Sketch to Loft

[HopGabor62]

Thanks for all of your efforts, this seems to me the best choice to move on from my beloved Tinkercad. It does much more even in this state than I ever expected from TC. But I am a bit insatiable and have an idea, which probably may be useful.

Now if I place two sketches onto each other, a hole appears in the bigger one. Would it be possible to use the two sketches as a top and bottom of a loft-like object please? I think an icon may do it, if it is selected, then loft, otherwise hole. It doesn't matter which sketch is the top and which is the bottoem of course, it can be rotated as needed.

[henmedia]

@HopGabor62 thank you for the kind words, and welcome from Tinkercad. That is a good idea, but a big one. The Loft shape takes its two outlines from a short list (round, rectangle, or a polygon with a number of sides, each with its size, corner radius, offset, twist and tilt), not from free sketches: joining two free outlines point by point, and building an exact body from them, is a piece of work of its own, and layerling is a simple tool for designing 3D prints, not a full CAD program. The overlap becoming a hole is by design: in a sketch every second area is a hole.

What you can do now: the Loft shape between round, rectangle and polygon, and a Taper on a sketch body, which gives the same outline smaller or larger at the top. Which two shapes did you want to blend, for example a star into a circle, or a logo? Then I can see whether something smaller would do.

If you find layerling useful, a small donation helps me keep improving it. Thank you! 🙂

[HopGabor62]

In the following days when I'll be able to check my bank account I'm going to give you a small donation, you really deserve it.

My case is quite special, for what I needed such a tool. I got an stl of an Austro-Hungarian submarine (Holland type, U5 or U6), made in Blender. This drawing is in 1/350 scale without any details. I've enlarged it to 1/72 and added a lot of details in Tinkercad. Its bow section isn't as it was on the real one, so I tried to correct it. Unfortunately my only knowledge in 3D drawing is Tinkercad and of course it wasn't enough to do the job. Meshmixer did something, but when I printed it, it became ugly. I think with such a tool I could easily correct it, To be honest, I am too lazy to start study Blender only for this, because I could do almost everything what I needed in the past years even in Tinkercad.

[henmedia]

@HopGabor62 thank you for explaining what you need it for. To correct a bow on an STL you don't need a loft between sketches, this works in layerling today:

1. Drop the STL into the window. An imported mesh can be moved, turned, cut with holes and built upon. If it has a very large number of triangles, use Simplify first (Modify group): cutting and merging a mesh is calculated in your browser and has a triangle limit.
2. Cut the old bow off with Split: it cuts with a plane, and you delete the bow half. A box set as a hole over the bow does the same.
3. Build the new bow from shapes: a sphere stretched to an oval, or the Loft shape from round to round with a smaller top end for a pointed bow. Put it against the cut face and group it with the hull to join them.

I haven't tried your file, so how well it fits depends on the hull. If a step doesn't work, tell me where it gets stuck.

[HopGabor62]

I attach two shots. the one I needed is whith the sharp edge on the top (foremost and lower one). Thanks.

[henmedia]

@HopGabor62 thank you, the photos help. So you need the pointed bow with the sharp edge on top, not the round one. Then a stretched sphere is the wrong building block, use these:

• For the pointed tip: a Cone or a Pyramid, stretched long, turned so that its tip points forward and its base sits against the cut face of the hull. Make it as wide and high as the hull is there.
• For the sharp edge on top: a Wedge as a hole, placed so that it slices the top of the tip at a slant. What remains is the sharp edge.

Group the tip with the hull to join them. I haven't seen your file, so you may need to adjust sizes and angles until the lines run into the hull smoothly. If you get stuck on one step, tell me which one.

[HopGabor62]

Thanks, I will try these. It would be great, if i could make this and finally could build this ship.

[kennard42]

This very similar functioning program has a loft between sketches, at least up to three.

https://maxsikorski.github.io/jumpstart-3d/

[HopGabor62]

@henmedia Hi Stefan, here you are the file. I tried to import it and waited almost half an hour, then left the design page, and it asked me if I want to keep the empty design.
Almost sure that the STEP is corrupt, because I tried to load it into 3dviewer.net and after a while it said that the file does not contain any meshes. Layerling's initial message disappears after a while, but nothing happens, so an error message would be great.

About the file. This is a part of an FBX, that is a part of a 3D game, when it will be completed, I got the file from the author many months ago.
I converted the FBX with 3dviewer to STL, but of course it has a lot of errors, that I fixed with 3D builder. Then I made a STEP from both files with Jumpstart 3D. Interestingly the step from the original STL could be loaded, while the fixed one cannot.
I can live with this, because I needed the STEP only to be able to separate the mesh, and I can then fix the separately saved files.

Steps.zip

[henmedia]

@HopGabor62 thank you for the files. You were right: model_3__repaired_std.step is the one that fails. The CAD kernel layerling uses (OpenCascade, the same one 3dviewer.net uses) gets stuck reading it and never finishes, so there is nothing layerling can do with that file itself. The one from the original STL comes in, as you saw.

What was wrong on our side is that you got no message. In the next version the message stays on screen while a STEP file is read, and if the kernel is still stuck after 3 minutes, layerling stops it and tells you the file is probably damaged and that importing the same model as STL usually works. That message stays until you close it.

[henmedia]

@HopGabor62 the clearer STEP message is out in layerling 1.152.1: while a STEP file is read, the message stays, and if the CAD kernel gets stuck on a file like yours, layerling stops after 3 minutes and says the file is probably damaged and that importing it as STL usually works.

[HopGabor62]

@henmedia Thank you Stefan, I just have tried and the message works properly. Importing files may take a long time, it is very useful like this.

[henmedia]

@HopGabor62 thank you for checking it, glad it helps. Since the loft from sketches and the import message are both in now, I'm marking this idea as done. For anything new, just open a new discussion.