Hollow Loft Alternative Solution

Problem: No Hollow Loft

You cannot loft if the result shape will be hollow

Alternative Solution

Split your “hollow” loft sketches in half and do two lofts. Then union the two after.

new user, so could only upload one image, so here is one half of my shape.

I nearly achieved what I pictured in my head, although the loft from square to curved shape ended up a little wonky, so I had to tinker with the vertices.

This post is partially to share the alternative, and to ask for advice on other ways to solve for this kind of shape. Any advice?

I see the Shell tool, but I would not like to have uniform thickness. One end should have thick walls, and the other thin…

p.s. I used the shape below to subtract from the bottom of this lofted shape for a curved face.

Result shape

Greetings,
Here is another way to achieve a varying wall thickness. I sketched a square and and circle and did a loft. Then I made the body semi-transparent for visual clarity. I shelled the body, then selected the inner edges and used the Scale tool.

-Mike

2 Likes

@Kennette21
In S3D there are usually a choice of methods to achieve a given goal.
To add to @TigerMike‘s suggestion you could consider the following:

Scale the whole Body and then Transform > Scale using the Copy Feature , followed by Transform > Move/Rotate to align the bottom faces of both Bodies. Then Tools > Subtract to remove the Inner Body:

Push or Pull the Hole through the top face, and Scale the bottom edges of the Inner Body as shown by @TigerMike:

You are clearly capable of Shaping the bottom face.

3 Likes

wow, awesome use of the Scale tool, I would have never considered it! Thank you so much for a quick and eloquent solution! I am really impressed with the support community so far.

All the alternative suggestions eventually made me realize I was trying to do something complicated from the get go. Simplified the design and it is much better now :slight_smile:

wow, another wonderful example of some Shapr magic, thank you! I am seeing more and more of what you pointed out: “S3D there are usually a choice of methods to achieve a given goal”.

Also noticing how powerful the Subtract and Intersect tools are if you start thinking with those tools in mind. Thanks again for all your help!