Fillet How-To Question

[Bruce Kieffer]

This one has me stumped. How do I draw in VW a filleted a cabinet face frame where the corners are butt joints, and the round overs are done after the cabinet is assembled, and the round overs on the outside edges stop before the end of the stiles at the top. See the attached photo for the details.

Edited May 21, 2010 by Bruce Kieffer

[Pat Stanford]

Extrude Along Path to create a negative of what you want and use that with Subtract Solids.

Create a rounded rectangle with the proper arc corners to match the piece to be the path.

Create a square with an arc or the proper radius cut out of it to be the profile and cutting tool.

Extrude along path.

If you can make the frame one piece then you only need to do one subtract solids.

If you need the frame to be different pieces to allow different textures/grain directions then duplicate the cutting tool four times and do each side as a separate subtraction.

[Kevin McAllister]

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but here goes -

- draw the whole face frame as one piece. There are various ways to do this. I drew the individual rectangles and used the Add Surface command under the Modify Menu. I noticed the vertical stile in the middle is set back and separate so I drew it separately from the frame.

- extrude the face frame. extrude the stile.

-fillet the face frame. Fillet the stile.

-cut the face frame back into individual "boards" using the Split Tool in the Split by Line mode.

Kevin

[Ray Libby]

I created the reverse and used solid subtract. You'll be able to go back through the history to see how I created it.

[Ken]

Here's another solution that may come closer to the appearance of a round-over stopping before the end. It's actually a Column object with circular (oval) shaft and Rectangular Mushroom capital. Then subtract and add solids with extrudes as needed. The inside corner is just a fillet on a radiused extrude.

[Bruce Kieffer]

These are all interesting approaches. Thanks. I'll give them a try.

Pat, I had considered your technique, and I think it will give me the closet results to what I want.

Kevin and Ken, Imagine how this is made in real life. The frame is assembled, and then the router with a piloted round over bit is guided on the inside edge of the frame, and the router base rides n the top face of the face frame. The inside corners get shaped like Ken's example, but the they are square on the flat inside edges like Kevin's example.

Ray, I like what you did there! It's kind of what Pat was suggesting. The way you handled the end of the fillet cut is nice. It may not be exactly how the router would do it, but it certainly is close enough. I also like your "Custom Selections" palette. I will mess with that a bit too.

[Ray Libby]

I should have looked at one of my round over router bits and measured the radius and I could have made it perfect... but I seem to be stuck in my chair tonight.

I use the selection scripts a lot, especially dimensions. I haven't updated my template, but I've added deselect dimensions to the palette because it selects all dimensions in a drawing regardless of class or outside the group.

[Ken]

It's an interesting problem. Here's something more realistic. I've duplicated the same problems I have when running a router on the inside corner of a frame, which is probably what you're talking about, and when a round-over bit is stopped before the end.

The inside corner problem is that the router bit's bearing guide actually doesn't ride a radius corner. The stile would have to be notched/ripped a good portion of its length creating a sort of elongated C of a piece, which is a lot of work just to create an inside radius to meet the rail pieces. So in reality I end up hand-sanding the inside corner. Isn't that what you do? The digital model uses a radius sweep for subtraction at the corner.

Now for stopping before the end, there's always a residual truncated edge after one pass (and it's always a little burnt), so do you run another pass on the adjacent face? Or just sand it again by hand, tapering gradually as you please? For the model, just keep subtracting the same radius sweep, duplicated and flipped 90 as needed.

[Bruce Kieffer]

Ken,

Nice! Looking at your top drawing, that is exactly what the "stopped" round over on the outside edge would look like (without the burn!). I sand those by hand to blend them in. Are your stiles and rails are separate pieces? I need to show the vertical joint line in my drawing.

[Ken]

Attached. Just disregard the funky scale. :grin:

[Horst M.]

Hallo together

The question reminded me that there is a Variable Radius section in the Fillet tool.

I hope I'm not totaly missunderstanding the whole thread, but with this Tool, and some patience in fidling with the settings I got a result that looks pretty much like the the upper left Corner of the Cabinet's Foto.

The rendering looks Ok, even though the Fillet tool behaves a little bit Vectorworksi ;-) , and creates some surprising polygons on the surface...

Horst M.

Edited May 22, 2010 by Horst M.

[Bruce Kieffer]

I seem to have worked it out. Not an easy task. Lots of trial and error. I used Pat's suggestion mostly. I drew the frame stiles and rails and extruded them. Then I created the extrude along a path "negative" to "round over" the inside edges of the frame. I drew a 3/8" rad. cove on a 1/2" x 1/2" square as the profile (basically a router bit). I drew a rectangle the size of the frame opening and added 1/4" to the width and height. That was to allow for the size of the profile since VW centers the profile on the path (Wish list item to allow us to define the point of the profile that extrudes on the path). I rounded the corners of the rectangle 1/4" rad. to mimic how the router bit with its 1/2" dia. bearing acts in real life. I extruded along the path, an then subtracted the "negative from each stile and rail individually. I made a sweep "negative" for the tapered top of the outside edge round over the mimic the router stopping its cut there. It's not perfect, but certainly close enough. You can tear apart my file to see the elements. Thanks for all your help.