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Help with Loft tool

jacob_egglestonjacob_eggleston Member Posts: 2
I'm trying to design a nozzle to attach to a blower fan for cooling 3D printed parts. I need to create something that has roughly this profile:



The blower fan attaches to on the right side and air is forced through a gradually smaller space until it is directed down towards where the fillament is exiting the extruder on the printer, represented by the origin point in the sketch.

After a bit of fumbling, I was able to create 4 sketch planes using the construction lines highlighted in yellow above. I used these to create 4 profile sketches, representing cross-sections of what I want the final nozzle to look like.



My thought was that I could use the Loft tool to connect these cross-section sketches into a solid. But no matter what I try, I can't get it to work. I've tried selecting the sketch faces I want in the lofted object, as seen above. I've tried just selecting outlines on two sketches. I've tried extruding the sketches first and connecting the extruded cross-sections using the Loft tool. I've tried every variation of the above I can think of, to no effect. I've also tried searching the forum.

Is there a way I can do this with the loft tool? Is there a better, more "CAD" way of doing this. I have a fair bit of prior experience with polygonal 3D modeling tools like 3DS Max and the like, but I'm pretty new to 3D CAD, so please be kind and use small words. :smiley: 

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Answers

  • jacob_egglestonjacob_eggleston Member Posts: 2
    Thanks! My issue was more that I couldn't figure out how to make the loft tool work at all, but I figured out that I was using it wrong. You're right though that a combination of extrudes and boolean ops is a better way to go.
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