Click here to open in full window

•  A tutorial to demonstrate advanced concepts.
  • The advanced 3D drawing contains:
    • Draw an Intersecting Plane with Extrude and Resizing Handles
    • Contour Line
    • Slice by Custom Plane
    • Vector Convert
    • Preset Sticky handles
    • Divide Arc with Tickmarks
    • Duplicate and place with Handles

•  Step 1
  • Start by creating a 3D Cone that fits your window with plenty of room to unfold it.
    • Actual dimensions are unimportant. I used the same cone from Unfold Simple Cone.
    • Determining the lengths is done the same, but should be done AFTER the Slice operation. (Add the 2 sliced line segments together)
  • See the next steps to create the 'Slice Plane'

•  Step 2
  • In Side View first put your cursor on the point of the cone and hit the Comma key. (Gravity Move)
    • This will position your cursor at the Z value of the center of the cone without setting a point.
  • Draw a Vector intersecting the cone.
    • For precision you could use Point Control or Point Polar to set Angle and Position of this line, not necessary for this example.

•  Step 3
  • In Top View select the Vector and hit 'X'.
  • Have Ortho ON. (hotkey 'H')
  • Gravity Snap to one end of the Vector and then set a 2nd point straight up.
  • Hit ENTER.

•  Step 4
  • In Top View select resizing Handles and then drag the lower handle straight down till the Plane is exceeding the Cone extents.
  • Back in the Main 3D window you can now use Contour Line (OR Surface Intersection) to project the Angled Ellipse on the cone.
    • See result in Step 1.
  • Then use Solid->Slice with Custom Plane to slice the Cone.
    • For Contour Line and Slice just Snap to 3 corners of the Plane.
    • Hit ENTER.

• Step 2
  • Select the lower part of the Cone and use Vector Convert to break it into Vectors.
  • Go back to Top View window.
    • I numbered the Vectors for reference.

•  Step 3
  • In OPTIONS, the item Enable Stick Handles needs to be ON.
    • This lets the handles stay active even after you unselect an object.
  • Now select each Vector and set Handles at the Bottom first and a 2nd Handle at the Cone Peak (where the 1 is)
    • We want the handles to be the TOTAL length of the cone.

•  Step 4
  • Next to the Cone in Top View created the flat pattern Arc with the same procedure as before.
  • I add Tickmarks defining 12 sections and a Pointmark at the Radius Point.
    • The Tickmarks can be a little tricky in 3D, you can switch to 2D and set the plane to YZ in OPTIONS to make this easier.

•  Step 5
  • Starting with the longest Vector (# 1 in the numbered example) duplicate each one in turn between a Tickmark and the Pointmark.

•  Step 6
  • The last Vector (# 13) is # 1 used again.
  • Delete the Pointmarks.

•  Step 7
  • Draw a Curve (Hotkey 'C') along the top ends of the Vectors.
    • Move your cursor close to each end and hit the Period key for each point. Should take about 5 seconds to do.
  • Rate this Tutorial!