Extrude from a line drawing

[thedudejb]

Cad64 recommended I do a spline drawing and extrude to get the object I was attempting. I have the line drawing here:

 

 

The goal is to have everything capped except the three hole sections (two modified elipse splines, and the arced rectangle.

 

???

[Cad64]

Sorry, I didn't really give you all the information. I didn't realize you were an absolute beginner. If you extrude a spline, you just get the extruded edges, as you've seen. You have to convert the spline object into an editable poly first, then extrude. But since you have holes inside the perimeter, it will not be as straightforward as doing a simple "convert to poly". You will probably need to Boolean the holes. If I have time later, I'll try to put together a simple tutorial.

[Cad64]

Ok, so I think what's happened is that you have drawn a bunch of individual spline segments that are not joined together. In order to create the object you want, you will have to join these segments into one single spline entity.

 

To create one single spline entity, follow these instructions:

 

1. Select one of the splines

2. Go to the "Modify" panel and click the "Attach" button

3. Select all the other lines and arcs.

4. When finished, click the "Attach" button again to end the command

 

Now you should have one complete spline shape, but the lines and arcs are still individual entities within the shape. You need to weld the vertices. So, select the spline object, switch to "Vertex" selection mode and then window select all the vertices of your spline object so they all turn red. Now click the "Weld" button. Now you have a complete spline shape that's ready to be converted into a polygon object.

 

Turn off "Vertex" selection mode

With the spline object still selected, right click and choose "Convert to Editable Poly". This will slap a polygon face on your object.

Now, from the "Modifier" list, just apply a "Shell" modifier and you're done. You can adjust the "Inner" and "Outer" amount to adjust the thickness.

 

Let me know if you have any difficulty with anything I've explained.