Brick pillars

[Harlov]

Hello
I am trying to make a brick pillar for my model railway in Part Design with FreeCad but it does not work, I know how to make a brick wall in Arch workbench but then in scale 1: 1 but want it in 1:87

someone who wants to help or give me tips

/ Peter

[Geit]

Well, I would plainly use part design. Set up some measurements like track width and height, stone width/height and design the front as a flat arch without details.

After pading you get a plate with the arc. Basically the entire final shape.

Now I would create a sketch and design a simple repeatable pattern for the spacing between the stones using the pre defined width and height values as measurements. Use extrude followed by linear pattern, to create a wall pattern the sketch covering the entire plate. Change the z distance of the sketch, so the grid is only partial inside the base and use the Boolean operation in part design to subtract the grid from the base plate. This should give you a stone wall like effect.

It should be possible to pocket and use the linear pattern to get the entire grid done without the need of using the Boolean operation. I am currently not sure if FreeCAD will struggle with that. Sometimes it does. Use the most recent 0.19 of FreeCAD to avoid potential fallout.

Now you can work on the details and e.g. pad an arc around the curve to simulate rounded stones are used for the tunnel.

Using another sketch you can use uniform rectangles from the center point of the arc to create cutouts to make the round stones look like multiple stone plates, too. Similar to the flat on gaps between stones.

In the end you can create a sketch (always using % of the measurements to stay inside the model without breaking stuff) and add some shapes like triangles and more natural random shapes and holes to nibble away some of the stone parts. So it looks less perfect and uniform. If you pocket these, the wall looks already older and post processing your print with color is easier as you have a partly broken wall sections to work with.

When you use parametric design and references you can scale the model in the end to any model train scale you want and the result will look the same every time.

I hope this was explained well enough.

Designing objects is usually just finding a way to split an object into multiple operations. Add something, remove something and repeat. Naturally there are multiple ways to do this. Multiple ways involve multiple tools and with each tool you learn, the splitting gets easier and the work progresses faster.

[Ender5r]

@Geit, wouldn’t you Amibo brick stand be a good starting point for a pillar? Isn’t it really just a short pillar?

[Geit]

@Ender5r

@Geit, wouldn’t you Amibo brick stand be a good starting point for a pillar? Isn’t it really just a short pillar?

Not really.

I drew the stone pattern by hand, which worked great , but I guess for a model train he needs much more stones/area. And drawing a few hundred stones would not be the way to go, more work and a nightmare to handle. My short brick wall was already quite complicated and drove me crazy as FreeCADs UI visibility and usability is shrinking rapidly when a sketch has to many objects. The question mark block is even more packet and was a hassle to deal with.

[Ender5r]

That’s too bad.

[Geit]

But it is a good example on how to wrap a texture around a cube

[Harlov]

thanks for your reply

I will try a little and see if I succeed with this, after all I am a beginner on FreeCad, I run with 0.19 of FreeCAD, I will surely come up with more questions about this,

thanks again

@Geit

Well, I would plainly use part design. Set up some measurements like track width and height, stone width/height and design the front as a flat arch without details.

After pading you get a plate with the arc. Basically the entire final shape.

Now I would create a sketch and design a simple repeatable pattern for the spacing between the stones using the pre defined width and height values as measurements. Use extrude followed by linear pattern, to create a wall pattern the sketch covering the entire plate. Change the z distance of the sketch, so the grid is only partial inside the base and use the Boolean operation in part design to subtract the grid from the base plate. This should give you a stone wall like effect.

It should be possible to pocket and use the linear pattern to get the entire grid done without the need of using the Boolean operation. I am currently not sure if FreeCAD will struggle with that. Sometimes it does. Use the most recent 0.19 of FreeCAD to avoid potential fallout.

Now you can work on the details and e.g. pad an arc around the curve to simulate rounded stones are used for the tunnel.

Using another sketch you can use uniform rectangles from the center point of the arc to create cutouts to make the round stones look like multiple stone plates, too. Similar to the flat on gaps between stones.

In the end you can create a sketch (always using % of the measurements to stay inside the model without breaking stuff) and add some shapes like triangles and more natural random shapes and holes to nibble away some of the stone parts. So it looks less perfect and uniform. If you pocket these, the wall looks already older and post processing your print with color is easier as you have a partly broken wall sections to work with.

When you use parametric design and references you can scale the model in the end to any model train scale you want and the result will look the same every time.

I hope this was explained well enough.

Designing objects is usually just finding a way to split an object into multiple operations. Add something, remove something and repeat. Naturally there are multiple ways to do this. Multiple ways involve multiple tools and with each tool you learn, the splitting gets easier and the work progresses faster.