So I’m trying to design a coffee table for a client and I’m having difficulty working this little problem out. The base of the table is bowl shaped and there will be random polygon shapes made out of steel to achieve this bowl-like shell. Is there any way to remove material along a curve?
ETA: rudimentary sketch
Turn on hidden geometry and you will be able to change each segments material.
Do you want to make it look like these shapes are applied to the surface of the bowl? What is the bowl made of?
I would consider drawing the shapes on the bowl and then use Joint Push/Pull to extrude the faces of the shapes.
i don’t want them to be applied to the surface like an image - more like they make up a skeleton. My best explanation for what I want is to actually tell you the process for making the table. Take a giant bowl and turn it upside down. Weld some 1/4" square bars around the apex of the bowl and heat them up to bend them to the contour of the bowl all while adding different pieces of bar to create different geometric shapes. This is very hard to explain. I’ve done it my head numerous times and the process is easy but I can’t tell my client what it is without a picture, and i’m definitely not going to do the work before it’s approved.
Clear as mud?
I appreciate the quick responses.
Got it, I think. Easier to show than to describe in text but I am not at a computer right now. If someone doesn’t beat me to it, I’ll see if I can get something to show you when I get home.
Thank you so much. I attached a hand sketch to the original post to try and help clarify what my ultimate goal is.
-P.S. take your time, i’m in no real hurry.
Do the 1/4 square rings go round like this?
Ringed bowl.skp (284.1 KB)
Or like lines of longitude instead of latitude?
Or some of each to hold the ‘bowl’ together?
PS. In case you haven’t got v2017, I’ve resaved and uploaded the SKP file as v2015.
Well, you’re sorta on the right track, but not facing the right direction. 
They aren’t rings at all nor are they longitudinal spines. They are random.
They will “sit on the surface” of the bowl like you have them in your drawing, but think more ‘spider web’. I tried to draw a sketch in my original post to indicate the idea.
Thank you for trying though!
PS- i have updated to 2017 PRO
Then how do I interpret
Also bent in random directions, but on the surface of the bowl? Then with other pieces attached to them?
Looking more closely at your original drawing, I begin to see more clearly, I think - there’s a rim, then bent pieces going away from that, but mostly on or near the surface of the bowl shape? Is that more nearly right?
That is correct. the bent pieces create a shell around the bowl shape. when all welded together, there will be much more ‘open space’ than metal spines.
Creating the bowl using the follow me tool is the easy part. it’s creating a random pattern all the way around it and removing whatever isn’t part of the pattern.
ETA: picture a patch of dried up and cracked mud. Now skin the bowl with that image and make the “cracks” where the 1/4" Square bar goes and the “mud” would be deleted.
Well, here’s a start.
I drew lines more or less at random, but have only time for a couple of ‘bent’ pieces.
The lines all start and end on the surface of the bowl. I joined the segments using TIG Weld plugin (FollowMe didn’t want to follow them until I did that, even when I selected all the segments for one piece).
I used FollowMe to make them 1/4" square cross section (more or less).
Haven’t time to do more tonight, but maybe this could get you started?
Ringed bowl.skp (240.2 KB)
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That is exactly what I mean! I’ve never heard of TIGweld plugin so thank you for that.
You’re brilliant!
Thank you so much.
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If you continue in this sort of way, and it works for you, would you shows us the resulting drawing, and maybe a photo of the real object when made?
Happy to!
Here’s the drawing! Thanks for the help you guys!
Looks great. Thanks for posting it!
A very definite ‘WOW!’ Looks great.
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