topic Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

vpq310809 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 08:23:39 GMT

So I want to create a coffee cup's lid that look like this right?

Since it has some weird curves, I want to create it at 0, 90, and 180 degree sketch of it and then use loft. Just by looking at my sketch you can see I manage to get the shape of the lid.

I also PRECISELY draw the guide rails with project to make sure the 3 guide rails intersect with the profile, yet somehow when I use loft it always say that either rail doesn't touch the profile (it does lol) or the tolerance problem. Even if it somehow work, there are hole in the loft too.

I HATE loft. I been stuck here for days now, please can someone help me?

Betreff: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

g-andresen — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:52:08 GMT

Hi,

please share the f3d file for reply

File > export > save as f3d on local drive >attach to post

günther

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

davebYYPCU — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 13:46:45 GMT

Plain to see, the red blob means what it says, bottom rail is not connected to this profile HERE.

Trying to do too much in one go?

Step timeline. Make your dimensions. The file should update.

Might help...

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

vpq310809 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 15:22:47 GMT

That is the f3d file

Betreff: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

vpq310809 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 15:24:05 GMT

My bad, I had attached the file on the comment section

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

vpq310809 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 15:27:48 GMT

The thing is, the line DOES touch the line, and I did dimention it to the correct diameters and use project to make sure it touch

I'm sorry for forgetting to share the f3d file, it is in the comment section now, please help if you can.

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

TheCADWhisperer — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 18:05:43 GMT

@vpq310809 wrote:
and I did dimention

@vpq310809

Most of your dimensions are missing.

Nothing in your design is precise.

Would you like to learn how to do this correctly with precise step-by-step instructions?

(view in My Videos)

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

SaeedHamza — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 17:43:29 GMT

You did the right thing when you projected the profiles to make sure that the rails touch them. The only issue is that you chose the wrong loft for this, where you selected the solid loft, which is terrible for very thin profiles like these, so if you try the surface loft, it would work, and then you can turn it into a solid by either thickening it or boundaryfilling it then shelling it, both works great, but make sure to go for rounded thicken if you choose to thicken it and rounded shell as well for the other option. The thicken is easy for you to try, so I applied the second concept of boundaryfill+shell for you to checkout in the .f3d attached.

So if there was anything wrong at all, it was that some rails were not touching the profiles in some places, and that's because you didn't apply the projection of profiles concept everywhere, but the main pain you felt where loft wasn't working is mainly because of the solid loft behaviour, where the surface loft is much more forgiving, or I should say capable.

Please find attached a cleaned version of your file sketches with the above I mentioned applied.
Note: Your file needs alot of work, as your sketches are poorly created and not defined, but it will do for now.

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

vpq310809 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 18:31:37 GMT

Do we really need dimension for this type of design? I know it will be helpful if I have them but the thing is this is practice for school so the blueprint only give me a limit set of dimensions. However I'm pretty sure I got the lenght of each line and diameters correctly, I did project, and normally that's enough for the guide rail to connect to the profile yet this time it doesn't and I don't know why. I would be really happy if you can show me an instruction for this type of design.

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

vpq310809 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 18:43:11 GMT

Thanks for the reply, it was really helpful. However can you explain to me what you mean when you said "the rails were not touching the profiles in some places, and that's because you didn't apply the projection of profiles concept everywhere"? Because I did project the line and points that the rail will connect to the profile at. Do you mean I need to project the entire profile? As for the sketch being poorly created and not defined, it is because this is a practice test with time limit so I just rush it as quick as I can. Will it matter at all as long as I get the shape?

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

TheCADWhisperer — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:04:51 GMT

@vpq310809 wrote:
I would be really happy if you can show me an instruction for this type of design.

@vpq310809

Sketch1

(view in My Videos)

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

SaeedHamza — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:14:20 GMT

It was wrong to say "rails were not touching the profiles" by me, what I meant was that the rail wasn't constrained to the profile projection, like where it's shown in the screenshot below.
Also, no, you don't need to project the whole profile, just the line or point where the rail needs to touch it.

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

TheCADWhisperer — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:28:41 GMT

@vpq310809 wrote:
because this is a practice test with time limit so I just rush it as quick as I can.

@vpq310809

Having taught CAD for over 30 years I have always observed that it is much faster (and easier) to do it right than to do it haphazzardly.

(view in My Videos)

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

vpq310809 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:50:42 GMT

Thanks for the advice. I would love to see how similar your final design will be compare to the picture that I wanted if you don't mind.

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

TheCADWhisperer — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:55:29 GMT

@vpq310809

We follow a logical set of steps to create the geometry and keep everything simple.

(view in My Videos)

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

TheCADWhisperer — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 20:08:43 GMT

@vpq310809 wrote:
I would love to see how similar your final design will be compare to the picture that I wanted if you don't mind.

Complete to this step and then Attach your progress file here.

(view in My Videos)

We will then complete the final details...

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

TheCADWhisperer — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 21:20:06 GMT

@vpq310809

In my experience - high quality work is often the fastest and the fastest is often the highest quality.

(view in My Videos)

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

vpq310809 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 22:32:00 GMT

I didn’t expect this much of an enthusiasm response, I thought you would only help me with the loft tool not redrawing the entire thing so I greatly appreciate the support. One of the main reason why my dimension's number was a bit weird is because of this.

This is the blueprint for the lid I want to make. It’s from a 2018 secondary CAD provincial competition, so they purposely gave just enough dimensions to create the shape. Some dimensions are a bit unusual, and some aren’t provided at all (I’m using the medium size/parameters). That’s why it’s hard to create the sketch in the first place.

Re: Coffee cups lid, loft tool's guide rail doesn't work

lauri_barnhart — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 18:29:16 GMT

Hello @vpq310809,

It looks like you have received a lot of advice on this thread. Did any of the replies by @g-andresen, @davebYYPCU, @TheCADWhisperer or @SaeedHamza answer your question? If so, consider clicking on 'Accept Solution' on the post(s) that helped you with your question.

If you are still needing more help, please share an update here. The community will be happy to jump in and suggest more steps to help you get where you need to be.

Best,

Lauri | Community Manager