Cannot loft surfaces: self-intersecting

gauthier_östervall

Here is my project.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/3201ed6d638fbda0a92b317f/w/b627c23f583486323569fbf4/e/b262f99b42d19b69dc47236c

I am trying till fill in the gap between the grey and the blue part, before merging them together:

I was hoping to loft the thin face of blue that is facing towards grey, and the corresponding face of grey. Unfortunately, that would give me a self-intersecting loft, or so does onshape say.

These faces have very similar shapes, same number of edges and vertices, they are also at a slight angle.

What I believe makes things difficult is that they touch at their end:

No interference, though.

I can add many (well, 12) surface lofts, but would like to know how to create the solid loft although the surfaces are touching.

This is doing it with surface lofts:

gauthier_östervall

So, removing the contact points between the surfaces with a chamfer helped:

Although I'm going to need to do that for all parts, and to keep the chamfer minimal I'll have to test values manually every time. 

Any other idea? I've tried Fill surfaces but failed, and it seemed more cumbersome anyway.

bruce_williams

@gauthier_östervall

I extruded the blue part to the gray.  This is a simple way to merge the parts.

see example here

gauthier_östervall

bruce_williams So simple and perfect, thanks! You extruded to the face and not the part, but you guessed that it was exactly what I wanted.

bruce_williams

you are welcome.  For extra credit I created an assembly with the blue squares.  The bottom openings are a little skewed so I orientated new mate connectors on those.  If you can share - what is this?

gauthier_östervall

@bruce_williams That's cool, I have yet to use assembly. The square was a left over, when I though I would use it to make the holes with boolean. I reckoned later I could just extrude a sketch, since the shape is so simple anyway.

I am attempting to build an ergonomic keyboard, like the Dactyl but actually more inspired by the Kinesis Advantage. Only with my own angles.

I have since decided to use a simplified model of the switch part, and use boolean to make the holes into a thicker part. Here. I'm actually having troubles merging parts right now, which is nice since I would have missed your reply otherwise