Loft help

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to loft with rails but am getting the error "The attempted Loft operation had problems with the specified rail curve not intersecting one or more sections. Try repairing the rail curve so that it intersects all the sections."  I projected the geometry of my two profiles and created the rails through those projected points so I am unsure of what the problem is.  

[JDMather]

Is this your first Inventor project?

Let's start with Sketch1.

I do not see any dimensions on Sketch1 and I see an extraneous line on the right side.

The sketch appears to be missing several Tangent constraints on the left side.

Do you know how to fix these issues in Sketch1?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I'm fairly new to inventor. Should I be keeping my dimensions? I've
been removing them since it gets cluttered.

I'm not at the computer right now but I'm sure I can fix the extraneous
line. I'm not too sure about the tangent constraints. Are they something
I should be adding after I draw my sketches?

[JDMather]

---

@ompieipmo wrote:
...Should I be keeping my dimensions? I've
been removing them since it gets cluttered.

 Are they (constraints) something
I should be adding after I draw my sketches?

---

Yes, you should always keep your dimensions - the dimensions can be hidden, but do not delete them,

If your sketch is really getting cluttered then there are better techniques (simple sketches).

Inventor should automatically add your constraints, but beginners might not understand how the automatic constraints work as they sketch and therefore need to add them manually.

Do you have a picture of something similar to what you are attempting to model (I doubt that Loft will return the geometry that you are after)?

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately I cannot send a picture.

I've added two more rails to the top and bottom (which seem to work) to give you more of an idea of what 'm trying to create.  However, the left and right ones still won't go.  If I had all 4 rails incorporated it would give me the geometry I need, except maybe for the bottom profile which might be too rectangular.  Are you suggesting I use a different function to create it?  

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

I would not worry about the Rails until Sketch1 is fixed.

But if you edit Sketch4 and examine from a 3D perspective - the rails are obviously not connected to the rectangle in Sketch2.