I have this shape I can't offset, which is vital for the following steps on this project. I made it mostly using the sweep surface function, I believe the error has something to do with the way I created the sweep guides and rails.
The surface looks like this from the side, that soft "rising" is what's ruining my life, if everything is straight all goes well, but that's not what I need.
Th f3d is attached for reference.
I don't think surface modeling is needed for this geometry.
I will post example when I get a chance.
I recreated everything again, doing a few things slightly different, I have to sweep the "bigger" area in a second separate feature, sweeping the two smaler edges first and using the result as a guide path for the second, bigger edge. The end result is good and I can offset it now. Still, this created some other problems (small problems, the kind of problems I can live with):
- Tangent selection for the profile no longer works when I try to select certain loops, no idea why;
- Not as clean looking or seamless as the surfaces I achieved before.
While I achieved what I wanted, I have no idea why the previous profile I shared couldn't be offseted. The new one does what it's supposed to, despite the tangent selection jank in the end result.
This was more work than I expected - but it is parametrically defined so the dimensions can be edited (within reason).
Now that I have "solved" I think I could simplify just a bit more, but not by much more.
Looks and works great, thanks! I'll rework on mine and replicate your result. While I also achieved an acceptable file last week, mine takes up more resources and memory, so any of the later features (fillets, surface offsets and so on) takes a while to process, which is a pain if I have to make changes in the file later, problems I won't have with this workflow you shared
Quick "post-solution": Got to my file, redid all my steps adapting your workflow (ex: You model by making 1/4th of the model and then mirroring both ways, while I prefer doing it whole to avoid mirroring) and got a very good result with minimal resources
I had no idea the "replace surface" could be used the way you did, that's going to be very useful from now on, again, thank you very much!
