Help making this 3d ornament

dajohn

Unfortunately, this is the only image I have to go from. It is meant to be curved in 3d - a compound "s" curve. I was able to get fairly good results using curviloft from two closed curved lines and then extruding the surface, but the edges end up being squared and not tapered like they need to be. I was also having trouble getting the bezier curves positioned correctly in space. I'm sure there must be a better way.

broomstick

couldn't you just make a fairly similar form from a plane and then twist it?

dajohn

The ornament needs to have a concave surface on the inside. The top lip suggests that it is slightly curved over. I'm not sure how to twist two joined curved lines without twisting the whole plane. Is it possible to isolate say the top half and the bottom half so I would get a smooth twist? I am also trying to find a way to create the smooth surface with skinning, but I'm getting some unexpected results. How would i get the tapered thickness I need. Im trying the joint push and pull, but it gives me squared edges.

TIG

This isn't exactly what you want... but shows how to use several compound curves as profiles/rails in ExtrudeEdgesByRails to achieve comparable results...

dajohn

Hi Tig. I tried your loft by rails, but I got a convoluted compound face that doubled back on itself. I also used edges by rails, but got much the same as you did. I then used TGI3d create mesh and got what you see in the file. It seems to work fairly well, but I don't know how to round over the edges and the inside curved surface doesn't have quite the volume I need. I couldn't get soap skin and bubble to work on it either. I also used the joint push pull plugin, but as you can see, it only gave me one extruded face.

leaf ornament.skp

TIG

Here's a version of your form split to make a profile and two rails and EEbyRails, Copy and EEbyVector to for edge-faces...

Dave R

Would something like these be close to the right idea?

Rich O Brien

hhhmmmmmmmmmmmm not quite. but my head hurts thinking about it

Rich O Brien

Aaaaaahhhhhh......

dajohn

Thanks everybody for your suggestions. Tig, I tried your method and it works great. Is it possible to make rounded edges? Also, I tried to run the profile edge off the second rail, but it broke in two. I separated it and made it a curve and it worked great. Except for the round edges the results look perfect. Thanks again!

leaf ornament.skp

Dave R

Did you look at this?

Although it isn't exactly the same, I think you could make the rounded edge in the same way I made the narrower parts of the finial.

Rich O Brien

I'm seeing a completely different shape than the rest?

boofredlay

That is funny because the shape I see in my mind is different than any of the examples.

Dave R

To me it looks like leaf with two different larger bends and the edge curled over. I was only suggesting the finals I drew as an illustration of the way to get the main part and the curl on the edge. Maybe it's too hard for others to see the connection between what I did and the leaf. Should I remove it?