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Case study: a 3D revolve vase

· Fox Bright

Draw half a vase as a spline, spin it around its centre line with Revolve, then add a handle with Pipe. Three features, and the shape is all in the sketch.

A pear-shaped vase with a flared lip and a ring handle, modelled in Fusion, with the spline profile still visible along one side.

Anything round, like a vase, a bottle, a knob or a wheel, is a revolve. You draw half of the outline on one side of a centre line, and Fusion spins it a full turn to make the solid. The shape comes from the curve you draw, so this case study is mostly about drawing a good spline.

The profile

  1. New design, units in millimetres. Sketch on the front plane (XY), so the vase stands upright.
  2. Draw a vertical construction line up from the origin. This is the axis the vase spins around. Press X with the line selected to make it construction.
  3. Draw the outside of the vase with a Fit Point Spline: start at the bottom on the axis, work up through the belly and the neck, and finish at the lip. Five to eight points is plenty. More points make a lumpier curve, not a smoother one.
  4. Drag the points and the green tangent handles until the curve looks right from across the room. The narrow neck and the flared lip are what make it read as a vase and not a jar.

The wall

A solid revolve gives you a solid lump. For a vase with a wall and an opening at the top, select the spline and use Offset to make a parallel copy inside it, a few millimetres in. Close the shape with a short line across the lip and a line down the axis at the bottom, so there is one closed profile between the two curves. Leave the floor thick enough to stand on.

Revolve

Revolve (Create → Revolve). Profile: the closed shape between the curves. Axis: the construction line. Angle: 360°. It comes out as one body.

If Revolve won’t select your profile, the sketch is not closed. Look for a gap where the offset curve meets the lines across the lip or the floor, or a spline that crosses the axis.

Now edit the sketch and drag a spline point. The vase updates, because the solid is driven by the curve.

The handle: Pipe

  1. Sketch on the same front plane. Draw a circle or an arc beside the body where the handle should be, overlapping the body a little at both ends.
  2. Pipe (Create → Pipe). Path: the circle or arc. Section: Circular, and set the section size, around 8 to 10 mm for a handle you could grip.
  3. Operation Join, so the handle and the vase are one body.

Pipe sweeps a round cross-section along a path. It is the quick version of a Sweep when the section is a plain circle.

Finish

Press A and drag a ceramic or glazed appearance onto the body. Orbit it and look at the silhouette from the side; if the curve has a flat spot or a kink, go back to the spline.

Share it

Save the design, then use Share → Public link (the share icon at the top right of Fusion, or right-click the design in the Data panel). Turn the link on and copy it. Anyone with the link can orbit the model in a browser without Fusion.