Not sure why I cannot create surface...

[rbecker]

I'm stumped. I am trying to create a pot, but I'm apparently doing something wrong. I have assembled the outside of the pot, in order to use "follow me", but it will not create a surface. Can someone help me understand why it will not create a surface, and how I can find and fix such errors for myself in the future?

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Pot.skp

[pbacot]

Please see the attached skp file.

I am not sure why your face was not working. the edges were probably not in a plane. One way to make them be in one plane is to draw your shape on a face, such as a rectangle.

Start by grouping the profile so you can move it around and work with it separate from your other entities.

What I did was rotate your shape so it was over a rectangle lying on the ground. I used the Sandbox "drape" tool to place it flat on the rectangle. Still some segments did not transfer. I drew them in, rotated the face I got back into position at your circle (get rid of rectangle etc.) exit group and exploded it. Then used that face and the circle face in the follow me routine. All the faces of the resulting pot were wrong side out (blue), so I reversed one (contextual menu reverse face) then chose contextual menu orient faces--with that reversed face still selected.

Now you have to smooth most of the edges using the soften edges window. Get the "weld.rb" plugin and next time weld the edges so they'll make a smooth lathe from the start. Hope that helps.

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Pot.skp

[Dave R]

I did see that the edges aren't coplanar.

The way to start out with all your edges coplanar is draw a large rectangular face on which to draw the profile. Then delete the geometry that is not the profile.