Need Help Leveling Ends of a Cylinder Shaped Loft

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1

I need help here please.

Is there a way to make the four cylinder type shapes in my design become cylinders with flat ends?

I am trying to create this design with 3D printing in mind. The cylinders represent wooden dowel rods. I want create holes in the four mounting ovals so that the dowels can be fitted into the holes.

The current cylinders were created by drawing circles onto the flat surfaces of the ovals and then using the loft tool to connect the drawn circles. As it stands currently, the cylinders that represent dowels have ends that are parallel with the xy plane. I’d like them to have natural flat ends that are perpendicular to their length.

You can download my shapr files here if you like.

2

It appears that your yellow dowels were created by using Move-Rotate to skew the angle per your desired position on the top oval and bottom oval.

Here’s a method that can work for you. Once I created the yellow cylinder, I moved it to an arbitrary compound angle to fit inside the upper and lower ovals. In other words…I eyeballed it. A little trick is to make bodies temporarily semi-transparent while working on them.

If you need more precise alignment you can create a construction plane at the desired compound angle and then extrude your yellow dowels to suit.

3

Thanks Mike!

I’d like to figure out how to add a construction plane that is exactly 90 degrees to the rods that I created. I can’t seem to figure that out.

Also I had created the my rods by drawing circles onto the flat surfaces and then used Loft.

4

Select the end of your rod and choose add plane. Select the plane and select the move tool. Move the center point of your plane (if desired) and rotate.

5

I don’t think that will work. He created the rods using Loft. That means the rods are really oval cylinders. I created a const plane at the top of one of his rods. Then I rotated and moved (eyeballed) the const plane more or less normal to the (oval) rod. Section shows an oval. Top view of the rod is a circle.

6

Thank you everyone for the replies.

I need connect these points with precision.

I’m wondering if there is a different approach to the problem?

7

I think I have a way however it is a bit tedious. Are your current yellow rod end points in the precise location to start with? I ask because you state the need to connect with precision.

8

Here’s a method that might work for you. There may be a better way, but this is all I can come up with for now. I used your upper and lower ovals and sketched a circle on each. This represents the precise alignment points for a 6mm dia rod. At the end I used my highly used and favorite tool…Replace Face.
Let me know if any questions.

9

@TigerMike Okay. That totally makes sense.

I figure out another way to do it last night.

I drew the circles on the flat surfaces of the upper and lower ovals. Then I created an axis, using the 2 points option. From there I created a plan that is perpendicular to the axis. Then rotated the plane. Then drew a rectangle and used the revolve tool to create the cylinder that has flat ends.

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10

yes the current end points are in their desired locations.

11

Nicely done. As you can see I took extra steps to create that perpendicular construction plane. Yours was simpler by creating the plane from the construction axis. I didn’t realize one could make a perpendicular plane at an axis by using the Type: Perpendicular to Edge at Point. I learned something :slightly_smiling_face:. Thanks.

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Thanks! This is what I figured out last night. Thanks for much for taking the time!