Guided loft: Create a surface using unidirectional scaling
Description: 5 minutes; Lab exercise: 20 minutes
When using birails to create a guided loft
surface, use Unidirectional to scale the profiles in two specific directions.
- Isotropic
(default) - Scale the profile in all directions within the profile plane with
respect to the spine.
- Unidirectional -
Scale the profile in a direction determined by the distance between spine
positions and corresponding birail positions. Or, scale the profile only in
the direction given by two points where the profile plane intersects the
birails.
Lab exercise
Using one birail
- Save the file
unidirectionalScalingWithOneBirail.pkg on your system.
- Load the unidirectionalScalingWithOneBirail.pkg file.
- Click Surfacing
.
- Click Guided Loft
in the Create Face section.
- Show the coordinate system (Press F3 on your keyboard).
- Select the line as the
Spine.
- Select the curve as the
Profile Edges (Z direction).
- Select the wavy curve as the
Birail Edges.
- Click Preview.
- Rotate the model so that you are looking at the top of the
model.
- Choose Isotropic
from the Scale drop-down menu. The
profile is scaled in all directions with respect to the spine.
- Now, choose
Unidirectional from the Scale
drop-down menu. The profile is scaled in a direction determined by the
distance between spine positions and corresponding birail positions.
- Pick a scaling option and click
to complete the operation.
 Isotropic option |
 Unidirectional option |
Using two birails
- Save the file
unidirectionalScalingWithBirails.pkg on your system.
- Load the unidirectionalScalingWithBirails.pkg file.
- Click Surfacing
.
- Click Guided Loft
in the Create Face section.
- Show the coordinate system (Press F3 on your keyboard).
- Select the line as the
Spine.
- Select the curve as the
Profile Edges (Z direction).
- Select the two curves (X direction) as the
Birail Edges.
- Click Preview.
- Rotate the model so that you are looking at the Y
direction.
- Choose Isotropic
from the Scale drop-down menu. The
profile is scaled in all directions with respect to the spine.
- Now, choose
Unidirectional from the Scale
drop-down menu. The profile is scaled in a direction determined by the two
points where the profile plane intersects the birails.
- Pick a scaling option and click
to complete the operation.
 Isotropic option |
 Unidirectional option |