Here
is something quite interesting and frequent; because the object's side
surface has an angle, the fillet between this surface and the bottom
surface should be split by the parting line. This would create a visible
and not esthetic line on the fillet surface. I measured the distance
between the parting line and the fillet surface's edge and, after confirmation
with the client and the moulder, decided to put the parting line on
the edge of the fillet surface. This will create an undercut but the
distance is so small in this case (0.013 mm) that the part should come
out of the mold easily and without marring the part's finish.
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I
then joined the silhouette curve bits with the appropriate surfaces edges
to get one closed curve around the object.
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I
then usually split the surfaces with the parting line curve but in this
case the parting line falls on edges curves all around the object (the
designer was kind enough to put draft angles were needed), so I just extracted
the surfaces that were touching the parting line and joined to top surfaces
together, put them on a new layer, joined the bottom surfaces together
and put them an another new layer.
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I
deactivated the layer where I put the top surfaces, leaving on the bottom
surfaces' layer. We now see the "punch" of the mold.
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To
create the parting surfaces, I usually start with an offset of the parting
line curve and clean it up so it can be joined in a closed loop.
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A
loft between this new curve and the parting line curve and most of the
work is done.
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We
needed the symmetrical part so I mirrored the punch and the parting
surface.
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I
created a vertical plane and trimmed the parting surfaces where they
overlapped.
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