3D Modelling

2D, 3D, BIM - 7: The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet

By Rose Barfield 10 min May 2, 2019
2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet

Practical guide how to draw a toilet in CAD

Last time I showed you how to make a sink in BricsCAD. This week I will be showing you how to draw a toilet in CAD. We'll be using most of the techniques you've already learned, to move your CAD drafting to the next level. Be sure to check bathroom part 1 and part 2 if you get stuck.

New commands covered:

Watch video on YouTube

The Body

This week it's a little more complicated, but hang in there. I promise it's worth it.

The u-bend and bowl

I began by creating the u-bend and toilet bowl, using align, loft, simplify and shell.

To do this:

  1. Set up the outlines for your toilet.
  2. Use ALIGN to create the lofting shape of your toilet bowl.
    Scale entities based on alignment points: Yes.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 01 align
  3. LOFT the curves.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 02 loft
  4. Use DMSIMPLIFY. Select the solid.
  5. Use SolidEdit -- Body -- Shell. Select the flat, top and side faces to remove. Offset distance: 1.
    It will now look a bit like an old-fashioned, clay pipe.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 3 shell
  6. Extrude the face of the exit of the "pipe".2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 4 extrude
  7. Now the toilet bowl is complete. Hide it to keep the drawing tidy.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- hide

The main body

Next, I created the main body using revolve, extrude (taper), fillet and shell.

To do this:

  1. Create a closed, polyline in the shape of the toilet profile.
  2. REVOLVE the polyline. Angle: 180°.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 6 revolve
  3. Extrude the flat face with a taper. Distance: 75. Taper: 5°.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 7 extrude
  4. Select the angled surfaces and hit Delete to flatten the top and bottom surfaces.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 8 delete
  5. Extrude the flat, back surface again. Distance: 60.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 9 extrude
  6. Extrude the top surface. Distance: 10.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 10 extrude
  7. Draw a polyline or spline in the shape of the bowl opening on the top surface.
    Note: Ensure that the hole is smaller than the toilet bowl we just created.
  8. Extrude down. Distance: 15. Taper: 20°.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 11 hole
  9. Fillet the edges. Radius: 5.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 13 fillet
  10. Use SolidEdit -- Body -- Shell. Select the bottom face, back face, and the hole for removal. Distance: 1.
    The result should be similar to the image below.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 12 shell

Union

Once I had created both parts, I needed to fit them together. I simply extruded the top surface of the toilet bowl to the main body.

To do this:

  1. Use the Structure Browser. Show the toilet bowl.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 13 show
  2. Extrude top surface up to connect the 2 solids.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 14 extrude
  3. Hide the solid.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- hide (1)

The tank

A toilet wouldn't be very useful without a water flow (until the dry toilet is perfected of course), so the next step was creating the tank and flow pipe. For this model I have oversimplified the design but feel free to let your imagination go wild.

I created a flow piper using thicken and shell. Then created a tank by drawing a line and extruding with a taper. Next, I offset the top and extruded again to create a lid. I shelled the tank, added a handle, filleted the hard edges, extracted the excess material and created a hole for the pipe to join the two portions of the toilet together. As a finishing touch, I used a cylinder and an extruded spline, to create a handle.

To do this:

  1. Use the DMTHICKEN on a polyline in the direction of the water flow.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- thicken
  2. SolidEdit -- Body -- Shell. Select the pipe shape and remove the two flat faces. Distance: 0.5.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 16 shell
  3. Hide the tube.
  4. Use the Structure Browser. Show the first solid.
  5. Draw a line on the top of the toilet to mark the start of the tank.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- top view
  6. Extrude boundary using the 'create' option. Distance 100. Taper angle: 15.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 17 extrude
  7. Isolate this solid.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- isolate
  8. Use the manipulator tool to flatten the front and back surfaces of the tank.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 19 manipulator tool
  9. OFFSET the edges of the top. Distance: 5.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 20 offset
  10. Extrude the curve up using the 'create' option to draw a lid for the box. Distance: 6.
  11. DMFILLET the edges of the tank and lid. Radius: 2.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 21 fillet
  12. Use SolidEdit -- Body -- Shell. Select the bottom solid. Select the top face for removal.
    Tip: It's easier to do this if you hide the lid.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 22 shell
  13. Use CYLINDER to add a handle. Radius: 4.
    Note: Hit Shift to fix the UCS to the face plane of the lid. The face will change blue.
  14. Create a polyline on the surface of the cylinder in the shape of the handle.
  15. Extrude, 'unite' mode. Distance: 3.
    If you get stuck: This is exactly the same as the technique used in Part 2.
    2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 23 uniteextrude
  16. Use the Structure Browser. Show the piping.
  17. SUBTRACT the pipe from the tank.
    Note: If your pipe is deleted during this action check your settings. DELETETOOL should be "off". Value: 0.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 25 tank split
  18. The bottom of the tank will now have a hole cut into it, but will still be "one solid" in the Structure Browser. To fix this use SolidEdit -- Body -- seParate. Select the tank and hit Enter.
  19. Delete the excess material.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 26 separate
  20. UNISOLATEOBJECTS to show all entities.
  21. Repeat steps 17-19 to remove the material from the main toilet body.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- excess matterial
  22. DMPUSHPULL select the flat face of one end of the pipe. Adjust the length of the piping. Repeat for the other end.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 27 pushpull

The results should be something like this:

2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- 28 finish

The Seat

No toilet would be complete without a seat. I simply offset the edges of the hole, drew in the line-work, extruded the shapes and added components from my library to finish off.

To do this:

  1. Create a new layer. Set this as the new drawing layer. (a blue circle will be visible in the left column. This indicates the active layer.)2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- seat 0 layers
  2. Extract edges. 2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- seat 1 extract edges
  3. Hide the original layer. Click the lightbulb on the layers panel.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- layers off1
  4. JOIN the extracted edges to one spline.
  5. OFFSET the spline in both directions. Distance: 8.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- seat 2 offset
  6. Delete the original spline.
  7. Draw out your toilet seat shape.
    Note: If you're not comfortable with 2D drawing commands yet, check out our lessons.
  8. EXTRUDE the outer edge, up. Distance: 7. Taper: 5.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- seat 4 extrude
  9. OFFSET the top surface of the shape you just created.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- seat 5 offset
  10. EXTRUDE this, up, use the 'create' mode. Distance: 7. Taper: 5.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- seat 6 extrude
  11. Use the Manipulator tool to move this solid up. Distance: 2.
  12. Extrude the hole from the bottom portion of the seat.2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- seat 7 hole
  13. To finish use the Standard Parts Library.
    Note: The screws are components from the standard parts library.
    The hinge is a part I added to the library myself and I have used this on several projects. The screws are standard parts.
    2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- seat 8 final-touches

Finishing Up

Simply turn on all your hidden parts and you'll be able to admire your porcelain throne in all its glory.

2D, 3D, BIM - 7 The Bathroom Part 3 - The toilet- finish

Next time

Join me next time when I show you how to create the walls and floors of a building.

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Keep Reading

  1. Moving from 2D to 3D CAD
  2. 3D Drawing from engineering plans
  3. Drawing everything but the kitchen sink
  4. More Advanced Modeling
  5. The Shower
  6. The Sink
  7. The Toilet
  8. Walls and Floors
  9. The Roof
  10. Windows and Doors
  11. Create your own components
  12. Rubber Duck
  13. Laser-cut puzzle project

Note: This series is intended as a guide to demonstrate how to use different aspects of 3D modeling tools. It may not always demonstrate the fastest way of getting the result. Keep coming back to see if we cover a faster technique at a later date.

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