Create guided loft surfaces from a spine or birails that are tangentially or curvature continuously connected to adjacent faces.
Continuity options in the Guided Loft menu:
• Positional - Default behavior. Continuity between surfaces is directly related to the position of the spine or birails and the profile(s).
• At Angle - Keep an angle along a spine or birail between a profile and an adjacent face. The angle with which the profile is connected to the adjacent face will be the angle between the new surface and the adjacent face.
• Tangential - Connect the new surface to the adjacent face with a tangential connection along the birail or spine (if the profile is tangentially connected to the adjacent face).
• Curvature - Connect the new surface to the adjacent face with a curvature continuous connection along the birail or spine (if the profile is curvature continuously connected to the adjacent face).
Positionall
Transition between surfaces does not match.
Tangential
Transition between surfaces does match.
Curvature
Transition between surfaces does match and is smooth.
Tips for working with Continuity:
• For Creo Elements/Direct Modeling to keep the specified continuity (except for Positional) it's necessary to de-form the profile. If the de-formation is too extreme, specify additional profiles to keep control of the desired shape.
• The continuity options lead to different results than the By FaceOrientation option. While the continuity options use a de-formation of the profile in order to achieve the desired continuity, the By Face Orientation option rotates the profile around the spine. (By Face also can be used to create a tangential connection to an adjacent face over the spine.)
Options:
Continuity - At Angle
Orientation - By Spine
The profile is de-formed as it is swept until it has a smooth connection to the adjacent face.
Options:
Continuity - At Angle
Orientation - By Face
The profile rotates as it is swept along the spine.
A - The profile
B - The profile, de-formed, to keep the angle.
A - The profile
B - The profile, retains its shape, and is rotated.
Limitations
• The profiles must be planar and orthogonal to the spine.
• Each birail or the spine should belong to a single face. Otherwise, the chosen adjacent face is random.
• Continuity can be controlled only over the birails or the spine, not the profile. It is not possible to create guided loft surfaces that are smooth over the profile.
• It is not possible to specify a separate continuity option for each birail or the spine (for example, Tangential for birail 1 and Positional for birail 2). Only one value applies to all birails.
• Generally, up to 3 birails are supported, but only the outermost birails are considered for the continuity option. If the middle birail is connected to an adjacent face, the angle(s) between the profile and this face is ignored.
