# Loft tool for ring shapes

**URL:** <https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/loft-tool-for-ring-shapes/41196>\
**Category:** Modeling Questions\
**Created:** [July 9, 2026, 3:47am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/loft-tool-for-ring-shapes/41196 "2026-07-09T03:47:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mtreadwell624](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@mtreadwell624](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/mtreadwell624)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 3:47am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/loft-tool-for-ring-shapes/41196/1 "2026-07-09T03:47:42Z")

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Hi! New to this software and I’m trying to mock up a little piece to 3d print. I have these rings of slightly different diameters which I am trying to connect using the loft tool. Though I drew guidelines, I cannot even get the tool to connect the faces before selecting my guidelines as it’s giving me “Error: operation failed as the resulting body would be invalid”. Help pleek, tyyyy!

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/3X/2/c/2c07db2e95661f2fc5372b22cb6b1b20c45a8061.png)

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**Author:** ![Oregonerd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/oregonerd/32/8012_2.png) [@Oregonerd](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Oregonerd)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 3:52am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/loft-tool-for-ring-shapes/41196/2 "2026-07-09T03:52:18Z")

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Can’t loft a hollow face. There is a workaround. Loft the circles then shell the shape.

 ![Screenshot 2026-07-08 210402](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/3X/9/0/90a83764f61f4a83c0eb68777c9aa6e3b9cc9b0e.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![DrKronos](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/drkronos/32/36064_2.png) [@DrKronos](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/DrKronos)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 11:33am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/loft-tool-for-ring-shapes/41196/3 "2026-07-09T11:33:08Z")

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Yes, this is a limitation of the loft tool. Rings don’t work, but the whole circles without the wall strengths pre-sketched will.

So there’s two ways of doing this:

- If the wall strengths are uniform throughout the whole tube, you can just loft the outer diameters and then use the shell tool to hollow it out.
- If the wall strength isn’t uniform, you’d loft the inner and outer profiles separately and use a boolean operation to subtract the inner from the outer object.

Edit: @Oregonerd beat me to it. 🙂