Lofted surface

[Carlos]

How do I loft a surface? I've got a collection of parallel work planes with sketches on each plane; each sketch has the same number of segments. The sketches do not form a closed a loop. I could close each sketch, create a matchline, and then loft a solid, but what I need is strickly a surface.

Thanks in advance.
Carlos

[John Scheffel]

If you can loft a solid, then you could add some additional straight lines to turn your 2D curve into a closed shape, loft it, then delete the 3D planar surfaces you don't want. This would leave you with the surface you are after.

[Carlos]

John,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, if I closed the sketches then I could loft out a solid. The problem is that I've got about 50 workplanes that each have a sketch (complex aircraft surface). Each sketch would have to be closed and then I could loft. What I need is to go directly from the 2D sketches to a lofted surface.

In other CAD packages, if I've got a set of 2D splines I can just loft through the sketches and get a surface without having to go through the extra step of creating a solid.

Any suggestions?

[John Scheffel]

Have you investigated if any of the tools under the Surfacing menu will do what you want? Many of them will create face parts (surfaces). For example, you might be able to use Skinning. See the Help or click the ? button at the bottom of the Skin menu for more details on how to use it.