Filling in Scallop Cutout

I’m working on legs for a small coffee table, and can’t seem to find a way to fill in the scalloped areas. I would like to be able to fill in the scalloped areas to visualize the final piece. Is there a way to do this?

Scalloped Leg.skp (186.6 KB)

You could stitch the curves together with the Line tool to create the faces.

A different approach from the beginning would probably be easier. How would you create this leg in the shop? Are you going to turn them on the lathe or bandsaw out the corners or just use a spokeshave or something else?

1 Like

Stitching seems simple and would do it, but is there a different approach? I created the square legs, then drew each curve and deleted the material - much like I will with the spokeshave when I make it in the shop.

You could draw a sort of “cutter” to run across the corners and use Intersect Faces. Here’ I drawn the cutter, in orange and positioned it against the leg. It could be copy/rotated to the other corners and then the geometry intersected before erasing the waste. Part of the curved face of the cutter is left behind as the skin of the scalloped edge. At this point stitching might be just as fast for you but when the cutouts get more complex, this method can win the race.

Here’s an example where making a cutter to intersect with the part would definitely be faster than stitching. The lamb’s tongue curves would require a lot of stitching manually.

Here’s another example where making a cutter (shown in gray on the left) and using Intersect Faces will speed things up.

2 Likes

Got it. That’s a great technique. Definitely will up my skill set and practice with that.

Thanks so much!

1 Like

Glad to help.

FWIW, it’s generally a good idea to mark the post that answered your question as the solution in case someone else comes along with the same question.

Got it. Thanks again.

2019-10-17%20(2)

Finally got it. Thanks again Dave.

Good work. Next step is to correct the face orientation so you don’t have the blue back faces on the outside. Open the component for edit, right click on one of the white front faces and choose Orient Faces

1 Like

OK. This may be a simplistic question, but what’s the significance of changing the orientation?

Partly it’s just good housekeeping. Face orientation comes into play with some tools like Push/Pull, and when applying textures. For 3D printing, the face orientation is important because it tells the printer which side is the printing media and which side is air. Printing media on the blue side. If you were ever to get set up to do image rendering, many renderers won’t render back faces even if they are painted with materials. It’s just a good habit to get into keeping face orientation correct on 3D shapes as you go so they don’t create problems or more work for you down the road. It’s one part of keeping your models clean. Clean models are much easier to work with all the way along.

1 Like

Got it. I’ll work on that. Thanks

1 Like

I think I got it.

Here’s the whole project the legs are going into. Joints need some work and there’s a few others to clean-up, but it’s a start (and has been a good intro to SU).

Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.

2 Likes

Here’s a bit of a demo of face orientation. The top one is a solid within a solid and the bottom one is a void within a solid, just by by reversing the face orientation. So because there is a void, trim produces a positive of the void whereas the solid within a solid removes everything.
Void

2 Likes

Good start and good intro to SU indeed.

Regarding the design of your table, how do you plan to join the legs to the aprons? You’ll probably want the aprons to run into the legs instead of the legs running into the aprons as you’ve got it.

1 Like

Likely mortise and tenon, but I’m using the design for visualization. I feel as though I have the rough draft done, and can now go into the joinery and other details

1 Like