T-shaped blend between three circular profiles

Hi Folks,
I’m trying to create a T-shaped surface between 3 circular profiles. I’ve done it using some straightforward lofts and blends but it looks very mechanical. I don’t like seeing the obvious tangencies between the surfaces. I’m trying for something more organic. Can anyone recommend an approach to blending, sweeping, or lofting between the three circular profiles to develop a more organic looking surface?

Not sure exactly what you’re after without a screen shot. Here’s a video that might help.

Please find attached a file where the blend is three-fold symmetric (the approach is easy to apply to a T-join as well I think). I approached this by splitting the circular profiles in halves and using Sweep1 to create the half-tube blends. Then, fill the hole in between using PlanarSrf (in this case when it is planar), EdgeSrf (may have tangency issues), Patch (will give good results usually) or NetworkSrf (need to define more profiles probably).

three-tube-join.3dm (275.1 KB)

Thanks Much for the tutorial! I tried to past in a screen shot when I sent the note but something in the system or the website was blocking it.

mD

Hi menno,

Thanks for responding! I’ll give your file a look.

Best,
mD