Sheet 02 of 11

3D Sketch and Butt Joints: a Coffee Table Frame

Q: Why make the legs and the rails as two Frame Members?

So the rails can have their own anchor, Top, while the legs stay centred. Each Frame Member has one profile placement. The legs are centred on their lines; the rails hang from their lines with the anchor at Top, so their tops are level with the legs.

Q: The rail's line is drawn at the table's top height. What does Anchor: Top do?

Puts the top of the tube on the line, so the tube hangs below it. The anchor is the point of the profile that sits on the line. With Top, the tube's top face is on the line, so the rail's top is exactly at the table's height.

Q: A rail is drawn the table's full length, through the legs. What goes wrong?

It overlaps the legs: the cut list is too long and the pieces won't fit together. SolidCraft makes the overlapping piece without complaint, so the model looks fine, but the rail is 80 mm too long to fit between the legs. Stop each line at the leg it butts against.

In 6 minutes you'll draw a coffee table frame in a 3D sketch, make the legs and the rails as two Frame Members, set the rails flush with the tops of the legs, and get its cut list right: rails that stop against the legs, not through them.

Part: Coffee Table Frame
Profile: Rect Tube 40x40x2
Material: Default
Time: 6 min
Status: Open

OP 10Watch
OP 20Turn the part
OP 30Build
OP 40Inspect
OP 50Quiz

OP 10Watch

Video in productionBuild along with the steps in OP 30 meanwhile.

OP 20Turn the part

Drag to turn, scroll or pinch to zoom.

OP 30Build it in SolidCraft

The finished part — Build your part from this drawing: all sizes in mm, to the outside of the bars. Zoom with the buttons, a pinch or Ctrl + scroll (double-click works too), then drag to move.

Your task

Build this coffee table frame in SolidCraft, all in 40 × 40 × 2 mm square tube. The table is 900 mm long, 450 mm wide and 400 mm high.

In a new design, Weldments tab › New Sketch on XY. In the sketch palette open More and tick 3D Sketch.
Draw the four legs with the Line tool, straight up from the floor (z = 0) to the top (z = 400). A leg's line is its middle, 20 mm in from each outside face: at (20, 20), (880, 20), (880, 430) and (20, 430).
Draw the four rails at the top, z = 400, each stopping against the legs it meets: the long rails from x = 40 to x = 860 along y = 20 and y = 430, the short rails from y = 40 to y = 410 along x = 20 and x = 880. The drawing lists every point. Finish Sketch.
Weldments tab › Frame Member: pick the four leg lines, Profile Rectangular Tube, Width 40 mm, Height 40 mm, Wall 2 mm, Name Leg, OK.
Frame Member again: pick the four rail lines, the same tube, Anchor Top, Name Rail, OK. The rails' tops are now level with the legs'.
Work out each piece's cut length from its line.

What to write down

Box 1: How many pieces to cut.
Box 2: The cut length of a long rail.
Box 3: The cut length of a leg.
Box 4: The cut length of a short rail.
Box 5: The total length of tube to buy.

Type them below and press Check.

OP 40Inspect

Enter what SolidCraft shows you. Each value is checked against SolidCraft's own result, within the tolerance shown. Nothing you type leaves this page.

Box 1How many pieces to cut exact

Box 2Cut length of a long rail ± 0.5 mm mm

Box 3Cut length of a leg ± 0.5 mm mm

Box 4Cut length of a short rail ± 0.5 mm mm

Box 5Total length of tube to buy ± 1 mm mm

Stuck? Compare with the finished part

Download the finished part

Open it in SolidCraft (File › Open) next to yours and compare the timeline, the rule and each feature's sizes: the first one that differs is where yours went wrong.

exercise · Rect Tube 40x40x2 · cut lengths in mm

Profile	Cut length mm	Pieces
Rect Tube 40x40x2	820	2
Rect Tube 40x40x2	400	4
Rect Tube 40x40x2	370	2

8 pieces · 3980 mm of bar in all

OP 50Quiz

Q1Why make the legs and the rails as two Frame Members?

Q2The rail's line is drawn at the table's top height. What does Anchor: Top do?

Q3A rail is drawn the table's full length, through the legs. What goes wrong?