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Loft

Loft blends a solid through two or more closed cross-section profiles on different planes — horns, hulls, funnels, transitions between shapes.

Two circle sections on offset planes blended into a horn

How to use it​

  1. Sketch a closed profile (a circle or a loop of lines) on each plane you want the solid to pass through — use Construction Planes to stack section planes at the offsets you need.
  2. Pick the Loft tool and click each profile — a click on any line of a loop picks the whole loop; clicking a picked section removes it.
  3. Choose where the result lands in the context pane — New body, Add to touching bodies, or Cut bodies (click the bodies to carve in the viewport) — the same three buttons Revolve and Sweep have.
  4. With two or more sections picked, press Enter. Sections blend in order along the loft's direction — pick order doesn't matter.

Good to know​

  • Sections can be different shapes: a circle can blend into a rectangle.
  • The loft is parametric — edit a section profile (dimensions, position) and the solid reshapes to match.
  • A loft undoes as one step, and appears in the Elements pane with its body.

Help​

The Loft tool's Context pane, each field explained

Scripting​

bearcad.circle{ r = 5 }
bearcad.plane{ offset = 10 }
-- Plane 3: the new one, after the document's three starting planes.
bearcad.begin_sketch{ kind = "plane", index = 3 }
bearcad.circle{ r = 2 }
bearcad.exit_sketch()
bearcad.loft{ circles = {0, 1}, name = "Horn" }

polygons = {{line, ...}, ...} lofts line loops; each face's sketch is inferred, like bearcad.extrude.