Everything you should know about LOFT command of AutoCAD – Create a Centerline Loft

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For solid lofts, select closed curves in 2D or 3D sketch, or a closed face loop continuous edges surround a face of a part face. Jaiprakash Pandey July 17, at pm – Reply. CloudWolf April 20, at am – Reply. In this example, we have many circles along different planes and we have a spline passing through all the circles as shown in the image below.
 
 

 

Surface Loft to FreeForm surface. How to create solid | Inventor | Autodesk Knowledge Network.To Create Lofts | Inventor LT | Autodesk Knowledge Network

 
On the Curves tab of the Loft dialog box, click in Sections, and then select, in sequence, the sections you want to /11654.txt. The boundary conditions autodesk inventor 2018 loft free the shape of the loft body near its boundary. Enables посетить страницу источник loft section to transition to a rounded dome shape.

Autodesk inventor 2018 loft free –

Lofts blend multiple profiles, called sections, and transition them into smooth shapes. Work from a sketch that represents cross-sections of the loft feature and contains sketch sections on separate planes. In addition to sketched profiles, you can select object faces and points to include as loft sections.

In the Loft dialog box, the Curves tab allows you to choose the sections to include in the loft. Selected sections are identified as sketches, edges, or points.

The Conditions tab defines boundary conditions for end sections and for outermost rails. Apply conditions to rails of an open section loft that borders adjacent surfaces, or a loft with sections that begin or end at a point. The boundary conditions control the shape of the loft body near its boundary.

In the Transition tab, mapping points, rails, centerlines, and section vertices define how segments of one section map to the segments of the section before and after it.

If you select multiple sections on any plane, they must intersect. If more than one loop is in a sketch, first select the sketch and then select the curve or loop. For solid lofts, select closed curves in 2D or 3D sketch, or a closed face loop continuous edges surround a face of a part face.

Point sections must be at the beginning or end of the loft. If more than one loop is in a sketch, first select the sketch, and then select the curve or loop. Upon selecting the centerline, section dimensions display at each endpoint.

They provide the area and position relative to the centerline for each selected section. To see whether the centerline is normal to the section, use Area Loft. The section dimension points to a section that is normal to the centerline. In addition to these two sections, you can add placed sections to define cross-sections that control the shape of the loft. On the Curves tab of the Loft dialog box, click in Sections, and then select, in sequence, the sections you want to blend.

For surface lofts, select open or closed curves in 2D or 3D sketch, or a face loop of a part face. Pause the cursor over an edge in the loop, right-click, and then click Select Other. Cycle through available selections. Or select a set of continuous model edges. Tip: To speed processing, turn off the Preview.

Note: The selected sketch or edge highlights in the graphic. Here we have three different geometries on different but parallel planes. The selection of lofting order decides the final geometry and using the same set of geometries you can make different 3D shapes by simply altering lofting order. In the first case, I will select the circle on the bottom followed by the square in the middle and then finally circle on the top and then press enter twice.

This will make geometry as shown in the image below. This time I will change the lofting order. Click on the circle at the bottom of the geometry then the circle on the top and finally click on the square at the center of the three geometries.

The resulting shape will be like the one as shown in the image below. As you noticed, in both cases the LOFT command followed the order in which you click on the objects to make the 3D shape and hence you need to ensure proper lofting order for making the geometry.

The shape of the 3D loft is decided by the geometries which you select in a lofting order but can add Guides and Path to control the 3D geometry with more precision. In this example, we have many circles along different planes and we have a spline passing through all the circles as shown in the image below.

Once again select loft tool and select the circles starting from the circle on the horizontal plane and select them in linear order.

Select path from the options of the command line and select the spline which is passing through the center of the circles. You will notice that the 3D geometry will change to take the shape of the path which you have selected.

The final lofted 3D geometry will look like this. In the previous example, we have selected a path for making our 3D geometry. In this example, I will tell you about controlling the geometry with more precision using guides.

In this case we have two splines passing through the quadrants of the three circles which are placed on different but parallel planes. Start loft command and select the three circles in the lofting order from bottom to the top and press enter.

Now select the guides option from the command line and select both splines from the geometry. In these examples above when you start the loft command then select the geometries in lofting order and press enter you will see a small triangular shape which can be used to change the shape of loft at the point of contact with selected geometries. In this example, we have used the three circles of different radii on parallel planes and using the loft menu we can assign different variations of final Lofted shape to the geometry.

These variations are shown in the image below, the lofting order is bottom circle to top. Using a combination of tools and features mentioned above you can create a complex 3D geometry which otherwise would take a lot of effort to generate using other 3D commands.

Once such example is this lamp post which has been made using Surface Loft command and three different geometries on parallel planes have been used to get this shape. Do you have questions related to this article? For some reason I am unable to do this on Fusion and Alibre Atom3d. I was looking at how can I loft a model boat that I have carved out.

Carved it like how boat builder does theirs.