Engineering Design

Lab Session 7

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Objectives
• Loft feature overview.
• Loft feature transitions.
• Loft feature (Example).
• Shell command

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Loft Feature Overview
• Loft feature is one of the advanced features available in Solidworks that allows you to create simple
as well as complex shapes.

• A basic Loft feature is created by defining two cross-sections and joining them together. For
example, if you create a loft feature between a circle and a square, you can easily change the cross-
sectional shape of the solid. This ability is what separates the loft solid feature from the sweep
feature.

Loft Feature Sweep Feature

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Loft Feature Overview
Loft with just two profiles is a straight-line transition. If you have more than two profiles, the transition
from one profile to another works more like a spline.

Curve

Line

Straight-line transition Spline (Curve) transition

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Loft Feature Overview
Notice how the cross-sectional shape of the loft transitions from the circle to the rectangle. The default
setting (refer to Figure) is for the interpolated transition to happen evenly across the loft, but the
distribution of change from one end to the other could be altered, which might result in the transitions
shown in Figure.

Profiles selection

Transition constraint

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Loft Feature Transitions
(Line Transition)

Step 1 : Create two profiles on Step 2 : Apply the Loft feature Step 3 : Keep the guide curves a
different planes. and select the profiles. line (Don’t select any guide
curve).

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Loft Feature Transitions
(Interpolated Curve Transition)

Step 1 : Create more than two Step 2 : Apply the Loft feature Step 3 : Keep the guide curves
profiles on different planes. and select the profiles. interpolated curve (Don’t select
any guide curve).

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Distance between planes is 2 inch

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Loft Feature Transitions
(Guide Curve Transition)

Step 1 : Create the profiles on Step 2 : Create the guide curve on Step 3 : Select the profiles and
different planes. the perpendicular plane based on guide curve.
your requirement.

The guide curve

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Example
dimensions

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Centerline curve

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Centerline curve and profiles dimensions

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Loft Feature Transitions
(Guide Curve Transition)

Step 4 : Apply the loft feature. Step 5 : You can show more Step 6 : Change on the
connectors based on your connectors based on your
requirement. requirement.

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Loft Feature (Example)

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Loft Feature (Example)
Step 1 : Make a new part using a
template based in Inches and create
three auxiliary planes using the
“Plane” command. Select the "Top
Plane" as reference, set the number
of planes to 3 and space them 2.5″ as
shown. Click OK when done.

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Loft Feature (Example)
Step 2 : For clarity, select the "Top
Plane" in the Feature Manager and
show it using the “Hide/Show”
command from the pop-up toolbar.
Turn on Plane visibility if needed in
the “Hide/Show Items” command.

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Loft Feature (Example)
Step 3 : Switch to a Top view, select the "Top Plane" and draw the following sketch using the
“Center Rectangle” and “Sketch Fillet” tools. Exit the sketch when finished. Plane visibility and
“Shaded Sketch Contours” were turned OFF for clarity.

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Loft Feature (Example)
Step 4 : Still in the Top view, select “Plane1” in the Feature Manager and create the second sketch.
Use the "Center Rectangle" tool; be sure to start in the origin and make the rectangle's corner
coincident to the previous sketch's diagonal line. Add a 2.5″ width dimension and the 0.5″ “Sketch
Fillet” to fully define the sketch. Exit the second sketch when finished.

1.5
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Loft Feature (Example)
Step 5 : For the third profile, select “Plane2” from the Feature Manager
and create a new sketch in it. This sketch will be exactly the same as the
first one. To help us save time and maintain design intent, we'll use the
“Convert Entities” tool. In the “Convert Entities” selection box, select
“Sketch1” from the fly-out Feature Manager and click OK to project
“Sketch1” in the new sketch. Exit the sketch when done.

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Loft Feature (Example)
Step 6 : For the last profile select “Plane3” from the Feature Manager and create a new sketch.
Draw a circle and add a geometric relation to make it “Tangent” to the horizontal line in
“Sketch2” as indicated. This relation will fully define the sketch. Exit the sketch to finish.

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Loft Feature (Example)

The finished sketches will look like this

with the planes visible:

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Loft Feature (Example)
Step 7 : After completing the sketches,
each of which will be a different cross
section of the bottle, we are ready to make
the “Loft” feature. The loft feature requires
two or more sketches and/or faces, and
we'll use the four sketches we just made to
build the bottle.

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CW#2

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HW

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Shell Command

• The shell tool builds thin-walled features on the remaining faces while
hollowing out the selected faces and leaving the other faces open.

• The Shell feature is a powerful yet sometimes tricky feature to work

with in SolidWorks. Many users just expect it to work regardless of
the condition of the geometry, but it requires that some simple
conditions be met. In general, to allow the Shell feature to work, you
must have a model where the minimum outside curvature (convex) is
greater than the shell thickness. Shell works in 3D much like the
offset sketch works in 2D. If the curvature is too small, you cannot
offset an arc to the inside.

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Shell Command
(Example)

Step 1 : Create a 3d model. Step 2 : Apply the shell command Step 3 : Insert the thickness
and select the surfaces to be based on your requirement.
removed.

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Shell Command
(Example)

Step 4 : You can see the final Step 5 : If you didn’t

result. select any face, the
shell command will
be applied as seen.
Show the hidden lines
to note the shell.

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Shell Example

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Cw

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