Tapered Spiral

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#1

Hi! Brand new here, and fairly new to Shapr3D. I’m trying to make a tapered spiral. I’m trying to recreate a chameleon’s tail shape. I’ll include pics below. I got as far as revolving a circle around axis to the amount of revolutions and length, but when I went to scale or change one of the ending circle profiles, it didn’t work… any way on how to achieve the chameleon tail? I’ll include pics below. Thank you.

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#2

Hi Kyler,

welcome to the forum.

Here is a way to do it:

  • create a first 90° segment of the spiral using guided loft tool, with the end of the 1/4 turn being a scaled version of the origin. In my exemple, I used 120%.
  • then duplicate the body and scale it by the same amount (120% in my exemple)
  • finaly, use the align tool to place the second segment at the right position
  • repeat the process as needed.

Unnamed Design
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(to speed up duplication, you can union the first 2 segments and duplicate it, with a scaling factor raised to the power of 2. In my exemple, 120% means scaling by 1.2, so for 2 segments, it means scaling by 1.2 * 1.2 = (1.2)^2 = 1.44, so 144%. Then you can union 4 segments, with a new scaling factor of 1.2 * 1.2 * 1.2 * 1.2 = (1.2)^4 = 2.0736 = 207.36%)

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#3

Here’s another way using Sweep and Scale.

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#4

Please allow me to apologise in advance. I tried to create the Chameleon Tail using various methods but ended up with this mess… I just don’t know what went wrong! :astonished:

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#5

Wow! Thank you for the quick reply and the tutorial! I appreciate that so much! :muscle:t2::sunglasses:

#6

Hey! Thank you for this tutorial as well! I can’t believe I didn’t think to scale the sweep on sections. I did tried it by sweeping that same spiral I drew with Spline and then once swept, tried scaling the one end smaller… I never worked out. But thanks a lot more sense. You guys are awesome! Ty!! :sunglasses:

#7

It may not be a chameleon tail but the final product looks dope :fire:

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#8

Thanks.

I was actually in the process of creating a video demonstrating two methods but my kids were arguing and fighting with each other so I set my laptop to one side for a while.

When I returned, @PEC and @TigerMike had already beat me to it and responded with both methods! :roll_eyes:

I decided to turn my frustration into humour and created the weird snake just for fun :snake: :rofl:

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#9

Hello TigerMike, sorry to bother you again, but may I ask how you were able to sweep in sections? After I spline the shape of the tail I want, it sweeps the whole thing, rendering a misshaped tail. Your’s is perfectly even. Please help if you can. Ty!

#10

Greetings Ty,
No bother at all. Note that the spiral sketch consists of ever enlarging 90° circle segments. Sweep works with one segment at a time. After sweeping a 90° curve, I scale the end face by ~130%. I then use the enlarged face for a new 90° sweep.

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