In previous posts, I created two cylinders and a sphere for the air hockey paddle. Now I’ll create a solid cone, which I’ll use to remove material from the large cylinder. I could create the cone with the correct values right from the start. But, since I’m still in the conceptual design phase, I’m going to draw a cone by snapping to the existing cylinder and then I’ll modify my design.
The Cone tool (CONE command) is available in the solid primitives flyout of the Modeling panel (with the 3D Modeling workspace current).
The options for creating a cone are similar to creating a cylinder (and a circle). First, you specify the location and size of the base of the cone. You can use the default center/radius option or choose from 3Point, 2Point, TanTanRadius, and Elliptical. Just like with drawing a circle in 2D, the option you choose depends on what you’re trying to create, what existing objects you can snap to, and what you know.
I’ll use the default Center/Radius option and snap to the center and quadrant at the top of original cylinder. After specifying the base of the cone, the default option is to enter a value or pick a point to specify the height. However, there are additional options as well. A right-click menu (and the Command line) enable you to pick 2 points to determine the height, pick a point to specify the height and change the orientation at the same time, or enter a value for the top radius.
If you don’t enter a value for the top radius, it assumes a value of zero and creates the cone with a sharp point. Also, keep in mind that, like a cylinder, the base and top of a cone don’t necessarily mean that the base has to be on the bottom and the top has to be on the top. For now, I’ll create the cone using a default top radius of zero and I’ll snap to the center at the bottom of the cylinder to specify the height.
Key concept:
- Cone tool creates a 3D cone similar to creating a 2D circle
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