Howto use the Loft Tool in FreeCAD's Part Design Workbench

00:00 Introduction
00:56 Creating a part to groove
02:03 Sketching the grooves
03:18 Exploration of the Groove tool's options
04:26 Grooving around other planes
06:33 Grooving around a dateline

The Loft Tool allows you to create a solid from one or more sketches in a model. The Loft Tool does this by creating smooth transitions from one sketch to another. This video shows you how to use the Loft Tools to create some simple furniture parts, and also discusses some of the gotchas that can occur.

Note

The version of FreeCAD used in this video is 0.19 22576 built on 24-Jan-2021. The Linux version of FreeCAD is being used and the environment is Kubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS.

The Loft Tool was used to create the teeth in the video showing how to design a Hirth Joint . The teeth were designed so that they were wider at the outside of the joint, and narrower towards the inside.

Important

The order in which sketches are added to the loft is important because the Loft Tool does not reorder the sketches when it creates the loft.

The Loft Tool creates lofts that have smooth, curved edges by default, but can be instructed to used ruled or straight edges when the loft is created. You cannot create a single loft that is both curved and has ruled surfaces.

Tip

If your design calls for both curved and ruled surfaces, then you will need to create two bodies and fuse them together using the Boolean Tool. One of the bodies will contain a curved loft and the other will contain the ruled surface loft.

One of the sketches in each body will be the same to enable the two bodies to be fused together correctly. Simply create the sketch in on body and copy it into the other one before creating the loft.

Acknowledgements

Writer, Editor, Producer

Geoff Glasson

Music

Introduction

Title: I Travel Alone

Publisher: S.I. Publishing (SOCAN)

Available through AUDIOHERO

Background

The Best Way to Wander