Hello-- I have all the versions of Bobcad from 12 Gold all the way up to 2007. I still can't seem to be able to create a 3d wireframe similar to the attachment. Could someone please help. If a wireframe is not scaleable I need it to be 21" across the diagonal. thaks in advance- Jack

Create it as a solid using the basic solids menu and the boolean feratures. From the small icon it is hard to tell what the form is really like but it looks pretty simple.

Tjones-- thaks for the reply. The surface is basically a series of raised dimples connected by a smooth wave and then cut into a rectangle at the center of 4 of the dimples (leaving one full dimple in the center). Any chance you could create this for me (or better yet explain in a little more detail the steps involved). I would like the diagonal to be 21 inches and a difference of about 2 inches from the top of the dimple to the bottom of the trough, and then get it to be machineable. I purchased the v22 tutorial cd"s, but still can't figure it out. I'm old school and barely get by in 2D-I also have version 21 ith Bobartpro if that helps- My version 2007 is only 2D. thanks-- Jack

I can get you started easy enough but I am not sure how you plan to machine. This appears to need 3D cutting so are you going to use V21?

If so I would be able to help in 21. If you prefer to see the part as you dreate it then V22 is much better on the cad part. However I do not know if you can create solid on your V22. Check to see if you have the Solids>Cube menu available. If so open it and then just click the OK to see if you get a cube.

I probably would rather use v 21 as I am somewhat familiar with that-- haven't had much oportunity to learn v22-- Jack

I would rather use v 21

Step 1:

Go to menu Solids>Primitives
Select CUBE then click Ok.

Select MIDDLE
Enter X 0, Y 0, Z -2 in the top menu
Enter X 21,Y 21, Z 4 in the bottom menu

Click the USC Icon in the upper right corner and select Default for the view
Press the Z key to zoom to the part extents


Now you should see the wire frame of the base block (don't worry about the thickness as it does not really matter for machining the part top.)

I will be back in a while for the solids>shpere.

I have to work and only doing this during breaks.

I went ahead and created this but will have to wait to give instructions.

Not knowing the size of radii it makes it harder to produce what you want.

Bobcad is not parametric so making changes is more difficult. This is why I do most of my designing in Alibre.

Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday, but things were hectic. Is it possible to have the depression be curved down instead of flat so it's more of a continuous wave? Still with the total difference in height being about 1.5-2 inches. that might male it more of a parabolic curve than a true radius (if i have my terminology correct) connecting the peaks and troughs. like a series of dimpled waves. I will try the first steps you gave me to see what I come up with-- THANKS-- Jack

Tjones-- I can creat the cube, and i think I can add the spheres at the corners and in the middle, but hen I'm lost as to how to create the surface and then crate the toolpath to machine it. (And also how to depress the troughs with a flattened curve.)-- Jack

Ok to add the radii at the bottom simply use the Fillet command but first you must combine the sphere and the cube by using the Boolean add.

Do this by simply selecting the cube and one of the spheres then go to Solid>Boolean and select the add.

Do this until all spheres are added to the cube.

Put a very large fillet so the dimply connect smoothly.


So from there you can create 2 squares (one to match your outside solid form and the other much bigger to clear everything) using these squares we will create a surface and then a solid. (This is to trim the outside by using a bollean subtract.)

To create a solid from the 2 squares simply select the two squares and go to Solids>Surface Creation>Planer and click next.

The order the 2 squares are selected determine how Bobcad creates the hollow box we are going to create.

Once you get the correct form then we need to select the plane and go to Solids>Surface Creation>Extrude Surface. Enter a large enough distance to cover you entire form depth in Z and make sure the Caps is checked.

Now you can do the Boolean subtract like the Boolean add (the order of selection determines the piece to remain).

Sorry I am doing this off the top of my head and in a hurry so I I left out soemthing just ask.

T-- I have the rectangle with the 5 spheres, but I can't seen to fillet them

And I'm trying in v 22

You must first Boolean add them to make them a single solid

Tjones-- I got it! Only problem is I think I must have drawn it in mm at home, because it is less than an inch long when imported at work, but it's not that hard to draw once you understand booleen a little. Thanks to your expert tutoring. Now I have a more simple question. I need to curve the face of the attached cabinet to the curve of the side view (i rotated the side view in the y axis). I need to cut out the rectangles along the curved face after the wood is bent-- thanks in advance-Jack

Here's the 3d item I created

First....you can scale your part by using the same translate feature. It has a scale that you can check and enter a 25.4 scale to get it up to size if needed.

Next....The easiest way is to create a solid from the contour section. Do this just like the box. Solids>Surface Creation>Planer Surface. Then Solids>Surface Creation> Extrude Surface. Create a solid that is large enough to cover the entire 2Dform.

Next you will use a nice feature of Bobcad.
Select the form and then go to menu Solid>Project curve to surface. Then you select the solid you just created and it will project the form to the curve.

tjones-- here is the dxf file of what I tried. It says it failed the attempt-- Jack

Try re-drawing the form. For some reason it will not allow me to do it either. At least not in V20...maybe V22 would....will try it.