I’m working on this cap that slides on a tube.
Here is the link
I want to mount this funky look stone such that it is suspended few cm above the tube.
Those spikes in my picture are supposed to suspend the rock.
I think I want those spiked to be splines such that they flange out from the tube and curve back in to become supports. It’s a more attractive look and I think the curve will be stronger.
I have NO clue how to start.
How would you approach this?
Hi Jonny,
Another sweet lil project!
Have a look at a sweep or loft.
You can create a line for another shape to follow.
I’m not sure if the curves would be stronger though. If there is good contact with the tube it will be, however if it’s freestanding there is a chance it will buckle.
If you insert a bit of string or something under tension it should assist.
(But chances are both will hold up perfectly)
Thanks for jumping into help Liam.
I saw sweep. That looked interesting, maybe I should have investigated further.
I can see I can draw a sketch using a spline and then sweep the shape across that spline.
That’s basically what I want.
What I can’t figure out is how to start that sketch such that it runs perpendicular to the origin on my circle.
I wanna draw a line up from this circle? No idea how to do that.
Hi Jonny,
If you put the circle on one of the XYZ datum planes you can go from there.
Other useful tools will be Use (U), a section view (plane thing, it cuts away parts of the model behind it and hides them (but doesn’t delete)) and patterning it (if you haven’t already)
Oh! As in I should “coincident” the circle I want to work with to the origin and draw from there?
Hi Pix,
Yeah! And make sure to use the datum plane.
FYI the tutorials are really really good compared to other CAD programs
TUTORIALS!! My golly gracious I’ve been using you-tube videos with 4 views.
Where do I find some official tutorials?
For instance, I can see that the use tool would allow me to project up into a plane, but I don’t see how that helps me. Maybe a tutorial on the use tool would help?
EDIT :
Ah wait maybe I didn’t understand.
Are you referring to the use tool or are you just reminding me that the point of centering my working surface was to take advantage of the datum planes?
Hi Pix,
I’m out at the moment, but I think these are the ones
Hi Pixmusix,
Cool looking project, I like it!
I was thinking you could print your original design and then use a hot air rework station/ hair dryer to bend the spikes.
Not sure if this works for you.
If I was using FreeCAD, I would use an additive loft with 3 or 4 sections and then use Polar Pattern to create the other two. If you get it right you can achieve quite an organic looking piece.
The strength is pretty much determined by the number of perimeters rather than the shape.
Ooooooo I’m so close.
Updates
It’s been a team effort. Thanks everyone.
I’m STUCK on point 3. This loft (depicted below) looks perfect but onshape says I can’t. Outrageous! 
Some rubbish about boolean operation would resolve in a non-manifold body.
I know what all those words mean in isolation (1 edge with more than two faces blah blah) but not sure what the sentence as a whole is instructing me to do.
I tried googling the error and so far I haven’t found anything that looks like my situation.
Does somebody have an intuition as to what this error is trying to tell me and how I should resolve it?
Hi Jonny,
That looks really interesting, the error that you’re getting refers to when there is multiple objects in the same body. Few ways you could fix this is either trying to make the same loft off a different face, failing this you could look at making the additional bracing on a separate body and then merging the two together.
AH!!! That solved it!
Thanks Dan.
The UNION tool was the answer.
I found this in the manuals that @Liam120347 linked me to.
Keeping the loft and the sweep as two separate parts allowed them both to be created. Then taking the union seemed to be unoffensive to the CAD.
I don’t understand why this worked. 
The resulting body seems to be the same just the process has changed.
Open to guesses as to how this fixed anything, in the meantime I’m not complaining.
If you selected two planes for the union and if rotation is allowed then that guarantees that the result will be manifold because two planes with the same alignment must create an intersection that is also a plane. If you selected two planes without rotation, or a plane and an object without rotation or two objects the result will depend on what the intersection is. If there is no intersection or if it’s a point then the result is not manifold. If the intersection creates a plane or a shape (ie, something with volume) then the result is manifold. When joining two shapes with very different geometries it helps to create the shapes with excess regions that can then be overlapped to ensure the resulting union is manifold.
Glad to hear you got it sorted!
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