Sketching on Curved Surfaces and Spheres in Fusion 360 (2024)

You will learn how to wrap 3D text around a curved surface and a sphere. Don’t skip any of the steps. Each step in this tutorial complements the other to achieve the result shown above.

✨ Tip: Check out our earlier post on the basics of sketching.

Sketching on A Curved Surface

Wrap text, sketches, and patterns around a cylinder.

Step 1

In the toolbar, drop-down the CREATE menu > Click Create Sketch. Select a plane parallel to the face of the curve.

In the edit mode, go to the CREATE menu > Text > Click and drag to type text in. Use the TEXT window to adjust the properties > Click OK.

Select the text sketch > drop-down MODIFY menu > Click Move/Copy (Shortcut: M). Use arrows to drag the sketch in front of the surface.

✨ Tip: To use an imported profile: go to Insert dropdown arrow > Insert SVG / DXF > Click Insert from my computer > Browse and select the drawing file > Click Open > Select a plane vertically parallel to the cylinder > Drag arrows to align the profile with the cylinder > In the INSERT SVG window, Click OK. Continue to the next step…

Step 2

Select the sketch > drop-down CREATE menu > Click Emboss.

Step 3

In the EMBOSS window, next to Faces > Click Select > Select the cylinder > Click OK.

✨ Tip: Slightly increase the value of Depth for more control over the extrusion later on.

Sketches are hidden by default after an emboss, in case of multiple embosses, unhide the layer of the sketch in BROWSER, under Sketches category dropdown arrow > toggle the eye of sketch layers to unhide them.

In Phase two, we create a sphere, use the Press Pull command to grab the backside surface of all letters into the center of the sphere, then use an offset surface to split the letters’ front surface. As a result, we have concentric emboss surfaces and a unified spherical body.

Sketching on A Sphere

Embed the sketch from the cylinder to a sphere.

Create a Sphere

1. Drop-down the CREATE menu > Click Sphere.
2. In the SPHERE window, assign the same diameter as the cylinder.
3. Next to Operation > Click New Body.
4. Click on the center of the cylinder to place the sphere.

5. Select the sphere, go to the MODIFY drop-down menu > Click Move/Copy (Shortcut: M).
6. Move the sphere up, to align it with the text.

Cut The Cylinder

1. In BROWSER, expand Bodies > toggle the eye icon of the sphere body to hide it.
2. Select the upper surface of the cylinder.
3. From CREATE dropdown menu > Click Extrude (Shortcut: E).
4. Push the extrusion arrow downwards to Cut as an operation.
5. In the EXTRUDE window, next to Extent Type > Select ALL.

Press Pull

1. Press SHIFT on the keyboard + Click on the inner faces of the letters.
2. In the Surface tab, drop-down the MODIFY menu > Click Press Pull (Shortcut: Q).
3. Pull the arrow into the center of the sphere.

Offset Surface

1. Drop-down the CREATE menu > Click Offset.
2. In the OFFSET window, determine the depth of the embossing by changing the value for the Distance.
3. Next to Faces / Surface Bodies > Click Select.
4. Select the sphere > Click OK.

Split Body

1. Drop-down MODIFY menu > click Split Body.
2. Select all letters.
3. In the SPLIT BODY window, Splitting Tool(s) > click Select.
4. Select the sphere.
5. Click OK.

This will wrap the text spherically using the offset surface.

Then, in the BROWSER > Bodies drop-down arrow, find the offset sphere surface shown as an orange icon and all the split bodies below it, and hide them by toggling the eye icon, or delete them for good.

The letters are still separate floating bodies, combine them with the sphere…

Combine

Select everything in the view > go to MODIFY menu > click Combine. In the COMBINE window, click OK.

That’s it. Let’s roll.

✨ Tip: To learn how to spin a render around an axis, without using cloud services, check out this tutorial on 360 Spinning Animation From A 3D Model.