Loft connects wrong vertices

[michaelknowles]

I am designing a handrail with a complex cross section profile up two flights of stairs.

SWEEP with a single path doesn't allow me to rotate the profile as it changes direction up the stairs. I haven't tried a rail guide to see if I can rotate the profile as I can't see an easy way to do this yet.

I have been trying to use LOFT between the profiles that are set in different planes at the beginning and end of each corner. However the lofting process connects the wrong vertices between adjacent profiles and the solid is distorted.

There is a feature, which is activated if you select any of the vertices while in loft, which shows you how loft is associating the vertices between adjacent profiles.

It is possible to adjust the relationship between vertices on adjacent profiles by pulling the vertices around to the correct corresponding points on each of the profiles so that the red lines follow the correct sequence.

I thought I had solved the problem with this but haven't been able to get the loft to produce a solid.

I have been trying to find documentation or examples without any luck.

Any guidance or similar experience in designing stair handrails with complex profiles would be appreciated.

Mike

[Beyondforce]

Hi @michaelknowles,

A screencast and a file will help to understand your problem.

Cheers / Ben
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[michaelknowles]

I have come to the conclusion that the loft tool selects pairs of vertices to connect on adjacent profiles that are in different planes in an unpredictable way.  It is possible to pair up the vertices manually but if the profile is complicated then it can take some time. It might be very useful if the profile could have sequentially numbered vertices and the loft tool connected the profiles by matching vertices by number.

For handrails a better solution is to use sweep with the Profile Scaling set to None and to create a guide rail that rotates the profile.