<Mostly Solved> [Part Design] Additive Loft/Pipe oddities

[WhisperingShiba]

Hello FreeCAD forums,

I am designing a sandal to 3D print. The only step I need to complete is to sweep or pipe a curve to envelope the toes and forefoot of the user. However I am getting various errors while performing this operation.
1) The Loft preview looks good, but does not form a form a solid when I press OK
2) Piping with multiple contours (running around the guide sketch) doesn't make the shape I expect.
3) Some times a successful loft will delete the surface which would be the 'insole' of the sandal.

I will include the part in the attachment, but hopefully you folks with keen eyes for sweeps can diagnose my issue without the part.

EDIT: Freecad version .19 build 24276 (Git)

sketch profiles:



Loft attempt:

Input error: Loft: Resulting shape is not a solid (but it looks solid in the preview, and is how I want it...)

Pipe:

I would accept this shape and cut it how I want after, but it doesn't form.
Error: adding the pipe failed

I am thankful for any input

[drmacro]

Your dependency graph is full of red lines.

I also note that some sketches are attached to datum planes that have no support object (DatumPlane007 for example).

Sketch002 is connected to generated geometry. (As are some of the Datum planes.)

Lofts are known to not follow curves exactly. You may find better results using the curves workbench.

And geometry check (with BOP enabled) fails on Pocket002.

And there appears to be no tip object in the Body.

I'd suggest fixing these things... less wondering if some of that is adding to the lofting issues.

Snip macro screenshot-0ef774.png (168.66 KiB) Viewed 834 times

[Shalmeneser]

If you suppress everything except the minimal sketches, the loft works, but the result is ...

[WhisperingShiba]

I was able to get the geometry I desire by switching to the Part bench and lofting the 3 sketches as is. See below:



Is this a bug, or does Part Design Loft and Part loft utilize different algorithms?

As long as I can 3D print this solid (which I think should be easy, even if its not fully attached to the body right now), I am ready to close the thread as solved. I will check out the curves workbench in the future. I'm not sure what red lines are or where you even found that screen. Is there a good tutorial on how to use FreeCAD troubleshooting utilities?

Thanks for the help!

[Vincent B]

Maybe by using the sole points to start the next splines.
A loft could build the shape.

[drmacro]

I was able to get the geometry I desire by switching to the Part bench and lofting the 3 sketches as is. See below:



Is this a bug, or does Part Design Loft and Part loft utilize different algorithms?

As long as I can 3D print this solid (which I think should be easy, even if its not fully attached to the body right now), I am ready to close the thread as solved. I will check out the curves workbench in the future. I'm not sure what red lines are or where you even found that screen. Is there a good tutorial on how to use FreeCAD troubleshooting utilities?

Thanks for the help!

Tools>Dependency graph.

Typically the red lines mean you have circular references. The red lines will show what is referencing what.

The Part>Check geometry tool giving errors will likely mean any stl file will not be manifold.

[WhisperingShiba]

I was able to 3D print the piece. I suspect choosing a common point for the splines would help, but the part lofting did print as a solid after playing around a bit.

Thanks all, very helpful advice.