Shoe last - how to create one close surface from a complex mesh

Rhino Rhino for Windows
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shoe-last.jpg800×600 55.9 KB

Hello folks,
great to be here!
Is there a strategy to create one close surface from a complex mesh? (in this case a .stl-file of a shoe last)

I tried out several things (primarily I extracted curves by projection. Then I lofted them, I sweeped them along one and two paths, I used the network of curves, I matched the surfaces…) But it did’t work.
I know there is software for reconstructing surfaces from meshes on the market.
But is it possible to do it with Rhino only?

Grateful for useful informations,
Dirk

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Hi Dirk,

Without a plugin this task can be done by creating sections and then rebuilding them to create clean surfaces.
I think that the biggest challenge is to find the natural order of the form.
May be you can build this in 3 different surfaces: top, bottom and the big more vertical one.
I would make this 3 surfaces in a way they intersect, so then you can trim and finally add the fillet.
If this is something you will have to do frequently I would consider VSR plugin.

I hope this help,
Joaquín

1 Like
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I attached an excerpt from a tutorial about shoe creation. It was written for an older version of Rhino, but it might still be useful.ShoeTutorial Excerpt.pdf (112.7 KB)

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Hey Joaquín,

thanks a lot for your advice! I will try it this way.
If I can handle it, I will give a short summary of how it worked the best.
If not I will have to ask the forum one more time…

For the moment, thank you for sharing your knowledge,
Dirk

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Hello Margaret,

I just browsed through the PDF.
Indeed, it seems to be a good starting point for me!

Thank you,
Dirk