Loft won't let me choose a composite curve

Transistor

It's time to make a genie lamp for a ballet show.
I'm stuck at making the lid. I've created a composite curve around the base part and it incorporates a bridging curve at the spout. The loop, as far as I can tell, is fully closed.



The loft creation dialog won't let me select the composite curve.

Any ideas?

If we get past this problem have you any tips on how to create a lid with an inner lip?

romeograham

@Transistor
I would approach this a little differently: make your main loft a feature that encompasses both the Base and the Lid of the lamp. That way you'll be able to control how they connect more easily. Make them as solid features - and shell them later. Then you can split the Lid from the Base:

You can step through the strategy here:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/3c935dc2d6c9e22dbb31b8ad/w/4a870a7129e0ac79b998355a/e/0f96f56715d9cb07fda8ba78

(Obviously I ignored any interlocking / registration features that you might need between the parts for flawless function in a live performance)..

I also just realized that maybe you don't need the whole top to be separate - see this Branch for an alternate (and probably more correct) version.


Hope that helps!
Romeo

Jake_Rosenfeld

@Transistor

Please post the URL of your document along with your question so that people can go into the doc and play around with it.
Detailed instructions here: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/9107/forum-post-checklist

Transistor

Done, thank you, @Jake.

NeilCooke

Without seeing the document (please post the URL here), it looks like the spout area is the problem. You have a set of curves that "reverse" direction on themselves (not sure of the best way to describe that). This will prevent the loft from working.

MBartlett21

@NeilCooke
Transistor edited the original post and the text "genie lamp" is linked

romeograham

@Transistor
I would approach this a little differently: make your main loft a feature that encompasses both the Base and the Lid of the lamp. That way you'll be able to control how they connect more easily. Make them as solid features - and shell them later. Then you can split the Lid from the Base:

You can step through the strategy here:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/3c935dc2d6c9e22dbb31b8ad/w/4a870a7129e0ac79b998355a/e/0f96f56715d9cb07fda8ba78

(Obviously I ignored any interlocking / registration features that you might need between the parts for flawless function in a live performance)..

I also just realized that maybe you don't need the whole top to be separate - see this Branch for an alternate (and probably more correct) version.


Hope that helps!
Romeo

Transistor

Romeo, that was excellent!

Your second link doesn't work but the first one did. I've redone the model as Genie Lamp 02. I have played around with the lip on the lid and will check it out when I get a sample print. I can see in the section view that I have a little interference with the base.

I've been in electrical engineering for 35 years and done about 5% of my career using 2D and a little 3D CAD. OnShape is stunning, especially considering it is running in a web browser. Who could have forseen all this!

Many thanks.

romeograham

Happy to help. I agree - Onshape is truly a marvel, and it's been exciting to participate (we truly get to participate with this company, unlike others) in the evolution over the past few years.

Sorry that link was bad. The first link should works; you just need to go to the Branch called "Probably Better Lid" in my original link: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/3c935dc2d6c9e22dbb31b8ad/w/ab936e9f758746781c628f94/e/0f96f56715d9cb07fda8ba78




(Very simple differences between the two).

Romeo