Hi Mark,

> The actual model was created by two separate extrudes and their boolean merge.

That works - there are a few other possible ways to go about it as well. Usually I do one extrude and then boolean difference the extrusion with profile curves.

You usually don't have to do an extrusion of a planar profile curve to use in a boolean, you can just use the curve directly. The booleans know to incorporate an automatic extrusion built in to them.


> I guess I had to be more careful with the drawing of the initial curves.

Definitely it is a good idea to invest time in the initial curve setup, any inaccuracies or problems at that stage tend to kind of cascade into larger problems as more things are constructed from them.

If you check out that test8_new.3dm file attached above, the curves are in there as hidden objects that can be shown. You can see there the closed profile that was extruded, and then the 2 cutting profile curves. Actually in this case that can be generated all in one step by selecting all 3 curves and doing boolean merge. But I kind of like doing just one extrusion first to see what that looks like.


Let me know if you get stuck on anything.

- Michael

Consider also - it's often a good idea not to overdefine your curves. For example, you could draw the "Top" profile curves as 4 simple arcs, without any fillets or blends where they join. The advantage is that you'll have more possible variations when filleting the solid model. Simpler curves also tend to create better models...

jonah