Technical Assistant

[Leif Rosenbæk]

I have been playing around with Vectorworks for a while, and found it very good for most jobs.

 

Question.:

is it possible to sweep/skin/loft several different circles diameters along a center line path?

 

I can easily make the 3D path and aline all circles perpendicular to the path - but cant figure out how to sweep/skin/loft all the circles together?

 

Thank you in advance!

Leif Rosenbæk

[Pat Stanford]

Convert the circle to NURBS Curves and then use the Loft Surface tool in the No Rail mode to make your surface.

 

A couple of tips. If you convert all the circles to NURBS (Modify Menu:Convert:Convert to NURBS) at once you get a group. You will either have to enter the group or ungroup to be able to loft.

 

Make sure that the direction of each circle is the same.

 

Click on each curve in order to set the start point. Make sure you get as straight of line up the side of the stack as possible.

 

Click the green check mark in the Mode bar to process the loft.

 

From the dialog box if you click the Make Solid check box you will get top and bottom surfaces added for you.

 

 

[Leif Rosenbæk]

@Pat Stanford 

1 hour ago, Pat Stanford said:

Convert the circle to NURBS Curves and then use the Loft Surface tool in the No Rail mode to make your surface.

 

A couple of tips. If you convert all the circles to NURBS (Modify Menu:Convert:Convert to NURBS) at once you get a group. You will either have to enter the group or ungroup to be able to loft.

 

Make sure that the direction of each circle is the same.

 

Click on each curve in order to set the start point. Make sure you get as straight of line up the side of the stack as possible.

 

Click the green check mark in the Mode bar to process the loft.

 

From the dialog box if you click the Make Solid check box you will get top and bottom surfaces added for you.

 

1 hour ago, Pat Stanford said:

Dear Pat,

Thank you - I will try out this a little later - but same time noticed that you did not mention the center line path I would like the circles to follow? Best Regards leif R.

 

[Leif Rosenbæk]

@Pat Stanford

Dear Pat,

Thank you - I will try out this a little later - but same time noticed that you did not mention the center line path I would like the circles to follow?

The center line goes in all three direction and all circles centered to this path.

 

Best Regards

Leif Rosenbæk

 

[Pat Stanford]

Start with something simple to learn how it works. If you move/rotate your circles so they are along the path you want the Loft should still work. You will probably want to be extra careful on how you connect the curves before the loft.