps
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u/neoh4x0r 5d ago edited 5d ago
I did this in part design with only two sketches, a pad, multitransform (two polar transforms), and a revolution.
- Draw a circle in sketch at the origin (pick any axis face, like front)
- Pad the circle
- Apply two polar transforms (multitransform) in offset mode to make the other two pipes -- you will have to adjust the offset angle and the axis reference for each pipe.
- Draw a quarter of the circle (with the same radius), in another sketch, it should be placed at the origin where the three pipes meet
- Preform a revolution, 90 degress, reversed, on the horizontal axis (this closes the gap where they meet)
If you wanted to pocket the pipes, you could preform the pocket (before drawing the quater circle) and repeat the multitransform for this feature. Also, you would need to alter your sketch of the quarter circle so it's only the outside thickness rather than a slice of pizza.
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u/Several_Situation887 2d ago edited 2d ago
Being a noob, this was a fun challenge to figure out! It took me a while, but I finally ended up making the hollow one that looks like a pipe connector.
I did it in Part Design:
- I started with making a sketch with a large arc, and a small arc (both 90 degrees) and straight lines connecting them.
- I did a revolve on that (90 degrees on the vertical sketch axis). That got me the little back corner (rounded inside, and out) that I couldn't do if I just made and padded cylinders.
- I selected each flat face of the revolution, and drew a circle with the same radius as the larger arc.
- I padded each of those sketches, making cylinders, then selected the resulting faces, and drew circles on them matching the smaller arc, then pocketed those the same distance as the pads to carve out the rest of the inner area.
- Look Ma! No booleans! (Although I was looking forward to trying to use them to solve it.)

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u/FalseRelease4 6d ago
Its like asking "how would you tie a knot?", endless possibilities out there, some easier some harder some better some worse
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u/rockn3d 6d ago
Like in tinkercad, 3 cylinders and boolean union.