SureShelter

SureShelter – A Fast, Durable, and Modular Emergency Shelter

In the face of natural disasters, humanitarian crises, and large public events, cities and organizations often struggle with the challenge of deploying temporary infrastructure that is both effective and sustainable. SureShelter is a response to that challenge—a tent-like, rapidly deployable shelter designed to be quick to set up, robust in structure, simple to manufacture, and reusable across scenarios.

Inspired by the rugged utility of military tent systems, SureShelter uses a scaffolding-style frame built from only five essential components: poles, cross couplers, T couplers, a durable canvas covering, and rope. This minimal yet effective part list allows for a completely toolless setup, ensuring that individuals with minimal training can deploy it in minutes. This also allows for easy mass-procurement and easy manufacturing of the whole system.

Key Features:

1. Only 5 Simple Parts
2. Poles
3. Cross Couplers
4. T Couplers
5. Canvas Covering
6. Rope
7. Modular & Expandable
8. Connect multiple SureShelters to form larger, communal shelters for medical aid, temporary housing, or command centers. Expansion is achieved through the same ropes and couplers in the frame, and with the Velcro on the Canvas Covering, requiring zero extra parts!
9. Weather-Resistant
10. The angled A-frame design and canvas covering protect against wind and rain.
11. Reusable & Sustainable
12. Built to be disassembled, stored, and reused.
13. Robust Yet Lightweight
14. The structural integrity of the frame supports significant loads while remaining easy to carry and assemble.
15. Tool-Free Assembly
16. Ideal for fast set-up anywhere.

SureShelter is temporary, adaptable, and can be repurposed or reused once its immediate need has passed. Its modular design makes it highly flexible, whether it’s used for disaster response, outdoor clinics, research camps, or pop-up event spaces.

The following sections of this Instructable will walk through the major design steps behind SureShelter's CAD, developed using Autodesk Fusion 360.

The design, iteration, and publication of this whole project was done through Fusion 360. The steps below will show how to use Fusion's large suite of features to handle the designing of project from start to finish! Check out the CAD here: https://a360.co/45x8k2D

1. Create a sketch for the profile of the poles. (Sketch1)
2. Extrude the sketch to the desired length of the poles.
3. Fillet the edges appropriately.

1. Derive the pole's outer diameter into this design.
2. Sketch the basic profile of the colinear connection, ensure to leave some tolerance between the outer diameter of the pole and the inner diameter of the coupler. (Sketch1)
3. Extrude the profile sketch symmetrically to get a hollow tube.
4. Construct a plane tangent to the top surface of the tube, this will be orthogonal to the remaining connection in the 'T'. (Plane1)
5. Create a sketch on Plane1, identical to Sketch1. (Sketch2)
6. Extrude Sketch2 in two directions. Outwardly, extrude till it's equivalent to the other connections. Inwardly, use the "to all" extent.
7. Construct a plane offset from the top of the newly extruded connection. (Plane2)
8. Create a sketch on Plane2. This sketch will represent the top-profile of the triangular braces. (Sketch3)
9. Use the 'split face' command to split the outward face of step 6 along Plane2.
10. Use the 'split face' command to split the outward face of Step 3 and the lower, outward face of Step 6 along the profile made in Sketch3.
11. Use the loft command to connect two adjacent split faces into the triangle brace for any one side.
12. Create a sketch on the triangle brace from Step 11 with the hole for the rope. (Sketch4)
13. Extrude Sketch4 to cut through the triangle base, leaving a hole for the ropes later.
14. Construct a midplane between the two ends of the tube from Step 3, or you can us the origin plane if your design is centered. (Plane3)
15. Mirror Step 11 and 13 along Plane3 to create the bracing and hole for the other side.
16. Select the face that was split during Step 9 and delete it, giving a smooth body from Step 6.
17. Select the face that was split on the underside of the model during Step 10 and delete it, giving a smooth body from step 3.
18. Fillet the edges appropriately.

