Surface Patch on a complex 3d sketch

[austingrantbowler]

Hello, Autodesk community.

I am having problems filling a 3d sketch with a surface. The technique I have been trying is the Surface Patch tool, which has worked well for me in the past, but will not with this shape. 

I am working with a racetrack style shape (as you will see in my attached file), made up of lots of tiny lines. Yes, I know it should be made up of splines, but it's too late for that now, ha ha!

It would be much appreciated if someone could help me out by teaching me what I am doing wrong, or what would be a better way to go about this (different tools, different workflow, etc.)

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

if it were me, I would create the splines.  It would be relatively easy to do, from the existing lines you have.  I would make the existing lines all construction, then create a 3D spline by snapping to some of the points.  You probably only need 4-5 fit points on each side.

However, to answer your specific question:  Patch won't work here because the lines are not connected (white dots).  You can connect them using the Coincident constraint.  It would be a pain (IMO more so than creating the spline), but you could do it.  I did not do all the points, so I did not try the Patch to see what kind of surface you would get.  Likely not great, but it might be OK.

[austingrantbowler]

Thank you... a workflow change is always the answer, ha ha!