Modeling Workflow Suggestions Wanted

[J-Camper]

We have been asked to develop a "diminishing return" from an architect.  After some back and forth the Architect provided a series of surfaces developed in another program.  They sent it back to us and I aligned their surfaces in my model. 

I have tried a few things with no success, so I am reaching out for workflow suggestions.  I have isolated the normal profiles and the surfaces from architect into a derived part to share.

Below is a screenshot of one profile with surfaces for reference, but the attached part will add much more context:

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Jeffrey,

Would Thicken help this case?

Many thanks!

[CCarreiras]

Hi!

Is this your goal?

If so, Patch the surfaces and stitch them to have a solid.

File attached...

[J-Camper]

@CCarreiras ,

Thank you for the help!  That looks really good, and much more straight forward than what I was trying before.  Any recommendations for smoothing out the faceting a little?

[CCarreiras]

Well... for smoothing, any process will be a pain in the soul...

You can create several sketches with circles/elipses, based in 3 points (in each surface) and create the patches based on that sketches (instead of the actual polylines) the result will be a lot smoother, and you should need to apply a couple of fillets in the final result.

I tried using the fillet rule, but on many surfaces it is normal for some to fail, so I was unable to do this successfully...

But it should be nice if it worked.... 

[J-Camper]

Yeah, I was afraid of that.  I was trying to see if there was a way to use the surfaces as is, but if I can't get it smooth enough I'll have to use a different workflow.  

I'll play around with smoothing it more, and thank you for the suggestion as it will save time if I can get it acceptably smooth.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I took the liberty of blatantly over-interpreting the design intent. Here is the solution using Loft, Non-Uniform Scale, and Revolve.

Many thanks!

[J-Camper]

Thanks for the part. 

This one is smooth, but i'll probably still need to play with the back side a bit.  Earlier in the design phase I made something that wasn't elliptical, similar to this one and the Architect didn't really like it.  

[J-Camper · Accepted solution]

I took a similar path as @johnsonshiue because working directly with the surfaces was not giving me the smoothness I needed.  I did come up with a series of features that got me to a point that the Architect approved. [part shared instead of describing workflow]

@CCarreiras , Thanks for the workflow suggestion even though I didn't end up going that route.  Smoothing the facets was too much work.

[CCarreiras]

It's true, I would do something similar as you did... but I was just answering your main question... the quickest way to use the surfaces to get a solid.

Anyway, job done, well done!