extending a shape

[MattG]

I have this shape of a metal frame that I reverse engineered and measured a completed one. Now I am trying to take it and extend it. Currently it is a subtracted solid with a decent amount of subtractions imbeded in it. Not the frame has a specific top and bottom cut away that i want to keep but just make it longer in the middle. How should I do this?

My thoughts have been convert to slice. Then convert to nurbs and take the bottom points and join to the top points. However when I do this I lose the shape at the top because I cannot move just the one verticie.

Next try the same as the first but with 3d polygons. It just gets really messy.

I in the end want it to be one solid piece again ideally a solid, but if not a nurbs.

Any thoughts?

I am attaching an example.

[Ray Libby]

What I would have suggested is to edit the primitives (is that the correct word?) but after opening your file it has too many levels of solid additions and subtractions. It's hard to tell exactly how you did it, but it seems if it had been constructed in a simpler manner it wouldn't be that hard to add to the length. What exactly is it?

[Dieter @ DWorks]

You can do this by just edition the base forms of the solid.

First of all: When forming solids with additions and subtractions, keep following tips in mind:

* before adding solids, make all components first and then add them all in once, this will reduce the history of the solid and therefore it will be easily editeble.

* The same counts for subtracting solids.

* You can also cut solids instead of subtractiong with the curve split tool. (very handy!)

* Make sure you know how it must be reshaped when it must be edited. If you know this, make your solid in the way this is easiliy be done. You can become an extrude in multiple ways.

* You can always go steps back by ungrouping the solids, this will result in undoing the last step and sometimes may help in reforming the solid. (You can do this even with chamfers and fillets.

As you make more and more 3D objects, you will find better ways to make them more editable after making them. And if you need that object a lot with different heights, etc.. there are always scripts to be made.

[MattG]

I agree it would be nice to be able to make it in a neater fashion. And sense I made this I have learned some better tools to do things cleaner. I just would have thought there would have still been some sort of s simple way to edit this. I mean I can understand why not, but it seems like there should be something.

As for what it is I am attaching a picture. It is the frame that these live in. I drew a nice version of the small one and the big one should be easy because it is the same just elongated in the middle. Now comes the tricky part.