From the course: Surfacing an F1 Wheel In Alias

Creating the split-line footprint - Alias Tutorial

From the course: Surfacing an F1 Wheel In Alias

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Creating the split-line footprint

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- At this stage now I want to cut a section right through the center line of this component to determine the footprint. Now the footprint really is the outside profile of the silhouette line of this particular F1 wheel, and in this case you can see on this layer that I've actually created something and it's called a zed section. Now if I put the Mesh back on I'm going to show you very quickly how to do this. So with the mesh transparency turned to this level here, you'll notice that the actual component has been set on zed zero, This is our zed zero plane here and we need to set a plane that cutting right the way through this handle. We're going to have a draft going vertically from this point and also down from this point. So this is going to be on a split line. And because this has been set exactly at zed zero, it's very easy to set a plane up here. All we have to do is say Construction Plane, View, and I can set up a plane anywhere I want to in this view. I'm going to use my Alt and just snap it here so that we can see it. Say Next Plane, and now I want to turn my transparency right back down like this. So again, the same thing. We're going to go to New, Picked Reference and we could call this, or rename it whatever we want to. We're set on global so it's going to cut through everything. There it is. Then I can go to Tools, Promote, select everything, Spacebar. Alias creates a layer called Other Sections, we could call that Zed, and then we can clear this. So now, if I take my mesh off like so, there's our footprint. So, in other words, the silhouette line. So let's go ahead, let's pick this data, Pick Objects, Delete, go to Layers, Delete, Unused Layers, and let's go to the zed section that's in the model itself. And you'll notice, I've also selected it as a reference so I can't destroy this section now, or move it inadvertently. And let's delete this plane. So a very simple process. That split line's going to be consistent for the handles and the main body, and the focus right now is to do the footprint for the main body itself. So, now there's a layer that I've set up here called Footprint Original. So I'm in the mode now of literally trying to sketch an idea together of how I want my services to flow along the outside of this particular body. You'll notice that I've actually taken the surfaces, or where I want the surfaces to go beyond the handle. So I'm bringing out the mesh model, you'll see that the handle actually starts right here, but my surfaces go just beyond that in red. I like to overbuild the surfaces just so I can trim back to a reference that I'm going to use, which is probably going to be right along the split line here of this handle. So, again, it's good practice to always overbuild your surfaces. So in this mode, like I said, I'm kind of in a semi-sketch mode here and what I've done is I've actually just used some very simple geometry and I'm going to light some of this geometry up for you here with the control points. And you can see it's just a very simple curve, and this one down here started off as a three-point curve. I like to use three-point curve a lot and it just sets up a very easy, consistent piece of geometry. Then I can always go back in there and change the degree down to a lesser value like this for example. If I change this to 3, then you'll notice that the deviation is 0029, which is absolutely nothing. So I can accept that with a spacebar and I can go back and start just putting in some very, very basic curves. And also at the same time, I'm using some blends as well. For example, I've got a fillet in here, and in some cases I'll use a blend, but in this case here because I'm just roughing this in, I'm just using a fillet to see what value of fillet I would have to use to be able to create this outside profile. So let's take these control points off. And again, these will change, and once I've put them in, I'll be manipulating and tweaking them accordingly as we start working with this footprint overlapping our feasibility sections. So again at this mode here I'm purely just trying to sketch an outside profile for this footprint.

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