Our household has 2 cats (no, they’re not mine: I just have to put up with them).
One of the cats is a particularly prodigious drinker (of water: get your mind out of the gutter ). My wife bought a water fountain for him (the cat), but it was a type that cascaded the water over a 360 degree lip, one shaped a bit like a mushroom head. The cat didn’t like it and wouldn’t drink from it.
I removed the original fountain top and replaced it with a piece of copper pipe. That worked OK, and the cat drank from it, but the water made a lot of noise coming out of it and the pipe plugged up too often.
I found a spigot on thingiverse.com: [U]https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3383575[/U]. I printed it but, of course, the diameter was not correct for the water pump that came with the fountain. I used F360 to create an adapter. It worked really well. The only issue was that the end of the spigot was a little too low for the cat to use easily.
To correct this issue I extended the length of the adapter I designed in F360 and printed it. I installed it on the fountain but it broke at the layer where it meets the water pump. I figure the extra length contributed to allowing me to over torque the adapter, so I decided to add a cross to the inside of the adapter, to reinforce the layers and add extra strength to the whole thing.
I tried modifying the existing F360 design, but that proved more difficult than I had figured. I started from scratch, doing things in a way I’ve never done before.
While the new design was printing I took the opportunity to attempt to design the adapter in FCAD. I actually succeeded. Here are some captures of the design:
[ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:“Click image for larger version Name: CatFountainStemAdapter-FCAD_CrossBraceSketch.jpg Views: 0 Size: 10.9 KB ID: 4671”,“data-align”:“none”,“data-attachmentid”:“4671”,“data-size”:“medium”}[/ATTACH] This is the sketch for the cross brace. It was done on the XZ plane. I took care to set the padding as symmetrical, so the 2 planes of the brace would cross at the center.
[ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:“Click image for larger version Name: CatFountainStemAdapter-FCAD_CrossBraceBody.jpg Views: 0 Size: 16.5 KB ID: 4666”,“data-align”:“none”,“data-attachmentid”:“4666”,“data-size”:“medium”}[/ATTACH] This is the previous sketch padded to 1.2mm.
[ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:“Click image for larger version Name: CatFountainStemAdapter-FCAD_CrossBraceRevolved.jpg Views: 0 Size: 27.5 KB ID: 4669”,“data-align”:“none”,“data-attachmentid”:“4669”,“data-size”:“medium”}[/ATTACH] For the very 1st time, I use the Polar Pattern command. I set it to 2 copies at 90 degrees. Because I made sure to Pad the sketch symmetrically, the bodies cross each exactly at the center.
[ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:“Click image for larger version Name: CatFountainStemAdapter-FCAD_OuterWallSketch.jpg Views: 0 Size: 10.9 KB ID: 4667”,“data-align”:“none”,“data-attachmentid”:“4667”,“data-size”:“medium”}[/ATTACH] This is the sketch, again on the XZ plane, for the outer wall. The lines are 1.2mm apart. I used the previous sketch as a guide for placing these lines.
[ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:“Click image for larger version Name: CatFountainStemAdapter-FCAD_OuterWallBody.jpg Views: 0 Size: 18.0 KB ID: 4670”,“data-align”:“none”,“data-attachmentid”:“4670”,“data-size”:“medium”}[/ATTACH] No, it’s not a bullet casing ? This is the previous outer wall sketch Revolved 360 degrees; the 1st time I’ve used that command.