I split the lines like you suggested and Network did exactly what I wanted! The shape is not rotationally symmetric so Rotate isn't suitable... unless I can then morph the resulting shape, which doesn't seem possible in that case although I may well be wrong.

thank you,
Rachel

Hi Rachel - there is a command that is new for v2.5/v3 called Flow which might be able to handle the morphing for you of a uniform revolve.

Check out here for some examples:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4856.2

I'm still not sure exactly what kind of end result you're looking for though, but if it's something like making the revolved shape follow a path then Flow could work for that - you would draw 2 curves, a line going down the middle of your revolve for the base curve, and then a bendy curve for the target one, then select the revolve and run Transform > Deform > Flow, pick the "down the middle line" at the first prompt in Flow and the bendy one in the second prompt and it will generate deformations like this:





- Michael

I will attach the file, which shows the shape I got with Network which I am completely happy with (it morphs in a different way than your example although I will probably use Flow in the future). But now I have another problem, which is that I can't figure out how to make a solid from the 2d curves I drew. There are 3 of them and I need to join them all to make a kind of cup shape where the inside and outside are different: the outside is the Network shape (ear) and the inside is a kind of curved box, colored aqua and named 'motor cover', which will fit over a flange in an existing device.

Will I be able to generate the solid from these shapes? I think it should be clear to a person looking at it what the solid I need should look like, and all the bits are there and they intersect, but I haven't been able to get them to join up (and drop the excess).

thanks again for all your help!
Rachel

Hi Rachel, one thing to watch out for is that the tip of your shape is mangled, although it is not necessary for Network to have all the pieces touching one another it is really best to do so in areas where the whole network is collapsing down to a single point, otherwise without all the pieces meeting up well you will basically end up with a chaotic mess in that area and if a surface is messy and bunched up and overlaps back and forth on top of itself that will make it not possible to get a proper solid from it.

If you zoom in on the tip area you can see it looks like this:






So you'll need to get a better constructed surface result there before you'll be able to make a proper solid from that.

If you did have a well formed surface, you would be able to make a solid out of it with the kind of other intersecting surfaces by either using Edit > Trim to trim all the pieces with one another discarding the extra pieces, or also if you've got a set of surfaces that cross over each other so that there is a common volume inside you can select them all and run Construct > Boolean > Merge to solidify them, see the intersecting-surfaces example here:
http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/moi_command_reference7.htm#booleanmerge


But right now with a kind of inexact network that does not have touching points at the tip, that's trying to pull the result in too many different directions all in the same area, it usually helps to make things come together more exactly in areas like that.

- Michael

Hi Rachel, so a different kind of strategy for doing the kind of shape that you're looking for could be to add the asymmetry by starting out with a revolve and then carving off a piece, rather then trying to do a network. That would then follow more of the type of workflow that MoI's more focused on which is trying to primarily use a smaller number of 2D curves to construct your object rather than trying to make something out of all 3D curve only like you're trying to do more with Network.

The more 2D focused workflow would be like this - start with one 2D curve like this:



Do a revolve to get the base form:



Draw another 2D curve in the Top view like this:



In the 3D view it now looks like this:



Now select the revolve base solid, and run Construct > Boolean > Difference on it and use that other 2D curve as the cutting object - that will divide the revolve into asymmetrical pieces and select the piece you don't want and delete it:



Note that it's best not to cut a revolve in such a way that might leave only a little tiny bit of the "seam edge" still left on it.

Then to round things off select this edge:



And then fillet:




When you're trying to build a whole 3D object out of one network, that starts getting more into a sculpting type workflow which usually fits a polygon modeling program better than the kind of operations that MoI is focused on. Doing more work by a smaller number of 2D profile curves and using booleans and fillets as a main part of the process is more what fits MoI's main type of workflow.

- Michael