Stuck trying to create a closed complex shape…could do with some guidance please! After multiple attempts, and getting close, I’ve reverted back to my original curves for a fresh start but no amount of lofts, rails or curve networks are helping me with my limited experience (I’m originally a 2D bloke).
I’ve attached a render-view that almost worked, but I couldn’t get smooth transitions between the surfaces and that meant I couldn’t get a nice filleted edge everywhere I wanted it. So I’m back to my curves (also attached), looking for a bit of help if anyone has the time…
Sometimes you have to extend your lines or shapes past what you have and then work backwards. My first thing is the “front” & “back” curves that make up your sloped end. Should these be planer?
I know what you mean about the sloped edges…but no…not planar… I think my biggest issue is getting the arc corner bit to blend in nicely, but my sloppy curves are probably not helping! Many thanks and I shall push on! Cheers, Phil
Yeah, that was a tricky one… Rebuild the curves though. Have a look in plan and in the front view, the curves are not aligned. Work with the shape with square edges and add the fillets later, it’ll make it easier.
Also use the _Circle command with 3x tangents selected in the front view and the _ProjectToCplane command from the right view to rebuild and clean up the curves for the loft.
A bit of trimming as rinorudi illustrated.
It’s fairly straight forward when you know the two fillets at the top are 10mm and the bottom fillet is 12mm.
Mine’s out by a fraction in the width at the top but it’s an illustration, I didn’t have the time to sit down and model it fully.
I’d started with squares and sharp corners originally, but for the life of me couldn’t get the 12mm bottom fillet to work nicely so I went off thinking that I needed it from the beginning…its probably added more complication than necessary
Have a look at my file. It’s a little easier if the geometry is planar and/or matching. When I tried it with your original lines it threw up a load of inconsistencies so I quickly knocked out some new curves.
By projecting the curves to the CPlane in different views I was able to redraw lines and curves tangent to one another then moving them in the X and Y to loft produced cleaner results. I didn’t fillet the top corners I used two circles, trimmed and then extruded to trim the model.
The bottom 12mm was a simple fillet from 12mm to 0mm.
It’s slightly out but then it was an example not a working model
(I also cheated the lighting so you couldn’t see the straight edge on the front face which I think is unavoidable?
