Mastering the Project tool

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Shapr3D's Project command is very powerful. It allows you to project the edges of selected surfaces into a sketch. And then we can add sketch elements to your ID8, in this case, on an interface design for a button. Select those elements. And then with the Project command, project those back onto a surface and slice the surface into individual...

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elements, select those, go then to the visualization mode. So I can apply a different material to ideate on the interface design. Let me show you how this process works in detail. To get started, we will go to the Add command, go to Construction Plane, and then we will offset a construction plane from this flat surface, a little bit above our remote control.

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So when we create the sketch on this construction plane, there is a nice distance between our product. So these two elements don't intersect with each other. Click Done. This construction plane is too big. We can simply scale this icon down quite nicely. There we are. And then we call the Project command. I will start with selecting this flat surface as what I would like to project

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into the target, our construction plane. This will then automatically create a sketch that is connected to that construction plane. The projection type here as sketch has also the option of linked sketch, which basically means unlinked. Then all the sketch elements are blue. This is kind of like a copy and linked means the...

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result, which you see in Magenta reflects also all possible changes to this design when I change this remote control before I project. So let's click Done. Just construction plane, we don't need to see anymore. Let's hide it. We can also continue adding more elements into that sketch we created. So I will select these

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top buttons here, then my target. When I click on these icons, you can see I turned this one on and off. This is actually the target. That's not correct. This should be a tool to project. So when I click on this one, now all this is actually a tool. And if I now click on this one, then the software understands this is going to be the target because it didn't have a target there yet.

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Click Done. Now you see we have these inner circles of these buttons. When I select those and go into edit mode, rotate my view, go to top view, I can go ahead and start drawing my interface. A five millimeter ring, then a three millimeter ring. With the rectangle tool, I will use...

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1.5 millimeters by five millimeters or a minus icon, the same also on the right side. And then to make a nice plus, a vertical element. There we are. So now, as you see, I have the plus and minus and then that circular icon. Those we can now project back

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onto those surfaces in an interface by interface case. So that means I call the Project command, select my minus sketch, then I select the target. And I have to be careful that this, because it's a flat surface, is being projected as edge, which means it's slicing that surface.

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Here in this case, if I call the Project command, you see this is also Magenta and this is automatically selected. That is correct. And then I can select here, all those, select this one and then project. Also here again, now be careful selecting between sketch or edge.

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You have here this option also of sketch because this is a flat surface where something is domed. You only can project as edge. Click Done. There we are. And then we can go to the visualization mode, select those elements we have. There we are. And give them a different material, for example. But it doesn't stop there.

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This was just only for the visual. We can also select these surfaces and then continue modeling with them, either by embossing them or extruding them out.

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And that's it. You can also use the Project command when you have sketches placed right at the center of a body to, as you can see, completely slice through the body. And this is very useful when in this case here with a handle, you want to create islands to continue modeling with our texture. Let me show you how this works. So I will call the Project command.

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Then I will select the sketch, select my surface, click Done, and everything is perfectly sliced. The way how this works, every sketch has a top and a bottom face, if you want to think about it, or a forward and backwards vector. So this sketch was projected to the right and was projected to the left. That's the reason why it looks like it's sliced completely through it. I will select

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this sketch, move this now away. And then I will do the project onto the body. And you will see it did not project through because the sketch from here can only see this front part of our body or the surface. And that's the reason why I said it's important if you want to do this, that the sketch has to be really at the center of your

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Geometry. I will undo the command. I will undo the move of the sketch. Then I will call the Project command, select the sketch, select the body, click done. And there you see everything is perfectly sliced through on the left side and the right side. And because everything is nice and parametric, if I now go ahead and start changing the sketch, you see how the projection also follows it.

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Beautiful. Another very good example of how powerful the Project command is when you have to create symmetrical profiles, when you have to loft symmetrical shapes, kind like this bent backrest of this chair. The way how this worked was I first created a center sketch. Then I created a left and right construction plane. The center sketch I projected onto the left construction plane.

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I went into that sketch and added more details. And then the outcome, I projected onto the right construction plane, resulting into this projected right sketch. What this basically means is that if I added the first sketch, so the center sketch, let's say here by moving the top line, you see the other two sketches follow it.

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If I go into my left sketch and adjust it, you see that on the other side, the projection updates. And this means that then the Loft command all the time is creating these updates for you automatically on the fly. Let me show you now in detail how this works. Here is my center sketch. From that, I will create an offset

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construction plane to the right or left side. Doesn't really matter which one we select first. And this construction plane, I will scale down so it's not so big. We are. Instead of just now making another construction plane and having to deal with two offset values, I will simply select this construction plane, and then I will select Mirror and mirror this over along in this case, the Z and Y axis.

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This basically means if I now go ahead and change the position of my construction plane, you will see how the other one follows it. Now I will project the sketch onto that construction plane. So I go to Tools, Project, select the sketch, select the construction plane. There we are. Click Done. Inside the sketch,

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I will go ahead and then start creating myself here, a new line, and then an arc to connect this. There we are.

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This point I will lock, then I will create Tangency between the line and the arc and Tangency between the arc and that line. And then I can adjust the radius there a little bit. This line I will unlock now. So now I can more freely move everything around.

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These two lines are, sorry, that line and that arc are not needed. To make visibility easier, we can convert them into a construction line. Now this, I would like to project over into my other sketch. So you can select it, then select Project, select the construction plane, click done. And now we select the sketch profiles, outside center to the other outside

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and then click Loft. There we are. I will select all my sketches and construction planes, put them into a folder. So they are gone. Then we can select all these top front left and right faces, call the Shell command. And then I shell this to half an inch to the outside.

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Then I can select these outer edges.

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apply a nice fillet. And to make things nice and soft, select these two edges and round those. And there we are. Wonderful. Again, to show you, if I go ahead and then change the center sketch, all these updates, if I go to the outside sketch and adjust this with that, I can so beautifully control how the backrest bends.