Great Video! When dealing with variable chamfer, I use a slightly different method... First apply the variable fillet, in surface modelling, Select the fillet and entire edge under the fillet, hit delete. Create a Ruled surface of the top curved edge, and apply an angle... say 110deg, stretch it out well past the bottom face of the guitar. Extrude the bottom curved edge of the guitar up, well past the Ruled edge. Using trim tool remove the 2 unwanted parts. Stitch everything together. This method reduces steps, is still parametric, the exact draft angle of the chamfer if defined. Analysis tools show a cleaner body. You can also use the same process to loft with rails, using the ruled surface as trim tools for the side curved surface.
Wow! Well done! I was just revising my methods for the usual contours yesterday. My way is still fully parametric, but yours is more flexible. I appreciate the effort that went into this. Another trick for my toolbag!
For anyone else: you can also extrude some shape from a 2D sketch, so that i cuts out the wanted hole. Then delete the surfaces of the hole and loft them back again like Austin explains in the video. Tadaa you have created a chamber from a 2D sketch. This is a game changer. Austin you saved me so much time! Thank you!
Hey, thanks for the shout-out. Combining the variable fillet with a curved rail on a loft is brilliant! Fusion 360 guitar design is getting easier, mostly because of you. Keep up the great work!
I feel you did a good job describing the percentages in a way thay wont help normal people. I dont say that to be condescending but at one point, you said a key phrase. "Hopefully that makes sense." Maybe in the future, you explained this more. I am new to your channel. I like your content so far. I do believe you are right, were the 1 is more of 100% (of the length of this line), and the way you go about using it.
Great method! I remember doing sweep cuts in Solidworks to achieve similar but this method would be far more controllable. I use Fusion more than SW nowadays 👍
@@austinshaner also, it's not that important, but I suggest to use 'Plain along path' instead of 'offset plane' for rail - you will got rail in exact same position as fillet radius changes and orthogonal to edge.
@@alexeyrybakov949 We tried something similar early on but not when the method is more fleshed out like this. That would be a nice improvement to this method. Thanks!
I tried experimenting with the tangency option, turning it down to the minimum. Interestingly, it can create a chamfer like appearance, although the faces are not perfectly flat.
This video saved my life. In my case, after the loft I had to extend the edges and then trim the adjacent faces in order to be able to stitch, but it worked in the end. This was the perfect solution. Thank you for this!!!
I discovered variable fillets by accident when I was first into f360 CADing guitars! It's an amazing feature for us and as always you delivered a spectacular video tutorial for everyone to learn from! Hats off!!!
Fantastic! I recently got into modeling guitars and learning Fusion 360. I plan on getting a CNC soon and wanted to get a headstart on projects. Your videos have been a godsend. Thank you!
Thanks for yet another amazing video. I'm new to 3D modeling and these (even a little bit) more advanced functions in Fusion 360 are totally unknown to me, let alone these ingenious approaches. I forced my way through with lofts when designing a Charvel/strat body without knowing about variable fillets, things got specially annoying around the heel/neck pocket where the fillet radius becomes way smaller than the rest so the neckplate doesn't hang over the round over and also with the belly cut (using sweeps). Thanks to this video I won't have a stroke at 25 trying to do all that again.
No problem Felix! This is definitely new for me as well, and I'm sure there are ways to improve this method or issues I haven't foreseen yet, but regardless it's another powerful method in our toolkit!
Now that…is fricken awesome mate! I’m going to try this tonight and if it works and changes my bastardised way of doing belly carves and arm carves how I think it will, you will have changed my life forever. Wish me luck n I’ll let you know how I go.
Amazing Austin! I used this method long ago when I was struggling to make a 45° bevel in the cutaway part of one of my guitar. Thanks for making guitar making with Fusion 360 easier. :)
And you didn't share?!! Haha 😄 thanks for all the work you do Vincent, particularly on the Gibson tops that I have yet to master. I'm referencing yours and Mattia's work on that for the future!
@@austinshaner Ah ah , I did it after struggling for hours and was not sure it was a viable method, and as I do not really like bevel in the cutaway, I spent time to find how to make the cutaway like in my previous video... :)
Dude ! You're awesome ! That exactly what we discuss together before summer, your technique back then was very great and you continue to improve it and all the other points that really help us to create our models as luthiers :) GAME CHANGER of course ! BTW : I did email my work since we discuss but I don't know if you catch it because it's always stuck in my sentbox... So I hope you had it :) Thank you very much !
