Skinning/lofting

 From:  Michael Gibson
1557.2 In reply to 1557.1 
Hi sayd - generally loft won't work for something that has a smooth end on it, usually loft would be for things that end in a flat face. That can then be rounded with a fillet, but it isn't quite the same shape as creating a fully rounded surface right off the bat.

To create a fully rounded surface right from the start, you would usually use either sweep, or network.

For sweep, one technique is mentioned here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=415.2

There was some recent discussion of other mouse shapes here, which may be of interest:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1484.1

However, those shapes were not quite as completely ovoid-ish as the apple mouse.

Since this is such an ovoid elliptical type shape, it makes me think that possibly using a surface of revolution based method to kind of make a squished sphere type shape might work for this.

One method to produce squished sphere type shapes is to use the "Rail" revolve command. It pivots a profile around an axis similar to regular revolve, except it also uses an additional guide rail to deform the shape.

So for example if you have these 2 curves:



The one in yellow there can be the profile curve for the rail revolve. Then run Construct / Rail revolve, and pick the other one as the rail. Then pick the 2 points for the rotational pivot axis at the ends of the profile. That will create this result:



Now the bottom of the shape can be cut off by doing a boolean with a line segment. Anyway, that's one possibility. I've attached those curves here as ovoid_mouse_curves.zip .

- Michael