Hi all, new to the forum and Shapr3D. I come from the 2D world (ie. Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Affinity Designer, etc.). Ergo, I do all my sketches in these programs, export to DXF and import to my project - works well and saves me a lot of time (frankly, don’t find Shapr’s sketching tools that good TBH)! Anyways, I’m designing a solid body, electric guitar to CNC. I wish to create tapered, chamfered contours on the front face of the body (see screenshot - areas to be contoured/chamfered are visible via the outlined areas in orange). Can anyone share with me what the best tool is to do this, or combination of tools and their order? Many thanks in advance!
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See your contour lines? Create a plane on the point of each of the line. Then sketch a “cutting shape” to sweep along the lines on the plane. Like a cutting tool.
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Similar to this but instead of adding your cutting away with the sweep. Same principle.
I think I understand. Note: the depth of the chamfer at the midway point between the two tapered ends, will end up being deeper than where they will be at the tapered ends. Does this change anything you’ve suggested?
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Here is a screen shot of a similar “cutaway” on a guitar I wish to recreate as a visual reference. Not sure if this changes how you suggest to go about it.
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You could shave that part by sketching combined with loft to subtract/shave out of the guitar body.
Think more like creating distorted oval saucer and using it to subtract.
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Something else to look at. (I’d turn off the sound if I were you.)
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I had thought of this, in fact, I did something similar on another design and used a “globe” to subtract a tummy cut contour on the back side and it worked fairly well. The problem with this method, however, I think, is it won’t work on the “forearm” contour over the top edge of the guitar body. But, I could be very mistaken.
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Funny you should reference this, I found this video a while back and used it to do “forearm” and tummy" cut contours on an old design I did. But since then, Shapr3D has changed their menus/commands/tools and this can no longer be done this way (shame!). It appears now that when you radius or chamfer the edge of the guitar (where the top and side faces meet), the whole perimeter (chain) gets chamfered/radius’d. Where in this video, if I’m not mistaken, the ‘chain’ is limited to the immediate area he is filleting and does nothing prior to limit this.
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Yeah, I can see how that would work. But again, I can’t see how subtraction from a sketched element applied to the body can do the “forearm” contour. That said I will certainly try to use this method on the cutaways for the top and bottom horns of the guitar . . . . at least that would be done.
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Not sure I follow. I’ll play with it and see what happens.
This might be more clear.
Guided Loft
On the right you see I didn’t complete, it’s because it gets little bit more complex and require more work, it can be accomplished by dividing it until it lofts.
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Sorry, don’t get it. While I understand the “lofts” tool is critical here, my challenge is having worked so long in 2D it’s actually making it harder for me to grasp tools, purpose and functionality. Nonetheless, I’ll keep at it. For what it’s worth, I did manage the cutways on the upper and lower horns of the guitar. I created an elipse body, moved them into place and used the subtract function. While not perfect, I think it is good enough . . . . it’ll just mean a little sanding to properly transition from those cutaways to the adjoining edges and radius.
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So the method I described, the loft in your case will seem very awkward. It is because we are missing a feature called VARIABLE FILLET.
The process would be very easy and quick to do if we had it.
Fillet each end very small and bulge the middle.
If you don’t want smooth curvature you can delete it and loft the surface (which is another missing feature, no surface tools) and include a inner bulge.
Inner Bulge
The variable fillet with surface tools would have helped you on those 2 other horns as well, with no sharp edges to sand.
I’m not an expert in guitars, so I don’t fully understand what exactly the “forearm contour” is. I was just showing how to create a beveled cut based on the reference photo.
In my example, it’s not a subtraction from a sketch — maybe the angle I used doesn’t show it well.
To achieve this result, I subtracted another body from the guitar body.
If you’re talking about this cut
Then it can be made using Sweep & Cut, as suggested above.
These are very rough examples that need refinement, and the suggestions above should definitely be taken into account.
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