Hey Nicholas! Nice talking to you again! I think I probably received your email but just missed it because it's my personal email rather than the youtube one I use currently. I apologize! I'll go see if I can find it! I would say that this approach likely doesn't work for every design, so there should still be a place for the solid lofting approach you and I went through earlier this year. But my hopes is that this will largely replace that for most designs and make our guitar modeling process much less frustrating 😀
Ok... I mucked around with this last night on my current design that I've been struggling getting a controlled cutaway on the body horn areas. I'm going for a cutaway top and bottom kinda like you'd see on a Solar Guitar. Unfortunately this technique didn't work for this on my body shape. I think the reason is because the body at the neck joint does a smooth contour from one horn to the next rather than having the more traditional squared off strat style like you've got in your video here. Basically it makes really weird lump between the end point at the neck and the deepest part of the contour. From the deepest part of the contour to the apex of the horn looks great though. Awesome technique that I'm sure I'll be using on some things in the future though.
This is really creative. While some might consider deleting faces hack-ish, I have always considered it to be part and parcel of surfacing. I would definitely consider this to be a legitimate method. I would be curious as to the surface quality at the sharp points on either end. Since lofting works best with a four-sided surface, this might produce some weird distortions at the points. Will definitely try this out! Thanks for sharing.👍
Thanks mate! I know what you mean. When I started this channel I had a huge bias against surface modeling and tried to force everything to work with our solid tools. That was because I felt like it was a very messy way to model, and there is some truth in that. But that was the wrong way of thinking, because the surface tools open up the constraints we'd normally face with the solid tools. So when you run into subtle or complex geometry, the surface tools really start to shine. I still believe we should use the solid tools whenever possible, but I no longer hold the opinion that we should avoid surface modeling entirely. I haven't noticed any odd distortions on the sharp points using lofts, though I have seen that happen with the patch tool while prototyping this.
The ONLY downside Ive seen of this, from at least a modeling standpoint vs slicing for the CNC, is the inability to apply this to a laminate top design. If you want the relief cuts to cut through the top to the body, the problem here is that it affects that lower line pushing it (and the top material) in to the body material. And vice versa of course. I've tried a few ways including the one from your video 2 creating the top from a separate component that is jointed. Ive not tried the time consuming and ultra frustrating :P rail way but I am assuming it might be the only way? From a CNC build standpoint, doing it this way is a game changer. Marry the two portions and have the model be "one piece" will equal a great product. I would just love to be able to do the same process but with a top material blending in to the body.
Hey Ron, you should be able to model this as a single piece body, then use an offset plane and split the body in two for a drop top. Done that many times.
SO Genius - I've been wanting to do variable chamfers for some time. Curious if this is a feature Autodesk could consider putting in. This works though!!! Thx
It seems that Fusion 360 does not allow this on edges that are imported. For instance, my brother sent me a CAD guitar body to tinker with in Fusion. In Fusion, all the curves are broken into segments versus just being a solid line. Its a body, its complete, but because the curves of the line show up in segments, it does not allow this function. I can have a start and end point in a single segment but cannot simply chain them together and create start and end points. Also, for the life of me, there seems to be no way to simply joins lines together to make a solid line in Fusion. I think this is a great adaptation of the variable fillet, and would love to try it, without completely redrawing the guitar.
I'm just now in the same boat. I can do a normal fillet but variable does not work. I did the body in Carbide create as a svg and even I'm extruding everything in Fusion it does not work.
I created a body in Fusion 360 and extruded it and I still cannot choose the whole line, only small lengths, so in my case this is something else that I cannot figure out. I'm new with Fusion so I'm missing something.
Could it be possible to apply a fillet to a thicker or thinner body, cut the surfaces, and then change the thickness before making a loft? In theory this will give us a different fillet angle without two-step sequence 21:30 with deleting sides and adding a new filet.
If I'm understanding you correctly, it would effectively be the same process just ordered differently. You start with two bodies, apply changes,, then merge them together, rather than starting with 1, apply changes, on adding a second, apply changes, then merge.
I created a body in Fusion 360 and extruded it, I cannot choose the whole line, only small lengths (referring to 9.43 in timeline of the video), I'm new with Fusion so I'm missing something, I can choose the whole outline by double clicking on it but when I choose fillet command I can choose only short segments of the outline. I can create a fillet one by one but not a variable sizes, anybody?
This is incredibly useful Austin but but is there a way to control the angle or the size of both the top and sides of this fillet ? Let's say do a depth of 1cm on the sides of the body and 3cm on the top, would this be possible ? For now it seems that both have similar sizes. thanks
So this could work to make nice carved tops like on PRS or LP style guitars ? For now I was studying to make a carved surface and then split the body but this method would make it really easier thanks again, this is really exciting stuff!
Yes, but with some alterations. If you hop on my Discord Mattia has been leading the way on that front. His stuff is pretty incredible, and I'm sure he'd offer advice.
I’m begging you to show us how to do this: stuff.fendergarage.com/images/j/6/B/Web_Elec_American_Ultra_1105_Feature_02@2x@2x.jpg It’s an all access heel contour from a fender American ultra series. Suhr does it as well, and many others. I’ve been trying to work it out for weeks. I’ve gotten most of the way there watching your vids, but can’t quite get it. Would you be kind enough to take a crack at it?