1. Derive the pole's outer diameter into this design.
2. Sketch the basic profile of the colinear connection, ensure to leave some tolerance between the outer diameter of the pole and the inner diameter of the coupler. (Sketch1)
3. Extrude the profile sketch symmetrically to get a hollow tube.
4. Construct a plane tangent to the top surface of the tube, this will be orthogonal to the one of the connections in that make the cross coupler. (Plane1)
5. Create a sketch on Plane1, identical to Sketch1. (Sketch2)
6. Extrude Sketch2 in two directions. Outwardly, extrude till it's equivalent to the other connections. Inwardly, use the "to all" extent.
7. Construct a plane offset from the top of the newly extruded connection. (Plane2)
8. Create a sketch on Plane2. This sketch will represent the top-profile of the triangular braces. (Sketch3)
9. Use the 'split face' command to split the outward face of step 6 along Plane2.
10. Use the 'split face' command to split the outward face of Step 3 and the lower, outward face of Step 6 along the profile made in Sketch3.
11. Use the loft command to connect two adjacent split faces into the triangle brace for any one side.
12. Create a sketch on the triangle brace from Step 11 with the hole for the rope. (Sketch4)
13. Extrude Sketch4 to cut through the triangle base, leaving a hole for the ropes later.
14. Select the extrusion from Step 6, the loft from Step 11, and the extrusion from Step 13 for a circular pattern around the axis though the center of the tube from Step 3 (should be one of the origin axes) at a spacing of 130°. This will create the remaining 4th connection.
15. Construct a midplane between the two ends of the tube from Step 3, or you can us the origin plane if your design is centered. (Plane3)
16. Mirror Step 11, 13, and 14 along Plane3 to create the bracing and hole for the other side.
17. Select the face that was split during Step 9 and delete it, giving a smooth body from Step 6.
18. Select the face that was split on the underside of the model during Step 10 and delete it, giving a smooth body from step 3.
19. Fillet the edges appropriately.

Use joints to assemble the skeleton of the tent.

1. Insert the skeleton structure
2. Create a sketch around the skeleton structure, representing the side-on shape of the tent's canvas on one side. (Sketch1)
3. Create a sheet metal flange from the Sketch1's contour.
4. Create a sketch on the inner face of the canvas what will have the window. Sketch the window's shape, and connecting tabs that would be on the same face as the window. (Sketch2)
5. Use the split face tool to split the inner and outer window-faces using the window sketch from Sketch2.
6. Assign the window the appearance of a transparent/translucent material.
7. Extrude the connecting tabs on Sketch2.
8. Fillet the connecting tabs to make them look realistic.
9. Fillet the connecting tabs to make them look realistic.
10. Create a sketch at the outer peak of the canvas (parallel to Sketch1) for the curved brackets around the poles/joints. (Sketch3)
11. Extrude the brackets from Sketch 3.
12. Extrude the brackets from Sketch 3, but start the extrude from an offset, creating another, similar set of brackets.
13. Unfold the canvas.
14. Create a sketch along the outer surface of the canvas of a long rectangle. This sketch will represent the Velcro that allows two SureShelter to expand. (Sketch4)
15. Extrude Sketch4 outward.
16. Give this feature a darker color, representing the 'hooks' side of the Velcro.
17. Extrude Sketch4 inwards, starting on the inner face.
18. Give this feature a lighter color, representing the 'loops' side of the Velcro.
19. Refold the canvas.
20. Mirror the whole canvas across the XY plane.
21. Mirror the whole canvas across the YZ plane.
22. Remove the skeleton structure from Step 1.

Overall, Autodesk's Fusion360 is the only platform needed to produce the SureShelter's design. Additionally, all supplementary publications like the animated GIFs, videos, and renderings were produced through Fusion's animation, scripts API, and rendering features respectively.

Ensure you check out the full CAD model to inspect more details and features within the design such as the rope-system, the expandability setup, and many more innovations. The SureShelter's design allows it to be the most practically manufacturable design. It is also the most reliable solution for any quick, robust, and reusable sheltering needs.