Hi all, I’m working on a project for work involving a bridging three linear extrusions to create a connecting piece that can hold them at a variety of angles. I’m doing this by creating a a series of lofts connecting each piece to each other along an edge, and then filling the gap that’s left between the profile sweeps. Initially, I did this for a two-way connection, and it was as simple as lofting between the two edges, this becomes more difficult when there’s a third rail involved as I can no longer loft or sweep2.
My issue is in creating a continuous (or near continuous) surface which follows these boundaries, hopefully avoiding any hard seams. I tried patch at first, but even with a large number of spans and high flexibility, I was running into issues with adhering to the surface boundary. My next try has been to loft up to where I can, and then create a quick planar triangle in the center to connect the lofts to. The issue here is that there’s a obvious line.
Is there a way to use my 3 boundary curves to create a continuous surface following it’s boundaries exactly using NURBS modelling? This may be mathematically impossible, or require starting from a different place. I’ve put this post in rhino rather than grasshopper because it’s more of a digital modelling question than a question of how to do it in gh.
Base System, linear extrusions meeting at generated bridge:
Edge lofts, profiles aligned to connect the extrusions at different angles, leaving gap at top and bottom:
Areas at top and bottom which need new method of creating surface. Shown here using patch. Won’t join to main edge lofts because patch surface edges don’t stay aligned to boundaries:
Second attempt using lofts, triangle in center to patch somehow, boundary curves visible:
