Operation failed because resulting body wouldn't be valid

I am trying to make a tube with tapered ends to adapt an air pump for dinghy inflation. I have drawn all of the appropriate diameters on construction planes at the correct distances. (I think this is the best way to do it.) I can loft the concentric circles at each end without issue and I can loft the bend inside the control lines with no issue but as soon as I try and loft the bend faces onto which ever end I start from I get an “operation failed resulting body wouldn’t be valid error”. Should I do this in three pieces and use UNION to join them into one. I need to do a SHELL operation when I have the lofting finished. Thank you for all of your help. —More information: I think I was clicking on the sketch and not the face at the bottom of the bend because I was able to get the loft to work between the two circles but as soon as I click on a guide line for the bend I get the message.—

https://support.shapr3d.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

I figured it out. I lofted the bent part and hid it and then lofted the other two part. I unhid the center part but for some reason I had to loft it again but that time it all worked. The new problem is getting shell to work. I suspect it’s because of the planes. It worked at the bottom plane but I can’t find faces anyplace else. Is there guidance someplace on when to hide things to accomplish this sort of task? It seems to be a matter of when to hide bodies and sketches.

Now that you have the bodies, you don’t need those sketches in view.
Try

  • hide all sketches and planes
  • select the bodies and union them to make one body
  • select the two circular ends of the body
  • click on shell.

Thank you! So much easier, I think it was a big step forward in my understanding of Shapr3D… It it correct to say that the tools menu works only on bodies and all planes and sketches should be hidden or are there exceptions?

Hi Bill,

No, that would not be a good assumption. It seemed to me that having sketches “in the way” might be causing problems for you. In fact some tools need sketches. I would like to recommend some great tutorials:

Thanks, I have watched some of those and played along. My issue with all of the tutorials
I’ve watched is that they seem to be demonstrations without explanation. Not to say that aren’t helpful but I obviously miss important things. I’ll keep watching and experimenting with your hints I think things will be a lot clearer.

You’re welcome. Don’t hesitate to ask for help here in the forum!